• Step Inside the Vault: The ‘Borderland’ Series Arrives on GeForce NOW

    GeForce NOW is throwing open the vault doors to welcome the legendary Borderland series to the cloud.
    Whether a seasoned Vault Hunter or new to the mayhem of Pandora, prepare to experience the high-octane action and humor that define the series that includes Borderlands Game of the Year Enhanced, Borderlands 2, Borderlands 3 and Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel.
    Members can explore it all before the highly anticipated Borderlands 4 arrives in the cloud at launch.
    In addition, leap into the flames and save the day in the pulse-pounding FBC: Firebreak from Remedy Entertainment on GeForce NOW.
    It’s all part of the 13 new games in the cloud this week, including the latest Genshin Impact update and advanced access for REMATCH.
    Plus, GeForce NOW’s Summer Sale is still in full swing. For a limited time, get 40% off a six-month GeForce NOW Performance membership — perfect for diving into role-playing game favorites like the Borderlands series or any of the 2,200 titles in the platform’s cloud gaming library.
    Vault Hunters Assemble
    Gear up for a world where loot is king and chaos is always just a trigger pull away. The Borderlands series is known for its wild humor, outrageous characters and nonstop action — and now, its chaotic adventures can be streamed on GeForce NOW.
    Welcome to Pandora.
    Members revisiting the classics or jumping in for the first time can start with Borderlands Game of the Year Enhanced, the original mayhem-fueled classic now polished and packed with downloadable content. The title brings Pandora to life with a fresh coat of paint, crazy loot and the same iconic humor that started it all.
    New worlds, same chaos.
    In Borderlands 2, Handsome Jack steals the show with his mix of charm and villainy. This sequel cranks up the fun and insanity with unforgettable characters and a zany storyline. For more laughs and even wilder chaos, Borderlands 3 delivers the biggest loot explosion yet, with new worlds to explore. Face off against the Calypso twins and enjoy nonstop action.
    The rise of Handsome Jack.
    The adventure blasts off with Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel, revealing how Handsome Jack became so handsome. The game throws in zero gravity, moon boots and enough sarcasm to fuel a spaceship.
    Jump in with GeForce NOW and get ready to laugh, loot and blast through Pandora, all from the cloud. With instant access and seamless streaming at up to 4K resolution with an Ultimate membership, enter the chaos of Borderlands anytime, anywhere. No downloads, no waiting.
    Suit Up, Clean Up
    The Oldest House needs you.
    Step into the shoes of the Federal Bureau of Control’s elite first responders in the highly anticipated three-player co-op first-person shooter FBC: Firebreak. Taking place six years after Control, the game is set in the Oldest House — under siege by reality-warping threats. It’s up to players to restore order before chaos wins.
    Equip unique Crisis Kits packed with weapons, specialized tools and paranatural augments, like a garden gnome that summons a thunderstorm or a piggy bank that spews coins. As each mission, or “Job,” drops players into unpredictable environments with shifting objectives, bizarre crises and wacky enemies, teamwork and quick thinking are key.
    Jump into the fray with friends and stream it on GeForce NOW instantly across devices. Experience the mind-bending action and stunning visuals powered by cloud streaming. Contain the chaos, save the Oldest House and enjoy a new kind of co-op adventure, all from the cloud.
    No Rules Included
    Score big laughs in the cloud.
    REMATCH gives soccer a bold twist, transforming the classic sport into a fast-paced, third-person action experience where every player controls a single athlete on the field.
    With no fouls, offsides or breaks, matches are nonstop and skills-based, demanding quick reflexes and seamless teamwork. Dynamic role-switching lets players jump between attack, defense and goalkeeping, while seasonal updates and various multiplayer modes keep the competition fresh and the action intense.
    Where arcade flair meets tactical depth, REMATCH is football, unleashed. Get instant access to the soccer pitch by streaming the title on GeForce NOW and jump into the action wherever the match calls.
    Time To Game
    Skirk has arrived.
    Genshin Impact’s next major update launches this week, and members can stream the latest adventures from Teyvat at GeForce quality on any device. Version 5.7 includes the new playable characters Skirk and Dahlia — as well as fresh story quests and the launch of a Stygian Onslaught combat mode.
    Look for the following games available to stream in the cloud this week:

    REMATCHBroken ArrowCrime SimulatorDate Everything!FBC: FirebreakLost in Random: The Eternal DieArchitect Life: A House Design SimulatorBorderlands Game of the Year EnhancedBorderlands 2Borderlands 3Borderlands: The Pre-SequelMETAL EDEN DemoTorque Drift 2What are you planning to play this weekend? Let us know on X or in the comments below.

    What's a gaming achievement you'll never forget?
    — NVIDIA GeForce NOWJune 18, 2025
    #step #inside #vault #borderland #series
    Step Inside the Vault: The ‘Borderland’ Series Arrives on GeForce NOW
    GeForce NOW is throwing open the vault doors to welcome the legendary Borderland series to the cloud. Whether a seasoned Vault Hunter or new to the mayhem of Pandora, prepare to experience the high-octane action and humor that define the series that includes Borderlands Game of the Year Enhanced, Borderlands 2, Borderlands 3 and Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel. Members can explore it all before the highly anticipated Borderlands 4 arrives in the cloud at launch. In addition, leap into the flames and save the day in the pulse-pounding FBC: Firebreak from Remedy Entertainment on GeForce NOW. It’s all part of the 13 new games in the cloud this week, including the latest Genshin Impact update and advanced access for REMATCH. Plus, GeForce NOW’s Summer Sale is still in full swing. For a limited time, get 40% off a six-month GeForce NOW Performance membership — perfect for diving into role-playing game favorites like the Borderlands series or any of the 2,200 titles in the platform’s cloud gaming library. Vault Hunters Assemble Gear up for a world where loot is king and chaos is always just a trigger pull away. The Borderlands series is known for its wild humor, outrageous characters and nonstop action — and now, its chaotic adventures can be streamed on GeForce NOW. Welcome to Pandora. Members revisiting the classics or jumping in for the first time can start with Borderlands Game of the Year Enhanced, the original mayhem-fueled classic now polished and packed with downloadable content. The title brings Pandora to life with a fresh coat of paint, crazy loot and the same iconic humor that started it all. New worlds, same chaos. In Borderlands 2, Handsome Jack steals the show with his mix of charm and villainy. This sequel cranks up the fun and insanity with unforgettable characters and a zany storyline. For more laughs and even wilder chaos, Borderlands 3 delivers the biggest loot explosion yet, with new worlds to explore. Face off against the Calypso twins and enjoy nonstop action. The rise of Handsome Jack. The adventure blasts off with Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel, revealing how Handsome Jack became so handsome. The game throws in zero gravity, moon boots and enough sarcasm to fuel a spaceship. Jump in with GeForce NOW and get ready to laugh, loot and blast through Pandora, all from the cloud. With instant access and seamless streaming at up to 4K resolution with an Ultimate membership, enter the chaos of Borderlands anytime, anywhere. No downloads, no waiting. Suit Up, Clean Up The Oldest House needs you. Step into the shoes of the Federal Bureau of Control’s elite first responders in the highly anticipated three-player co-op first-person shooter FBC: Firebreak. Taking place six years after Control, the game is set in the Oldest House — under siege by reality-warping threats. It’s up to players to restore order before chaos wins. Equip unique Crisis Kits packed with weapons, specialized tools and paranatural augments, like a garden gnome that summons a thunderstorm or a piggy bank that spews coins. As each mission, or “Job,” drops players into unpredictable environments with shifting objectives, bizarre crises and wacky enemies, teamwork and quick thinking are key. Jump into the fray with friends and stream it on GeForce NOW instantly across devices. Experience the mind-bending action and stunning visuals powered by cloud streaming. Contain the chaos, save the Oldest House and enjoy a new kind of co-op adventure, all from the cloud. No Rules Included Score big laughs in the cloud. REMATCH gives soccer a bold twist, transforming the classic sport into a fast-paced, third-person action experience where every player controls a single athlete on the field. With no fouls, offsides or breaks, matches are nonstop and skills-based, demanding quick reflexes and seamless teamwork. Dynamic role-switching lets players jump between attack, defense and goalkeeping, while seasonal updates and various multiplayer modes keep the competition fresh and the action intense. Where arcade flair meets tactical depth, REMATCH is football, unleashed. Get instant access to the soccer pitch by streaming the title on GeForce NOW and jump into the action wherever the match calls. Time To Game Skirk has arrived. Genshin Impact’s next major update launches this week, and members can stream the latest adventures from Teyvat at GeForce quality on any device. Version 5.7 includes the new playable characters Skirk and Dahlia — as well as fresh story quests and the launch of a Stygian Onslaught combat mode. Look for the following games available to stream in the cloud this week: REMATCHBroken ArrowCrime SimulatorDate Everything!FBC: FirebreakLost in Random: The Eternal DieArchitect Life: A House Design SimulatorBorderlands Game of the Year EnhancedBorderlands 2Borderlands 3Borderlands: The Pre-SequelMETAL EDEN DemoTorque Drift 2What are you planning to play this weekend? Let us know on X or in the comments below. What's a gaming achievement you'll never forget? — NVIDIA GeForce NOWJune 18, 2025 #step #inside #vault #borderland #series
    BLOGS.NVIDIA.COM
    Step Inside the Vault: The ‘Borderland’ Series Arrives on GeForce NOW
    GeForce NOW is throwing open the vault doors to welcome the legendary Borderland series to the cloud. Whether a seasoned Vault Hunter or new to the mayhem of Pandora, prepare to experience the high-octane action and humor that define the series that includes Borderlands Game of the Year Enhanced, Borderlands 2, Borderlands 3 and Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel. Members can explore it all before the highly anticipated Borderlands 4 arrives in the cloud at launch. In addition, leap into the flames and save the day in the pulse-pounding FBC: Firebreak from Remedy Entertainment on GeForce NOW. It’s all part of the 13 new games in the cloud this week, including the latest Genshin Impact update and advanced access for REMATCH. Plus, GeForce NOW’s Summer Sale is still in full swing. For a limited time, get 40% off a six-month GeForce NOW Performance membership — perfect for diving into role-playing game favorites like the Borderlands series or any of the 2,200 titles in the platform’s cloud gaming library. Vault Hunters Assemble Gear up for a world where loot is king and chaos is always just a trigger pull away. The Borderlands series is known for its wild humor, outrageous characters and nonstop action — and now, its chaotic adventures can be streamed on GeForce NOW. Welcome to Pandora. Members revisiting the classics or jumping in for the first time can start with Borderlands Game of the Year Enhanced, the original mayhem-fueled classic now polished and packed with downloadable content. The title brings Pandora to life with a fresh coat of paint, crazy loot and the same iconic humor that started it all. New worlds, same chaos. In Borderlands 2, Handsome Jack steals the show with his mix of charm and villainy. This sequel cranks up the fun and insanity with unforgettable characters and a zany storyline. For more laughs and even wilder chaos, Borderlands 3 delivers the biggest loot explosion yet, with new worlds to explore. Face off against the Calypso twins and enjoy nonstop action. The rise of Handsome Jack. The adventure blasts off with Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel, revealing how Handsome Jack became so handsome. The game throws in zero gravity, moon boots and enough sarcasm to fuel a spaceship. Jump in with GeForce NOW and get ready to laugh, loot and blast through Pandora, all from the cloud. With instant access and seamless streaming at up to 4K resolution with an Ultimate membership, enter the chaos of Borderlands anytime, anywhere. No downloads, no waiting. Suit Up, Clean Up The Oldest House needs you. Step into the shoes of the Federal Bureau of Control’s elite first responders in the highly anticipated three-player co-op first-person shooter FBC: Firebreak. Taking place six years after Control, the game is set in the Oldest House — under siege by reality-warping threats. It’s up to players to restore order before chaos wins. Equip unique Crisis Kits packed with weapons, specialized tools and paranatural augments, like a garden gnome that summons a thunderstorm or a piggy bank that spews coins. As each mission, or “Job,” drops players into unpredictable environments with shifting objectives, bizarre crises and wacky enemies, teamwork and quick thinking are key. Jump into the fray with friends and stream it on GeForce NOW instantly across devices. Experience the mind-bending action and stunning visuals powered by cloud streaming. Contain the chaos, save the Oldest House and enjoy a new kind of co-op adventure, all from the cloud. No Rules Included Score big laughs in the cloud. REMATCH gives soccer a bold twist, transforming the classic sport into a fast-paced, third-person action experience where every player controls a single athlete on the field. With no fouls, offsides or breaks, matches are nonstop and skills-based, demanding quick reflexes and seamless teamwork. Dynamic role-switching lets players jump between attack, defense and goalkeeping, while seasonal updates and various multiplayer modes keep the competition fresh and the action intense. Where arcade flair meets tactical depth, REMATCH is football, unleashed. Get instant access to the soccer pitch by streaming the title on GeForce NOW and jump into the action wherever the match calls. Time To Game Skirk has arrived. Genshin Impact’s next major update launches this week, and members can stream the latest adventures from Teyvat at GeForce quality on any device. Version 5.7 includes the new playable characters Skirk and Dahlia — as well as fresh story quests and the launch of a Stygian Onslaught combat mode. Look for the following games available to stream in the cloud this week: REMATCH (New release on Steam, Xbox, available on PC Game Pass, June 16) Broken Arrow (New release on Steam, June 19) Crime Simulator (New release on Steam, June 17) Date Everything! (New release on Steam, June 17) FBC: Firebreak (New release on Steam, Xbox, available on PC Game Pass, June 17) Lost in Random: The Eternal Die (New release on Steam, Xbox, available on PC Game Pass, June 17) Architect Life: A House Design Simulator (New release on Steam, June 19) Borderlands Game of the Year Enhanced (Steam) Borderlands 2 (Steam, Epic Games Store) Borderlands 3 (Steam, Epic Games Store) Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel (Steam, Epic Games Store) METAL EDEN Demo (Steam) Torque Drift 2 (Epic Games Store) What are you planning to play this weekend? Let us know on X or in the comments below. What's a gaming achievement you'll never forget? — NVIDIA GeForce NOW (@NVIDIAGFN) June 18, 2025
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  • Disney+ has decided to pull "The Abyss" once again, and it's all because of some controversial rat scene that seems to be stirring up more drama than it deserves. Honestly, who cares? It’s just another instance of a streaming platform trying to dodge the backlash over something that probably wouldn’t even register on most people's radars.

