Playing FromSoftware's new multiplayer game might be a little challenging with Valve's portable console.

The Krusty Burger is a health inspector's nightmare, responsible for spawning the Krusty Burger, the Ribwich, The Clogger, and the Steamed Ham (per Principal Skinner). It comes with seven minifigures, including Krusty the Clown, Sideshow Bob, Homer Simpson, and Officer Lou. You can purchase it for $209.99 on June 4, although LEGO Insiders can order the set via Early Access beginning on June 1. You can sign up for free here.LEGO The Simpsons: Krusty BurgerOut June 1 for LEGO Insiders, and June 4 for everyone else.$209.99 at LEGO StoreTo learn more about the set and its creation, we interviewed its designer. Ann Healy is a 39-year-old Senior Model Designer who's worked with the LEGO Group for the past six years. Here, lightly edited for clarity, are her thoughts on creating LEGO The Simpsons: Krusty Burger, the first new LEGO Simpsons set in nearly a decade. What other LEGO sets have you had a hand in designing over the past six years? Healy: I worked for three years on the LEGO Friends line. A few years ago, I got the opportunity to work on a Disney favorite of mine: The Sanderson Sisters’ Cottage set from Hocus Pocus. That project took years in the making to come to market, and I’m quite proud of it. More recently, I have been working on the LEGO Icons team. From last year’s products, I designed the McLaren MP4/4 & Ayrton Senna set and the Poinsettia LEGO Botanicals set.What drove the decision to revive the Simpsons brand after such a long hiatus? Healy: We saw that even after a 10-year stretch since a new Simpsons set, there was still a lot of love for The Simpsons amongst LEGO fans. Our market research showed that there is huge brand loyalty for The Simpsons, appealing to people globally. Designing the Krusty Burger in LEGO brick form serves as a natural continuation of our Simpsons line and gives us the opportunity to make new, never-before-seen LEGO minifigures.LEGO designers often build in their free time, working towards builds that they hope will one day become sets.“Coincidentally, the original Simpsons House and Kwik-E-Mart LEGO sets were some of the last sets I purchased before I knew I would be coming to work at The LEGO Group. In my first week working here, I found an early prototype of the Krusty Burger set on a shelf in our office. For context, LEGO designers often build in their free time, working towards builds that they hope will one day become sets. It gave me hope that someday, I might get the chance to work on something like that. Five years later, to my surprise, our Head of Marketing pulled that same prototype off the shelf and said it was time to revisit The Simpsons! I volunteered right away as a lifelong fan of the Simpsons. I couldn’t believe my luck!Describe the process of designing and building this set as best you can. How many times did you have to build the entire model in the course of finalizing it?Healy: I started with refining and updating the old prototype, figuring out the general layout and developing a building-instruction flow. I worked digitally first, then built the model physically. From there, I would go back and forth between digital and physical, seeing if the model would work with real bricks. We have design team check-ins where I showed progress on the model and got suggestions from our Creative Lead and the other model designers. I had several check-ins with the IP partner, where I would show them the latest updates and they could give feedback on the model and mini figures. I also had internal review meetings with our Model Governance and Building Experience teams, where we build the model, review every construction step, evaluate the play experience and test the strength of the model.I did not keep track of every time I rebuilt the model, but I would estimate at least 20 times. The last time I built the Krusty Burger set was when the first production boxes arrived from the factory. I built it one last time for quality assurance!Krusty Burger isn't a fully realized location in the show in the same way that Moe's Tavern is, or the Kwik-E Mart is, or the Simpsons’ house is. Which TV episodes did you use to map out the Krusty Burger and determine how it's set up? Healy: Disney was a great partner in sending us reference images and layouts when available. Also, I watched as many episodes of The Simpsons as possible, so I could translate the TV animation into a real, physical, toy playset. Season 20, Episode 21, “Coming to Homerica,” is the episode we used the most in reference, because it features the Mother Nature Burger that we reference several times in this LEGO set. The “Ribwich” from Season 14, Episode 12, “I'm Spelling as Fast as I Can,” is also featured. Other referenced episodes of note include: Season 6, Episode 15, “Homie the Clown” – Homer performs at a Krusty Burger Season 12, Episode 13, “Day of the Jackanapes” – Bart and Sideshow Bob go to the Krusty Burger. Season 10, Episode 1, Lard of the Dance” – Homer tries to sell grease from the restaurant.Season 7, Episode 15, “Bart the Fink” – Features the IRS Burger takeover.Season 19, Episode 1, “He Loves to Fly and He D'ohs” – Homer hides in the Krusty Zone ball pit. Season 15, Episode 10, “Diatribe of a Mad Housewife” – Shows the Krusty Burger drive thru sign. Season 21, Episode 4, "Treehouse of Horror XX" – Features the Krusty Burger in “Don't Have a Cow, Mankind.”What's your favorite deep cut Easter Egg in the build? Healy: Above the Krusty Burger drive-thru window, there is a kitchen display screen, showing that someone has placed an order for 700 burgers. This is a reference to the Season 5 episode “Boy-Scoutz 'n the Hood,” in which Krusty has unwisely opened a Krusty Burger oil rig in the middle of the sea.What was the most challenging aspect of designing this build? How were you able to overcome it? Healy: The most rewarding challenge of designing this set was building the Krusty Burger Sign with LEGO bricks. The IP partner paid a lot of attention to the proportions of Krusty’s face within the sign, giving us reference material and tips on how to best capture his likeness. We even got hand-drawn doodles of the Krusty the Clown from them! One of my model-designer colleagues used to work as an illustrator and used his skills to capture Krusty’s features in brick-form even more accurately. In addition, it was challenging to get the heavy Krusty Burger sign to stand up and remain stable on a single axle. Our Element Lead on the design project suggested we use a new element she was developing, an axle sleeve, to increase the weight the rod could hold upright. This new element did the trick.The most rewarding challenge of designing this set was building the Krusty Burger Sign with LEGO bricks.“Is this a one-off revival of the Simpsons brand? Or is this the beginning of a longer partnership, where we can expect to see more LEGO Simpsons themed sets in the near future?Healy: I cannot speculate on future products, per the LEGO Group’s and our partners' policies. Nonetheless, as a huge Simpsons fan myself, I am hopeful that fans have a positive response to this set!LEGO The Simpsons: Krusty Burger, Set #10352, retails for $209.99, and it is composed of 1635 pieces. You can purchase it on June 4 for the general public, or starting on June 1 for LEGO Insiders. You can sign up for LEGO Insiders for free here. And stay tuned! We will be building, photographing, and reviewing LEGO Krusty Burger later this month,Kevin Wong is a contributing freelancer for IGN, specializing in LEGO. He's also been published in Complex, Engadget, Gamespot, Kotaku, and more. Follow him on Twitter at @kevinjameswong.

