The best roguelike games offer a serious but rewarding commitment, inviting you to lose time and time again until you reach new heights. And then you get to repeat the process while retaining knowledge that shapes your future sessions, improving your skills with each subsequent run.The best roguelike games follow the philosophy of randomizing existing game elements and providing a different experience every time you start a new run, with the condition that a game over screen means restarting from scratch. The roguelite distinction is similar, but it involves permanent progression, be it in the form of story, unlockable paths, items, and so on.Our selection of the best roguelike games has something for every player, regardless of platform and subgenre of choice. Our picks intersect with rhythm, deckbuilding, platforming, puzzle, and shooter games, to name a few. The roguelike and roguelite genres keep gaining more ground as pillars for design choices, meaning that some of the games on this list will ring familiar with the selections in our best PS5 games and best PC game lists. You'll also find some overlap with our recommendations for the best indie games to play right now.As the middle of 2025 draws near, choosing the best roguelike games becomes tougher with each passing day. The likes of Nuclear Throne, The Binding of Isaac, and Enter the Gungeon progressively marked their place in the genre years ago. Now, roguelikes and roguelites are in abundance, with game developers coming up with novel spins and pushing the genre forward.Whether you're looking for something more traditional or a unique take on a genre that is brimming with creativity, our best roguelike games list is bound to add a few new experiences to have on your radar. BalatroDeveloper: LocalThunkRelease Date: February 20, 2024Platforms: PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch, Android, iOS, PCIf you've seen your loved ones spending way too much time on their phones during the past year, it's likely due to LocalThunk's engrossing take on poker. Balatro is deceptively simple: Look at your hand, think of the combination that will net you the most points, and see the numbers go up.As you slowly make your way to tougher levels, gaining additional cards that multiply said score while granting an array of often absurd bonuses, you'll immediately understand the appeal. Balatro is not about poker, nor is it just a roguelike. It's a numbers game where you can rig the rules in your favor. Its challenges are hypnotizing, but once you achieve victory for the first time, it'll take you a while to play anything else. See at Amazon Pacific DriveDeveloper: Ironwood StudiosRelease Date: February 22, 2024Platforms: PlayStation 5, PCPacific Drive is not technically a roguelite, even if it shares quite a few similarities in how you navigate its world, picking up key items and tackling objectives as you escape from weather anomalies from the inside of your car. The Endless Expeditions update, however, does push the game toward that direction.Released on April 3 of this year, Expeditions takes you outside of the campaign and into a randomized map with modifiers and rewards, the latter including cosmetics and unique tools. The trick is that you won't be able to stock up on resources, as you're forced to scavenge and build your inventory from scratch each time.Expeditions only end once you've collected enough anchors on a map. The longer this takes, however, the harder the task will become, with anomalies gearing up in difficulty. If you're looking for an extra challenge or an interesting twist on the Pacific Drive formula, Expeditions is the answer.Fanatical and GameSpot are both owned by Fandom. See at Fanatical Dead CellsDeveloper: Motion TwinRelease Date: August 6, 2018Platforms: PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch, Android, iOS, PCDead Cells is one of the pioneers of the new wave of roguelites of the past few years. Ever since its conception, developer Motion Twin set out to build an ambitious foundation--prioritizing a breakneck rhythm and flow in movement and attacks, rewarding fast reflexes and improvisation on the spot.The team continued to work on the game over the years, delivering a total of 35 major updates, expanding and ironing out possibly every element inside out. If at some point you think the base game doesn't have enough to offer, there are five DLCs (one of them free), including the Return to Castlevania expansion. As it stands, there might never be another game like Dead Cells, and that's okay. We'll still be playing it for years to come, while also witnessing the team trying out new ideas, such as the co-op roguelite Windblown, which is an early access game to watch. See at Fanatical Deep Rock Galactic: SurvivorDeveloper: Funday GamesRelease Date: February 14, 2024Platforms: PCIf you're a Left 4 Dead 2 fan, chances are that you've heard of Deep Rock Galactic, which takes the structure of the zombie-driven shooter and takes it in a different direction, featuring dwarves in space, alien monsters, and destructible environments. Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor, however, takes things even further.Released in Steam early access back on February 14, 2024, you're taken onto increasingly harder levels where your dwarf of choice attacks automatically. The Survivor-like is presented in a top-down perspective, with the mining mechanic taking center stage to unlock upgrades during runs and improve your chances.There have been four sizable updates, but even in its infancy, developer Funday Games struck gold when mining for resources. The combination of its existing setting with the roguelike genre is an enticing one. See at Steam Hades 2Developer: Supergiant GamesRelease Date: May 6, 2024Platforms: PCDeveloper Supergiant Games has famously never done sequels before--until Hades 2. The sequel follows the events of the first game, in which Zagreus, son of the Greek god of the underworld, fought his way to the surface. Now, his sister Melinöe is tasked with defeating Chronos, the god of time itself, who's posing a threat unknown to everyone to this point.The roguelite is similar in nature to its predecessor, advancing the story with each victorious or failed run, gradually uncovering layer upon layer of new characters, powers to combine and grow stronger with, and even more features to further customize your experience. Hades 2 is still in early access, but there's a ridiculous amount of story and challenges to go through. Plus, the sequel is one of the first games confirmed for the Nintendo Switch 2. The 1.0 release date is yet to be confirmed, but Supergiant is targeting 2025. See at Steam Darkest Dungeon 2Developer: Red Hook StudiosRelease Date: May 8, 2024Platforms: PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch, PCDarkest Dungeon 2 entered early access in October 2021, with the full launch taking place on May 8. It had a tall order--surpassing the inimitable Darkest Dungeon, a tough roguelike centered around stress as a mechanic, with characters being driven mad or, on occasion, becoming inspired by the embrace of darkness and presence of heinous monsters.The sequel moves away from the structure of its predecessor, where you explored different biomes while managing resources and upgrading a home base. Now, it follows a structure similar to modern roguelite conventions, where you choose from different paths that are labeled with the rewards and challenges awaiting on the roads.While the combat shares some similarities, many new features shake up previous foundations, from playable origin stories for each hero to the affinity system, which takes the stress mechanic of the first game and adds a communal element to it by leading to different relationship archetypes between party members. Despite the change in presentation with more bells and whistles, Darkest Dungeon 2 retains the spirit of the first game--it's a visceral, tough-as-nails adventure that demands patience to overcome. See at Fanatical Rogue Legacy 2Developer: Cellar Door GamesRelease Date: April 28, 2022Platforms: PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch, PCWhen the original Rogue Legacy launched in 2013, its combination of metroidvania with roguelite elements was already promising. Yet, it pushed things further with a genius feature where, each time you die, one of your children succeeds you. The trick? Everybody has unique traits, from gigantism and baldness to color blindness and dyslexia, which would have gameplay impacts from the beneficial to the hilarious.Rogue Legacy 2 pushes the novelty with even more traits and classes, including a bard and a dragon lancer. The metroidvania aspect has also been improved with the addition of unique items that permanently unlock abilities to further explore the world and unveil its secrets. It's a sequel that successfully ticks every box a sequel must, and does so with a familiar grace and humor that still has a lot to offer over a decade later. See at Steam Spelunky 2Developer: Mossmouth and BlitWorksRelease Date: September 29, 2020Platforms: PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch, PCSpelunky is the classic go-to recommendation for a roguelike with ironclad design. The platformer with an Indiana Jones spirit made for one of the most challenging roguelites out there, requiring patience and the willingness to study every possible enemy pattern, trap, and miscalculation that can end your run, and then memorize it all for the next attempt.Spelunky 2 is a showcase of refinement upon refinement. Sure, it's touted with a bigger world with new areas to study, multiple routes to find and take advantage of, and an assortment of features meant to subvert long-standing fans' expectations. The sequel's greatest trick, however, is once again proving that meticulously thought design can elevate good ideas to admirable heights. The only way to improve is to keep trying, over and over, until surpassing the obstacles in your way becomes second nature. And then you get to do it all over again in the following area. See at Steam Slay the SpireDeveloper: Mega CritRelease Date: January 23, 2019Platforms: PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch, Android, iOS, PCDeck-building has become a popular marriage candidate for roguelites, and Slay the Spire might be one of the games responsible for its popularity. The premise is simple: You pick a character who has a predefined card deck and jump into a procedurally generated run. The rewards, obstacles, and challenges roaming your chosen paths are always different, demanding different strategies.As you make your way through a game session, you'll collect more cards for your deck, slowly customizing the options available to fit different playstyles and adapt yourself to the danger at hand. Do you invest in dealing as much damage as possible, neglecting your defense? Do