    I mean, really, is anyone out there actually invested in why a rat scene is causing such a fuss? It feels like a lot of noise over nothing. Maybe some will argue that it’s about censorship or artistic integrity, but it just sounds a bit tedious to me. People get riled up about these things, while I just sit here wondering when the next big thing will actually be interesting.

    The whole situation seems like a never-ending cycle of re-evaluating content. Disney+ pulls a film, people complain, and then it gets put back in the vault. It’s like watching a rerun of a show you didn’t even like the first time. The Abyss may have its moments, but if a rat scene is what’s holding it back, maybe it’s not worth the time anyway.

    Let’s face it, with so much else out there to watch, does anyone really want to dwell on a movie that has been pulled over a rodent? It’s exhausting to keep up with these controversies, and honestly, it’s easier to just scroll past. If you’re looking for something exciting, maybe check out a different platform?

    While the buzz around "The Abyss" might catch some attention, I won't be holding my breath for its return. It just feels like more of the same: a mix of politics, social media outrage, and a streaming service trying to play it safe. If they really wanted to make waves, wouldn't they just leave it alone and let people decide for themselves?

    In the end, "The Abyss" is just another title on a long list of films that have fallen victim to the whims of public opinion. So, let’s just move on to something else, shall we? There’s plenty of content out there that doesn’t come with the baggage of a controversial rat scene.

    #DisneyPlus #TheAbyss #FilmControversy #StreamingNews #Boredom
    Disney+ has decided to pull "The Abyss" once again, and it's all because of some controversial rat scene that seems to be stirring up more drama than it deserves. Honestly, who cares? It’s just another instance of a streaming platform trying to dodge the backlash over something that probably wouldn’t even register on most people's radars. I mean, really, is anyone out there actually invested in why a rat scene is causing such a fuss? It feels like a lot of noise over nothing. Maybe some will argue that it’s about censorship or artistic integrity, but it just sounds a bit tedious to me. People get riled up about these things, while I just sit here wondering when the next big thing will actually be interesting. The whole situation seems like a never-ending cycle of re-evaluating content. Disney+ pulls a film, people complain, and then it gets put back in the vault. It’s like watching a rerun of a show you didn’t even like the first time. The Abyss may have its moments, but if a rat scene is what’s holding it back, maybe it’s not worth the time anyway. Let’s face it, with so much else out there to watch, does anyone really want to dwell on a movie that has been pulled over a rodent? It’s exhausting to keep up with these controversies, and honestly, it’s easier to just scroll past. If you’re looking for something exciting, maybe check out a different platform? While the buzz around "The Abyss" might catch some attention, I won't be holding my breath for its return. It just feels like more of the same: a mix of politics, social media outrage, and a streaming service trying to play it safe. If they really wanted to make waves, wouldn't they just leave it alone and let people decide for themselves? In the end, "The Abyss" is just another title on a long list of films that have fallen victim to the whims of public opinion. So, let’s just move on to something else, shall we? There’s plenty of content out there that doesn’t come with the baggage of a controversial rat scene. #DisneyPlus #TheAbyss #FilmControversy #StreamingNews #Boredom
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  • AU Deals: Today's Hottest AAA Discounts to Heat Up Your Game Cave Winter Hibernation