Sports Interactive cancelled Football Manager 25 to work on the next entry in the series, but Sega has something else to fill the potential gap. Launching this year worldwide, Sega Football Club Champions 2025 is a free-to-play title for PS4, PS5, PC via Steam, iOS and Android. Check out the first trailer below. Described as a “multiplatform football management simulator” powered by Football Manager, Sega Football Club Champions 2025 has two core modes. Career Mode involves building and managing your team. Dream Team is about battling other players online. You can tussle in the Arena and Event Matches or set up Room Matches. Players can expect 10,000 professional footballers to bring to their teams. Japan’s J1-J3 leagues, FIFPRO, K League, and Manchester City F.C. contribute 1,500 players. While others have yet to be revealed, Sega says it’s partnered with “various leagues” worldwide. Interested participants can sign up for the closed beta here. Stay tuned for more details in the coming months, including additional gameplay and monetization.

The Steam Deck changed the game for PC players, opening up a world of portability that was usually reserved for Nintendo fans. Naturally, manufacturers tried to follow suit with Windows-based handhelds and the results are, shall we say, mixed. Now, Valve has released official instructions for installing its SteamOS on devices other than the Steam Deck. Let's dive into how to do it—and whether you should.I should note up front: This is going to be a nebulous area when it comes to official support from the company that made your handheld. At time of writing, the Lenovo Legion Go S is the only handheld with the "Powered by SteamOS" branding (besides the Steam Deck itself), meaning it's officially supported with a final build. You can install SteamOS on devices like the Legion Go and the ROG Ally, but their support isn't final.Also, it should go without saying, but we'll say it anyway: If you wipe Windows from your handheld, you won't be able to play Windows-based games that aren't supported via SteamOS. That largely consists of online games that require anti-cheat software, but it's worth checking sites like ProtonDB to make sure your favorite games will work on SteamOS.Why should you install SteamOS on your Windows handheld?So, with the caveats out of the way, what are the upsides? Put (overly) simply, Windows is not designed for handhelds. In fact, under the hood, Windows tends to see your gaming handheld as a laptop. Right down to including things like Microsoft Teams that run in the background, or popping up alert boxes that interrupt your game to inform you of a low battery.Now that people are able to experiment with SteamOS and Windows on the same hardware, it's becoming clearer that Windows itself is a massive nerf to both frame rate and battery life. Even gaming laptops, which can often last all day for normal work, can struggle to get even a few hours of gameplay while away from a charger. That's why it's so important to tweak your settings for the best battery life.Gaming handhelds only make this problem worse with a smaller form factor, and thus a smaller battery. In my own experience, I've struggled to get two hours of playing a lightweight game like Stardew Valley from a Windows handheld, while the Steam Deck and even the Switch can get upwards of six hours or more.Since Windows is primarily designed as a desktop (and secondarily as a tablet) computer, it's also harder to tweak settings using controller inputs. What, exactly, is the controller equivalent of Ctrl+Alt+Delete again? While you can plug in a keyboard to dig around in your handheld's settings, it's just easier to do on SteamOS, since its interface has been built from the ground up for controller input.At this point, Valve has also shown that running Steam games via the Proton compatibility layer works so well that it's almost seamless. I admit, when the Steam Deck was first announced, I expected games to be broken or perform much worse than their native Windows counterparts. Four hundred hours in Hades II later, though, and it's clear that many games can actually run better on SteamOS than Windows.Step 1: Download and prepare a SteamOS recovery image USB stickWith all that out of the way, let's get started. To install SteamOS on your gaming handheld, you'll need two things: the SteamOS recovery image and a USB stick (preferably USB-C) with at least 8GB of storage. Make sure anything on that USB stick is properly backed up, because this process will reformat that device.The Steam Deck recovery image can be found here. It's a little over 3GB, so it might take a little while to download, depending on your connection. While you wait for that, you'll also need a utility to create the recovery USB drive. Valve recommends Rufus for Windows users, and Balena Etcher for Mac or Linux users. Once the recovery image is downloaded, use whichever tool you chose to write the recovery image to your USB drive. This process should be relatively straightforward. Rufus, for example, will present you with a dropdown to select which drive to write the file to under Device, and under Boot Selection, click Select to pick the recovery image file. Click Start and wait. Reminder: This will wipe the contents of your USB drive.Step 2: Disable Secure Boot on your handheldThis part can be a bit tricky, and the exact process will vary depending on which handheld you own. Valve has a breakdown of the steps here for a couple specific devices, like the Legion Go and the ROG Ally. However, other devices like those from MSI or Ayaneo will have their own process.In general, the steps will usually go something like this:Reboot to the bios. Similar to how you can hold Del or F2 on a computer while rebooting to get to the bios, your gaming handheld has a similar process. Often it's holding a button like Volume + while pressing the power button, but check your specific device's instructions if that doesn't work.Navigate to the Secure Boot settings. You may have to poke around for this one. Look for categories like Security, and you may need to switch to an Advanced settings mode or menu to find it. This setting should be called Secure Boot. Change this to Disabled.Save settings and restart your device. Once you've changed the Secure Boot setting, make sure to save the changes to your bios and restart.Depending on the device, you might have to use the touchscreen to navigate the bios, or even plug in a keyboard or mouse. Again, Valve has specifics for a couple of devices in the link above, but if you're lost, your device's manufacturer will be your best bet for getting specific instructions.Step 3: Boot using the SteamOS recovery image Credit: Eric Ravenscraft Once you've disabled Secure Boot, you can plug the USB stick into your handheld and restart the device. At this point, you should end up at a boot menu that lets you choose which drive to boot to. Once again, this process will sometimes differ by device, so if you're not sure how to get to the boot menu, check your device's documentation.When you get to the boot menu, select your USB drive with the SteamOS recovery image on it. This will take you to a SteamOS desktop environment. Here, you'll see four shortcuts on the desktop. The one we care about is labeled "Wipe Device & Install SteamOS". Give that a single tap (double-tapping will launch it twice, so be careful).At this point, you should see a warning that proceeding with this step will erase everything on your device. If you had any important game saves, media, or work files (for some reason) on this device that weren't already backed up, you can still bail on this process and reboot to Windows to save them. This is the point of no return, though. Make sure you're ready before moving forward.Step 4: Familiarize yourself with your new handheld's quirks Credit: Eric Ravenscraft The install process won't take too long, and when it's done, your handheld will restart and begin setup as though it's a natural-born Steam Deck. There are a few quirks, though. For example, in my testing on the Legion Go, the device tutorial pointed to the "Steam button" on the bottom-left side, but used the Xbox logo. In reality, the corresponding button was at the top-right, and had a Legion logo. It also pointed to a microSD card slot on the bottom of the device that doesn't exist.Unless you're using an official "Powered by SteamOS" device, prepare for some awkwardness while using the device. Aside from the tutorial, I found some games I wasn't able to install—pressing "Install" on Doom Eternal simply did nothing, for example—and it took some time to figure out which hardware buttons were mapped to which Steam Deck input.To my surprise, some things that I expected to be broken worked perfectly when I tested this. The Legion Go is unique in that its controllers can be detached, Joy-Con style, from the handheld. I expected them to be laggy or non-functional when I played with SteamOS, but they worked perfectly during a Hades II run—a game that isn't very forgiving of input lag.Your mileage can and will vary depending on what games you want to play and what hardware you want to run SteamOS on. Still, as we wait for manufacturers to more officially support SteamOS—or for Microsoft to make a proper handheld of its own—it's exciting to finally be able to have a choice in platform for these devices.