you try to come up with different synergies to create a jack-of-all-trades card deck? There's always something to learn and discover, and the number of combinations available to experiment with is seducingly daunting. The best part? There's a sequel in the works, slated for 2025. See at Steam Risk of Rain 2Developer: Hopoo GamesRelease Date: August 11, 2020Platforms: PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch, PCRisk of Rain 2 is one of the few roguelites that explored the idea of taking the often pixel art, 2D-driven presentations of the genre and experimenting with 3D instead. Taking the elements that made its predecessor great, from enemy design to the different survivors you control, the change of perspective led to a breath of fresh air in the genre, and one of the most entertaining online games out there.The 1.0 release on August 11, 2020 has been followed up with hefty updates and paid DLC since. You can spend hours just fooling around with friends and seeing how far you can go. Once you get invested in the game's most intricate secrets and mechanics, however, you'll find out that the thrill comes down to becoming an unstoppable force challenged by a dynamic difficulty meter that's constantly keeping you on your toes. The use of 3D, then, isn't a mere novelty--it literally shines a new light on what roguelites can achieve when looked at from a different perspective, adding a different sense of movement and scale to the usual roguelite chaos. See at Steam Crypt of the NecrodancerDeveloper: Brace Yourself GamesRelease Date: April 23, 2015Platforms: PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, Android, iOS, PCCrypt of the Necrodancer might be one of the oldest picks of our best roguelike games list, but the reason is simple: No other roguelite has managed to combine the genre conventions with the mechanics of a rhythm game to such success. Every movement and action in the game is tied to the beat of the soundtrack blasting in the background.Enemies have different patterns that you must learn, all while carefully moving on tiles as if you were tapping the floor with your foot following a song. Even if you're not rhythm game savvy, the mix of both genres is accommodating enough to make you a believer--right until you meet a dragon for the first time, that is. After the original release, Cadence of Hyrule followed up on the concept, with the studio collaborating with Nintendo for a different take on The Legend of Zelda. But Crypt of the Necrodancer remains a worthy rogue classic. See at Steam Into the BreachDeveloper: Subset GamesRelease Date: February 27, 2018Platforms: Nintendo Switch, Android, iOS, PCThe alien invasion grows in numbers. You must assemble a squad of a handful of units and try to beat the odds. When you inevitably meet your demise, the last person standing creates a rift and travels to a different timeline. Time to start again.Into the Breach has a steep learning curve. Its design conventions, however, make it worth the effort to learn how to best use the space given to you and how your units can counterattack the alien push. The game is clear about the consequences of your movements on each map grid--whether or not you'll be able to land an attack, if one of your mechs will be caught in a tidal wave or an enemy projectile, and so on.Often, playing the strategy roguelike feels like a series of elaborate board games, where you carefully move pieces and spend your time thinking of the best possible plan. When it all comes together, the satisfaction is unparalleled. But even when you fail and you're sent to another timeline to commence anew, there's a thrill in knowing that next time might be the one if you take the time to analyze your movements and execute with care.Into the Breach is also the rare game to receive a 10/10 from GameSpot. See at Steam Loop HeroDeveloper: Four QuartersRelease Date: March 4, 2021Platforms: Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch, Android, iOS, PCThe concept of loops and the repetitive nature of roguelites are a natural pairing. Loop Hero not only understands it, but extends it further by turning you into a dungeon master of sorts. You're given the choice of a hero and a map layout, as well as a deck of cards. You can place different types of terrain and structures, each having its own pros and cons. But you also need to place enemies, slowly making each loop--where the character walks a full cycle of the map--more intricate to navigate.The randomized nature of roguelites is heightened by giving you agency over the dangers that your hero will have to overcome. With a large number of unlockables to pursue after each session, as well as a captivating presentation, Loop Hero is one of the most inventive roguelites out there. See at Fanatical ReturnalDeveloper: HousemarqueRelease Date: April 30, 2021Platforms: PlayStation 5, PCHousemarque's expertise lies in games with an arcade nature, from Resogun to Nex Machina. At first glance, Returnal seems different--its presentation is powered by a level of production that screams AAA game. Initially introduced as a PlayStation 5 exclusive, the third-person shooter makes an interesting use of the roguelite concept, intertwining story events with each death. Similarly to Hades, meeting your demise rarely means taking a step back.Don't let its prestigious look deceive you, though--Returnal is the living proof of a modern arcade game, taking cues from the bullet hell genre. This means that you must be in constant movement, carefully timing dodges and narrow jumps to avoid a barrage of projectiles coming your way from all directions. A sequel is slated for 2026, but the first game deserves all of your attention. It's one of the best games in the PlayStation catalog, and a thrilling showcase of how a roguelite structure can inform a story, blending into one coexisting vehicle for a narrative that wouldn't work elsewhere. See at Fanatical Shogun ShowdownDeveloper: RoboatinoRelease Date: September 5, 2024Platforms: PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch, PCDeveloper Roboatino saw the synergy of roguelike and deck-building elements and decided to add turn-based combat to the mix. You command a lone hero who must take positioning and time into consideration to defeat multiple enemies and make it out unscathed.Using an inventive mechanic regarding the tiles you set foot on, Shogun Showdown hides a surprising level of depth, which you gradually uncover the more time you spend with it. You can upgrade and sacrifice different movements and skills in between battles, and as you die, you'll unlock new characters and attacks to experiment with. If you want to test the game's combat by yourself, there's a free prologue available on PC. See at Fanatical Blue PrinceDeveloper: DogubombRelease Date: April 10, 2025Platforms: PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, PCIn Blue Prince, you're a fourteen-year-old boy next in line for an inheritance. The catch is that you first need to explore a manor that changes its inner structure each day, hiding access to the elusive room 46 somewhere within its bowels. Dogubomb's title is part puzzle game, part roguelite, part investigative game.When you start a new day, you're given a number of steps that you can take inside the manor. Upon interacting with a door, the game grants you a random selection of rooms, each containing a puzzle, resource items, or a clue to a larger mystery. Sometimes all three of them. The deeper you plunge into Blue Prince, the higher the chances of becoming engrossed by the sheer amount of layers upon layers of puzzles to solve. See at Fanatical Caves of QudDeveloper: Freehold GamesRelease Date: December 5, 2024Platforms: PCDevelopment for Caves of Qud began back in 2007, with the first public beta being released to the world in 2010. Then, after almost a decade in Steam early access, the game was fully launched on December 5, 2024. The science-fantasy roguelike is brimming with emergent stories, offering a deeply simulated world where you can shape the environment as you see fit, join one of over 70 factions, or simply get lost in the overwhelming number of possible actions and outcomes available.In Caves of Qud, every NPC and monster is as fully simulated as you, meaning that they all have their own skills, equipment, body parts, and levels. The body parts are important, as there are multiple mutations at play, from two heads to the power of cloning oneself. The sandbox nature and painstaking level of detail have added an unmatched identity to the roguelike over its long lifespan. Now, there's never been a better time to take a plunge and become a part of its labyrinthine systems and intricate synergies that are happening in the game without your input. See at Steam FTL: Faster Than LightDeveloper: Subset GamesRelease Date: September 14, 2021Platforms: iOS, PCCommanding a party is a classic go-to for roguelites. Being the captain of a spaceship where you must attend to your crew and rooms individually, however, is an idea that is still novel to this day. Before Into the Breach, developer Subset Games came up with a different adventure in outer space.Presented with randomly generated galaxies, you must pick different paths to warp to, taking care and managing your spaceship in your ventures. Everything from the state of the hull to the level of oxygen must be accounted for. While you might be lucky with the galaxy destinations you pick, your crew will inevitably have to confront other ships.It's during these moments that FTL: Faster Than Light showcases its exhilarating mix of mechanics, forcing you to act fast by putting up fires, deciding which rooms to open and which ones to close, and sending crew members to repair the ship, all while using similar strategies on the enemy at hand. There's no other game like FTL. See at Steam InscryptionDeveloper: Daniel Mullins GamesRelease Date: October 19, 2021Platforms: PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch, PCThe creator of the eerie Pony Island took a stab at the roguelike genre in 2021 with Inscryption. At first, you don't know where you are--all you can see is the inside of a dark cabin, and a strange figure that invites you to play a card game. The creepiness sets in more and more over time, as you use cards depicting animals that seem to be alive, trying to make progress in the game while also looking for an opportunity to try and figure out how to escape the cabin.Inscription has multiple twists that are best left as a secret. If you want a general indication of what to expect, however, this roguelike pulls you into an obscure setting that becomes darker the more time you spend with it, subverting existing genre conventions and familiar mechanics with a horror twist. See at Fanatical Dome KeeperDeveloper: BippinbitsRelease Date: September 27, 2022Platforms: PCDome Keeper is a great game for