    Winter is well and truly biting, but this fresh crop of game deals is bringing the heat. From mythological mayhem to pocket-sized platformers, there’s something here for every taste and timeframe. If your digital shelf could use a mid-year injection of chaos, charm, or challenge, this week’s offerings are primed to please.This Day in Gaming In retro news, I’m lighting a 26‑candle cake for Silent Hill, the fog‑laden survival horror fest that kept '99-era me perched on a seat with barely 2% of the surface area of one butt cheek. I still remember tentatively sweeping my flashlight across those grainy, polygonal streets, only to have the beam half illuminate some scurrying something in the dark.
    Though the OG Resident Evil certainly vexed me first, the unique magic of Silent Hill lay in how its graphical limitations—thick fog and encroaching darkness—became tools of terror rather than platform limitations. Every ring of static from your radio or *that* air raid siren heralding the "other plane" of this madhouse could ratchet up the dread in an instant. Lastly, I recall working game retail at launch and having to help absolutely bloody everybody with a solution to the piano puzzle.Tank controls andbugger all visibility. OG Silent Hill was terrifying.Aussie bdays for notable games- Silent Hill1999. Redux- Marvel vs. Capcom 22000. Redux- The Conduit2009. eBay- Monster Hunter Generations2016. eBayContentsNice Savings for Nintendo SwitchAvailable now!Nintendo Switch 2 ConsoleNintendo Switch 2 + Mario Kart WorldNintendo kicks things off with Persona 5 Royal for Aa lavishly expanded edition of the genre-defining RPG whose original director Katsura Hashino was inspired by Carl Jung’s theories of the psyche. Also worth nabbing is Bravely Default II at Aa spiritual twinner to the Final Fantasy titles that’s cheekily packed with nostalgic mechanics like turning off random encounters to power-level in peace.Persona 5 Royal- ABravely Default II- ASonic Frontiers- ASonic x Shadow Generations- ANBA 2K25- AMetal Gear Col.- AExpiring Recent DealsOr gift a Nintendo eShop Card.Switch Console PricesHow much to Switch it up?Switch OLED + Mario Wonder: $̶5̶3̶9̶ |
    Switch Original: $̶4̶9̶9̶ |
    Switch OLED Black: $̶5̶3̶9̶ |
    Switch OLED White: $̶5̶3̶9̶ ♥ |
    Switch Lite: $̶3̶2̶9̶ |
    Switch Lite Hyrule: $̶3̶3̶9̶ See itBack to topExciting Bargains for Xbox Over on Xbox Series X, Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 is slashing skulls and prices at Afinally giving fans the long-awaited sequel to one of gaming’s most satisfyingly weighty shooters. Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League is an outrageous Aand despite its rocky reception, it’s a fascinating look at how Batman: Arkham devs tried to blend looter-shooter DNA into their universe.40K Space Marine 2- ASuicide Squad: KTJL- AWild Hearts- AAvatar: Pandora Gold Ed.- AHogwarts Legacy- AXbox OneTopSpin 2K25- ASunset Overdrive- AAlan Wake Rem.- AExpiring Recent DealsThe Witcher 3 Comp.- ATekken 8- ANBA 2K25- AFarming Simulator 25- AFC 25- ARed Dead Redemption 2- ALies of P- ALego Jurassic World- AOr just invest in an Xbox Card.Xbox Console PricesHow many bucks for a 'Box? Series X: $̶7̶9̶9̶ |
    Series S Black: $̶5̶4̶9̶ |
    Series S White:$̶4̶9̶9̶ |
    Series S Starter: N/ASee itBack to topPure Scores for PlayStationFor PS5 players, Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales swings down to Aletting you sling through Harlem while wearing everything from a Bodega Cat suit to a Spider-Verse frame-rate filter. Meanwhile, Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart for Ais a tech marvel that started life as a PS4 title, before being fully rebuilt to show off the PS5’s SSD.PS4God of War Ragnarök- AGran Turismo 7- AWatch Dogs: Legion- AExpiring Recent DealsPS+ Monthly FreebiesYours to keep from May 1 with this subscriptionArk: Survival AscendedBalatroWarhammer 40,000: BoltgunOr purchase a PS Store Card.What you'll pay to 'Station.PS5 + Astro Bot:$̶7̶2̶4̶.9̶5̶ |
    PS5 Slim Disc:$̶7̶9̶9̶ |
    PS5 Slim Digital:6̶7̶9̶ |
    PS5 Pro $̶1̶,1̶9̶9̶ |
    PS VR2: |
    PS VR2 + Horizon: |
    PS Portal: See itBack to topPurchase Cheap for PCOn PC, Resident Evil 4 is a steal at Aa stunning remake where the developers added extra charm to Leon’s famous “Where’s everyone going, bingo?” line by letting players unlock vintage filters that emulate 2005-era graphics. Also notable is Lies of P at Athe Pinocchio-meets-Bloodborne mash-up that lets you lie in dialogue choices for combat perks.Lies of P- AThe Alters- AClair Obscur: Expedition 33- ASilent Hill 2- AForza Horizon 5- AResident Evil 4- AExpiring Recent DealsOr just get a Steam Wallet CardPC Hardware PricesSlay your pile of shame.Official launch in NovSteam Deck 256GB LCD: |
    Steam Deck 512GB OLED: |
    Steam Deck 1TB OLED: See it at SteamLaptop DealsDesktop DealsLenovo neo 50a G5 27" AIO– ALenovo neo 50q G4 Tiny– ALenovo neo 50t G5 Tower– ALegion Tower 5i G8– AMonitor DealsSamsung QE50T 50"– AARZOPA 16.1" 144Hz– AZ-Edge 27" 240Hz– AGawfolk 34" WQHD– ALG 27" Ultragear– AComponent DealsStorage DealsBack to topLegit LEGO DealsExpiring Recent DealsBack to topHot Headphones DealsAudiophilia for lessBose QuietComfort Ultra Wireless– ASoundcore by Anker Q20i– ASony MDR7506 Professional– ATechnics Premium– ABose SoundLink Flex– AJBL Charge 5 - Portable Speaker– AJBL Flip Essential 2 Waterproof Speaker– ASony SRS-XB100 Travel Speaker– AUltimate Ears Boom 3 Portable Speaker– ASamsung Galaxy Buds2 Pro– ASennheiser Momentum 4 Wireless– ABack to topTerrific TV DealsDo right by your console, upgrade your tellyLG 43" UT80 4K– AKogan 65" QLED 4K– AKogan 55" QLED 4K– ALG 55" UT80 4K– APrism+ Q75 Ultra 75" 4K QLED– AGaimoo Mini Projector 1080p w/ 4K– AGooDee 4K Projector– AVOPLLS Mini Projector 4K– AXuanPad Mini Projector– ALG S70TY Q Series Sound Barn*-22%) – ASony HTG700 Atmos Soundbar– AYamaha NS-SW050 Subwoofer– ASmart Home DealsBack to top Adam Mathew is our Aussie deals wrangler. He plays practically everything, often on YouTube.
    #deals #today039s #hottest #aaa #discounts
    AU Deals: Today's Hottest AAA Discounts to Heat Up Your Game Cave Winter Hibernation
    Winter is well and truly biting, but this fresh crop of game deals is bringing the heat. From mythological mayhem to pocket-sized platformers, there’s something here for every taste and timeframe. If your digital shelf could use a mid-year injection of chaos, charm, or challenge, this week’s offerings are primed to please.This Day in Gaming 🎂In retro news, I’m lighting a 26‑candle cake for Silent Hill, the fog‑laden survival horror fest that kept '99-era me perched on a seat with barely 2% of the surface area of one butt cheek. I still remember tentatively sweeping my flashlight across those grainy, polygonal streets, only to have the beam half illuminate some scurrying something in the dark. Though the OG Resident Evil certainly vexed me first, the unique magic of Silent Hill lay in how its graphical limitations—thick fog and encroaching darkness—became tools of terror rather than platform limitations. Every ring of static from your radio or *that* air raid siren heralding the "other plane" of this madhouse could ratchet up the dread in an instant. Lastly, I recall working game retail at launch and having to help absolutely bloody everybody with a solution to the piano puzzle.Tank controls andbugger all visibility. OG Silent Hill was terrifying.Aussie bdays for notable games- Silent Hill1999. Redux- Marvel vs. Capcom 22000. Redux- The Conduit2009. eBay- Monster Hunter Generations2016. eBayContentsNice Savings for Nintendo SwitchAvailable now!Nintendo Switch 2 ConsoleNintendo Switch 2 + Mario Kart WorldNintendo kicks things off with Persona 5 Royal for Aa lavishly expanded edition of the genre-defining RPG whose original director Katsura Hashino was inspired by Carl Jung’s theories of the psyche. Also worth nabbing is Bravely Default II at Aa spiritual twinner to the Final Fantasy titles that’s cheekily packed with nostalgic mechanics like turning off random encounters to power-level in peace.Persona 5 Royal- ABravely Default II- ASonic Frontiers- ASonic x Shadow Generations- ANBA 2K25- AMetal Gear Col.- AExpiring Recent DealsOr gift a Nintendo eShop Card.Switch Console PricesHow much to Switch it up?Switch OLED + Mario Wonder: $̶5̶3̶9̶ | Switch Original: $̶4̶9̶9̶ | Switch OLED Black: $̶5̶3̶9̶ | Switch OLED White: $̶5̶3̶9̶ ♥ | Switch Lite: $̶3̶2̶9̶ | Switch Lite Hyrule: $̶3̶3̶9̶ See itBack to topExciting Bargains for Xbox Over on Xbox Series X, Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 is slashing skulls and prices at Afinally giving fans the long-awaited sequel to one of gaming’s most satisfyingly weighty shooters. Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League is an outrageous Aand despite its rocky reception, it’s a fascinating look at how Batman: Arkham devs tried to blend looter-shooter DNA into their universe.40K Space Marine 2- ASuicide Squad: KTJL- AWild Hearts- AAvatar: Pandora Gold Ed.- AHogwarts Legacy- AXbox OneTopSpin 2K25- ASunset Overdrive- AAlan Wake Rem.- AExpiring Recent DealsThe Witcher 3 Comp.- ATekken 8- ANBA 2K25- AFarming Simulator 25- AFC 25- ARed Dead Redemption 2- ALies of P- ALego Jurassic World- AOr just invest in an Xbox Card.Xbox Console PricesHow many bucks for a 'Box? Series X: $̶7̶9̶9̶ 👑| Series S Black: $̶5̶4̶9̶ | Series S White:$̶4̶9̶9̶ | Series S Starter: N/ASee itBack to topPure Scores for PlayStationFor PS5 players, Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales swings down to Aletting you sling through Harlem while wearing everything from a Bodega Cat suit to a Spider-Verse frame-rate filter. Meanwhile, Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart for Ais a tech marvel that started life as a PS4 title, before being fully rebuilt to show off the PS5’s SSD.PS4God of War Ragnarök- AGran Turismo 7- AWatch Dogs: Legion- AExpiring Recent DealsPS+ Monthly FreebiesYours to keep from May 1 with this subscriptionArk: Survival AscendedBalatroWarhammer 40,000: BoltgunOr purchase a PS Store Card.What you'll pay to 'Station.PS5 + Astro Bot:$̶7̶2̶4̶.9̶5̶ 👑 | PS5 Slim Disc:$̶7̶9̶9̶ | PS5 Slim Digital:6̶7̶9̶ | PS5 Pro $̶1̶,1̶9̶9̶ | PS VR2: | PS VR2 + Horizon: | PS Portal: See itBack to topPurchase Cheap for PCOn PC, Resident Evil 4 is a steal at Aa stunning remake where the developers added extra charm to Leon’s famous “Where’s everyone going, bingo?” line by letting players unlock vintage filters that emulate 2005-era graphics. Also notable is Lies of P at Athe Pinocchio-meets-Bloodborne mash-up that lets you lie in dialogue choices for combat perks.Lies of P- AThe Alters- AClair Obscur: Expedition 33- ASilent Hill 2- AForza Horizon 5- AResident Evil 4- AExpiring Recent DealsOr just get a Steam Wallet CardPC Hardware PricesSlay your pile of shame.Official launch in NovSteam Deck 256GB LCD: | Steam Deck 512GB OLED: | Steam Deck 1TB OLED: See it at SteamLaptop DealsDesktop DealsLenovo neo 50a G5 27" AIO– ALenovo neo 50q G4 Tiny– ALenovo neo 50t G5 Tower– ALegion Tower 5i G8– AMonitor DealsSamsung QE50T 50"– AARZOPA 16.1" 144Hz– AZ-Edge 27" 240Hz– AGawfolk 34" WQHD– ALG 27" Ultragear– AComponent DealsStorage DealsBack to topLegit LEGO DealsExpiring Recent DealsBack to topHot Headphones DealsAudiophilia for lessBose QuietComfort Ultra Wireless– ASoundcore by Anker Q20i– ASony MDR7506 Professional– ATechnics Premium– ABose SoundLink Flex– AJBL Charge 5 - Portable Speaker– AJBL Flip Essential 2 Waterproof Speaker– ASony SRS-XB100 Travel Speaker– AUltimate Ears Boom 3 Portable Speaker– ASamsung Galaxy Buds2 Pro– ASennheiser Momentum 4 Wireless– ABack to topTerrific TV DealsDo right by your console, upgrade your tellyLG 43" UT80 4K– AKogan 65" QLED 4K– AKogan 55" QLED 4K– ALG 55" UT80 4K– APrism+ Q75 Ultra 75" 4K QLED– AGaimoo Mini Projector 1080p w/ 4K– AGooDee 4K Projector– AVOPLLS Mini Projector 4K– AXuanPad Mini Projector– ALG S70TY Q Series Sound Barn*-22%) – ASony HTG700 Atmos Soundbar– AYamaha NS-SW050 Subwoofer– ASmart Home DealsBack to top Adam Mathew is our Aussie deals wrangler. He plays practically everything, often on YouTube. #deals #today039s #hottest #aaa #discounts
    WWW.IGN.COM
    AU Deals: Today's Hottest AAA Discounts to Heat Up Your Game Cave Winter Hibernation
    Winter is well and truly biting, but this fresh crop of game deals is bringing the heat. From mythological mayhem to pocket-sized platformers, there’s something here for every taste and timeframe. If your digital shelf could use a mid-year injection of chaos, charm, or challenge, this week’s offerings are primed to please.This Day in Gaming 🎂In retro news, I’m lighting a 26‑candle cake for Silent Hill, the fog‑laden survival horror fest that kept '99-era me perched on a seat with barely 2% of the surface area of one butt cheek. I still remember tentatively sweeping my flashlight across those grainy, polygonal streets, only to have the beam half illuminate some scurrying something in the dark. Though the OG Resident Evil certainly vexed me first, the unique magic of Silent Hill lay in how its graphical limitations—thick fog and encroaching darkness—became tools of terror rather than platform limitations. Every ring of static from your radio or *that* air raid siren heralding the "other plane" of this madhouse could ratchet up the dread in an instant. Lastly, I recall working game retail at launch and having to help absolutely bloody everybody with a solution to the piano puzzle.Tank controls and (hardware induced) bugger all visibility. OG Silent Hill was terrifying.Aussie bdays for notable games- Silent Hill (PS) 1999. Redux- Marvel vs. Capcom 2 (DC) 2000. Redux- The Conduit (Wii) 2009. eBay- Monster Hunter Generations (3DS) 2016. eBayContentsNice Savings for Nintendo SwitchAvailable now!Nintendo Switch 2 ConsoleNintendo Switch 2 + Mario Kart WorldNintendo kicks things off with Persona 5 Royal for A$66.60, a lavishly expanded edition of the genre-defining RPG whose original director Katsura Hashino was inspired by Carl Jung’s theories of the psyche. Also worth nabbing is Bravely Default II at A$63.10, a spiritual twinner to the Final Fantasy titles that’s cheekily packed with nostalgic mechanics like turning off random encounters to power-level in peace.Persona 5 Royal (-33%) - A$66.60Bravely Default II (-21%) - A$63.10Sonic Frontiers (-53%) - A$47Sonic x Shadow Generations (-35%) - A$49NBA 2K25 (-79%) - A$19Metal Gear Col. (-50%) - A$45Expiring Recent DealsOr gift a Nintendo eShop Card.Switch Console PricesHow much to Switch it up?Switch OLED + Mario Wonder: $̶5̶3̶9̶ $538 | Switch Original: $̶4̶9̶9̶ $448 | Switch OLED Black: $̶5̶3̶9̶ $469 | Switch OLED White: $̶5̶3̶9̶ $449 ♥ | Switch Lite: $̶3̶2̶9̶ $328 | Switch Lite Hyrule: $̶3̶3̶9̶ $335See itBack to topExciting Bargains for Xbox Over on Xbox Series X, Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 is slashing skulls and prices at A$49.90, finally giving fans the long-awaited sequel to one of gaming’s most satisfyingly weighty shooters. Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League is an outrageous A$9.90, and despite its rocky reception, it’s a fascinating look at how Batman: Arkham devs tried to blend looter-shooter DNA into their universe.40K Space Marine 2 (-54%) - A$49.90Suicide Squad: KTJL (-91%) - A$9.90Wild Hearts (-83%) - A$19Avatar: Pandora Gold Ed. (-69%) - A$49.90Hogwarts Legacy (-75%) - A$27.40Xbox OneTopSpin 2K25 (-88%) - A$14.90Sunset Overdrive (-36%) - A$19.20Alan Wake Rem. (-85%) - A$6.70Expiring Recent DealsThe Witcher 3 Comp. (-56%) - A$34.80Tekken 8 (-53%) - A$39.90NBA 2K25 (-80%) - A$24Farming Simulator 25 (-32%) - A$68FC 25 (-57%) - A$34Red Dead Redemption 2 (-78%) - A$20Lies of P (-19%) - A$73Lego Jurassic World (-65%) - A$22.50Or just invest in an Xbox Card.Xbox Console PricesHow many bucks for a 'Box? Series X: $̶7̶9̶9̶ $724 👑| Series S Black: $̶5̶4̶9̶ $545 | Series S White:$̶4̶9̶9̶ $498 | Series S Starter: N/ASee itBack to topPure Scores for PlayStationFor PS5 players, Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales swings down to A$39, letting you sling through Harlem while wearing everything from a Bodega Cat suit to a Spider-Verse frame-rate filter. Meanwhile, Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart for A$54 is a tech marvel that started life as a PS4 title, before being fully rebuilt to show off the PS5’s SSD.PS4God of War Ragnarök (-60%) - A$44Gran Turismo 7 (-60%) - A$44Watch Dogs: Legion (-86%) - A$13.60Expiring Recent DealsPS+ Monthly FreebiesYours to keep from May 1 with this subscriptionArk: Survival Ascended (PS5)Balatro (PS5/PS4)Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun (PS5/PS4)Or purchase a PS Store Card.What you'll pay to 'Station.PS5 + Astro Bot:$̶7̶2̶4̶.9̶5̶ $699👑 | PS5 Slim Disc:$̶7̶9̶9̶ $625 | PS5 Slim Digital:6̶7̶9̶ $549 | PS5 Pro $̶1̶,1̶9̶9̶ $1,049 | PS VR2: $649.95 | PS VR2 + Horizon: $1,099 | PS Portal: $329See itBack to topPurchase Cheap for PCOn PC, Resident Evil 4 is a steal at A$29.90, a stunning remake where the developers added extra charm to Leon’s famous “Where’s everyone going, bingo?” line by letting players unlock vintage filters that emulate 2005-era graphics. Also notable is Lies of P at A$76.40, the Pinocchio-meets-Bloodborne mash-up that lets you lie in dialogue choices for combat perks.Lies of P (-15%) - A$76.40The Alters (-30%) - A$35.60Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 (-18%) - A$57.30Silent Hill 2 (-40%) - A$61.50Forza Horizon 5 (-65%) - A$31.40Resident Evil 4 (-50%) - A$29.90Expiring Recent DealsOr just get a Steam Wallet CardPC Hardware PricesSlay your pile of shame.Official launch in NovSteam Deck 256GB LCD: $649 | Steam Deck 512GB OLED: $899 | Steam Deck 1TB OLED: $1,049See it at SteamLaptop DealsDesktop DealsLenovo neo 50a G5 27" AIO (-47%) – A$1,379Lenovo neo 50q G4 Tiny (-35%) – A$639Lenovo neo 50t G5 Tower (-20%) – A$871.20Legion Tower 5i G8 (-29%) – A$1,899Monitor DealsSamsung QE50T 50" (-31%) – A$596ARZOPA 16.1" 144Hz (-55%) – A$159.99Z-Edge 27" 240Hz (-15%) – A$237.99Gawfolk 34" WQHD (-28%) – A$359LG 27" Ultragear (-42%) – A$349Component DealsStorage DealsBack to topLegit LEGO DealsExpiring Recent DealsBack to topHot Headphones DealsAudiophilia for lessBose QuietComfort Ultra Wireless (-38%) – A$399.95Soundcore by Anker Q20i (-43%) – A$68.79Sony MDR7506 Professional (-30%) – A$169Technics Premium (-46%) – A$299Bose SoundLink Flex (-31%) – A$171JBL Charge 5 - Portable Speaker (-28%) – A$144JBL Flip Essential 2 Waterproof Speaker (-26%) – A$96Sony SRS-XB100 Travel Speaker (-41%) – A$84.15Ultimate Ears Boom 3 Portable Speaker (-41%) – A$134.95Samsung Galaxy Buds2 Pro (-26%) – A$259.29Sennheiser Momentum 4 Wireless (-46%) – A$275Back to topTerrific TV DealsDo right by your console, upgrade your tellyLG 43" UT80 4K (-24%) – A$635Kogan 65" QLED 4K (-50%) – A$699Kogan 55" QLED 4K (-45%) – A$549LG 55" UT80 4K (-28%) – A$866Prism+ Q75 Ultra 75" 4K QLED (-47%) – A$1,229Gaimoo Mini Projector 1080p w/ 4K (-33%) – A$119.99GooDee 4K Projector (-58%) – A$169.99VOPLLS Mini Projector 4K (-19%) – A$168.99XuanPad Mini Projector (-36%) – A$128.99LG S70TY Q Series Sound Barn*-22%) – A$546Sony HTG700 Atmos Soundbar (-15%) – A$594Yamaha NS-SW050 Subwoofer (-13%) – A$270Smart Home DealsBack to top Adam Mathew is our Aussie deals wrangler. He plays practically everything, often on YouTube.
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  • Too big, fail too