The original Switch is still a better option than the Switch 2 – Reader’s Feature GameCentral Published June 1, 2025 1:00am The Switch 1 isn’t going anywhere (Nintendo) A reader argues that the original Switch will still be relevant even after the Switch 2 launches, and that for some it will be the preferred choice. I haven’t been playing games as much as I did, say, three years ago, mainly because I’ve found interest in other things, such as reading and creating content. However, I still delve into games and my love for Nintendo is still there, but I did consider parting with some of my gaming collection – which is mostly a curated list of mainly Nintendo games and consoles. I did see the announcement of the Switch 2 in early April and initially I was hyped for it but I think that has subsided somewhat, mainly due to the pricing of both the consoles and games; I am still going to be receiving it day one though. I don’t think Nintendo has done themselves any favours though and the landscape has changed, with regards to mobile gaming in general, with the advent of the Steam Deck and other options from different manufacturers which makes this a crowded market. [The Steam Deck has only sold around 4 million units worldwide, compared to over 150 million for the Switch, and yet it’s still the most successful of the PC handhelds – GC] I find myself purchasing games on Steam vs. Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo. In fact, I ended up parting ways with my Xbox Series X and am considering the same with my PlayStation 5, as I mainly play games in portable form, with the Steam Deck and Switch being enough for me. With Nintendo it is mainly the first party titles that I would purchase on Switch 2, but it will make me think twice due to the price tag on the games (£60+) and with Nintendo the pricing of their games don’t really go on sale that much, if at all. I know a lot of people are still considering getting rid of their original Switch in favour of the Switch 2, however I think it is still relevant in 2025 and beyond. Games, Games, Games With over 10,000 games, the Switch has a diverse library of titles. I love the fact the I have a big and robust library of physical games that I can play for years to come. The pricing on new games are anywhere between £25 to £50, with Zelda being the exception at £60 to £70. A lot of third party games you can pick up on sale. A lot of games are physical and most come with the game on the actual cartridge, so even in the future, if Nintendo decide to pull the eShop for the original Switch, you can still play games offline. Games are still being released for the original Nintendo Switch for the foreseeable future. It will stop being supported one day but there is still plenty to choose from, both used, digital, and new. I truly believe that the Switch 2 won’t be as popular as the first Switch, mainly due to pricing £60+ on games and switching their strategy on physical games, with partial downloads or game key cards, which in theory is easily shareable but having to download the entire game isn’t the most user friendly and there is still a reliance on the digital ecosystem. Backwards Compatibility Watching a YouTube video by ModernVintageGamer, I’ve come to learn that backwards compatibility with Switch 2 isn’t all it is cracked up to be. Nintendo is fully supporting backwards compatibility with most of their games, however third parties are left to patch games on their own discretion due to different system architecture in comparison to the original Switch. So it will be a bit hit and miss, more than likely they would rather release another ‘remastered’ version which they can sell to consumers again, rather than patch games. Also, bearing in mind some publishers don’t want the costs associated with patching a game. Different consoles At this stage in the original Switch’s lifecycle there are a bunch of form factors to choose from. I have all three and use them in different environments; my Switch OLED gets used at home in portable mode and connected to the TV, while the original Switch is good for family party gaming, which I take around for family gatherings. The Switch Lite is small and portable and that it is great for single-player games with the cross-key but also great for travelling and going on holidays. You can pick up the Switch Lite for dirt cheap now, used, and I expect prices to fall further whilst they clear stock. Simultaneous play I haven’t seen too much details around this but Nintendo did announce original Switch compatibility with the Nintendo Switch 2 to allow for simultaneous multiplayer gaming with one cartridge, so that Nintendo Switch 2 acts as the main (host) console whilst the original Switch can be used for multiplayer gaming. So in essence you can all play Mario Kart from one Switch 2 console, by having your own screen, similar to the Wii U. I think this will be valuable for me with family gatherings, as most of us have Switches. Cost So, I did mention costs for games earlier. However, as the original Switch has matured there are a plethora of cheap accessories that can be had on the cheap, compared to Switch 2, such as extra Joy-Cons, controllers, games, cheap microSD cards, plus others. Best Nintendo console? I still love my Switch, and it won’t be going anywhere, and I think it is Nintendo’s best console in the past 20 years. I have a special place in my heart for the NES, SNES, Game Boy and GameCube, as being S-tier consoles but I think the Switch could be argued as being their best console. Ask me on a random day and my answer will probably change, because Nintendo have created timeless consoles as far as I am concerned, so it is difficult to choose one. But the original Switch makes a compelling choice especially for the younger generation. More Trending By reader wetbandit Not everyone’s going to jump in straight away (Nintendo) The reader’s features do not necessarily represent the views of GameCentral or Metro. You can submit your own 500 to 600-word reader feature at any time, which if used will be published in the next appropriate weekend slot. Just contact us at gamecentral@metro.co.uk or use our Submit Stuff page and you won’t need to send an email. GameCentral Sign up for exclusive analysis, latest releases, and bonus community content. 