people who enjoy multitasking. As the name implies, you must protect a dome from enemy attacks. In order to do so, you must dig underneath the surface to search for resources and artifacts, which are used to choose upgrades and different ways to defend your base.Enemies won't just sit and wait, however. You only have a limited time to dig in between attack waves. Picking your upgrades carefully will make or break your chances of survival to gain another chance at plunging through the surface and build better defenses. Dome Keeper is an ambitious survival game that takes cue from roguelikes and tower defense games to create a different kind of challenge to overcome. See at Fanatical Monster TrainDeveloper: Shiny ShoeRelease Date: May 20, 2020Platforms: PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch, iOS, PCMonster Train is the distant cousin of Slay the Spire. You're given a deck of cards that you slowly grow during runs, as well as different paths to choose from. The twist is how combat encounters are structured, turning elements like positioning and card strategies on their head.Whenever you face enemies, you're presented with a large vertical structure that has three play fields. You must carefully plan where to place your cards to defend the train's core. It's an idea that's pushed to its limit time and time again with the cards available and the ways in which enemies can also strategize around your defenses. Monster Train is a prime example of how much innovation is still in the genre. See at Fanatical Vampire SurvivorsDeveloper: PoncleRelease Date: October 20, 2022Platforms: PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch, Android, iOS, PCTaking inspiration from a mobile game called Magic Survival, in which the main character attacked automatically without the player's input, developer Poncle leaned on a fascination for Castlevania's aesthetic to iterate on the concept. The simple idea led to an absurd amount of characters, levels, and items to unlock--including, of course, an official collaboration with Konami to include more than just indirect references to the Castlevania series.Playing a Vampire Survivors stage can last anything from 15 to 20 or 30 minutes--if you can survive long enough with the items you've acquired. Even if you fail, however, you're constantly unlocking items, characters, and stages to explore in subsequent runs. It's a game that's best described as a Pandora's Box equivalent. Especially considering the chaos that it will likely inflict on your schedule. See at Steam Hitman World of Assassination: Freelancer ModeDeveloper: IO InteractiveRelease Date: January 26, 2023Platforms: PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PCThe Hitman series has always excelled in presenting puzzle boxes that double down as playgrounds to blend in, follow your target, and take them down in increasingly ridiculous ways. Freelancer Mode, introduced to Hitman World of Assassination on January 26, 2023, adds a different spin to the premise with a persistent and highly replayable experience.In this mode, targets are always random, and you're given access to different bonus objectives. Making use of a hub exclusive to Freelancer, Agent 47 must choose a crime syndicate to pursue, which sets the mood of the campaign, and then get started without any equipment or weapons. If you've already mastered the classic Hitman levels or you just want a different, ridiculously polished roguelike experience, Freelancer Mode is a distinct and ambitious take on the genre. Worth mentioning that Hitman World of Assassination is also slated to launch on Nintendo Switch 2. See at Steam InkboundDeveloper: Shiny ShoeRelease Date: April 9, 2024Platforms: PCFrom the makers of Monster Train comes Inkbound, a turn-based tactical roguelike that offers co-op, and synergies that are heightened by coordinating with others online. Players can move freely and act simultaneously in multiplayer, picking from eight different classes to try out different combinations.There's also a deck-building element of sorts involved in the vein of draftable abilities, upgrades, and an array of items to use in-game. It's an intriguing blend of genres that might take some time to get used to. Once things click, however, you and the rest of the party will be working in tandem to see how far you can push your strategies. See at Steam God of War Ragnarok: ValhallaDeveloper: Santa Monica StudiosRelease Date: December 12, 2023Platforms: PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, PCGod of War Ragnarok is a behemoth of an action-RPG, featuring a lengthy campaign across open areas with side quests, collectibles, and dozens of corners to explore. If you're looking for a break from the main story or just want to try a new roguelite that elevates some of the game's strengths in a different structure, the free Valhalla DLC is a must play.Taking place after the events of the main story (although you can jump into it at any point from the main menu without worrying about spoilers of the main campaign), Valhalla has Kratos going through a series of punishing trials, which slowly serve as a therapy session of sorts as he reminiscences of the events that happened during the original trilogy of God of War games.The bite-sized rendition of combat encounters shines a different light on combat mechanics that you may already be familiar with. And, taking cues from the likes of Hades and Returnal, each death pushes the story forward in meaningful ways. Valhalla is a rare combination of genres that shouldn't work as well as they do, and it deserves your time before the next adventure of Kratos inevitably rolls in. See at Fanatical NoitaDeveloper: Nolla GamesRelease Date: October 15, 2020Platforms: PCAfter a short early access period in 2019, Noita was fully released in October 2020, and provided an escape from the horrors of that year with, well, more horrors. Its punishing difficulty and procedurally-generated worlds provide deep and engaging gameplay. Noita places you in the shoes of a wand-wielding alchemist navigating a deadly, destructible world. The seemingly simple pixel art style leads to complexity where water flows, acid burns, fire spreads, and cave-ins can be triggered by a single misplaced explosive.Unlike many roguelikes that focus on stat-based progression, Noita appeals to player creativity and experimentation. The game's wand crafting system is a particular highlight, allowing you to mix and match spells, modifiers, and triggers to create devastating effects or strange contraptions that alter the way the game plays with every decision. The fun of Noita is learning how to break it in delightfully chaotic ways. This customization means each run feels unique, not just because of the randomized levels, but because the tools at your disposal and the way you choose to implement them define each playthrough. Noita is deeper than it first appears, with plenty of secrets and mysteries to uncover. Its expansive hidden world and lore begs to be uncovered, and the community engagement and conversation around it continues even half a decade on from its release. Experiment with fire, mess around with slime, and Noita will reward your curiosity. You'll find that, most of the time, death in Noita stems from your own creation, giving the game a cruel sense of irony and punishment. Despite that, or perhaps even because of that, Noita is a beautiful experience. See at Steam

ActuGaming.net Sony est attaqué par une association de consommateurs aux Pays-Bas à propos des tarifs trop hauts sur les jeux numériques À l’heure où l’on voit bien que les constructeurs poussent de plus en plus vers […] L'article

A coiled giant anaconda. They are the largest snake species in Brazil and play a major role in legends including the ‘Boiuna’ and the ‘Cobra Grande.’ CREDIT: Beatriz Cosendey. Get the Popular Science daily newsletter💡 Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent every weekday. South America’s lush Amazon region is a biodiversity hotspot, which means that every living thing must find a way to co-exist. Even some of the most feared snakes on the planet–anacondas. In a paper published June 16 in the journal Frontiers in Amphibian and Reptile Science, conservation biologists Beatriz Cosendey and Juarez Carlos Brito Pezzuti from the Federal University of Pará’s Center for Amazonian Studies in Brazil, analyze the key points behind the interactions between humans and the local anaconda populations. Ahead of the paper’s publication, the team at Frontiers conducted this wide-ranging Q&A with Conesday. It has not been altered. Frontiers: What inspired you to become a researcher? Beatriz Cosendey: As a child, I was fascinated by reports and documentaries about field research and often wondered what it took to be there and what kind of knowledge was being produced. Later, as an ecologist, I felt the need for approaches that better connected scientific research with real-world contexts. I became especially interested in perspectives that viewed humans not as separate from nature, but as part of ecological systems. This led me to explore integrative methods that incorporate local and traditional knowledge, aiming to make research more relevant and accessible to the communities involved. F: Can you tell us about the research you’re currently working on? BC: My research focuses on ethnobiology, an interdisciplinary field intersecting ecology, conservation, and traditional knowledge. We investigate not only the biodiversity of an area but also the relationship local communities have with surrounding species, providing a better understanding of local dynamics and areas needing special attention for conservation. After all, no one knows a place better than those who have lived there for generations. This deep familiarity allows for early detection of changes or environmental shifts. Additionally, developing a collaborative project with residents generates greater engagement, as they recognize themselves as active contributors; and collective participation is essential for effective conservation. Local boating the Amazon River. CREDIT: Beatriz Cosendey. F: Could you tell us about one of the legends surrounding anacondas? BC: One of the greatest myths is about the Great Snake—a huge snake that is said to inhabit the Amazon River and sleep beneath the town. According to the dwellers, the Great Snake is an anaconda that has grown too large; its movements can shake the river’s waters, and its eyes look like fire in the darkness of night. People say anacondas can grow so big that they can swallow large animals—including humans or cattle—without difficulty. F: What could be the reasons why the traditional role of anacondas as a spiritual and mythological entity has changed? Do you think the fact that fewer anacondas have been seen in recent years contributes to their diminished importance as an mythological