    Inside Apple’s high-gloss standoff with AI ambition and the uncanny choreography of WWDC 2025There was a time when watching an Apple keynote — like Steve Jobs introducing the iPhone in 2007, the masterclass of all masterclasses in product launching — felt like watching a tightrope act. There was suspense. Live demos happened — sometimes they failed, and when they didn’t, the applause was real, not piped through a Dolby mix.These days, that tension is gone. Since 2020, in the wake of the pandemic, Apple events have become pre-recorded masterworks: drone shots sweeping over Apple Park, transitions smoother than a Pixar short, and executives delivering their lines like odd, IRL spatial personas. They move like human renderings: poised, confident, and just robotic enough to raise a brow. The kind of people who, if encountered in real life, would probably light up half a dozen red flags before a handshake is even offered. A case in point: the official “Liquid Glass” UI demo — it’s visually stunning, yes, but also uncanny, like a concept reel that forgot it needed to ship. that’s the paradox. Not only has Apple trimmed down the content of WWDC, it’s also polished the delivery into something almost inhumanly controlled. Every keynote beat feels engineered to avoid risk, reduce friction, and glide past doubt. But in doing so, something vital slips away: the tension, the spontaneity, the sense that the future is being made, not just performed.Just one year earlier, WWDC 2024 opened with a cinematic cold open “somewhere over California”: Schiller piloting an Apple-branded plane, iPod in hand, muttering “I’m getting too old for this stuff.” A perfect mix of Lethal Weapon camp and a winking message that yes, Classic-Apple was still at the controls — literally — flying its senior leadership straight toward Cupertino. Out the hatch, like high-altitude paratroopers of optimism, leapt the entire exec team, with Craig Federighi, always the go-to for Apple’s auto-ironic set pieces, leading the charge, donning a helmet literally resembling his own legendary mane. It was peak-bold, bizarre, and unmistakably Apple. That intro now reads like the final act of full-throttle confidence.This year’s WWDC offered a particularly crisp contrast. Aside from the new intro — which features Craig Federighi drifting an F1-style race car across the inner rooftop ring of Apple Park as a “therapy session”, a not-so-subtle nod to the upcoming Formula 1 blockbuster but also to the accountability for the failure to deliver the system-wide AI on time — WWDC 2025 pulled back dramatically. The new “Apple Intelligence” was introduced in a keynote with zero stumbles, zero awkward transitions, and visuals so pristine they could have been rendered on a Vision Pro. Not only had the scope of WWDC been trimmed down to safer talking points, but even the tone had shifted — less like a tech summit, more like a handsomely lit containment-mode seminar. And that, perhaps, was the problem. The presentation wasn’t a reveal — it was a performance. And performances can be edited in post. Demos can’t.So when Apple in march 2025 quietly admitted, for the first time, in a formal press release addressed to reporters like John Gruber, that the personalized Siri and system-wide AI features would be delayed — the reaction wasn’t outrage. It was something subtler: disillusionment. Gruber’s response cracked the façade wide open. His post opened a slow but persistent wave of unease, rippling through developer Slack channels and private comment threads alike. John Gruber’s reaction, published under the headline “Something is rotten in the State of Cupertino”, was devastating. His critique opened the floodgates to a wave of murmurs and public unease among developers and insiders, many of whom had begun to question what was really happening at the helm of key divisions central to Apple’s future.Many still believe Apple is the only company truly capable of pulling off hardware-software integrated AI at scale. But there’s a sense that the company is now operating in damage-control mode. The delay didn’t just push back a feature — it disrupted the entire strategic arc of WWDC 2025. What could have been a milestone in system-level AI became a cautious sidestep, repackaged through visual polish and feature tweaks. The result: a presentation focused on UI refinements and safe bets, far removed from the sweeping revolution that had been teased as the main selling point for promoting the iPhone 16 launch, “Built for Apple Intelligence”.That tension surfaced during Joanna Stern’s recent live interview with Craig Federighi and Greg Joswiak. These are two of Apple’s most media-savvy execs, and yet, in a setting where questions weren’t scripted, you could see the seams. Their usual fluency gave way to something stiffer. More careful. Less certain. And even the absences speak volumes: for the first time in a decade, no one from Apple’s top team joined John Gruber’s Talk Show at WWDC. It wasn’t a scheduling fluke — nor a petty retaliation for Gruber’s damning March article. It was a retreat — one that Stratechery’s Ben Thompson described as exactly that: a strategic fallback, not a brave reset.Meanwhile, the keynote narrative quietly shifted from AI ambition to UI innovation: new visual effects, tighter integration, call screening. Credit here goes to Alan Dye — Apple VP of Human Interface Design and one of the last remaining members of Jony Ive’s inner circle not yet absorbed into LoveFrom — whose long-arc work on interface aesthetics, from the early stages of the Dynamic Island onward, is finally starting to click into place. This is classic Apple: refinement as substance, design as coherence. But it was meant to be the cherry on top of a much deeper AI-system transformation — not the whole sundae. All useful. All safe. And yet, the thing that Apple could uniquely deliver — a seamless, deeply integrated, user-controlled and privacy-safe Apple Intelligence — is now the thing it seems most reluctant to show.There is no doubt the groundwork has been laid. And to Apple’s credit, Jason Snell notes that the company is shifting gears, scaling ambitions to something that feels more tangible. But in scaling back the risk, something else has been scaled back too: the willingness to look your audience of stakeholders, developers and users live, in the eye, and show the future for how you have carefully crafted it and how you can put it in the market immediately, or in mere weeks. Showing things as they are, or as they will be very soon. Rehearsed, yes, but never faked.Even James Dyson’s live demo of a new vacuum showed more courage. No camera cuts. No soft lighting. Just a human being, showing a thing. It might have sucked, literally or figuratively. But it didn’t. And it stuck. That’s what feels missing in Cupertino.Some have started using the term glasslighting — a coined pun blending Apple’s signature glassy aesthetics with the soft manipulations of marketing, like a gentle fog of polished perfection that leaves expectations quietly disoriented. It’s not deception. It’s damage control. But that instinct, understandable as it is, doesn’t build momentum. It builds inertia. And inertia doesn’t sell intelligence. It only delays the reckoning.Before the curtain falls, it’s hard not to revisit the uncanny polish of Apple’s speakers presence. One might start to wonder whether Apple is really late on AI — or whether it’s simply developed such a hyper-advanced internal model that its leadership team has been replaced by real-time human avatars, flawlessly animated, fed directly by the Neural Engine. Not the constrained humanity of two floating eyes behind an Apple Vision headset, but full-on flawless embodiment — if this is Apple’s augmented AI at work, it may be the only undisclosed and underpromised demo actually shipping.OS30 live demoMeanwhile, just as Apple was soft-pedaling its A.I. story with maximum visual polish, a very different tone landed from across the bay: Sam Altman and Jony Ive, sitting in a bar, talking about the future. stage. No teleprompter. No uncanny valley. Just two “old friends”, with one hell of a budget, quietly sketching the next era of computing. A vision Apple once claimed effortlessly.There’s still the question of whether Apple, as many hope, can reclaim — and lock down — that leadership for itself. A healthy dose of competition, at the very least, can only help.Too big, fail too was originally published in UX Collective on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
    #too #big #fail
    Too big, fail too
    Inside Apple’s high-gloss standoff with AI ambition and the uncanny choreography of WWDC 2025There was a time when watching an Apple keynote — like Steve Jobs introducing the iPhone in 2007, the masterclass of all masterclasses in product launching — felt like watching a tightrope act. There was suspense. Live demos happened — sometimes they failed, and when they didn’t, the applause was real, not piped through a Dolby mix.These days, that tension is gone. Since 2020, in the wake of the pandemic, Apple events have become pre-recorded masterworks: drone shots sweeping over Apple Park, transitions smoother than a Pixar short, and executives delivering their lines like odd, IRL spatial personas. They move like human renderings: poised, confident, and just robotic enough to raise a brow. The kind of people who, if encountered in real life, would probably light up half a dozen red flags before a handshake is even offered. A case in point: the official “Liquid Glass” UI demo — it’s visually stunning, yes, but also uncanny, like a concept reel that forgot it needed to ship. that’s the paradox. Not only has Apple trimmed down the content of WWDC, it’s also polished the delivery into something almost inhumanly controlled. Every keynote beat feels engineered to avoid risk, reduce friction, and glide past doubt. But in doing so, something vital slips away: the tension, the spontaneity, the sense that the future is being made, not just performed.Just one year earlier, WWDC 2024 opened with a cinematic cold open “somewhere over California”: Schiller piloting an Apple-branded plane, iPod in hand, muttering “I’m getting too old for this stuff.” A perfect mix of Lethal Weapon camp and a winking message that yes, Classic-Apple was still at the controls — literally — flying its senior leadership straight toward Cupertino. Out the hatch, like high-altitude paratroopers of optimism, leapt the entire exec team, with Craig Federighi, always the go-to for Apple’s auto-ironic set pieces, leading the charge, donning a helmet literally resembling his own legendary mane. It was peak-bold, bizarre, and unmistakably Apple. That intro now reads like the final act of full-throttle confidence.This year’s WWDC offered a particularly crisp contrast. Aside from the new intro — which features Craig Federighi drifting an F1-style race car across the inner rooftop ring of Apple Park as a “therapy session”, a not-so-subtle nod to the upcoming Formula 1 blockbuster but also to the accountability for the failure to deliver the system-wide AI on time — WWDC 2025 pulled back dramatically. The new “Apple Intelligence” was introduced in a keynote with zero stumbles, zero awkward transitions, and visuals so pristine they could have been rendered on a Vision Pro. Not only had the scope of WWDC been trimmed down to safer talking points, but even the tone had shifted — less like a tech summit, more like a handsomely lit containment-mode seminar. And that, perhaps, was the problem. The presentation wasn’t a reveal — it was a performance. And performances can be edited in post. Demos can’t.So when Apple in march 2025 quietly admitted, for the first time, in a formal press release addressed to reporters like John Gruber, that the personalized Siri and system-wide AI features would be delayed — the reaction wasn’t outrage. It was something subtler: disillusionment. Gruber’s response cracked the façade wide open. His post opened a slow but persistent wave of unease, rippling through developer Slack channels and private comment threads alike. John Gruber’s reaction, published under the headline “Something is rotten in the State of Cupertino”, was devastating. His critique opened the floodgates to a wave of murmurs and public unease among developers and insiders, many of whom had begun to question what was really happening at the helm of key divisions central to Apple’s future.Many still believe Apple is the only company truly capable of pulling off hardware-software integrated AI at scale. But there’s a sense that the company is now operating in damage-control mode. The delay didn’t just push back a feature — it disrupted the entire strategic arc of WWDC 2025. What could have been a milestone in system-level AI became a cautious sidestep, repackaged through visual polish and feature tweaks. The result: a presentation focused on UI refinements and safe bets, far removed from the sweeping revolution that had been teased as the main selling point for promoting the iPhone 16 launch, “Built for Apple Intelligence”.That tension surfaced during Joanna Stern’s recent live interview with Craig Federighi and Greg Joswiak. These are two of Apple’s most media-savvy execs, and yet, in a setting where questions weren’t scripted, you could see the seams. Their usual fluency gave way to something stiffer. More careful. Less certain. And even the absences speak volumes: for the first time in a decade, no one from Apple’s top team joined John Gruber’s Talk Show at WWDC. It wasn’t a scheduling fluke — nor a petty retaliation for Gruber’s damning March article. It was a retreat — one that Stratechery’s Ben Thompson described as exactly that: a strategic fallback, not a brave reset.Meanwhile, the keynote narrative quietly shifted from AI ambition to UI innovation: new visual effects, tighter integration, call screening. Credit here goes to Alan Dye — Apple VP of Human Interface Design and one of the last remaining members of Jony Ive’s inner circle not yet absorbed into LoveFrom — whose long-arc work on interface aesthetics, from the early stages of the Dynamic Island onward, is finally starting to click into place. This is classic Apple: refinement as substance, design as coherence. But it was meant to be the cherry on top of a much deeper AI-system transformation — not the whole sundae. All useful. All safe. And yet, the thing that Apple could uniquely deliver — a seamless, deeply integrated, user-controlled and privacy-safe Apple Intelligence — is now the thing it seems most reluctant to show.There is no doubt the groundwork has been laid. And to Apple’s credit, Jason Snell notes that the company is shifting gears, scaling ambitions to something that feels more tangible. But in scaling back the risk, something else has been scaled back too: the willingness to look your audience of stakeholders, developers and users live, in the eye, and show the future for how you have carefully crafted it and how you can put it in the market immediately, or in mere weeks. Showing things as they are, or as they will be very soon. Rehearsed, yes, but never faked.Even James Dyson’s live demo of a new vacuum showed more courage. No camera cuts. No soft lighting. Just a human being, showing a thing. It might have sucked, literally or figuratively. But it didn’t. And it stuck. That’s what feels missing in Cupertino.Some have started using the term glasslighting — a coined pun blending Apple’s signature glassy aesthetics with the soft manipulations of marketing, like a gentle fog of polished perfection that leaves expectations quietly disoriented. It’s not deception. It’s damage control. But that instinct, understandable as it is, doesn’t build momentum. It builds inertia. And inertia doesn’t sell intelligence. It only delays the reckoning.Before the curtain falls, it’s hard not to revisit the uncanny polish of Apple’s speakers presence. One might start to wonder whether Apple is really late on AI — or whether it’s simply developed such a hyper-advanced internal model that its leadership team has been replaced by real-time human avatars, flawlessly animated, fed directly by the Neural Engine. Not the constrained humanity of two floating eyes behind an Apple Vision headset, but full-on flawless embodiment — if this is Apple’s augmented AI at work, it may be the only undisclosed and underpromised demo actually shipping.OS30 live demoMeanwhile, just as Apple was soft-pedaling its A.I. story with maximum visual polish, a very different tone landed from across the bay: Sam Altman and Jony Ive, sitting in a bar, talking about the future. stage. No teleprompter. No uncanny valley. Just two “old friends”, with one hell of a budget, quietly sketching the next era of computing. A vision Apple once claimed effortlessly.There’s still the question of whether Apple, as many hope, can reclaim — and lock down — that leadership for itself. A healthy dose of competition, at the very least, can only help.Too big, fail too was originally published in UX Collective on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story. #too #big #fail
    UXDESIGN.CC
    Too big, fail too
    Inside Apple’s high-gloss standoff with AI ambition and the uncanny choreography of WWDC 2025There was a time when watching an Apple keynote — like Steve Jobs introducing the iPhone in 2007, the masterclass of all masterclasses in product launching — felt like watching a tightrope act. There was suspense. Live demos happened — sometimes they failed, and when they didn’t, the applause was real, not piped through a Dolby mix.These days, that tension is gone. Since 2020, in the wake of the pandemic, Apple events have become pre-recorded masterworks: drone shots sweeping over Apple Park, transitions smoother than a Pixar short, and executives delivering their lines like odd, IRL spatial personas. They move like human renderings: poised, confident, and just robotic enough to raise a brow. The kind of people who, if encountered in real life, would probably light up half a dozen red flags before a handshake is even offered. A case in point: the official “Liquid Glass” UI demo — it’s visually stunning, yes, but also uncanny, like a concept reel that forgot it needed to ship.https://medium.com/media/fcb3b16cc42621ba32153aff80ea1805/hrefAnd that’s the paradox. Not only has Apple trimmed down the content of WWDC, it’s also polished the delivery into something almost inhumanly controlled. Every keynote beat feels engineered to avoid risk, reduce friction, and glide past doubt. But in doing so, something vital slips away: the tension, the spontaneity, the sense that the future is being made, not just performed.Just one year earlier, WWDC 2024 opened with a cinematic cold open “somewhere over California”:https://medium.com/media/f97f45387353363264d99c341d4571b0/hrefPhil Schiller piloting an Apple-branded plane, iPod in hand, muttering “I’m getting too old for this stuff.” A perfect mix of Lethal Weapon camp and a winking message that yes, Classic-Apple was still at the controls — literally — flying its senior leadership straight toward Cupertino. Out the hatch, like high-altitude paratroopers of optimism, leapt the entire exec team, with Craig Federighi, always the go-to for Apple’s auto-ironic set pieces, leading the charge, donning a helmet literally resembling his own legendary mane. It was peak-bold, bizarre, and unmistakably Apple. That intro now reads like the final act of full-throttle confidence.This year’s WWDC offered a particularly crisp contrast. Aside from the new intro — which features Craig Federighi drifting an F1-style race car across the inner rooftop ring of Apple Park as a “therapy session”, a not-so-subtle nod to the upcoming Formula 1 blockbuster but also to the accountability for the failure to deliver the system-wide AI on time — WWDC 2025 pulled back dramatically. The new “Apple Intelligence” was introduced in a keynote with zero stumbles, zero awkward transitions, and visuals so pristine they could have been rendered on a Vision Pro. Not only had the scope of WWDC been trimmed down to safer talking points, but even the tone had shifted — less like a tech summit, more like a handsomely lit containment-mode seminar. And that, perhaps, was the problem. The presentation wasn’t a reveal — it was a performance. And performances can be edited in post. Demos can’t.So when Apple in march 2025 quietly admitted, for the first time, in a formal press release addressed to reporters like John Gruber, that the personalized Siri and system-wide AI features would be delayed — the reaction wasn’t outrage. It was something subtler: disillusionment. Gruber’s response cracked the façade wide open. His post opened a slow but persistent wave of unease, rippling through developer Slack channels and private comment threads alike. John Gruber’s reaction, published under the headline “Something is rotten in the State of Cupertino”, was devastating. His critique opened the floodgates to a wave of murmurs and public unease among developers and insiders, many of whom had begun to question what was really happening at the helm of key divisions central to Apple’s future.Many still believe Apple is the only company truly capable of pulling off hardware-software integrated AI at scale. But there’s a sense that the company is now operating in damage-control mode. The delay didn’t just push back a feature — it disrupted the entire strategic arc of WWDC 2025. What could have been a milestone in system-level AI became a cautious sidestep, repackaged through visual polish and feature tweaks. The result: a presentation focused on UI refinements and safe bets, far removed from the sweeping revolution that had been teased as the main selling point for promoting the iPhone 16 launch, “Built for Apple Intelligence”.That tension surfaced during Joanna Stern’s recent live interview with Craig Federighi and Greg Joswiak. These are two of Apple’s most media-savvy execs, and yet, in a setting where questions weren’t scripted, you could see the seams. Their usual fluency gave way to something stiffer. More careful. Less certain. And even the absences speak volumes: for the first time in a decade, no one from Apple’s top team joined John Gruber’s Talk Show at WWDC. It wasn’t a scheduling fluke — nor a petty retaliation for Gruber’s damning March article. It was a retreat — one that Stratechery’s Ben Thompson described as exactly that: a strategic fallback, not a brave reset.Meanwhile, the keynote narrative quietly shifted from AI ambition to UI innovation: new visual effects, tighter integration, call screening. Credit here goes to Alan Dye — Apple VP of Human Interface Design and one of the last remaining members of Jony Ive’s inner circle not yet absorbed into LoveFrom — whose long-arc work on interface aesthetics, from the early stages of the Dynamic Island onward, is finally starting to click into place. This is classic Apple: refinement as substance, design as coherence. But it was meant to be the cherry on top of a much deeper AI-system transformation — not the whole sundae. All useful. All safe. And yet, the thing that Apple could uniquely deliver — a seamless, deeply integrated, user-controlled and privacy-safe Apple Intelligence — is now the thing it seems most reluctant to show.There is no doubt the groundwork has been laid. And to Apple’s credit, Jason Snell notes that the company is shifting gears, scaling ambitions to something that feels more tangible. But in scaling back the risk, something else has been scaled back too: the willingness to look your audience of stakeholders, developers and users live, in the eye, and show the future for how you have carefully crafted it and how you can put it in the market immediately, or in mere weeks. Showing things as they are, or as they will be very soon. Rehearsed, yes, but never faked.Even James Dyson’s live demo of a new vacuum showed more courage. No camera cuts. No soft lighting. Just a human being, showing a thing. It might have sucked, literally or figuratively. But it didn’t. And it stuck. That’s what feels missing in Cupertino.Some have started using the term glasslighting — a coined pun blending Apple’s signature glassy aesthetics with the soft manipulations of marketing, like a gentle fog of polished perfection that leaves expectations quietly disoriented. It’s not deception. It’s damage control. But that instinct, understandable as it is, doesn’t build momentum. It builds inertia. And inertia doesn’t sell intelligence. It only delays the reckoning.Before the curtain falls, it’s hard not to revisit the uncanny polish of Apple’s speakers presence. One might start to wonder whether Apple is really late on AI — or whether it’s simply developed such a hyper-advanced internal model that its leadership team has been replaced by real-time human avatars, flawlessly animated, fed directly by the Neural Engine. Not the constrained humanity of two floating eyes behind an Apple Vision headset, but full-on flawless embodiment — if this is Apple’s augmented AI at work, it may be the only undisclosed and underpromised demo actually shipping.OS30 live demoMeanwhile, just as Apple was soft-pedaling its A.I. story with maximum visual polish, a very different tone landed from across the bay: Sam Altman and Jony Ive, sitting in a bar, talking about the future.https://medium.com/media/5cdea73d7fde0b538e038af1990afa44/hrefNo stage. No teleprompter. No uncanny valley. Just two “old friends”, with one hell of a budget, quietly sketching the next era of computing. A vision Apple once claimed effortlessly.There’s still the question of whether Apple, as many hope, can reclaim — and lock down — that leadership for itself. A healthy dose of competition, at the very least, can only help.Too big, fail too was originally published in UX Collective on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
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  • Best of Summer Game Fest 2025 trailers – Mortal Shell 2, Game Of Thrones and more