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It may be time to suck it up — and we don't just mean the carbon in the atmosphere. No, we're talking about reckoning with the possibility that our attempts at capturing the greenhouse gas to stave off climate disaster are already hopelessly behind schedule, New Scientist reports, if they're not in vain entirely.To illustrate, here're some simple numbers. The CO2 removal industry expects to hit a milestone of removing one million metric tons of CO2 this year. And companies across the globe have bought carbon credits to remove 27 million more, according to data from CDR.fyi cited in the reporting (more on these carbon credit schemes in a moment).That sounds like a lot, but it really isn't. As New Scientist notes, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change — the leading authority on these issues — concluded in a 2022 report that we need to be removing up to 16 billion tons of carbon, not millions, each year to keep the rise in global temperature from exceeding 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) of warming by the middle of the century, past which the most drastic effects of climate change are believed to be irreversible."It's not scaling up as fast as it would need to if we are going to reach multiple gigatons by 2050," Robert Höglund at Marginal Carbon, a climate consultancy based in Sweden, told the magazine. Carbon capture is not the be-all and end-all. The fact remains that humanity needs to drastically reduce its emissions, which probably means reorganizing society — or at least its energy production and consumption — as we know it. Simply removing the CO2 that's already there is more like a band-aid that buys us a little time; eventually, we'll need to rip it off.For these reasons, some critics fear that carbon capture — and even more drastic interventions, like attempting to dim the Sun — could distract from the climate change's systemic causes. But there's a lot of enthusiasm for the approach all the same, both from scientists and investors. The IPCC acknowledged in its 2022 report that carbon removal was "unavoidable" — as in, essential to meeting climate targets.One popular method of carbon removal is called direct air capture, which involves sucking the carbon straight from the air using massive industrial facilities. A more circuitous approach that's gaining steam involves extracting CO2 out of the ocean, freeing up room for the world's largest carbon sink to passively absorb even more of the greenhouse gas. All of these initiatives, though, are basically just getting off the ground. And the corporate investment, which once promised billions of dollars in cash, seems to be cooling. More than 90 percent of all carbon removal credits sold this year were bought by a single company, Microsoft, New Scientist notes, probably to gloss over its egregious energy bill it's accrued from building loads of AI datacenters.This also touches on the fact that the practice of buying carbon credits can be used as a means of corporate greenwashing. By paying to another firm to "certify" that they will remove a certain amount of carbon at some undetermined point in the future, a company can report a greener carbon balance sheet without actually reducing its emissions.In any case, staking the industry's hopes on corporate munificence is a dicey prospect indeed."I have been raising the alarm for about a year and a half," Eli Mitchell-Larson at Carbon Gap, a UK carbon dioxide removal advocacy organisation, told New Scientist. "If we're just waiting for the waves of free philanthropic money from corporations to fill a hole on their sustainability report, we're not really going to solve the problem."More on climate change: Scientists Just Found Who's Causing Global WarmingShare This Article

Frontline Protocol – Tactical PvE Strategy Wishlist on Steam and join Playtest for free Hi everyone! I'm an indie developer working on Frontline Protocol, a real-time strategy game with a unique blend of rts, deckbuilding and auto battler mechanics, and a strong focus on cooperative PvE gameplay. This isn't your typical RTS: Instead of controlling units directly, players influence the battlefield by playing cards. Every card you deploy brings instant effects – from spawning units, constructing buildings, placing towers, to launching tactical actions. Positioning, timing, and smart synergy between your three active decks is key. Key Features Card-based RTS Control your army through over 300 cards: infantry, vehicles, towers, buildings, and powerful action cards.1–4 online Multiplayer PvE Co-op Jump into online Multiplayer battles with up to 3 friends. Share spawners, coordinate strategies, and specialize your decks for roles like defense, eco, support, or frontline pressure.Auto Battler Dynamics Once deployed, your units act autonomously – but their effectiveness depends on your deck structure, map control, and team coordination.Meta Progression Earn Booster Credits and unlock card packs containing new units, action cards, and some items. Permanently improve select cards, invest skill points for meta-progression, and shape your long-term strategy. Create new specialized decks like infantry only, anti vehicle, eco buildings or what you want.Mission System Take on dynamic PvE missions with modifiers like time limits or card restrictions. Complete them to earn Mission Coins and unlock exclusive tactical rewards from mission booster packs.Special OrderAdd extra difficulty and earn rare rewards. Special Orders can be activated by the host to increase mission difficulty for all players – by limiting income, increasing enemy spawns or something else. The entire team receives a special loot if they succeed under these conditions. Deployment PlansStrategically boost rewards during missions. Deployment Plans are one-time tactical items drawn from mission booster packs. Use them during missions to gain extra Player EXP, Card EXP, or bonus loot – either per map or at mission completion. Choosing the right plan at the right time can multiply your rewards. Stats: Genre: Real-Time Strategy meets Deckbuilder and Auto Battler Online Multiplayer: Cooperative PvE for 1–4 players Card-Based Tactics: Spawn units, fire missiles, deploy towers, build economy Multi-Deck System: Play with up to three customizable decks simultaneously Booster Packs: Unlock new units, new action cards, and items 300+ Cards: Infantry, vehicles, support units, towers, buildings, and special actions Shared Resources: Teamwide synergy through buildings and spawner sharing Deck Progression: Permanently upgrade cards and build long-term strategies Skill Tree: Earn XP and unlock passive bonuses like faster income or extra hand size Missions & Objectives: Take on randomly generated missions with bonus rewards Built for Co-op: Game design encourages collaboration and tactical communication No Paywalls: All content unlockable through gameplay only Dynamic Enemy Scaling: AI becomes stronger the longer you wait – pressure guaranteed Replay Value: Constant deck experimentation, randomized missions, and tactical depth Get more: Steam Page: Frontline Protocol on Steam Official Website: www.frontlineprotocol.com

After the Nintendo Switch, the Steam Deck might be the most impressive gaming handheld of the last decade. It brings Steam games—most of which were initially designed to run on Windows PCs—to a remarkably designed portable device. The only problem? Battery life can be rough on some games. If you're struggling to stay charged, here are some tips to help you out.When it comes to your Steam Deck's battery life, you're going to notice a lot of variability, even from one game to another. AAA games that rely on high-end GPUs will typically guzzle power. On laptops or desktops, that's usually not as much of a concern, but on the Steam Deck—when those games run at all—they can burn through the battery quickly.So, while we have plenty of tips to get the best battery life, it's important to keep in mind some games will simply burn through your power no matter what. Fortunately, SteamOS is already pretty power efficient (at least compared to other operating systems), and there are several handy tools to help.First, learn what, exactly, is draining your batteryThere are a few common culprits for battery drain in games, and it's helpful to understand them before diving into solutions. This is because what works for one game with minimal performance impact, could make another game unplayable. With that in mind, here are a few key things that drain your battery:Your hardware settings. The display on your Steam Deck is always a pretty big battery drain, and turning down the brightness can help. Wireless radios like wifi or Bluetooth are always sipping power, even if you're not using them, so you can sometimes turn these off if you don't need them.Your refresh rate and FPS. Your Steam Deck has to update the screen dozens of times every second, and for some games it might be way more than necessary. 