entity? BC: Not exactly. I believe the two are related, but not in a direct way. The mythology still exists, but among Aritapera dwellers, there’s a more practical, everyday concern—mainly the fear of losing their chickens. As a result, anacondas have come to be seen as stealthy thieves. These traits are mostly associated with smaller individuals (up to around 2–2.5 meters), while the larger ones—which may still carry the symbolic weight of the ‘Great Snake’—tend to retreat to more sheltered areas; because of the presence of houses, motorized boats, and general noise, they are now seen much less frequently. A giant anaconda is being measured. Credit: Pedro Calazans. F: Can you share some of the quotes you’ve collected in interviews that show the attitude of community members towards anacondas? How do chickens come into play? BC: When talking about anacondas, one thing always comes up: chickens. “Chicken is her [the anaconda’s] favorite dish. If one clucks, she comes,” said one dweller. This kind of remark helps explain why the conflict is often framed in economic terms. During the interviews and conversations with local dwellers, many emphasized the financial impact of losing their animals: “The biggest loss is that they keep taking chicks and chickens…” or “You raise the chicken—you can’t just let it be eaten for free, right?” For them, it’s a loss of investment, especially since corn, which is used as chicken feed, is expensive. As one person put it: “We spend time feeding and raising the birds, and then the snake comes and takes them.” One dweller shared that, in an attempt to prevent another loss, he killed the anaconda and removed the last chicken it had swallowed from its belly—”it was still fresh,” he said—and used it for his meal, cooking the chicken for lunch so it wouldn’t go to waste. One of the Amazonas communities where the researchers conducted their research. CREDIT: Beatriz Cosendey. Some interviewees reported that they had to rebuild their chicken coops and pigsties because too many anacondas were getting in. Participants would point out where the anaconda had entered and explained that they came in through gaps or cracks but couldn’t get out afterwards because they ‘tufavam’ — a local term referring to the snake’s body swelling after ingesting prey. We saw chicken coops made with mesh, with nylon, some that worked and some that didn’t. Guided by the locals’ insights, we concluded that the best solution to compensate for the gaps between the wooden slats is to line the coop with a fine nylon mesh (to block smaller animals), and on the outside, a layer of wire mesh, which protects the inner mesh and prevents the entry of larger animals. F: Are there any common misconceptions about this area of research? How would you address them? BC: Yes, very much. Although ethnobiology is an old science, it’s still underexplored and often misunderstood. In some fields, there are ongoing debates about the robustness and scientific validity of the field and related areas. This is largely because the findings don’t always rely only on hard statistical data. However, like any other scientific field, it follows standardized methodologies, and no result is accepted without proper grounding. What happens is that ethnobiology leans more toward the human sciences, placing human beings and traditional knowledge as key variables within its framework. To address these misconceptions, I believe it’s important to emphasize that ethnobiology produces solid and relevant knowledge—especially in the context of conservation and sustainable development. It offers insights that purely biological approaches might overlook and helps build bridges between science and society. The study focused on the várzea regions of the Lower Amazon River. CREDIT: Beatriz Cosendey. F: What are some of the areas of research you’d like to see tackled in the years ahead? BC: I’d like to see more conservation projects that include local communities as active participants rather than as passive observers. Incorporating their voices, perspectives, and needs not only makes initiatives more effective, but also more just. There is also great potential in recognizing and valuing traditional knowledge. Beyond its cultural significance, certain practices—such as the use of natural compounds—could become practical assets for other vulnerable regions. Once properly documented and understood, many of these approaches offer adaptable forms of environmental management and could help inform broader conservation strategies elsewhere. F: How has open science benefited the reach and impact of your research? BC: Open science is crucial for making research more accessible. By eliminating access barriers, it facilitates a broader exchange of knowledge—important especially for interdisciplinary research like mine which draws on multiple knowledge systems and gains value when shared widely. For scientific work, it ensures that knowledge reaches a wider audience, including practitioners and policymakers. This openness fosters dialogue across different sectors, making research more inclusive and encouraging greater collaboration among diverse groups. The Q&A can also be read here.

This month, join forces to tackle the paranormal crises of a mysterious federal agency under siege in the cooperative first-person shooter FBC: Firebreak, lead your team to victory in the iconic all-out warfare of Battlefield 2042, test your skills as a new Fazbear employee managing and maintaining the eerie pizzeria of Five Nights at Freddy’s: Help Wanted 2 or live for the thrill of the hunt in the realistic hunting open world theHunter: Call of the Wild. All of these titles and more are available in June’s PlayStation Plus Game Catalog lineup*.    Meanwhile, PS2’s Deus Ex: The Conspiracy merges action-RPG, stealth and FPS gameplay in PlayStation Plus Premium.    All titles will be available to play on June 17.   PlayStation Plus Extra and Premium | Game Catalog  View and download image Download the image close Close Download this image FBC: Firebreak | PS5 Launching on the PlayStation Plus Game Catalog this month is FBC: Firebreak, a cooperative first-person shooter set within a mysterious federal agency under assault by otherworldly forces. Return to the strange and unexpected world of Control or venture in for the first time in this standalone, multiplayer experience. As a years-long siege on the agency’s headquarters reaches its boiling point, only Firebreak—the Bureau’s most versatile unit—has the gear and the guts to plunge into the building’s strangest crises, restore order, contain the chaos, and fight to reclaim control. Join forces with friends or strangers to tackle each job as a well-oiled crew. Survival in this three-player cooperative FPS hinges on quick thinking and seamless teamwork as you scramble to tame raging paranatural crises across a variety of unexpected locations.    View and download image Download the image close Close Download this image Battlefield 2042 | PS4, PS5 Battlefield 2042 is a first-person shooter that marks the return to the iconic all-out warfare of the franchise. With the help of a cutting-edge arsenal, engage in intense, immersive multiplayer battles. Lead your team to victory in both large all-out warfare and close quarters combat on maps from the world of 2042 and classic Battlefield titles. Find your playstyle in class-based gameplay and take on several experiences comprising elevated versions of Conquest and Breakthrough. Explore Battlefield Portal, a platform where players can discover, create, and share unexpected battles from Battlefield’s past and present. View and download image Download the image close Close Download this image Five Nights at Freddy’s: Help Wanted 2 | PS5 Five Nights at Freddy’s: Help Wanted 2 is the sequel to the terrifying VR experience that brought new life to the iconic horror franchise. As a brand new Fazbear employee you’ll have to prove you have what it takes to excel in all aspects of Pizzeria management and maintenance. Find out if you have what it takes to be a Fazbear Entertainment Superstar! View and download image Download the image close Close Download this image theHunter: Call of the Wild | PS4 Discover an atmospheric hunting game like no other in this realistic, stunning open world – regularly updated in collaboration with its community. Immerse yourself in the single player campaign, or share the ultimate hunting experience with friends. Roam freely across meticulously crafted environments and explore a diverse range of regions and biomes, each with its own unique flora and fauna. Experience the intricacies of complex animal behavior, dynamic weather events, full day and night cycles, simulated ballistics, highly realistic acoustics, and scents carried by the wind. Select from a variety of weapons, ammunition, and equipment to create the ultimate hunting experience. With a diverse range of wildlife, including Jackrabbits, Mallard Ducks, Black Bears, Elk, and Moose, you will need to strategically match prey to weaponry to successfully track, lure, and ambush animals based on their unique behavior and environment. View and download image Download the image close Close Download this image We Love Katamari Reroll + Royal Reverie | PS4, PS5 We Love Katamari Damacy, the second title in the Katamari series released in 2005, has been remastered with redesigned graphics and a revamped in-game UI. The King of the Cosmos accidentally destroyed all the stars in the universe. He sent his son, the Prince, to Earth and ordered him to create a large katamari. Roll the katamari to make it bigger and bigger, rolling up all the things on the earth. You can roll up anything from paper clips and snacks in the house, to telephone poles and buildings in the town, to even living creatures such as people and animals. Once the katamari is complete, it will turn into a star that colors the night sky. You cannot roll up anything larger than the current size of your katamari, so the key is to think in advance about the order in which you roll things up around the stage. In Royal Reverie, roll up katamari as the King of All Cosmos in his boyhood! View and download image Download the image close Close Download this image Eiyuden Chronicles: Hundred Heroes | PS4, PS5 Directed and produced by the creator of treasured JRPG series Suikoden, Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes provides a contemporary take on the classic JRPG experience. In the land of Allraan, two friends from different backgrounds are united by a war waged by the power-hungry Galdean Empire. Explore a diverse, magical world populated by humans, beastmen, elves and desert people. Meet and recruit over 100 unique characters, each with their own vivid voice acting and intricate backstories. Over four years in the making, and funded by the most successful Kickstarter videogame campaign of 2020, Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes features turn-based battles, a staggering selection of heroes and a thrilling story to discover. View and download image Download the image close Close Download this image Train Sim World 5 | PS4, PS5 The rails are yours in Train Sim World 5! Take on new challenges and new roles as you master the tracks and trains of iconic cities across 3 new routes. Immerse yourself in the ultimate rail hobby and embark on your next journey. Be swept off your feet with the commuter mayhem of the West Coast main line with the Northwestern Class 350, the twisting Kinzigtalbahn with the tilting DB BR 411 ICE-T, or the sun-soaked tracks of the San Bernardino line and its Metrolink movements, powered by the MP36 & F125.  