    Best of Summer Game Fest 2025 trailers – Mortal Shell 2, Game Of Thrones and more

    GameCentral

    Published June 7, 2025 3:33am

    Updated June 7, 2025 7:01am

    The Resident Evil and friends showWatch all the most interesting trailers from the biggest summer preview event of the year, including Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds, Code Vein 2, and Wu-Tang: Rise Of The Deceiver.
    You never know what you’re going to get with Summer Game Fest, the would-be replacement for E3 hosted by The Games Awards creator Geoff Keighley. Some years there’s tons of big name reveals and some years it’s mostly just AA and indie titles. This is one of those years.
    That doesn’t mean there was nothing of interest, but the mic drop reveal at the end of the two hour long show was Resident Evil Requiem, and it was by far the biggest game to be featured.
    Despite being only a day after the Nintendo Switch 2 launch, and Nintendo registered as a partner, the only time the console was even mentioned was a brief ad for Cyberpunk 2077: Ultimate Edition. Although that does probably increase the chances of a Nintendo Direct later in the month.
    There were a few notable trends for the games at this year’s Summer Game Fest: a lot of Soulslike titles with dark grey visuals, a lot of anime games, and plenty of live service titles still trying their luck at hitting the big time. So, if the thought of that doesn’t appeal you may find the pickings relatively thin. Although there’s also Jurassic World Evolution 3 and the Deadpool VR game if you fancy something different.
    Mortal Shell 2

    Expert, exclusive gaming analysis

    Sign up to the GameCentral newsletter for a unique take on the week in gaming, alongside the latest reviews and more. Delivered to your inbox every Saturday morning.

    The first annoucement was Mortal Shell 2, a sequel to the 2020 Dark Souls clone that is still one of our favourite Soulslikes not made by FromSoftware. Developed by a mere 30-man teamthe sequel seems to be going for a more overt horror atmosphere, while there was a lot more gun combat than usual for the genre. It’s out sometime in 2026.
    Death Stranding 2: On The Beach
    It’s never a surprise to see Hideo Kojima at a Geoff Keighley event but the cut scene he decided to show for Death Stranding 2 was not exactly the most enthralling. It featured Luca Marinelli as Neil and his real-life wife Alyssa Jung as therapist Lucy, arguing about the fact that he’s forgotten who she is. Neil is apparently the villain of the piece, and the one dressed up in Solid Snake cosplay in some of the previous images. The game itself is out in just a few weeks, on June 26.
    Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds
    Sega had a strange little dig at Mario Kart World during their reveal of Sonic’s latest kart racer, pointing out that it has cross-play… even though Mario Kart is obviously only on Nintendo formats. The game looked good, but the focus of the demonstration was crossover characters from other games, including Hatsune Miku, Ichiban Kasuga from Like A Dragon, Joker from Persona 5, and Steve from Minecraft. The game will be released on September 25 for every format imaginable.
    Code Vein 2
    We’re really not sure the art style in this unexpected sequel to the 2019 Soulslike works very well, with its anime characters and realistic backdrops, but at least it’s something a bit different. The original didn’t seem quite successful enough to justify a follow-up, but the action looks good and at least it’s one Soulslike that’s not copying FromSoftware’s visuals as well as its gameplay. It’ll be released for Xbox Series X, PlayStation 5, and PC sometime next year.
    Game Of Thrones: War For Westeros
    It does seem madness that there’s never been a console action game based on Game Of Thrones. There still isn’t, but at least this real-time strategy game isn’t just some seedy mobile title. Unfortunately, the pre-rendered trailer never showed a hint of any gameplay, so there’s no clue as to what it’s actually like, but apparently it involves ‘ruthless free-for-all battles where trust is fleeting and power is everything’. It’s out next year and seems to be PC-only, which is a shame as it could have worked as a spiritual sequel to EA’s old Lord Of The Rings real-time strategies.
    Onimusha: Way Of The Sword
    It’s been a very busy week for Capcom this week, with Pragmata re-unveiled at the State of Play on Wednesday and Resident Evil Requiem being the big reveal at the end of Summer Game Fest. But we also got a new gameplay trailer for the reboot of Onimusha, which looks extremely pretty and continued the series’ tradition of not even trying to have anyone sound like they’re actually from Japan. There’s no release date yet, but it’s out next year on Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 5, and PC.
    Felt That: Boxing
    One of the strangest reveals of the show was what seems to be a Muppet version of Punch-Out!!, with the potty-mouthed puppets taking part in what also probably counts as a homage to Rocky. The gameplay does seem almost identical to Nintendo’s old boxing game but hopefully there’s a bit more to it than that. The game doesn’t have a release date and is currently scheduled only for PC.
    ARC Raiders
    Expected to be the next big thing in online shooters, the only thing ARC Raiders has been missing is a release date, but it finally got that at Summer Game Fest. It’ll be out on October 30 for Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 5, and PC, which is interesting because that’s right around the time you’d expect this year’s Call Of Duty to come out – and the new Battlefield, if EA launches it this year. ARC Raiders’ strong word of mouth gives it a head start though, which could make for an interesting autumn shootout.
    Out Of Words
    When we interviewed Jospeh Fares about Split Fiction, we asked him why he thought no one had ever tried to copy his games, despite their huge success. He didn’t know but finally another developer seems to have wondered the same thing and Out Of Words does look very reminiscent of It Takes Two in particular. The hand-crafted, stop motion visuals are neat though and it’s definitely one to watch, even if it doesn’t have a release date yet.
    Lego Voyagers
    Another game taking inspiration from Split Fiction, at least in the sense that it has a friend pass that means only one person has to own a copy of the game to play online co-op. It’s by the creators of the very good Lego Builder’s Journey and rather than being based on Lego licensed sets, or any other established toy line, it’s all about solving puzzles by building Lego structures. If it’s as good as Lego Builder’s Journey it’ll be doing very well indeed, although there’s no release date yet.
    Mixtape
    Between South Of Midnight and The Midnight Walk, and Out Of Words, stop motion animation Is suddenly very popular for video games. The art style in this new game from Annapurna was notably different though, and while we’re not entirely sure what’s going on in terms of the gameplay the 80s soundtrack sounds like it’ll be the best thing since GTA: Vice City.
    Acts Of Blood
    Made by just nine people in Indonesia, this very bloody looking beat ‘em-up looked extremely impressive, and also very reminiscent of the violence in Oldboy. We didn’t quite gather what was going on in terms of the story but we’re sure revenge has something to do with it, as you beat down hordes of goons and get a Mortal Kombat style view of an opponent’s skeleton, when you manage to put a big enough dent in it. It’ll be out on PC next summer.
    Scott Pilgrim EX
    We can’t say we’ve ever been fans of Scott Pilgrim, either the comics or the film, but the 2D graphics for this new scrolling beat ‘em-up look gorgeous. It’s clearly intended as follow-up to Ubisoft’s film tie-in from 2010, which was well received by many, and is by the same team behind Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge and Marvel Cosmic Invasion. It’ll be out on current and last gen consoles and PC next year.
    Hitman: World of Assassination
    Although 007 First Light did get a quick name check on stage, developer and publisher IO Interactive instead spent their time talking about Agent 47 in MindsEye and Mads Mikkelsen in Hitman: World of Assassination. He’ll be reprising the role of Le Chiffre as the latest elusive target in the game – a special character, usually played by a famous actor, that is only available to assassinate for 30 days, starting from today. That’s neat but it’s also interesting that it implied IO has a considerable amount of leeway with the Bond licence and what they can do with it.
    Lego Party!
    The other Lego game to be unveiled was an outrageously obvious clone of Mario Party, only with 300 different minifigures instead of the Mushroom Kingdom crew. These can be rearranged in trillions of different combinations, in order to compete for stars golden bricks and play 60 different mini-games. We’re big fans of Mario Partyso if this manages to be as fun as Nintendo’s games then we’re all for it. It’ll be release for both consoles and PC this year.
    Blighted
    A new game from Drinkbox Studios, makers of Guacamelee! and Nobody Saves The World is immediately of interest but this Diablo-esque role-player looks a bit more serious and horror tinged than their previous games. It also seems to be channelling Hades creator Supergiant Games, none of which is a bad thing. Whether it’s a Metroidvania or not isn’t clear but at certainly points in the trailer it definitely seems to have co-op. It’s not certain which formats it’s coming to but it’s out on PC next year.
    Infinitesimals
    A lot of people are probably going to compare this to online survival game Grounded, but the plot makes it sound like a more serious version of Pikmin, with aliens visiting Earth and battling with both insects and some sort of mechanical robot menace, as you search for your lost crew. It’s out for consoles and PC next year and while there’s very little concrete information on the gameplay the visuals certainly look impressive.
    Wu-Tang: Rise Of The Deceiver
    Whether you care about the Wu-Tang Clan or not this had some of the nicest visuals of any game at the show. They seemed fairly obviously influenced by the Into The Spider-Verse movies, but that’s no bad thing, and we’re only surprised that hasn’t happened before. The idea of a Wu-Tan action role-playing game was leaked quite a while ago, where it was described as Diablo meets Hi-Fi Rush, which does seem to fit with what you see in the trailer. There’s no release date so far.
    Into The Unwell
    There were a lot of great looking games at the show, but this might have been our favourite, with its 40s style animation reminiscent of a 3D Cuphead. It’s a bit hard to tell exactly what’s going on with the story but you seem to be playing an alcohol abusing cartoon character who’s been tricked by the Devil into… taking part in a third person action roguelite, that also has three-player co-op. There’s no release date but if it looks as good as it plays it’ll be doing very well indeed.
    Stranger than Heaven
    The final reveal before Resident Evil Requiem was what was previously codenamed Project Century and while it looks like a Yakuza spin-off it’s not actually part of the franchise, even though it’s by the same developer. Sega didn’t explain much, but when the game was first introduced it was set in Japan in 1915 and yet this trailer is set in 1943.