60 to 90 frames per second might be necessary for a fast-paced game like Doom Eternal, but it's overkill for Stardew Valley.Your processor's TDP. Thermal Design Power (or TDP) is a complicated metric, but it serves as a shorthand for how much power your processor is using. On the Steam Deck, you can limit this directly, which is a blunt way of saving battery, but it can help sometimes.The most useful tool to help you diagnose your biggest battery drains is the Performance Overlay. Press the three-dot menu button while in a game and navigate to the Performance section and you'll see an option to enable this overlay. There are several levels of detail, ranging from a simple frame rate counter, to real-time power consumption and temperature readouts. The Performance tab is also where you'll find several useful features we'll discuss (under Advanced View), so it's good to make friends with this tab.Dive into your game's display settingsWhile the Steam Deck has a lot of useful features for managing battery life, you're still going to find some of your best options in your game's settings. Most games have presets to lower graphics settings with one quick toggle—like switching from Ultra to Medium—and some have even more advanced settings.This is particularly important to keep in mind if you play Steam games on multiple devices. Some games will try to sync settings between them, which can lead to your game rendering at a higher resolution or frame rate than the Steam Deck is even capable of displaying.In general, here are a few settings you should take a look at:Resolution: The Steam Deck has a 1280x800 resolution, so unless you're using an external monitor, there's no reason to set your game to a higher resolution. Most games won't let you go higher anyway, but it's worth it to double check. You can also go lower for some games, if you don't need as much detail.Frame rate: Many games offer the ability to cap how many frames the game generates, even if your display is capable of showing more. This can have a substantial impact on your battery life, especially for games that need to perform a lot of complex calculations (like graphics-heavy shooters) for every new frame.Graphical presets: If your game has a preset slider, try starting on the lowest preset and working your way up to see how the game performs. The Performance Overlay can be a huge help here, to see how much power your system is drawing on different presets. If your eye can't tell the difference, but your battery can, drop the settings.You can play around to find the right balance for you, and it will vary greatly by game. In some games, you might want more graphical detail, but fewer frames per second, while others would benefit from the exact opposite. Try a few options to see what works best.Adjust your refresh rate and FPS in tandem with the Frame Limit sliderAs mentioned above, the number of times your game updates the screen per second can be a huge factor in battery drain. This is affected by both the screen's refresh rate (how many times the display physically updates the pixel you see) and your game's frames per second (or FPS, the number of times the GPU generates a new frame per second). To complicate matters further, your refresh rate can have an effect on your input latency, meaning it's important to strike a delicate balance.To simplify this, the Steam Deck has a slider called Frame Limit that can impose a limit on how many frames your game displays and strike that balance for you. It automatically adjusts your refresh rate to be evenly divisible by the FPS limit, avoiding unnecessary (and asynchronous) refreshes, while still maintaining the highest refresh rate possible to reduce input lag.It's a workaround that's placed somewhat late in the pipeline, and it's sometimes better to adjust your game's settings directly, but it simplifies a complicated process. If you'd rather adjust your display's refresh rate directly, you can toggle Disable Frame Limit and adjust the refresh rate from 45Hz to 90Hz directly. Keep in mind, though, you might still need to adjust some game settings to avoid generating frames your display will just throw out.Put a cap on your Thermal Design Power (TDP), if you mustTweaking your game's graphics settings can adjust your power consumption with scalpel-like precision. By comparison, the TDP limit is a hammer. But even hammers have their uses. By design, the TDP slider on the Steam Deck will put a hard limit on how much power the CPU/GPU can draw from the battery. You can't get much more direct battery savings than that.The problem is that games typically, you know, need power. And even games with really fine-grain settings don't generally ask the user to decide how much electricity to draw. For some, especially graphics-heavy games, putting a hard limit on TDP can cause massive performance drops or even game crashes.Less demanding games, though, can benefit from playing with this setting. A useful rule of thumb is that if the game you're playing is already struggling to maintain a consistent frame rate, try something else before touching TDP. But for games like Stardew Valley, where you're never really concerned with frame rate, you can experiment with lowering the TDP limit to 10W or even 5W to see how well the game performs.Of course, setting a TDP limit only matters if it's below what your game was using in the first place. This is another area where the performance overlay comes in handy. You can get a sense of how much power your system is drawing during your games, and use that to gauge how low you want your TDP limit to be.Don't forget per-game battery setting profilesOn top of all these settings, you can also set game-specific profiles to change your battery settings automatically based on the title you're playing. I can't recommend this feature enough, especially if you tend to play games with very different power demands. Few things are more annoying than forgetting you set a low TDP limit for a simple game, then launching a more demanding game that strains against that limit.To use this, it's one simple toggle on the Performance tab. Enable "Use per-game profile" and the Steam Deck will automatically create a profile for every game you use. You can disable this toggle to switch back to the default, if you ever decide you prefer one consistent profile.Keep in mind the profiles only account for the Steam Deck's settings itself, not any game-specific settings. But it's still a handy tool. It can be overwhelming to keep track of all the different buttons and knobs you can fiddle with to get extra battery life, but the Steam Deck manages to balance a ton of customization options with the simplicity of straight-forward, user-friendly tools so you can game longer.

Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 85, your guide to the best and Verge-iest stuff in the world. (If you’re new here, welcome, sorry in advance that this week is a tiny bit politics-y, and also you can read all the old editions at the Installer homepage.) This week, I’ve been reading about Sean Evans and music fraud and ayahuasca, playing with the new Obsidian Bases feature, obsessing over every Cliche” more times than I’m proud of, installing some Elgato Key Lights to improve my WFH camera look, digging the latest beta of Artifacts, and downloading every podcast I can find because I have 20 hours of driving to do this weekend.I also have for you a very funny new movie about tech CEOs, a new place to WhatsApp, a great new accessory for your phone, a helpful crypto politics explainer, and much more. Short week this week, but still lots going on. Let’s do it.(As always, the best part of Installer is your ideas and tips. What are you reading / playing / watching / listening to / shopping for / doing with a Raspberry Pi this week? Tell me everything: installer@theverge.com. And if you know someone else who might enjoy Installer, tell them to subscribe here. And if you haven’t subscribed, you should! You’ll get every issue for free, a day early, in your inbox.)The DropMountainhead. I mean, is there a more me-coded pitch than “Succession vibes, but about tech bros?” It’s about a bunch of (pretty recognizable) billionaires who more or less run the world and are also more or less ruining it. You’ll either find this hilarious, way too close to home, or both. WhatsApp for iPad. I will never, ever understand why Meta hates building iPad apps. But it finally launched the most important one! The app itself is extremely fine and exactly what you’d think it would be, but whatever. It exists! DO INSTAGRAM NEXT.Post Games.Polygon, all about video games. It’s only a couple episodes deep, but so far I love the format: it’s really smart and extremely thoughtful, but it’s also very silly in spots. Big fan.The Popsockets Kick-Out Grip. I am a longtime, die-hard Popsockets user and evangelist, and the new model fixes my one gripe with the thing by working as both a landscape and portrait kickstand. $40 is highway robbery for a phone holder, but this is exactly the thing I wanted.“Dance with Sabrina.” A new, real-time competitive rhythm game inside of Fortnite, in which you try to do well enough to earn the right to actually help create the show itself. Super fun concept, though all these games are better with pads, guitars, or really anything but a normal controller.Lazy 2.0. Lazy is a stealthy but fascinating note-taking tool, and it does an unusually good job of integrating with files and apps. The new version is very AI-forward, basically bringing a personalized chatbot and all your notes to your whole computer. Neat!Elden Ring Nightreign. A multiplayer-heavy spinoff of the game that I cannot get my gamer friends to shut up about, even years after it came out. I’ve seen a few people call the game a bit small and repetitive, but next to Elden Ring I suppose most things are.The Tapo DL100 Smart Deadbolt Door Lock. A $70 door lock with, as far as I can tell, every feature I want in a smart lock: a keypad, physical keys, super long battery life, and lots of assistant integrations. It does look… huge? But it’s pretty bland-looking, which is a good thing.Implosion: The Titanic Sub Disaster. One of a few Titan-related documentaries coming this summer, meant to try and explain what led to the awful events of a couple years ago. I haven’t seen this one yet, but the reviews are solid — and the story seems even sadder and more infuriating than we thought.“The growing scandal of $TRUMP.” I love a good Zeke Faux take on crypto, whether it’s a book or a Search Engine episode. This interview with Ezra Klein is a great explainer of how the Trump family got so into crypto and how it’s being used to move money in deeply confusing and clearly corrupt ways. Cameron Faulkner isn’t technically new to The Verge, he’s just newly back at The Verge. In addition to being a commerce editor on our team, he also wrote one of the deepest dives into webcams you’ll ever find, plays a lot of games, has more thoughts about monitors than any reasonable person should, and is extremely my kind of person. Since he’s now so very back, I asked Cam to share his homescreen with us, as I always try to do with new people here. Here it is, plus some info on the apps he uses and why:The phone: Pixel 9 Pro.The wallpaper: It’s an “Emoji Workshop” creation, which is a feature that’s built into Android 14 and more recent updates. It mashes together emoji into the patterns and colors of your choosing. I picked this one because I like sushi, and I love melon / coral color tones.The apps: Google Keep, Settings, Clock, Phone, Chrome, Pocket Casts, Messages, Spotify.I haven’t downloaded a new app in ages. What’s shown on my homescreen has been there, unmoved, for longer than I can remember. I have digital light switches, a to-do list with the great (but paid) Stuff widget, a simple Google Fit widget to show me how much I moved today, and a couple Google Photos widgets of my lovely wife and son. I could probably function just fine if every app shuffled its location on my homescreen, except for the bottom row. That’s set in stone, never to be fiddled with.I also asked Cameron to share a few things he’s into right now. Here’s what he sent back:Righteous Gemstones on HBO Max. It’s a much smarter comedy than I had assumed (but it’s still dumb in the best ways), and I’m delighted to have four seasons to catch up on. I’m really digging Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, which achieves the feat of breakneck pacing (the game equivalent of a page-turner) and a style that rivals Persona 5, which is high praise. I have accrued well over a dozen Switch 2 accessories, and I’m excited to put them to the test once I get a console on launch day.CrowdsourcedHere’s what the Installer community is into this week. I want to know what you’re into right now, as well! Email installer@theverge.com or message me on Signal — @davidpierce.11 — with your recommendations for anything and everything, and we’ll feature some of our favorites here every week. For even more great recommendations, check out the replies to this post on Threads and this post on Bluesky.