View and download image Download the image close Close Download this image Endless Dungeon | PS4, PS5 Endless Dungeon is a unique blend of roguelite, tactical action, and tower defense set in the award-winning Endless Universe. Plunge into an abandoned space station alone or with friends in co-op, recruit a team of shipwrecked heroes, and protect your crystal against never-ending waves of monsters… or die trying, get reloaded, and try again. You’re stranded on an abandoned space station chock-full of monsters and mysteries. To get out you’ll have to reach The Core, but you can’t do that without your crystal bot. That scuttling critter is your key to surviving the procedurally generated rooms of this space ruin. Sadly, it’s also a fragile soul, and every monster in the place wants a piece of it. You’re going to have to think quick, plan well, place your turrets, and then… fireworks! Bugs, bots and blobs will stop at nothing to turn you and that crystal into dust and debris. With a large choice of weapons and turrets, the right gear will be the difference between life and death. PlayStation Plus Premium  View and download image Download the image close Close Download this image Deus Ex: The Conspiracy | PS4, PS5This is an emulation of the classic PS2 title, Deus Ex: The Conspiracy, playable on PS4 and PS5 for the first time. The year is 2052 and the world is a dangerous and chaotic place. Terrorists operate openly – killing thousands; drugs, disease and pollution kill even more. The world’s economies are close to collapse and the gap between the insanely wealthy and the desperately poor grows ever wider. Worst of all, an age- old conspiracy bent on world domination has decided that the time is right to emerge from the shadows and take control.  *PlayStation Plus Game Catalog and PlayStation Plus Premium/Deluxe lineups may differ by region. Please check PlayStation Store on release day. 

Cattle Crisis sees aliens making off with our precious cows, so you’ll need to gun those ships down to rescue our beloved bovine buddies. The game only features a single level, but you’d best believe I have not been able to complete it yet as it makes the most of its brief playtime. Enemies come at you hard and fast, each covering the screen in various bullet patterns that overlap with only a little room to spare. Thankfully it’s just enough to scoot your ship to safety most of the time if you’re precise, but I am unfortunately not particularly precise with my controller movements the more frantic things get on the screen. Even with generous checkpoints and a single level, my shaky hands don’t make this easy. Like most spaceship shooters, there’s some extra powerful boosts you can put to smart use. As you down ships, you will release the kidnapped cows that are inside some of them. Collecting these cows increases your Hyper Bar, and once that’s halfway full, you can shift into Hyper Mode and really blast your enemies. Taking a hit in this mode won’t kill you, but you will drop out of Hyper Mode (and it’s smarter to end it early by hitting the Hyper Mode button again to launch a screen-clearing bomb). You can earn way more cows (and a higher score) by shooting foes point-blank, so it’s up to you how much risk you want to take to get into Hyper Mode faster and crank up that score. Cattle Crisis is short but offers a great deal of challenge and possibilities for high scores through careful risk-taking. Just the same, it offers a handful of checkpoints you can start from (even though it’s just one stage) if you feel your shooter skills aren’t amazing (like mine). It’s sharp, sounds great, and handles well, creating a nice bite-sized shooter package. Cattle Crisis is available now on itch.io (and you can try it out in your browser). About The Author

Doors (2022) Christian Marclay Institute of Contemporary Art Boston Through September 1, 2025Brooklyn Museum Through April 12, 2026On the screen, a movie clip plays of a character entering through a door to leave out another. It cuts to another clip of someone else doing the same thing over and over, all sourced from a panoply of Western cinema. The audience, sitting for an unknown amount of time, watches this shape-shifting protagonist from different cultural periods come and go, as the film endlessly loops. So goes Christian Marclay’s latest single-channel film, Doors (2022), currently exhibited for the first time in the United States at the Institute of Contemporary Art Boston. (It also premieres June 13 at the Brooklyn Museum and will run through April 12, 2026). Assembled over ten years, the film is a dizzying feat, a carefully crafted montage of film clips revolving around the simple premise of someone entering through a door and then leaving out a door. In the exhibition, Marclay writes, “Doors are fascinating objects, rich with symbolism.” Here, he shows hundreds of them, examining through film how the simple act of moving through a threshold multiplied endlessly creates a profoundly new reading of what said threshold signifies. On paper, this may sound like an extremely jarring experience. But Marclay—a visual artist, composer, and DJ whose previous works such as The Clock (2010) involved similar mega-montages of disparate film clips—has a sensitive touch. The sequences feel incredibly smooth, the montage carefully constructed to mimic continuity as closely as possible. This is even more impressive when one imagines the constraints that a door’s movement offers; it must open and close a certain direction, with particular types of hinges or means of swinging. It makes the seamlessness of the film all the more fascinating to dissect. When a tiny wooden doorframe cuts to a large double steel door, my brain had no issue at all registering a sense of continued motion through the frame—a form of cinematic magic. Christian Marclay, Doors (still), 2022. Single-channel video projection (color and black-and-white; 55:00 minutes on continuous loop). Watching the clips, there seemed to be no discernible meta narrative—simply movement through doors. Nevertheless, Marclay is a master of controlling tone. Though the relentlessness of watching the loops does create an overall feeling of tension that the film is clearly playing on, there are often moments of levity that interrupt, giving visitors a chance to breathe. The pacing too, swings from a person rushing in and out, to a slow stroll between doors in a corridor. It leaves one musing on just how ubiquitous this simple action is, and how mutable these simple acts of pulling a door and stepping inside can be. Sometimes mundane, sometimes thrilling, sometimes in anticipation, sometimes in search—Doors invites us to reflect on our own interaction with these objects, and with the very act of stepping through a doorframe. Much of the experience rests on the soundscape and music, which is equally—if not more heavily—important in creating the transition across clips. Marclay’s previous work leaned heavily on his interest in aural media; this added dimension only enriches Doors and elevates it beyond a formal visual study of clips that match each other. The film bleeds music from one scene to another, sometimes prematurely, to make believable the movement of one character across multiple movies. This overlap of sounds is essentially an echo of the space we left behind and are entering into. We as the audience almost believe—even if just for a second—that the transition is real. The effect is powerful and calls to mind several references. No doubt Doors owes some degree of inspiration to the lineage of surrealist art, perhaps in the work of Magritte or Duchamp. For those steeped in architecture, one may think of Bernard Tschumi’s Manhattan Transcripts, where his transcriptions of events, spaces, and movements similarly both shatter and call to attention simple spatial sequences. One may also be reminded of the work of Situationist International, particularly the psychogeography of Guy Debord. I confess that my first thought was the (in my view) equally famous door-chase scene in Monsters, Inc. But regardless of what corollaries one may conjure, Doors has a wholly unique feel. It is simplistic and singular in constructing its webbed world. Installation view, Christian Marclay: Doors, the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston, 2025. (Mel Taing) But what exactly are we to take away from this world? In an interview with Artforum, Marclay declares, “I’m building in people’s minds an architecture in which to get lost.” The clip evokes a certain act of labyrinthian mapping—or perhaps a mode of perpetual resetting. I began to imagine this almost as a non-Euclidean enfilade of sorts where each room invites you to quickly grasp a new environment and then very quickly anticipate what may be in the next. With the understanding that you can’t backtrack, and the unpredictability of the next door taking you anywhere, the film holds you in total suspense. The production of new spaces and new architecture is activated all at once in the moment someone steps into a new doorway. All of this is without even mentioning the chosen films themselves. There is a degree to which the pop-culture element of Marclay’s work makes certain moments click—I can’t help but laugh as I watch Adam Sandler in Punch Drunk Love exit a door and emerge as Bette Davis in All About Eve. But to a degree, I also see the references being secondary, and certainly unneeded to understand the visceral experience Marclay crafts. It helps that, aside from a couple of jarring character movements or one-off spoken jokes, the movement is repetitive and universal. Doors runs on a continuous loop. I sat watching for just under an hour before convincing myself that I would never find any appropriate or correct time to leave. Instead, I could sit endlessly and reflect on each character movement, each new reveal of a room. Is the door the most important architectural element in creating space? Marclay makes a strong case for it with this piece. Harish Krishnamoorthy is an architectural and urban designer based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Bangalore, India. He is an editor at PAIRS.