    More Trending

    Given the codename that probably implies you’re playing in multiple time periods across the whole century. There was no mention of formats or a release date though, so it’s probably still quite a while away from release.

    Resident Evil Requiem was the biggest news of the nightEmail gamecentral@metro.co.uk, leave a comment below, follow us on Twitter.
    To submit Inbox letters and Reader’s Features more easily, without the need to send an email, just use our Submit Stuff page here.
    For more stories like this, check our Gaming page.

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    #best #summer #game #fest #trailers
    Best of Summer Game Fest 2025 trailers – Mortal Shell 2, Game Of Thrones and more
    Best of Summer Game Fest 2025 trailers – Mortal Shell 2, Game Of Thrones and more GameCentral Published June 7, 2025 3:33am Updated June 7, 2025 7:01am The Resident Evil and friends showWatch all the most interesting trailers from the biggest summer preview event of the year, including Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds, Code Vein 2, and Wu-Tang: Rise Of The Deceiver. You never know what you’re going to get with Summer Game Fest, the would-be replacement for E3 hosted by The Games Awards creator Geoff Keighley. Some years there’s tons of big name reveals and some years it’s mostly just AA and indie titles. This is one of those years. That doesn’t mean there was nothing of interest, but the mic drop reveal at the end of the two hour long show was Resident Evil Requiem, and it was by far the biggest game to be featured. Despite being only a day after the Nintendo Switch 2 launch, and Nintendo registered as a partner, the only time the console was even mentioned was a brief ad for Cyberpunk 2077: Ultimate Edition. Although that does probably increase the chances of a Nintendo Direct later in the month. There were a few notable trends for the games at this year’s Summer Game Fest: a lot of Soulslike titles with dark grey visuals, a lot of anime games, and plenty of live service titles still trying their luck at hitting the big time. So, if the thought of that doesn’t appeal you may find the pickings relatively thin. Although there’s also Jurassic World Evolution 3 and the Deadpool VR game if you fancy something different. Mortal Shell 2 Expert, exclusive gaming analysis Sign up to the GameCentral newsletter for a unique take on the week in gaming, alongside the latest reviews and more. Delivered to your inbox every Saturday morning. The first annoucement was Mortal Shell 2, a sequel to the 2020 Dark Souls clone that is still one of our favourite Soulslikes not made by FromSoftware. Developed by a mere 30-man teamthe sequel seems to be going for a more overt horror atmosphere, while there was a lot more gun combat than usual for the genre. It’s out sometime in 2026. Death Stranding 2: On The Beach It’s never a surprise to see Hideo Kojima at a Geoff Keighley event but the cut scene he decided to show for Death Stranding 2 was not exactly the most enthralling. It featured Luca Marinelli as Neil and his real-life wife Alyssa Jung as therapist Lucy, arguing about the fact that he’s forgotten who she is. Neil is apparently the villain of the piece, and the one dressed up in Solid Snake cosplay in some of the previous images. The game itself is out in just a few weeks, on June 26. Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds Sega had a strange little dig at Mario Kart World during their reveal of Sonic’s latest kart racer, pointing out that it has cross-play… even though Mario Kart is obviously only on Nintendo formats. The game looked good, but the focus of the demonstration was crossover characters from other games, including Hatsune Miku, Ichiban Kasuga from Like A Dragon, Joker from Persona 5, and Steve from Minecraft. The game will be released on September 25 for every format imaginable. Code Vein 2 We’re really not sure the art style in this unexpected sequel to the 2019 Soulslike works very well, with its anime characters and realistic backdrops, but at least it’s something a bit different. The original didn’t seem quite successful enough to justify a follow-up, but the action looks good and at least it’s one Soulslike that’s not copying FromSoftware’s visuals as well as its gameplay. It’ll be released for Xbox Series X, PlayStation 5, and PC sometime next year. Game Of Thrones: War For Westeros It does seem madness that there’s never been a console action game based on Game Of Thrones. There still isn’t, but at least this real-time strategy game isn’t just some seedy mobile title. Unfortunately, the pre-rendered trailer never showed a hint of any gameplay, so there’s no clue as to what it’s actually like, but apparently it involves ‘ruthless free-for-all battles where trust is fleeting and power is everything’. It’s out next year and seems to be PC-only, which is a shame as it could have worked as a spiritual sequel to EA’s old Lord Of The Rings real-time strategies. Onimusha: Way Of The Sword It’s been a very busy week for Capcom this week, with Pragmata re-unveiled at the State of Play on Wednesday and Resident Evil Requiem being the big reveal at the end of Summer Game Fest. But we also got a new gameplay trailer for the reboot of Onimusha, which looks extremely pretty and continued the series’ tradition of not even trying to have anyone sound like they’re actually from Japan. There’s no release date yet, but it’s out next year on Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 5, and PC. Felt That: Boxing One of the strangest reveals of the show was what seems to be a Muppet version of Punch-Out!!, with the potty-mouthed puppets taking part in what also probably counts as a homage to Rocky. The gameplay does seem almost identical to Nintendo’s old boxing game but hopefully there’s a bit more to it than that. The game doesn’t have a release date and is currently scheduled only for PC. ARC Raiders Expected to be the next big thing in online shooters, the only thing ARC Raiders has been missing is a release date, but it finally got that at Summer Game Fest. It’ll be out on October 30 for Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 5, and PC, which is interesting because that’s right around the time you’d expect this year’s Call Of Duty to come out – and the new Battlefield, if EA launches it this year. ARC Raiders’ strong word of mouth gives it a head start though, which could make for an interesting autumn shootout. Out Of Words When we interviewed Jospeh Fares about Split Fiction, we asked him why he thought no one had ever tried to copy his games, despite their huge success. He didn’t know but finally another developer seems to have wondered the same thing and Out Of Words does look very reminiscent of It Takes Two in particular. The hand-crafted, stop motion visuals are neat though and it’s definitely one to watch, even if it doesn’t have a release date yet. Lego Voyagers Another game taking inspiration from Split Fiction, at least in the sense that it has a friend pass that means only one person has to own a copy of the game to play online co-op. It’s by the creators of the very good Lego Builder’s Journey and rather than being based on Lego licensed sets, or any other established toy line, it’s all about solving puzzles by building Lego structures. If it’s as good as Lego Builder’s Journey it’ll be doing very well indeed, although there’s no release date yet. Mixtape Between South Of Midnight and The Midnight Walk, and Out Of Words, stop motion animation Is suddenly very popular for video games. The art style in this new game from Annapurna was notably different though, and while we’re not entirely sure what’s going on in terms of the gameplay the 80s soundtrack sounds like it’ll be the best thing since GTA: Vice City. Acts Of Blood Made by just nine people in Indonesia, this very bloody looking beat ‘em-up looked extremely impressive, and also very reminiscent of the violence in Oldboy. We didn’t quite gather what was going on in terms of the story but we’re sure revenge has something to do with it, as you beat down hordes of goons and get a Mortal Kombat style view of an opponent’s skeleton, when you manage to put a big enough dent in it. It’ll be out on PC next summer. Scott Pilgrim EX We can’t say we’ve ever been fans of Scott Pilgrim, either the comics or the film, but the 2D graphics for this new scrolling beat ‘em-up look gorgeous. It’s clearly intended as follow-up to Ubisoft’s film tie-in from 2010, which was well received by many, and is by the same team behind Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge and Marvel Cosmic Invasion. It’ll be out on current and last gen consoles and PC next year. Hitman: World of Assassination Although 007 First Light did get a quick name check on stage, developer and publisher IO Interactive instead spent their time talking about Agent 47 in MindsEye and Mads Mikkelsen in Hitman: World of Assassination. He’ll be reprising the role of Le Chiffre as the latest elusive target in the game – a special character, usually played by a famous actor, that is only available to assassinate for 30 days, starting from today. That’s neat but it’s also interesting that it implied IO has a considerable amount of leeway with the Bond licence and what they can do with it. Lego Party! The other Lego game to be unveiled was an outrageously obvious clone of Mario Party, only with 300 different minifigures instead of the Mushroom Kingdom crew. These can be rearranged in trillions of different combinations, in order to compete for stars golden bricks and play 60 different mini-games. We’re big fans of Mario Partyso if this manages to be as fun as Nintendo’s games then we’re all for it. It’ll be release for both consoles and PC this year. Blighted A new game from Drinkbox Studios, makers of Guacamelee! and Nobody Saves The World is immediately of interest but this Diablo-esque role-player looks a bit more serious and horror tinged than their previous games. It also seems to be channelling Hades creator Supergiant Games, none of which is a bad thing. Whether it’s a Metroidvania or not isn’t clear but at certainly points in the trailer it definitely seems to have co-op. It’s not certain which formats it’s coming to but it’s out on PC next year. Infinitesimals A lot of people are probably going to compare this to online survival game Grounded, but the plot makes it sound like a more serious version of Pikmin, with aliens visiting Earth and battling with both insects and some sort of mechanical robot menace, as you search for your lost crew. It’s out for consoles and PC next year and while there’s very little concrete information on the gameplay the visuals certainly look impressive. Wu-Tang: Rise Of The Deceiver Whether you care about the Wu-Tang Clan or not this had some of the nicest visuals of any game at the show. They seemed fairly obviously influenced by the Into The Spider-Verse movies, but that’s no bad thing, and we’re only surprised that hasn’t happened before. The idea of a Wu-Tan action role-playing game was leaked quite a while ago, where it was described as Diablo meets Hi-Fi Rush, which does seem to fit with what you see in the trailer. There’s no release date so far. Into The Unwell There were a lot of great looking games at the show, but this might have been our favourite, with its 40s style animation reminiscent of a 3D Cuphead. It’s a bit hard to tell exactly what’s going on with the story but you seem to be playing an alcohol abusing cartoon character who’s been tricked by the Devil into… taking part in a third person action roguelite, that also has three-player co-op. There’s no release date but if it looks as good as it plays it’ll be doing very well indeed. Stranger than Heaven The final reveal before Resident Evil Requiem was what was previously codenamed Project Century and while it looks like a Yakuza spin-off it’s not actually part of the franchise, even though it’s by the same developer. Sega didn’t explain much, but when the game was first introduced it was set in Japan in 1915 and yet this trailer is set in 1943. More Trending Given the codename that probably implies you’re playing in multiple time periods across the whole century. There was no mention of formats or a release date though, so it’s probably still quite a while away from release. Resident Evil Requiem was the biggest news of the nightEmail gamecentral@metro.co.uk, leave a comment below, follow us on Twitter. To submit Inbox letters and Reader’s Features more easily, without the need to send an email, just use our Submit Stuff page here. For more stories like this, check our Gaming page. GameCentral Sign up for exclusive analysis, latest releases, and bonus community content. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. Your information will be used in line with our Privacy Policy #best #summer #game #fest #trailers
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    Best of Summer Game Fest 2025 trailers – Mortal Shell 2, Game Of Thrones and more
    Best of Summer Game Fest 2025 trailers – Mortal Shell 2, Game Of Thrones and more GameCentral Published June 7, 2025 3:33am Updated June 7, 2025 7:01am The Resident Evil and friends show (YouTube) Watch all the most interesting trailers from the biggest summer preview event of the year, including Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds, Code Vein 2, and Wu-Tang: Rise Of The Deceiver. You never know what you’re going to get with Summer Game Fest, the would-be replacement for E3 hosted by The Games Awards creator Geoff Keighley. Some years there’s tons of big name reveals and some years it’s mostly just AA and indie titles. This is one of those years. That doesn’t mean there was nothing of interest, but the mic drop reveal at the end of the two hour long show was Resident Evil Requiem, and it was by far the biggest game to be featured. Despite being only a day after the Nintendo Switch 2 launch, and Nintendo registered as a partner, the only time the console was even mentioned was a brief ad for Cyberpunk 2077: Ultimate Edition. Although that does probably increase the chances of a Nintendo Direct later in the month. There were a few notable trends for the games at this year’s Summer Game Fest: a lot of Soulslike titles with dark grey visuals, a lot of anime games, and plenty of live service titles still trying their luck at hitting the big time. So, if the thought of that doesn’t appeal you may find the pickings relatively thin. Although there’s also Jurassic World Evolution 3 and the Deadpool VR game if you fancy something different. Mortal Shell 2 Expert, exclusive gaming analysis Sign up to the GameCentral newsletter for a unique take on the week in gaming, alongside the latest reviews and more. Delivered to your inbox every Saturday morning. The first annoucement was Mortal Shell 2, a sequel to the 2020 Dark Souls clone that is still one of our favourite Soulslikes not made by FromSoftware. Developed by a mere 30-man team (Keighley was keen to highlight that many of the games were by surprisingly small developers) the sequel seems to be going for a more overt horror atmosphere, while there was a lot more gun combat than usual for the genre. It’s out sometime in 2026. Death Stranding 2: On The Beach It’s never a surprise to see Hideo Kojima at a Geoff Keighley event but the cut scene he decided to show for Death Stranding 2 was not exactly the most enthralling. It featured Luca Marinelli as Neil and his real-life wife Alyssa Jung as therapist Lucy, arguing about the fact that he’s forgotten who she is. Neil is apparently the villain of the piece, and the one dressed up in Solid Snake cosplay in some of the previous images. The game itself is out in just a few weeks, on June 26. Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds Sega had a strange little dig at Mario Kart World during their reveal of Sonic’s latest kart racer, pointing out that it has cross-play… even though Mario Kart is obviously only on Nintendo formats. The game looked good, but the focus of the demonstration was crossover characters from other games, including Hatsune Miku, Ichiban Kasuga from Like A Dragon, Joker from Persona 5, and Steve from Minecraft. The game will be released on September 25 for every format imaginable. Code Vein 2 We’re really not sure the art style in this unexpected sequel to the 2019 Soulslike works very well, with its anime characters and realistic backdrops, but at least it’s something a bit different. The original didn’t seem quite successful enough to justify a follow-up, but the action looks good and at least it’s one Soulslike that’s not copying FromSoftware’s visuals as well as its gameplay. It’ll be released for Xbox Series X, PlayStation 5, and PC sometime next year. Game Of Thrones: War For Westeros It does seem madness that there’s never been a console action game based on Game Of Thrones. There still isn’t, but at least this real-time strategy game isn’t just some seedy mobile title. Unfortunately, the pre-rendered trailer never showed a hint of any gameplay, so there’s no clue as to what it’s actually like, but apparently it involves ‘ruthless free-for-all battles where trust is fleeting and power is everything’. It’s out next year and seems to be PC-only, which is a shame as it could have worked as a spiritual sequel to EA’s old Lord Of The Rings real-time strategies. Onimusha: Way Of The Sword It’s been a very busy week for Capcom this week, with Pragmata re-unveiled at the State of Play on Wednesday and Resident Evil Requiem being the big reveal at the end of Summer Game Fest. But we also got a new gameplay trailer for the reboot of Onimusha, which looks extremely pretty and continued the series’ tradition of not even trying to have anyone sound like they’re actually from Japan (like Resident Evil, the originals only had English voiceovers). There’s no release date yet, but it’s out next year on Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 5, and PC. Felt That: Boxing One of the strangest reveals of the show was what seems to be a Muppet version of Punch-Out!!, with the potty-mouthed puppets taking part in what also probably counts as a homage to Rocky. The gameplay does seem almost identical to Nintendo’s old boxing game but hopefully there’s a bit more to it than that. The game doesn’t have a release date and is currently scheduled only for PC. ARC Raiders Expected to be the next big thing in online shooters, the only thing ARC Raiders has been missing is a release date, but it finally got that at Summer Game Fest. It’ll be out on October 30 for Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 5, and PC, which is interesting because that’s right around the time you’d expect this year’s Call Of Duty to come out – and the new Battlefield, if EA launches it this year. ARC Raiders’ strong word of mouth gives it a head start though, which could make for an interesting autumn shootout. Out Of Words When we interviewed Jospeh Fares about Split Fiction, we asked him why he thought no one had ever tried to copy his games, despite their huge success. He didn’t know but finally another developer seems to have wondered the same thing and Out Of Words does look very reminiscent of It Takes Two in particular. The hand-crafted, stop motion visuals are neat though and it’s definitely one to watch, even if it doesn’t have a release date yet. Lego Voyagers Another game taking inspiration from Split Fiction, at least in the sense that it has a friend pass that means only one person has to own a copy of the game to play online co-op. It’s by the creators of the very good Lego Builder’s Journey and rather than being based on Lego licensed sets, or any other established toy line, it’s all about solving puzzles by building Lego structures. If it’s as good as Lego Builder’s Journey it’ll be doing very well indeed, although there’s no release date yet. Mixtape Between South Of Midnight and The Midnight Walk, and Out Of Words, stop motion animation Is suddenly very popular for video games. The art style in this new game from Annapurna was notably different though, and while we’re not entirely sure what’s going on in terms of the gameplay the 80s soundtrack sounds like it’ll be the best thing since GTA: Vice City. Acts Of Blood Made by just nine people in Indonesia, this very bloody looking beat ‘em-up looked extremely impressive, and also very reminiscent of the violence in Oldboy. We didn’t quite gather what was going on in terms of the story but we’re sure revenge has something to do with it, as you beat down hordes of goons and get a Mortal Kombat style view of an opponent’s skeleton, when you manage to put a big enough dent in it. It’ll be out on PC next summer. Scott Pilgrim EX We can’t say we’ve ever been fans of Scott Pilgrim, either the comics or the film, but the 2D graphics for this new scrolling beat ‘em-up look gorgeous. It’s clearly intended as follow-up to Ubisoft’s film tie-in from 2010, which was well received by many, and is by the same team behind Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge and Marvel Cosmic Invasion (which was also at Summer Game Fest and announced Rocket Racoon and She-Hulk as characters). It’ll be out on current and last gen consoles and PC next year. Hitman: World of Assassination Although 007 First Light did get a quick name check on stage, developer and publisher IO Interactive instead spent their time talking about Agent 47 in MindsEye and Mads Mikkelsen in Hitman: World of Assassination (aka Hitman 3). He’ll be reprising the role of Le Chiffre as the latest elusive target in the game – a special character, usually played by a famous actor, that is only available to assassinate for 30 days, starting from today. That’s neat but it’s also interesting that it implied IO has a considerable amount of leeway with the Bond licence and what they can do with it. Lego Party! The other Lego game to be unveiled was an outrageously obvious clone of Mario Party, only with 300 different minifigures instead of the Mushroom Kingdom crew. These can be rearranged in trillions of different combinations, in order to compete for stars golden bricks and play 60 different mini-games. We’re big fans of Mario Party (and Lego) so if this manages to be as fun as Nintendo’s games then we’re all for it. It’ll be release for both consoles and PC this year. Blighted A new game from Drinkbox Studios, makers of Guacamelee! and Nobody Saves The World is immediately of interest but this Diablo-esque role-player looks a bit more serious and horror tinged than their previous games. It also seems to be channelling Hades creator Supergiant Games, none of which is a bad thing. Whether it’s a Metroidvania or not isn’t clear but at certainly points in the trailer it definitely seems to have co-op. It’s not certain which formats it’s coming to but it’s out on PC next year. Infinitesimals A lot of people are probably going to compare this to online survival game Grounded, but the plot makes it sound like a more serious version of Pikmin, with aliens visiting Earth and battling with both insects and some sort of mechanical robot menace, as you search for your lost crew. It’s out for consoles and PC next year and while there’s very little concrete information on the gameplay the visuals certainly look impressive. Wu-Tang: Rise Of The Deceiver Whether you care about the Wu-Tang Clan or not this had some of the nicest visuals of any game at the show. They seemed fairly obviously influenced by the Into The Spider-Verse movies, but that’s no bad thing, and we’re only surprised that hasn’t happened before. The idea of a Wu-Tan action role-playing game was leaked quite a while ago, where it was described as Diablo meets Hi-Fi Rush, which does seem to fit with what you see in the trailer. There’s no release date so far. Into The Unwell There were a lot of great looking games at the show, but this might have been our favourite, with its 40s style animation reminiscent of a 3D Cuphead. It’s a bit hard to tell exactly what’s going on with the story but you seem to be playing an alcohol abusing cartoon character who’s been tricked by the Devil into… taking part in a third person action roguelite, that also has three-player co-op. There’s no release date but if it looks as good as it plays it’ll be doing very well indeed. Stranger than Heaven The final reveal before Resident Evil Requiem was what was previously codenamed Project Century and while it looks like a Yakuza spin-off it’s not actually part of the franchise, even though it’s by the same developer. Sega didn’t explain much, but when the game was first introduced it was set in Japan in 1915 and yet this trailer is set in 1943 (i.e. in the middle of the Second World War). More Trending Given the codename that probably implies you’re playing in multiple time periods across the whole century. There was no mention of formats or a release date though, so it’s probably still quite a while away from release. Resident Evil Requiem was the biggest news of the night (YouTube) Email gamecentral@metro.co.uk, leave a comment below, follow us on Twitter. To submit Inbox letters and Reader’s Features more easily, without the need to send an email, just use our Submit Stuff page here. For more stories like this, check our Gaming page. GameCentral Sign up for exclusive analysis, latest releases, and bonus community content. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. Your information will be used in line with our Privacy Policy
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  • Starmer and Reeves’ big planning idea? Trash nature and concrete it over