“The Devil’s Plan. This Netflix original South Korean reality show locks 14 contestants in a windowless living space that’s part mansion, part prison, part room escape, and challenges them to eliminate each other in a series of complicated tabletop games. (If this sounds familiar, it’s a spiritual successor to the beloved series The Genius from the mid-2010s.)” — Travis“If you’re a fan of Drive to Survive, I’m happy to report that the latest season of Netflix’s series on NASCAR is finally good, and a reasonable substitute for that show once you’ve finished it.” — Christopher“I switched to a Pixel 9 Pro XL and Pixel Watch 3 from an iPhone and Apple Watch about 6 months ago and found Open Bubbles, an open source alternative to BlueBubbles that does need a Mac but doesn’t need that Mac to remain on, You just need a one-time hardware identifier from it, then it gives you full iMessage, Find My, FaceTime, and iCloud shared albums on Android and Windows using an email address. So long as you can get your contacts to iMessage your email instead of your number, it works great.” — Tim“Playing Mario Kart 8 Deluxe for the last time before Mario Kart World arrives next week and takes over my life!” — Ravi“With Pocket being killed off I’ve started using my RSS reader — which is Inoreader — instead as a suitable replacement. I only switched over to Pocket after Omnivore shut down.” — James“I just got a Boox Go 10.3 for my birthday and love it. The lack of front lighting is the biggest downfall. It is also only on Android 12 so I cannot load a corporate profile. It feels good to write on just, almost as good as my cheaper fountain pen and paper. It is helping me organize multiple notebooks and scraps of paper.” — Sean“Giving Tweek a bit of a go, and for a lightweight weekly planner it’s beautiful. I also currently use Motion for project management of personal tasks and when I was doing my Master’s. I really like the Gantt view to map out long term personal and study projects. (I also got a student discount for Motion, but it’s still expensive.)” — Astrid“Might I suggest Elle Griffin’s work at The Elysian? How she’s thinking through speculative futures and a cooperative media system is fascinating.” — Zach“GeForce Now on Steam Deck!” — SteveSigning offOne of the reasons I like making this newsletter with all of you is that it’s a weekly reminder that, hey, actually, there’s a lot of awesome people doing awesome stuff out there on the internet. I spend a lot of my time talking to people who say AI is going to change everything, and we’re all going to just AI ourselves into oblivion and be thrilled about it — a theory I increasingly think is both wrong and horrifying.And then this week I read a blog post from the great Dan Sinker, who called this moment “the Who Cares Era, where completely disposable things are shoddily produced for people to mostly ignore.” You should read the whole thing, but here’s a bit I really loved:“Using extraordinary amounts of resources, it has the ability to create something good enough, a squint-and-it-looks-right simulacrum of normality. If you don’t care, it’s miraculous. If you do, the illusion falls apart pretty quickly. The fact that the userbase for AI chatbots has exploded exponentially demonstrates that good enough is, in fact, good enough for most people. Because most people don’t care.”I don’t think this describes everything and everyone, and neither does Sinker, but I do think it’s more true than it should be. And I increasingly think our job, maybe our method of rebellion, is to be people who care, who have taste, who like and share and look for good things, who read and watch and look at those things on purpose instead of just staring slackjawed at whatever slop is placed between the ads they hope we won’t really notice. I think there are a lot of fascinating ways that AI can be useful, but we can’t let it train us to accept slop just because it’s there. Sorry, this got more existential than I anticipated. But I’ve been thinking about it a lot, and I’m going to try and point Installer even more at the stuff that matters, made by people who care. I hope you’ll hold me to that.See you next week!See More:

As if early June wasn't already going to be a wild enough time in the gaming world with the arrival of the Nintendo Switch 2, that's also when a whole host of showcases takes place as part of Summer Game Fest. Along with the two blockbuster events — Summer Game Fest Live and the Xbox Games Showcase — there are a bunch of other ones in store, including the always-delightful Day of the Devs. There could be even more on the docket. There's always a chance that Nintendo and Sony will run a Direct or State of Play, respectively, over the next few weeks. Ubisoft hasn't yet announced a Forward event for this year — perhaps because it has delayed a bunch of big games and isn't ready to talk about them.  As things stand, SGF is slated to run from June 6 until June 8. With E3 officially dead (organizer Entertainment Software Association is planning an industry-focused event for next April instead), SGF is now the de facto replacement and the biggest event for announcements and updates this side of Gamescom in August. We'll update this preview as more details about the showcases emerge, including additional events in the SGF nebula. We'll embed videos for each stream as they become available as well. Engadget will be on the ground in Los Angeles for the in-person side of SGF, which is for media and creators. We'll be bringing you hands-on impressions of many of the games that are featured during SGF Live. Most folks will be keeping up with everything from home, though. To that end, here's a breakdown of how to watch Summer Game Fest 2025 and what to expect from the extravaganza (we're bound to get a Hollow Knight: Silksong release date this time, right?!?!). Summer Game Fest 2024 schedule Summer Game Fest Live — June 6, 5PM ET Day of the Devs — June 6, 7PM ET Devolver Direct — June 6, 8PM ET Wholesome Direct — June 7, 12PM ET Women-led Games Showcase — June 7, 1PM ET Latin American Games Showcase — June 7, 2PM ET Green Games Showcase — June 7, 4PM ET Xbox Games Showcase — June 8, 1PM ET Death Stranding 2: On The Beach Live Game Premiere — June 8, 10PM ET How to watch Summer Game Fest Live — June 6, 5PM ET Watch on YouTube or Twitch Putting aside our annoyance at the timing of this showcase — late on a Friday evening in the UK and right when many folks on the East Coast are clocking out for the weekend — Summer Game Fest Live is one of the bigger events in early June. It starts at 5PM ET and will run for two hours. Organizers are promising "spectacular new video game announcements, surprises and reveals." That's pretty compelling, especially since host Geoff Keighley (rightfully) downplayed expectations ahead of last year's show.  We do know about a few games that will appear. SGF Live will include a fresh look at Wuchang: Fallen Feathers, a Soulslike action RPG from Leenzee, a studio based in China. That game will arrive in July. Open-world MMORPG Chrono Odyssey will make an appearance as well. Oh, and Hideo Kojima will be there, of course. SGF Live takes place just a couple of weeks before Kojima's Death Stranding 2: On the Beach arrives, so we'll likely get another peek at that game before a more in-depth event on June 8 (more on that momentarily). Perhaps some of the other projects Kojima's working on will get some time in the limelight too. We’re proud to welcome a record-setting 60+ partners for #SummerGameFest 2025, a global celebration of video games in Los Angeles this June. pic.twitter.com/1TZkEbKlHt— Geoff Keighley (@geoffkeighley) May 28, 2025 Keighley has also released an initial list of partners for SGF. It includes big names such as PlayStation, Nintendo Switch 2, Xbox, Steam, 2K, Epic Games and Square Enix. On the list is IO Interactive, so perhaps we'll get more information about the James Bond game that the Hitman studio has been working on for several years.  