Activision has included movie assassin Ballerina in the latest multiplayer version of Black Ops 6 and here they are exclusively offering Daily Star readers their top tips to become a gun heroTech17:04, 13 Jun 2025Ballerina in Call of DutyJohn Wick movie Ballerina has take over Call of Duty and the bods behind the game have given us some top tips on how to become the shooter king.The movie follows actress Ana de Armas as protagonist badass assassin Eve Macarro as she takes on all kinds of baddies alongside Keanu Reeve’s anti-hero John Wick.‌And to celebrate the silver screen success, Activision has included Eve, aka Ballerina, into Black Ops 6 as a playable online character cmplete with her own guns, finishing move and load screen as a downloadable add-on.‌But how can you, like Ana herself, become the star of mass destruction in the PS5 and Xbox game?The makers of Call of Duty have offered Daily Star readers these exclusive tips for online multiplayer mayhem in the game…Fire your guns as Ana de Armas(Image: Activision)Article continues belowEmbrace the Ruska Rogue : Don the "Ruska Rogue" Operator Skin for a sleek, black tactical look that screams stealth and deadly efficiency. Blend into the shadows and strike with calculated precision. You can adopt a minimalist, all-black approach to your loadout and Operator selection, channeling Wick's understated lethality. Remember, sometimes the most dangerous players are the ones you barely notice.Know Your Armoury : Equip the "Relevé" AK-74, "Plié" Saug, or "Arabesque" 9MM PM, all featuring High Table Coin Tracers and Death FX. Not only will you look good, but you'll also send a message: your enemies are just currency in your quest for victory . Aim for headshots to maximise your impact and conserve ammo. Use the AK-74 for mid-range engagements, the Saug for close-quarters dominance, and the 9MM PM as a reliable sidearm.‌Dance With Death, Literally (and Tactically Reload) : Master the "Dance With Death" Finishing Move. Nothing is more demoralising than eliminating an opponent with a graceful, yet brutal, execution. Use it strategically when you're sure you're safe from interruption. However, don't get caught up in the theatrics . Like Macarro, seek tactical reloads after every engagement, ensuring you're always ready for the next threat.Black Ops 6 has a fantastic multiplayer suite‌Pirouette to Victory : Utilise the "Pirouette" Emote to taunt your fallen foes (sparingly, of course!). A well-timed pirouette can tilt the mental game in your favour, especially after a clutch play. But remember, survival is paramount . Know when to disengage and reposition, just like Ballerina. A tactical retreat can be just as effective as a head-on assault.Article continues belowCharm Your Way to the Top : Equip the "Keepsake" Weapon Charm as a reminder of your mission and to add a touch of personal flair to your weapon. Small details can make a big difference in your gameplay and standing in the lobby. Furthermore, master your weapon . An assassin knows the ins and outs of every firearm he or she uses. Practice with different weapons to find what suits your play style and become proficient with it.Know Your Role (and Your Surroundings) : Just like a ballerina needs to know their choreography, understand your role on the team. Are you the aggressive fragger, the objective player, or the support specialist? Tailor your loadout and play style to maximise your contribution to the team's success. Remember, even the most elegant ballerina needs a solid foundation. Use cover, listen for footsteps, and anticipate enemy movements. Situational awareness is key to survival.

In 2024, Egypt completed its 1,155km stretch of the Cairo–Cape Town Highway, a 10,228km‑long road connecting 10 African countries – Egypt, Sudan, South Sudan, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana and South Africa.   The imaginary of ‘Cape to Cairo’ is not new. In 1874, editor of the Daily Telegraph Edwin Arnold proposed a plan to connect the African continent by rail, a project that came to be known as the Cape to Cairo Railway project. Cecil Rhodes expressed his support for the project, seeing it as a means to connect the various ‘possessions’ of the British Empire across Africa, facilitating the movement of troops and natural resources. This railway project was never completed, and in 1970 was overlaid by a very different attempt at connecting the Cape to Cairo, as part of the Trans‑African Highway network. This 56,683km‑long system of highways – some dating from the colonial era, some built as part of the 1970s project, and some only recently built – aimed to create lines of connection across the African continent, from north to south as well as east to west.  Here, postcolonial state power invested in ‘moving the continent’s people and economies from past to future’, as architectural historians Kenny Cupers and Prita Meier write in their 2020 essay ‘Infrastructure between Statehood and Selfhood: The Trans‑African Highway’. The highways were to be built with the support of Kenya’s president Jomo Kenyatta, Ghana’s president Kwame Nkrumah and Ghana’s director of social welfare Robert Gardiner, as well as the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA). This project was part of a particular historical moment during which anticolonial ideas animated most of the African continent; alongside trade, this iteration of Cape to Cairo centred social and cultural connection between African peoples. But though largely socialist in ambition, the project nevertheless engaged modernist developmentalist logics that cemented capitalism.  Lead image: Over a century in the making, the final stretches of the Cairo–Cape Town Highway are being finished. Egypt completed the section within its borders last year and a section over the dry Merille River in Kenya was constructed in 2019. Credit: Allan Muturi / SOPA / ZUMA / Alamy. Above: The route from Cairo to Cape Town, outlined in red, belongs to the Trans‑African Highway network, which comprises nine routes, here in black The project failed to fully materialise at the time, but efforts to complete the Trans‑African Highway network have been revived in the last 20 years; large parts are now complete though some links remain unbuilt and many roads are unpaved or hazardous. The most recent attempts to realise this project coincide with a new continental free trade agreement, the agreement on African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), established in 2019, to increase trade within the continent. The contemporary manifestation of the Cairo–Cape Town Highway – also known as Trans‑African Highway (TAH) 4 – is marked by deepening neoliberal politics. Represented as an opportunity to boost trade and exports, connecting Egypt to African markets that the Egyptian government view as ‘untapped’, the project invokes notions of trade steeped in extraction, reflecting the neoliberal logic underpinning contemporary Egyptian governance; today, the country’s political project, led by Abdel Fattah El Sisi, is oriented towards Egyptian dominance and extraction in relation to the rest of the continent.  Through an allusion to markets ripe for extraction, this language brings to the fore historical forms of domination that have shaped the connections between Egypt and the rest of the continent; previous iterations of connection across the continent often reproduced forms of domination stretching from the north of the African continent to the south, including the Trans‑Saharan slave trade routes across Africa that ended in various North African and Middle Eastern territories. These networks, beginning in the 8th century and lasting until the 20th, produced racialised hierarchies across the continent, shaping North Africa into a comparably privileged space proximate to ‘Arabness’. This was a racialised division based on a civilisational narrative that saw Arabs as superior, but more importantly a political economic division resulting from the slave trade routes that produced huge profits for North Africa and the Middle East. In the contemporary moment, these racialised hierarchies are bound up in political economic dependency on the Arab Gulf states, who are themselves dependent on resource extraction, land grabbing and privatisation across the entire African continent.  ‘The Cairo–Cape Town Highway connects Egypt to African markets viewed as “untapped”, invoking notions steeped in extraction’ However, this imaginary conjured by the Cairo–Cape Town Highway is countered by a network of streets scattered across Africa that traces the web of Egyptian Pan‑African solidarity across the continent. In Lusaka in Zambia, you might find yourself on Nasser Road, as you might in Mwanza in Tanzania or Luanda in Angola. In Mombasa in Kenya, you might be driving down Abdel Nasser Road; in Kampala in Uganda, you might find yourself at Nasser Road University; and in Tunis in Tunisia, you might end up on Gamal Abdel Nasser Street. These street names are a reference to Gamal Abdel Nasser, Egypt’s first postcolonial leader and president between 1956 and 1970.  