    I don’t know why, but it continues to astonish me just how foolish politicians can be – and how easily persuaded they are by really bad advice from smart but tin-eared advisers.
    In less than a year, Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves have squandered the gift of the huge majority won at last year’s General Election on one key issue after another: their response to the genocide in Gaza; wantonly cruel cuts in disability benefits; failing to find creative ways of taxing wealth; dealing with the water companies – and, now, on the new Planning and Infrastructure Bill.
    On 23 May 23, the Wildlife Trusts and the RSPBlaunched a devastating attack on Labour’s whole approach to streamlining the planning system through the Planning and Infrastructure Bill.Advertisement

    Part 3 of the bill will make it possible for developers to ignore existing environmental protections by paying money into a so-called ‘Nature Recovery Fund’, which will be used to pay for environmental projects elsewhere.
    Starmer and Reeves have gone out of their way, time after time, to claim that it’s these environmental safeguards that are responsible for delays and blockages in the planning process, even though they know this is completely untrue.
    According to the Wildlife Trusts, roughly 3 per cent of proposals for new housing are delayed for environmental reasons. As The Guardian reported: ‘the data from analysis of 17,433 planning appeals in England in 2024 found that newts were relevant in just 140planning appeals, and bats were relevant in 432.’
    ‘They pursue this path even though are no polls to show that this is what matters to Labour voters tempted by Reform’
    So what makes Starmer and Reeves both stupid and totally dishonest? By all accounts the rationale of their tin-eared advisers is to demonstrate to ‘Reform-friendly’ Labour voters that the environment is as unsafe in their hands as it would be in Nigel Farage’s. That economic growth is all that matters. That caring for the natural world is a middle-class self-indulgence. And that pouring as much concrete as possible is self-evidently the best way of achieving that growth.
    And they go on pursuing this ideological path even though there are no supporting polls to show that this is what really matters to Labour voters tempted by Reform’s populist bullshit.Advertisement

    So they lie. They dig in. They break promises left, right and centre, ready to die, apparently, in this self-constructed ditch of developer-led deceit. That’s why every single amendment put forward through the committee examining the bill was summarily dismissed by the loyal but lumpen Labour MPs on the committee.
    These included an amendment tabled by veteran Labour MP Barry Gardiner requiring all house builders to provide a specially designed brickto help cavity-nesting such as swifts, house martins, sparrows and starlings – a measure that Labour in opposition enthusiastically supported! And there’s huge public support for this one small, cost-effective biodiversity regulation.
    To get a measure of this government’s subservient obedience to the demands of the volume housebuilders, just listen to the words of housing minister Matthew Pennycook: ‘We are not convinced that legislating to mandate the use of specific wildlife features is the right approach, whether that is done through building regulations or a freestanding legal requirement'.
    It’s all so demeaning. So unnecessary. And now that the mainstream environment movement, urged on primarily by the Wildlife Trusts, has realised just how high the stakes are with this Planning and Infrastructure Bill, it’s reasonable to assume that there will be a much more serious debate in the House of Lords, bringing down on ministers’ helmeted heads the righteous outrage of the entire movement.
    As we’ve learnt, in less than one deeply depressing year, this is a government that needs to be kicked harder and harder until they get desperate enough to make the pain go away.
    P.S. If you want to read a brilliant summary of ‘reasons to be outraged’, check out George Monbiot’s take on this.
    Jonathon Porritt is a campaigner and author and co-founder of Forum for the Future
    This article first appeared on his blog