Embark Studios is there as well, and given that there's a lot of hype around its upcoming extraction shooter, Arc Raiders, there'll be high hopes for a release date for that one. On top of that, CD Projekt Red will be at SGF, but it's more likely to be promoting Cyberpunk 2077's arrival on the Nintendo Switch 2 than shining a spotlight on The Witcher 4 (it feels a little too early for the latter after the reveal trailer at The Game Awards in December). You can watch SGF Live on more than 20 platforms, including YouTube (that stream will be available in 4K at 60 fps), Twitch, X, TikTok, Steam and international services. The event will stream live from the YouTube Theater, and you can attend in person, if you like. In any case, we'll be bringing you all the major news from Summer Game Fest Live. We just can't promise we won't have an adult beverage with an umbrella next to us while we're covering the event. How to watch Day of the Devs — June 6, 7PM ET Watch on YouTube (the same stream as SGF Live above) or Twitch  Immediately after SGF Live ends, the YouTube and Twitch streams will segue into the summer 2025 edition of Day of the Devs. This indie-focused showcase invariably has a fantastic lineup of games worth keeping an eye on. Among the games making appearances are Possessor(s) from Heart Machine and "nightmarish RPG" Neverway from Coldblood and co-publisher Outersloth. We'll also see something from House House (Untitled Goose Game) — presumably the co-op "walker-talker" Big Walk that was revealed in 2023. In all, Day of the Devs will feature 20 games.  Last year's show included 2024 game(s) of the year contender UFO 50, the very intriguing platformer Screenbound, survival climbing game Cairn, the delightfully kooky-looking Building Relationships and sci-fi mystery Phoenix Springs. My Steam wishlist somehow expands quite significantly after each Day of the Devs showcase. Weird how that always happens. How to watch Devolver Direct — June 6, 8PM ET Watch on YouTube (the same stream as SGF Live and Day of The Devs above) or Twitch  Sorry to everyone who was hoping for Baby Steps and Skate Story release dates from the SGF edition of Devolver Direct. This installment will be entirely focused on one game, and it's neither of those. Devolver Digital will be showing off a previously unannounced title called Ball x Pit: The Kenny Sun Story. The publisher hasn't revealed any more details about this game yet, but apparently it's one that the Devolver "team themselves can't even put down — hundreds of hours later." Devolver's got a strong track record, so this will probably be worth your attention. How to watch Wholesome Direct — June 7, 12PM ET Watch on YouTube or Twitch Definitely don't overlook the smaller events that take place during SGF, as you can always find plenty of treats among them. One such event is the Wholesome Direct, which will feature around 60 cozy games. It will include world premieres, demo announcements and updates from publishers and developers including Playstack, btf Games, ustwo games and Wētā Workshop (whose Tales of the Shire: A The Lord of The Rings Game arrives in July). How to watch Women-led Games Showcase — June 7, 1PM ET Watch on YouTube This one does what it says on the tin. It's a showcase featuring games from women-led and majority-women studios. Women-led Games will feature 39 titles, including world premieres and release dates. How to watch Latin American Games Showcase — June 7, 2PM ET Watch on YouTube The Latin American Games Showcase will feature more than 50 games, all of which are from Latin American developers, oddly enough. Expect world premieres, game update news and more from this one. How to watch Green Games Showcase — June 7, 4PM ET Watch on YouTube The Green Games Showcase is a new addition to the lineup for 2025. This will focus on the game's industry's "growing commitment to the environment." It will feature games that make direct contributions to green initiatives. Other titles in the showcase center around sustainability, and some are designed to raise awareness or drive action regarding environmental causes. Amazon Games, Skybound Games and Team17 are among those taking part. The stream will include a Q&A about how games can inspire meaningful action on climate change. There will also be a fundraising drive to help plant 50,000 trees. How to watch Xbox Games Showcase — June 8, 1PM ET Watch on YouTube or Twitch (there's a separate ASL stream on Twitch too) What's the over/under on the number of times the phrase "day one with Game Pass" will appear on this stream? That's one phrase you can definitely expect to hear, but Microsoft will have plenty to share here. It's the biggest Xbox showcase of the year. There will be reveals and updates from across Xbox Game Studios, Bethesda and Activision Blizzard. Games that the company has in the pipeline include Fable (2026), Perfect Dark, Gears of War: E-Day, Everwild, State of Decay 3, Clockwork Revolution, Hideo Kojima's OD and Contraband. It feels a little early for an update on The Elder Scrolls 6 since that game is still years away. But we may find out more about those other games and some we don't yet know about, such as whatever Double Fine and Toys for Bob are working on.  I have my fingers crossed for more info on the Blade game that Arkane Studios is working on. It's a reasonably safe bet that we'll see something about the next Call of Duty here as well. There's always going to be space for offerings from Microsoft's partner studios and publishers too. Plus, you never know, we might get a peek at what Halo Studios has been cooking up. One game we'll definitely hear more about on June 8 is The Outer Worlds 2. That's getting its own time in the spotlight, with a dedicated event that will start as soon as the main Xbox Games Showcase ends. How to watch Death Stranding 2 Live Game Premiere — June 8, 10PM ET Watch on YouTube Kojima will join Keighley at the Orpheum Theatre in LA to kick off a world tour of events to celebrate the arrival of Death Stranding 2: On The Beach. There will be a panel discussion with some special guests, as well as a live demo of the highly anticipated game. In case you can't make it in person (ticket registration is open now), you can watch the hour-long event live at home.  Meanwhile, several publishers and other organizations are hosting their own shows around SGF. Here's when those will take place:  Access-Ability Summer Showcase — June 6, 11AM ET, on YouTube, YouTube with British Sign Language and Twitch (featuring games made by disabled developers and the accessibility options in each title) IGN Live — throughout June 7 and 8, on YouTube and Twitch Southeast Asian Games Showcase — June 7, 3PM ET, on YouTube Future Games Show — June 7, 4PM ET, on YouTube (featuring more than 40 games)  Frosty Games Fest — June 7, 7PM ET, on YouTube (showcasing "the coolest upcoming and recently released games made in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand") PC Gamer's PC Gaming Show — June 8, 3PM ET, on YouTube (with 50-plus games) Phew. Get ready, gamers. Details on many, many new games are coming your way very soon.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/summer-game-fest-2025-what-new-game-announcements-to-expect-and-how-to-watch-162140617.html?src=rss