Read against the contemporary Cairo–Cape Town Highway, these place names signal a different form of connection that brings to life Egyptian Pan‑Africanism, when solidarity was the hegemonic force connecting the continent, coming up against the notion of a natural or timeless ‘great divide’ within Africa. From the memoirs of Egyptian officials who were posted around Africa as conduits of solidarity, to the broadcasts of Radio Cairo that were heard across the continent, to the various conferences attended by anticolonial movements and postcolonial states, Egypt’s orientation towards Pan‑Africanism, beginning in the early 20th century and lasting until the 1970s, was both material and ideological. Figures and movements forged webs of solidarity with their African comrades, imagining an Africa that was united through shared commitments to ending colonialism and capitalist extraction.  The route between Cape Town in South Africa and Cairo in Egypt has long occupied the colonial imaginary. In 1930, Margaret Belcher and Ellen Budgell made the journey, sponsored by car brand Morris and oil company Shell Credit: Fox Photos / Getty The pair made use of the road built by British colonisers in the 19th century, and which forms the basis for the current Cairo–Cape Town Highway. The road was preceded by the 1874 Cape to Cairo Railway project, which connected the colonies of the British Empire Credit: Library of Congress, Geography and Map Division This network of eponymous streets represents attempts to inscribe anticolonial power into the materiality of the city. Street‑naming practices are one way in which the past comes into the present, ‘weaving history into the geographic fabric of everyday life’, as geographer Derek Alderman wrote in his 2002 essay ‘Street Names as Memorial Arenas’. In this vein, the renaming of streets during decolonisation marked a practice of contesting the production of colonial space. In the newly postcolonial city, renaming was a way of ‘claiming the city back’, Alderman continues. While these changes may appear discursive, it is their embedding in material spaces, through signs and maps, that make the names come to life; place names become a part of the everyday through sharing addresses or giving directions. This quality makes them powerful; consciously or unconsciously, they form part of how the spaces of the city are navigated.  These are traces that were once part of a dominant historical narrative; yet when they are encountered in the present, during a different historical moment, they no longer act as expressions of power but instead conjure up a moment that has long passed. A street in Lusaka named after an Egyptian general made more sense 60 years ago than it does today, yet contextualising it recovers a marginalised history of Egyptian Pan‑Africanism.  Markers such as street names or monuments are simultaneously markers of anticolonial struggle as well as expressions of state power – part of an attempt, by political projects such as Nasser’s, to exert their own dominance over cities, towns and villages. That such traces are expressions of both anticolonial hopes and postcolonial state power produces a sense of tension within them. For instance, Nasser’s postcolonial project in Egypt was a contradictory one; it gave life to anticolonial hopes – for instance by breaking away from European capitalism and embracing anticolonial geopolitics – while crushing many parts of the left through repression, censorship and imprisonment. Traces of Nasser found today inscribe both anticolonial promises – those that came to life and those that did not – while reproducing postcolonial power that in most instances ended in dictatorship.  Recent efforts to complete the route build on those of the post‑independence era – work on a section north of Nairobi started in 1968 Credit: Associated Press / Alamy The Trans‑African Highway network was conceived in 1970 in the spirit of Pan‑Africanism At that time, the routes did not extend into South Africa, which was in the grip of apartheid. The Trans‑African Highway initiative was motivated by a desire to improve trade and centre cultural links across the continent – an ambition that was even celebrated on postage stamps There have been long‑standing debates about the erasure of the radical anticolonial spirit from the more conservative postcolonial states that emerged; the promises and hopes of anticolonialism, not least among them socialism and a world free of white supremacy, remain largely unrealised. Instead, by the 1970s neoliberalism emerged as a new hegemonic project. The contemporary instantiation of Cape to Cairo highlights just how pervasive neoliberal logics continue to be, despite multiple global financial crises and the 2011 Egyptian revolution demanding ‘bread, freedom, social justice’.  But the network of streets named after anticolonial figures and events across the world is testament to the immense power and promise of anticolonial revolution. Most of the 20th century was characterised by anticolonial struggle, decolonisation and postcolonial nation‑building, as nations across the global south gained independence from European empire and founded their own political projects. Anticolonial traces, present in street and place names, point to the possibility of solidarity as a means of reorienting colonial geographies. They are a reminder that there have been other imaginings of Cape to Cairo, and that things can be – and have been – otherwise. 2025-06-13 Kristina Rapacki Share

Last year, MACK Books published Architecture from Below, which anthologized writings by the French Brazilian architect, theorist, and painter Sérgio Ferro. (Douglas Spencer reviewed it for AN.) Now, MACK follows with Design and the Building Site and Complementary Essays, the second in the trilogy of books dedicated to Ferro’s scholarship. The following excerpt of the author’s 2023 preface to the English edition, which preserves its British phrasing, captures Ferro’s realization about the working conditions of construction sites in Brasília. The sentiment is likely relatable even today for young architects as they discover how drawings become buildings. Design and the Building Site and Complementary Essays will be released on May 22. If I remember correctly, it was in 1958 or 1959, when Rodrigo and I were second- or third year architecture students at FAUUSP, that my father, the real estate developer Armando Simone Pereira, commissioned us to design two large office buildings and eleven shops in Brasilia, which was then under construction. Of course, we were not adequately prepared for such an undertaking. Fortunately, Oscar Niemeyer and his team, who were responsible for overseeing the construction of the capital, had drawn up a detailed document determining the essential characteristics of all the private sector buildings. We followed these prescriptions to the letter, which saved us from disaster. Nowadays, it is hard to imagine the degree to which the construction of Brasilia inspired enthusiasm and professional pride in the country’s architects. And in the national imagination, the city’s establishment in the supposedly unpopulated hinterland evoked a re-founding of Brazil. Up until that point, the occupation of our immense territory had been reduced to a collection of arborescent communication routes, generally converging upon some river, following it up to the Atlantic Ocean. Through its ports, agricultural or extractive commodities produced by enslaved peoples or their substitutes passed towards the metropolises; goods were exchanged in the metropolises for more elaborate products, which took the opposite route. Our national identity was summed up in a few symbols, such as the anthem or the flag, and this scattering of paths pointing overseas. Brasilia would radically change this situation, or so we believed. It would create a central hub where the internal communication routes could converge, linking together hithertoseparate junctions, stimulating trade and economic progress in the country’s interior. It was as if, for the first time, we were taking care of ourselves. At the nucleus of this centripetal movement, architecture would embody the renaissance. And at the naval of the nucleus, the symbolic mandala of this utopia: the cathedral. Rodrigo and I got caught up in the euphoria. And perhaps more so than our colleagues, because we were taking part in the adventure with ‘our’ designs. The reality was very different — but we did not know that yet. At that time, architects in Brazil were responsible for verifying that the construction was in line with the design. We had already monitored some of our first building sites. But the construction company in charge of them, Osmar Souza e Silva’s CENPLA, specialized in the building sites of modernist architects from the so-called Escola Paulista led by Vilanova Artigas (which we aspired to be a part of, like the pretentious students we were). Osmar was very attentive to his clients and his workers, who formed a supportive and helpful team. He was even more careful with us, because he knew how inexperienced we were. I believe that the CENPLA was particularly important in São Paulo modernism: with its congeniality, it facilitated experimentation, but for the same reason, it deceived novices like us about the reality of other building sites. Consequently, Rodrigo and I travelled to Brasilia several times to check that the constructions followed ‘our’ designs and to resolve any issues. From the very first trip, our little bubble burst. Our building sites, like all the others in the future capital, bore no relation to Osmar’s. They were more like a branch of hell. A huge, muddy wasteland, in which a few cranes, pile drivers, tractors, and excavators dotted the mound of scaffolding occupied by