    2025-06-06
    Jonathon Porritt

    comment and share
    #starmer #reeves #big #planning #idea
    Starmer and Reeves’ big planning idea? Trash nature and concrete it over
    I don’t know why, but it continues to astonish me just how foolish politicians can be – and how easily persuaded they are by really bad advice from smart but tin-eared advisers. In less than a year, Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves have squandered the gift of the huge majority won at last year’s General Election on one key issue after another: their response to the genocide in Gaza; wantonly cruel cuts in disability benefits; failing to find creative ways of taxing wealth; dealing with the water companies – and, now, on the new Planning and Infrastructure Bill. On 23 May 23, the Wildlife Trusts and the RSPBlaunched a devastating attack on Labour’s whole approach to streamlining the planning system through the Planning and Infrastructure Bill.Advertisement Part 3 of the bill will make it possible for developers to ignore existing environmental protections by paying money into a so-called ‘Nature Recovery Fund’, which will be used to pay for environmental projects elsewhere. Starmer and Reeves have gone out of their way, time after time, to claim that it’s these environmental safeguards that are responsible for delays and blockages in the planning process, even though they know this is completely untrue. According to the Wildlife Trusts, roughly 3 per cent of proposals for new housing are delayed for environmental reasons. As The Guardian reported: ‘the data from analysis of 17,433 planning appeals in England in 2024 found that newts were relevant in just 140planning appeals, and bats were relevant in 432.’ ‘They pursue this path even though are no polls to show that this is what matters to Labour voters tempted by Reform’ So what makes Starmer and Reeves both stupid and totally dishonest? By all accounts the rationale of their tin-eared advisers is to demonstrate to ‘Reform-friendly’ Labour voters that the environment is as unsafe in their hands as it would be in Nigel Farage’s. That economic growth is all that matters. That caring for the natural world is a middle-class self-indulgence. And that pouring as much concrete as possible is self-evidently the best way of achieving that growth. And they go on pursuing this ideological path even though there are no supporting polls to show that this is what really matters to Labour voters tempted by Reform’s populist bullshit.Advertisement So they lie. They dig in. They break promises left, right and centre, ready to die, apparently, in this self-constructed ditch of developer-led deceit. That’s why every single amendment put forward through the committee examining the bill was summarily dismissed by the loyal but lumpen Labour MPs on the committee. These included an amendment tabled by veteran Labour MP Barry Gardiner requiring all house builders to provide a specially designed brickto help cavity-nesting such as swifts, house martins, sparrows and starlings – a measure that Labour in opposition enthusiastically supported! And there’s huge public support for this one small, cost-effective biodiversity regulation. To get a measure of this government’s subservient obedience to the demands of the volume housebuilders, just listen to the words of housing minister Matthew Pennycook: ‘We are not convinced that legislating to mandate the use of specific wildlife features is the right approach, whether that is done through building regulations or a freestanding legal requirement'. It’s all so demeaning. So unnecessary. And now that the mainstream environment movement, urged on primarily by the Wildlife Trusts, has realised just how high the stakes are with this Planning and Infrastructure Bill, it’s reasonable to assume that there will be a much more serious debate in the House of Lords, bringing down on ministers’ helmeted heads the righteous outrage of the entire movement. As we’ve learnt, in less than one deeply depressing year, this is a government that needs to be kicked harder and harder until they get desperate enough to make the pain go away. P.S. If you want to read a brilliant summary of ‘reasons to be outraged’, check out George Monbiot’s take on this. Jonathon Porritt is a campaigner and author and co-founder of Forum for the Future This article first appeared on his blog 2025-06-06 Jonathon Porritt comment and share #starmer #reeves #big #planning #idea
    WWW.ARCHITECTSJOURNAL.CO.UK
    Starmer and Reeves’ big planning idea? Trash nature and concrete it over
    I don’t know why, but it continues to astonish me just how foolish politicians can be – and how easily persuaded they are by really bad advice from smart but tin-eared advisers. In less than a year, Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves have squandered the gift of the huge majority won at last year’s General Election on one key issue after another: their response to the genocide in Gaza; wantonly cruel cuts in disability benefits; failing to find creative ways of taxing wealth; dealing with the water companies – and, now, on the new Planning and Infrastructure Bill. On 23 May 23, the Wildlife Trusts and the RSPB (with a combined membership of more than 2 million) launched a devastating attack on Labour’s whole approach to streamlining the planning system through the Planning and Infrastructure Bill.Advertisement Part 3 of the bill will make it possible for developers to ignore existing environmental protections by paying money into a so-called ‘Nature Recovery Fund’, which will be used to pay for environmental projects elsewhere. Starmer and Reeves have gone out of their way, time after time, to claim that it’s these environmental safeguards that are responsible for delays and blockages in the planning process, even though they know this is completely untrue. According to the Wildlife Trusts, roughly 3 per cent of proposals for new housing are delayed for environmental reasons. As The Guardian reported: ‘the data from analysis of 17,433 planning appeals in England in 2024 found that newts were relevant in just 140 (0.8%) planning appeals, and bats were relevant in 432 (2.48%).’ ‘They pursue this path even though are no polls to show that this is what matters to Labour voters tempted by Reform’ So what makes Starmer and Reeves both stupid and totally dishonest? By all accounts the rationale of their tin-eared advisers is to demonstrate to ‘Reform-friendly’ Labour voters that the environment is as unsafe in their hands as it would be in Nigel Farage’s. That economic growth is all that matters. That caring for the natural world is a middle-class self-indulgence (‘the well-to-do prioritising the nice-to-have’ over the interests of working people). And that pouring as much concrete as possible is self-evidently the best way of achieving that growth. And they go on pursuing this ideological path even though there are no supporting polls to show that this is what really matters to Labour voters tempted by Reform’s populist bullshit.Advertisement So they lie. They dig in. They break promises left, right and centre, ready to die, apparently, in this self-constructed ditch of developer-led deceit. That’s why every single amendment put forward through the committee examining the bill was summarily dismissed by the loyal but lumpen Labour MPs on the committee. These included an amendment tabled by veteran Labour MP Barry Gardiner requiring all house builders to provide a specially designed brick (costing £35) to help cavity-nesting such as swifts, house martins, sparrows and starlings – a measure that Labour in opposition enthusiastically supported! And there’s huge public support for this one small, cost-effective biodiversity regulation. To get a measure of this government’s subservient obedience to the demands of the volume housebuilders, just listen to the words of housing minister Matthew Pennycook: ‘We are not convinced that legislating to mandate the use of specific wildlife features is the right approach, whether that is done through building regulations or a freestanding legal requirement'. It’s all so demeaning. So unnecessary. And now that the mainstream environment movement, urged on primarily by the Wildlife Trusts, has realised just how high the stakes are with this Planning and Infrastructure Bill, it’s reasonable to assume that there will be a much more serious debate in the House of Lords, bringing down on ministers’ helmeted heads the righteous outrage of the entire movement. As we’ve learnt, in less than one deeply depressing year, this is a government that needs to be kicked harder and harder until they get desperate enough to make the pain go away. P.S. If you want to read a brilliant summary of ‘reasons to be outraged’ (and what to do about it), check out George Monbiot’s take on this. Jonathon Porritt is a campaigner and author and co-founder of Forum for the Future This article first appeared on his blog 2025-06-06 Jonathon Porritt comment and share
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  • AR June 2025: Roads

    Mauricio Rocha | TaAU | Alejandro Castro | OMA | Michel Desvigne | Robert Moses | El Equipo Mazzanti | ContraFuerte |  Batlleiroig | Christian Kerez
    Earlier this year, news broke that levels of fine particulate matter in Paris had dropped by an astounding 55 per cent since 2005. Through a combination of regulation and public policy, the city has vastly reduced the number of cars on its streets, introducing bike lanes and public green spaces in the place of around 50,000 parking spaces.
    This issue is dedicated to roads and the architectures that support them. Cities around the world are reckoning with 20th-century car-oriented urban planning, as epitomised by Robert Moses’s New York. Existing roads are increasingly repurposed for broader uses, prioritising pedestrians, cyclists and other forms of movement. São Paulo’s Minhocão has been gradually reclaimed by residents, and the restoration of a historical promenade in Reus is inclusive for all. Meanwhile, OMA’s new bridge in Bordeaux is designed to host public events – as well as six lanes of motorised traffic.
    Elsewhere, automobile infrastructure continues to expand; in Bahrain, four new car parks stand largely empty, and a roadside service station in Colombia is yet to be occupied. Roads promise prosperity and progress, often with expansionist ambitions; as Nadi Abusaada writes, ‘The road is both the myth and mechanism of the colonial frontier’. 
    Electric vehicles are now heralded as the future of transport, but as Nelo Magalhães writes in this issue’s keynote, ‘EVs do nothing to change the mass of roads or the issue of their maintenance’. The shift needed is more radical and wide‑reaching. 

    1522: Roads

    coverHighway #5, Los Angeles, California, USAis part of Edward Burtynsky: The Great Acceleration, an exhibition on view at the International Center of Photography in New York City until 28 September. In it, a motorway bulldozes its way through suburbia, sending out smaller branches that further subdivide it. Credit: © Edward Burtynsky, courtesy Flowers Gallery, London
    folioHome follows a family living in a house next to an uncompleted motorway, who reclaim it, temporarily, as an extension of their home. Credit: Album / Alamy
    keynote

    How much does your road weigh?
    Nelo Magalhãesbuilding
    Malecón de Villahermosa by Taller de Arquitectura Mauricio Rocha, TaAU and Alejandro Castro in Villahermosa, Mexico
    Laure Nashed
    building
    Simon Veil bridge by OMA and Michel Desvigne Paysagiste in Bordeaux, France
    John Bingham-Hall
    reputations

    Robert Moses
    Andy Battlebuilding
    Control and operations centre by El Equipo Mazzanti and ContraFuerte in Bolombolo, Colombia
    Felipe Walter
    essay
    Cape to Cairo
    Sara Salem
    essay
    A short history of the roadblock
    Jan-Werner Müller
    outrage

    The Amazonian road to COP30
    Martha Dillonrevisit
    Schlangenbader Straße estate in Berlin, Germany
    Sophie Lovell
    essay

    Living with the Big Worm
    Richard J Williamsbuilding
    Passeig de Boca de la Mina by Batlleiroig in Reus, Spain
    Blanca Pujals
    essay
    Taking Norway’s scenic routes
    Tomà Berlanda
    building
    Pearling Path car parks by Christian Kerez in Muharraq, Bahrain
    Oliver Wainwright
    typology
    Petrol station
    Tom Wilkinson
    essay
    The road is the frontier
    Nadi Abusaada
    #june #roads
    AR June 2025: Roads
    Mauricio Rocha | TaAU | Alejandro Castro | OMA | Michel Desvigne | Robert Moses | El Equipo Mazzanti | ContraFuerte |  Batlleiroig | Christian Kerez Earlier this year, news broke that levels of fine particulate matter in Paris had dropped by an astounding 55 per cent since 2005. Through a combination of regulation and public policy, the city has vastly reduced the number of cars on its streets, introducing bike lanes and public green spaces in the place of around 50,000 parking spaces. This issue is dedicated to roads and the architectures that support them. Cities around the world are reckoning with 20th-century car-oriented urban planning, as epitomised by Robert Moses’s New York. Existing roads are increasingly repurposed for broader uses, prioritising pedestrians, cyclists and other forms of movement. São Paulo’s Minhocão has been gradually reclaimed by residents, and the restoration of a historical promenade in Reus is inclusive for all. Meanwhile, OMA’s new bridge in Bordeaux is designed to host public events – as well as six lanes of motorised traffic. Elsewhere, automobile infrastructure continues to expand; in Bahrain, four new car parks stand largely empty, and a roadside service station in Colombia is yet to be occupied. Roads promise prosperity and progress, often with expansionist ambitions; as Nadi Abusaada writes, ‘The road is both the myth and mechanism of the colonial frontier’.  Electric vehicles are now heralded as the future of transport, but as Nelo Magalhães writes in this issue’s keynote, ‘EVs do nothing to change the mass of roads or the issue of their maintenance’. The shift needed is more radical and wide‑reaching.  1522: Roads coverHighway #5, Los Angeles, California, USAis part of Edward Burtynsky: The Great Acceleration, an exhibition on view at the International Center of Photography in New York City until 28 September. In it, a motorway bulldozes its way through suburbia, sending out smaller branches that further subdivide it. Credit: © Edward Burtynsky, courtesy Flowers Gallery, London folioHome follows a family living in a house next to an uncompleted motorway, who reclaim it, temporarily, as an extension of their home. Credit: Album / Alamy keynote How much does your road weigh? Nelo Magalhãesbuilding Malecón de Villahermosa by Taller de Arquitectura Mauricio Rocha, TaAU and Alejandro Castro in Villahermosa, Mexico Laure Nashed building Simon Veil bridge by OMA and Michel Desvigne Paysagiste in Bordeaux, France John Bingham-Hall reputations Robert Moses Andy Battlebuilding Control and operations centre by El Equipo Mazzanti and ContraFuerte in Bolombolo, Colombia Felipe Walter essay Cape to Cairo Sara Salem essay A short history of the roadblock Jan-Werner Müller outrage The Amazonian road to COP30 Martha Dillonrevisit Schlangenbader Straße estate in Berlin, Germany Sophie Lovell essay Living with the Big Worm Richard J Williamsbuilding Passeig de Boca de la Mina by Batlleiroig in Reus, Spain Blanca Pujals essay Taking Norway’s scenic routes Tomà Berlanda building Pearling Path car parks by Christian Kerez in Muharraq, Bahrain Oliver Wainwright typology Petrol station Tom Wilkinson essay The road is the frontier Nadi Abusaada #june #roads
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    AR June 2025: Roads
    Mauricio Rocha | TaAU | Alejandro Castro | OMA | Michel Desvigne | Robert Moses | El Equipo Mazzanti | ContraFuerte |  Batlleiroig | Christian Kerez Earlier this year, news broke that levels of fine particulate matter in Paris had dropped by an astounding 55 per cent since 2005. Through a combination of regulation and public policy, the city has vastly reduced the number of cars on its streets, introducing bike lanes and public green spaces in the place of around 50,000 parking spaces. This issue is dedicated to roads and the architectures that support them. Cities around the world are reckoning with 20th-century car-oriented urban planning, as epitomised by Robert Moses’s New York (p36). Existing roads are increasingly repurposed for broader uses, prioritising pedestrians, cyclists and other forms of movement. São Paulo’s Minhocão has been gradually reclaimed by residents, and the restoration of a historical promenade in Reus is inclusive for all. Meanwhile, OMA’s new bridge in Bordeaux is designed to host public events – as well as six lanes of motorised traffic. Elsewhere, automobile infrastructure continues to expand; in Bahrain, four new car parks stand largely empty, and a roadside service station in Colombia is yet to be occupied. Roads promise prosperity and progress, often with expansionist ambitions; as Nadi Abusaada writes, ‘The road is both the myth and mechanism of the colonial frontier’.  Electric vehicles are now heralded as the future of transport, but as Nelo Magalhães writes in this issue’s keynote, ‘EVs do nothing to change the mass of roads or the issue of their maintenance’. The shift needed is more radical and wide‑reaching.  1522: Roads cover (above)Highway #5, Los Angeles, California, USA (2009) is part of Edward Burtynsky: The Great Acceleration, an exhibition on view at the International Center of Photography in New York City until 28 September. In it, a motorway bulldozes its way through suburbia, sending out smaller branches that further subdivide it. Credit: © Edward Burtynsky, courtesy Flowers Gallery, London folio (lead image)Home follows a family living in a house next to an uncompleted motorway, who reclaim it, temporarily, as an extension of their home. Credit: Album / Alamy keynote How much does your road weigh? Nelo Magalhãesbuilding Malecón de Villahermosa by Taller de Arquitectura Mauricio Rocha, TaAU and Alejandro Castro in Villahermosa, Mexico Laure Nashed building Simon Veil bridge by OMA and Michel Desvigne Paysagiste in Bordeaux, France John Bingham-Hall reputations Robert Moses Andy Battlebuilding Control and operations centre by El Equipo Mazzanti and ContraFuerte in Bolombolo, Colombia Felipe Walter essay Cape to Cairo Sara Salem essay A short history of the roadblock Jan-Werner Müller outrage The Amazonian road to COP30 Martha Dillonrevisit Schlangenbader Straße estate in Berlin, Germany Sophie Lovell essay Living with the Big Worm Richard J Williamsbuilding Passeig de Boca de la Mina by Batlleiroig in Reus, Spain Blanca Pujals essay Taking Norway’s scenic routes Tomà Berlanda building Pearling Path car parks by Christian Kerez in Muharraq, Bahrain Oliver Wainwright typology Petrol station Tom Wilkinson essay The road is the frontier Nadi Abusaada
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