Games worth your time
Games, guides and sharp opinions from the browser arcade outward — Xarmo, Steam, Fortnite, browser games and whatever else is worth playing or understanding.
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Apple's MacBook Pro with PROLED XDR Display brings touch to the Mac for the first time, with a tandem OLED panel, M5 Pro or M5 Max, and prices from $2,899. Pre-orders opened October 28; it ships November 6.
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Platforms
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Worth a click
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Timely reporting across games, major consumer technology, AI/software, creator platforms and selected space/science developments.
Microsoft / Windows
Microsoft's October 26 out-of-band updates drop seven eMudhra certificates from Windows' trusted roots after eight of its signing keys proved trivially recoverable. Most connected PCs get the change automatically.
Artificial Intelligence
DeepMind's Genie 4 generates explorable worlds in real time with native sound, holds a scene together for up to two minutes, and lets you change it as you go. Game developers are among the first testers.
Apple
iOS 27.2 brings Siri AI to French, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese and Spanish speakers, returns Messages suggestions, adds Multiview to the TV app and fixes security bugs. Much of it depends on your device and region.
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Games, hardware, creator work and selected technology experiences judged on their merits.
Horror Games
Mortismal finished Stygian: Outer Gods and calls it fun, flawed and worth it only at a budget price.
Xbox
Spooky Doorway's 1897 Irish-hotel mystery reached Xbox and Game Pass on October 27 with a year of strong reviews behind it. Critics agree on the writing, art and time-budget structure; the only real split is how much it guides your deductions.
RPGs
Skill Up strongly recommends Phantom Blade Zero, and argues it's closer to God of War than to a Soulslike.
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Explainers, comparisons and deeper stories about games, technology, AI, platforms and the internet culture around them.
Apple
Apple announced the first iPod on October 23, 2001: $399, 5GB, 1,000 songs, and a FireWire port Apple said copied a CD in under ten seconds. A quarter-century on, the odd choices are the ones that made it.
Gaming Laptops & Handheld PCs
ETA Prime tries Acer's first US handheld: a strong screen and grip, held back by a mushy D-pad.
Creator / Internet Culture
Instagram's Adam Mosseri tells Colin and Samir why the platform now wants long-form horizontal video, and how creators might be paid.
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Practical how-tos, settings, troubleshooting and advice for games, platforms and selected consumer technology.
The Last of Us
The Last of Us Part II Remastered has 30 accessibility options on PS5, and No Return uses them. The settings worth turning on, what each does, and what PlayStation's documentation does and doesn't confirm.
PlayStation Plus
Catalog games on PS Plus Extra and Premium stop working the day they leave. Here is where the dates are posted, what survives (saves and trophies), what doesn't (access and DLC), and when buying beats waiting.
PC Gaming
Linus Tech Tips' guide to moving a PC from Windows to Linux, step by step, with the cautions that matter for gamers.
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Updates on xarmo, its original browser games, site features, experiments and product changes.
Xarmo
Xarmo started from instant-play browser games and has been growing a publication around the same idea: useful things should be one click away.
Xarmo
One button is enough when the timing window keeps asking a different question.
Xarmo
Xarmo is built around browser games on a shared public site, so the useful way to reduce friction is to treat the browser, controls and individual game state as separate layers.
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PC, consoles, devices, operating systems, subscriptions and major platform-level changes.
Steam
At a developer Q&A in Busan, Valve's Steam team said it won't police which tools developers use, called AI-clone extortion a matter for law enforcement, and explained why Next Fest starts out random. No policy change was announced.
PlayStation
Funcom's rebuilt Conan Exiles Enhanced arrives on PS5 in early 2027, free for everyone who owns the game on PlayStation, with Bazaar items and DLC carried over. Cloud-island survival game Aloft makes its console debut in the same window.
Nintendo Switch
Minecraft's native Switch 2 version launched October 27 with Vibrant Visuals built in. Digital Switch owners upgrade free; cartridge owners get a discount on the Ultimate Collection instead. Nintendo Life likes it, but misses a mouse mode.
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Browser games, HTML5 gaming, instant-play web games and the culture around playing in a browser.
Web Gaming / HTML5 Games
Browser games still have a distribution trick native games cannot quite match: a URL can be both the recommendation and the doorway into play.
Browser Games
Flash Player ended, but browser games did not: web standards replaced the plug-in while archives and emulation kept parts of the old catalogue playable.
Browser Games
Before clearing browser site data, check whether reloads, focus, zoom or heavy background tabs explain the problem so you do not wipe useful local state unnecessarily.
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Stories and features about individual games and franchises, from major releases to enduring favourites.
The Witcher
The Witcher 3 keeps getting replayed for its side quests, not its apocalypse. Six that show why, from the Bloody Baron's ruined family to a frying pan and a play where you have to remember your lines.
Valorant
Most Valorant maps give attackers two spike sites. Haven and Lotus have three, and that one extra objective changes how both teams spend space, time and rotations.
Assassin's Creed
In 2018, Assassin's Creed Origins added a Discovery Tour that removed combat and quests, turning its recreation of ancient Egypt into a guided, history-first museum.
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Gaming history, communities, esports, creators, internet culture, mysteries and the wider stories around how people play and participate online.
Esports
Lowko rewatches StarCraft 2's first major LAN final, from August 2010, and measures how far esports has come.
Gaming Culture
PlayStation Access's Rob Pearson picks seven mechanics that feel good the instant you pull them off.
Racing Games
From 2008 to 2016, Nissan and PlayStation's GT Academy turned the fastest Gran Turismo players into real racing drivers. Its first winner was on the Le Mans podium within three years, and another's story became a Hollywood film.