thousands of skinny, seemingly exhausted wretches, who were nevertheless driven on by the shouts of master builders and foremen, in turn pressured by the imminence of the fateful inauguration date. Surrounding or huddled underneath the marquees of buildings under construction, entire families, equally skeletal and ragged, were waiting for some accident or death to open up a vacancy. In contact only with the master builders, and under close surveillance so we would not speak to the workers, we were not allowed to see what comrades who had worked on these sites later told us in prison: suicide abounded; escape was known to be futile in the unpopulated surroundings with no viable roads; fatal accidents were often caused by weakness due to chronic diarrhoea, brought on by rotten food that came from far away; outright theft took place in the calculation of wages and expenses in the contractor’s grocery store; camps were surrounded by law enforcement. I repeat this anecdote yet again not to invoke the benevolence of potential readers, but rather to point out the conditions that, in my opinion, allowed two students (Flávio Império joined us a little later) still in their professional infancy to quickly adopt positions that were contrary to the usual stance of architects. As the project was more Oscar Niemeyer’s than it was our own, we did not have the same emotional attachment that is understandably engendered between real authors and their designs. We had not yet been imbued with the charm and aura of the métier. And the only building sites we had visited thus far, Osmar’s, were incomparable to those we discovered in Brasilia. In short, our youthfulness and unpreparedness up against an unbearable situation made us react almost immediately to the profession’s satisfied doxa. Unprepared and young perhaps, but already with Marx by our side. Rodrigo and I joined the student cell of the Brazilian Communist Party during our first year at university. In itself, this did not help us much: the Party’s Marxism, revised in the interests of the USSR, was pitiful. Even high-level leaders rarely went beyond the first chapter of Capital. But at the end of the 1950s, the effervescence of the years to come was already nascent:  […] this extraordinary revival […] the rediscovery of Marxism and the great dialectical texts and traditions in the 1960s: an excitement that identifies a forgotten or repressed moment of the past as the new and subversive, and learns the dialectical grammar of a Hegel or an Adorno, a Marx or a Lukács, like a foreign language that has resources unavailable in our own. And what is more: the Chinese and Cuban revolutions, the war in Vietnam, guerrilla warfare of all kinds, national liberation movements, and a rare libertarian disposition in contemporary history, totally averse to fanaticism and respect for ideological apparatuses of (any) state or institution. Going against the grain was almost the norm. We were of course no more than contemporaries of our time. We were soon able to position ourselves from chapters 13, 14, and 15 of Capital, but only because we could constantly cross-reference Marx with our observations from well-contrasted building sites and do our own experimenting. As soon as we identified construction as manufacture, for example, thanks to the willingness and even encouragement of two friends and clients, Boris Fausto and Bernardo Issler, I was able to test both types of manufacture — organic and heterogeneous — on similar-sized projects taking place simultaneously, in order to find out which would be most convenient for the situation in Brazil, particularly in São Paulo. Despite the scientific shortcomings of these tests, they sufficed for us to select organic manufacture. Arquitetura Nova had defined its line of practice, studies, and research. There were other sources that were central to our theory and practice. Flávio Império was one of the founders of the Teatro de Arena, undoubtedly the vanguard of popular, militant theatre in Brazil. He won practically every set design award. He brought us his marvelous findings in spatial condensation and malleability, and in the creative diversion of techniques and material—appropriate devices for an underdeveloped country. This is what helped us pave the way to reformulating the reigning design paradigms.  We had to do what Flávio had done in the theatre: thoroughly rethink how to be an architect. Upend the perspective. The way we were taught was to start from a desired result; then others would take care of getting there, no matter how. We, on the other hand, set out to go down to the building site and accompany those carrying out the labor itself, those who actually build, the formally subsumed workers in manufacture who are increasingly deprived of the knowledge and know-how presupposed by this kind of subsumption. We should have been fostering the reconstitution of this knowledge and know-how—not so as to fulfil this assumption, but in order to reinvigorate the other side of this assumption according to Marx: the historical rebellion of the manufacture worker, especially the construction worker. We had to rekindle the demand that fueled this rebellion: total self-determination, and not just that of the manual operation as such. Our aim was above all political and ethical. Aesthetics only mattered by way of what it included—ethics. Instead of estética, we wrote est ética [this is ethics]. We wanted to make building sites into nests for the return of revolutionary syndicalism, which we ourselves had yet to discover. Sérgio Ferro, born in Brazil in 1938, studied architecture at FAUUSP, São Paulo. In the 1960s, he joined the Brazilian communist party and started, along with Rodrigo Lefevre and Flávio Império, the collective known as Arquitetura Nova. After being arrested by the military dictatorship that took power in Brazil in 1964, he moved to France as an exile. As a painter and a professor at the École Nationale Supérieure d’Architecture de Grenoble, where he founded the Dessin/Chantier laboratory, he engaged in extensive research which resulted in several publications, exhibitions, and awards in Brazil and in France, including the title of Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres in 1992. Following his retirement from teaching, Ferro continues to research, write, and paint.

These 15 Dynamic Photos Will Make You Want to Dance Get footloose with these Smithsonian Magazine Photo Contest dance scenes Photographs selected by Quentin Nardi Text by Tracy Scott Forson June 13, 2025 In the 1500s, ballet roles for female characters were performed by men. Women entered the art form in the late 1600s and are now dominant in ballet. Libby Zhang, Texas, 2016 Like many art forms, dance transcends cultures, countries and continents. Flamenco, breakdancing, ballet, tango and other well-known genres are all forms of movement performed all across the globe. While being a professional can take decades of dedication and training, one appeal of dance is that you don’t have to be an expert to participate in or enjoy it. Just visit any preschool for evidence of that. “The arts teach tolerance because there is no one way of doing anything,” said dance icon and Emmy winner Debbie Allen. While some forms of dance are more structured and formal than others, they’re all about using the body as a tool of expression. Take a look. In Istanbul, a customary trance-like dance, embodying spiritual devotion and the pursuit of unity with the divine, is performed as part of a Sufi ceremony. Uku Sööt, Turkey, 2024 Passersby cheer and applaud energetic dancers in vibrant colors as they entertain a crowd at Fuzhou. Yi Yuan, China, 2024 A young dance student’s elegant movements are complemented by the flow and motion of her beautiful garment. Felicia Tolbert, Michigan, 2024 During a celebration in Tyrol, the locals perform a traditional dance called Schuhplattler, which is very demanding physically and requires the dancers to reach their shoes while jumping. Ory Schneor, Austria, 2024 Young dancers strike poses for photos before participating in a performance at Brihadeeswara Temple. Ravikanth Kurma, India, 2019 Members of Hush Crew, based in Boston, perform at public venues around the city—and all over social media—showing off their dance skills. Paul Karns, Massachusetts, 2024 A flamenco dancer from Granada jumps to heights that could rival any NBA Hall of Famer. Javier Fergo, Spain, 2017 Dancers of the Ho Chi Minh City Ballet nearly collide as they practice for a performance titled The Roof. Le Nguyen Huy Thuy, Vietnam, 2015 Genres converge as two dancers fuse the movements and choreography of ballet and hip-hop. Tom Griscom, Tennessee, 2015 A teenage dance student celebrates the first day of summer with an iconic ballet leap. Vicki Surges, Minnesota, 2010 Dressed in elaborate, ornate garments, dancers celebrating Day of the Dead participate in a colorful parade. Michelle Atkinson, Texas, 2013 With roots in Italy, ballet, like many forms of dance, is now common in countries and cultures around the world. Xiaoping Mao, China, 2023 Bodies blur as they move to the music during a party to celebrate the festive week of Maslenitsa at the St. Petersburg State University. Anton Golyshev, Russia, 2011 A wedding party celebrates new nuptials with a dance through the historic alleys of New Orleans’ French Quarter. Osman Sharif, Louisiana, 2021 Get the latest Travel & Culture stories in your inbox.