A brand spanking-new FoloToy teddy bear can be yours once again. However, he may now be less knowledgeable about spanking. The infamous "Kumma" children's AI teddy bear, once an expert in BDSM and knife-fetching, is back on sale. The company claims the toy now has stronger child safety protections in place.
The Singapore-based FoloToy suspended sales of Kumma last week after a research group published an eyebrow-raising report. The PIRG Education Fund found that the fuzzy little teddy had a few spicy secrets.
The review discovered that the AI toy had a thing for blades and kinky bedroom play. The bear had no problem suggesting where to find knives in the home. And it not only replied to sexual prompts but also expanded on them. Researchers say it ran with their explicit cues, escalating them in graphic detail and "introducing new sexual concepts of its own." It explained sex positions, gave step-by-step instructions for sexual bondage and detailed various role-playing scenarios. Who knew Kumma had it in him?
Marketing photo of a child grinning, looking at a teddy bear on a counch.
FoloToy
Although it's hard not to laugh at the absurdity of it all, this stuff is no joke for parents. With the tech industry pushing AI everything on us for the last three years, it's easy for a casual observer to conclude that it's all very safe, regulated and ready for vulnerable eyes and ears. PIRG did acknowledge that young children were unlikely to have prompted the bear with a term like "kink." (Older siblings may have been another story.) Still, the group's tests highlighted a shockingly lax approach to content moderation on a child's toy.
In its statement announcing Kumma's return, FoloToy boasted that it was the only company of the three targeted in the review to suspend sales. (Could it be that it’s less about principles and more about it being the only one that got media coverage?) The company described the bear's short hiatus as "a full week of rigorous review, testing and reinforcement of our safety modules." Wait, a whole week? Whoa there, partner!!
Before his trip to AI rehab, Kumma was advertised as being powered by GPT-4o. Following PIRG's review, OpenAI told the organization that it had suspended FoloToy for violating its policies. The bear's new listing makes no mention of GPT-4o or any specific AI models.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/folotoys-ai-teddy-bear-is-back-on-sale-following-its-brief-foray-into-bdsm-213138383.html?src=rss
Xbox and Crocs have found an unexpected sweet spot between gaming culture and lifestyle fashion, creating a collaboration that feels both humorous and oddly fitting. For years, Xbox controllers have shaped how players interact with their consoles, while Crocs have become the go-to footwear for effortless comfort. Now, the two brands have merged these worlds with a product that looks like it jumped straight out of a gamer’s wishlist.
The result is the Xbox Classic Clog, a limited-edition release that transforms the familiar Xbox controller layout into a fully wearable piece of footwear. It’s the kind of drop that instantly sparks curiosity, something playful enough to be a conversation starter while still holding the appeal of a genuine collectible.
The clogs mimic the look of an Xbox controller with surprising accuracy. Each pair features molded analog sticks, the D-pad, ABXY buttons, menu and share buttons, and even the iconic Xbox guide button positioned just as it appears on a real controller. These fixed-dimensional elements rise from the clog’s surface, creating a sculpted texture that’s unmistakably inspired by the gamepad. The design continues around the sides, where the clogs integrate bumper-like detailing, and the heel strap hinges display the Xbox logo. Even the footbeds get their own touch of gamer personality with “Player Left” and “Player Right” printed inside, giving the shoes a fun two-player theme.
Released today, the Xbox Classic Clog is priced at $80 and sold through the Crocs website. While the design leans heavily into novelty, the footwear retains the brand’s standard comfort features. They remain lightweight, water-friendly, buoyant, and quick to dry, with pivoting heel straps for a more secure fit. They’re also compatible with Jibbitz charms, and Xbox has introduced its own five-pack of themed charms for $20. This pack includes franchises such as Halo, Fallout, DOOM, World of Warcraft, and Sea of Thieves, giving fans a way to personalize their clogs with characters and symbols from some of Microsoft’s biggest titles. Unlike typical Crocs, the strap itself is designed to hold these charms, while the main upper remains focused on showcasing the controller layout.
The collaboration arrives as part of Microsoft’s growing interest in lifestyle products. Earlier in the year, the company released Windows XP–themed Crocs to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Microsoft, showing that this partnership with Crocs is becoming more than a one-off novelty. The Xbox Classic Clog continues this trend, embracing gaming nostalgia and translating it into something wearable, collectable, and immediately recognizable.
Because the release is limited, demand is expected to surge, especially since the launch coincided with the holiday shopping rush. For gamers, it’s more than just footwear—it’s a fun, unexpected extension of the Xbox brand, blending comfort, fandom, and a bit of humor into one product. Whether worn during long gaming sessions, used as lounge shoes, or displayed as part of a gamer’s setup, the Xbox Classic Clog stands out as a clever crossover that celebrates the culture surrounding the console while delivering the ease and comfort Crocs are known for.
Perplexity is rolling out a new shopping feature to make buying things through its AI assistant easier and more personalized. The company's new feature is free for all Perplexity users in the US and builds on Perplexity’s existing relationship with payment provider Paypal.
The new shopping experience lets Perplexity users conduct more personalized product searches, like asking "What's the best winter jacket if I live in San Francisco and take a ferry to work?" Perplexity says its assistant can keep the context of your chat in mind as it searches for products, and incorporate details it's learned about your life and preferences to tailor results. Once the assistant has found products it wants to show you, it can then present them in nicely formatted product cards, with pros and cons about each jacket, for example, and other relevant details pulled from reviews and guides.
If one of the products Perplexity finds seems like the right fit, you can also purchase the product directly through the company's assistant, and pay with payment details stored in a PayPal account. This "Instant Buy" experience provided by Perplexity and PayPal extends to all merchants who offer PayPal as a payment method. While that sounds like it could make a key element of the shopping experience obsolete for these online stores (you never actually visit their website), Perplexity claims merchants still own the most important parts. "They have full visibility into who their customer is, can process returns, build loyalty, and own the post-purchase relationship, just as they would on their own sites," the AI company says.
Perplexity's push into online shopping is similar to the "shopping research" feature OpenAI recently added to ChatGPT, and new product recommendation features Google's added to AI Mode in Google Search. While all these tools are pitched as a more personalized alternative to the shopping guides you'll find on Engadget and other editorial sites, they often work under the same logic. By referring someone to a product, AI companies hope to receive a payment or a fee from the transaction if the person makes a purchase.
Ultimately, Perplexity is equally interested in offering an end-to-end solution, where it finds and purchases products without a human needing to step in. The company received a cease-and-desist from Amazon at the beginning of November for letting the agent in its Comet browser complete Amazon purchases on users' behalf.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/perplexity-announces-its-own-take-on-an-ai-shopping-assistant-210500961.html?src=rss
Most yard tools look like they were designed in 1987 and never got the memo that aesthetics matter. Bosch green, DeWalt yellow, Milwaukee red, all shaped like someone welded a tube to a motor and called it done. Then Hoto shows up with a 20V leaf blower that looks like it fell out of a District 9 prop truck, all sleek curves and matte surfaces, the kind of thing you’d expect to see mounted on a space marine’s hip rather than hanging in a suburban garage. It’s aggressively not a traditional leaf blower, and that’s either going to appeal to you immediately or make you wonder if form just murdered function.
Here’s the thing, though: weird-looking tools only get a pass if they actually work. A beautifully designed blower that can’t move wet leaves is just expensive wall art. Hoto’s betting that 720 CFM and 120 MPH in a 7-pound package will back up the sci-fi vibes, aiming squarely at people with small yards, patios, or garages who want something that doesn’t scream “big box store clearance aisle” every time they pull it out. Whether that gamble pays off depends on what you’re actually trying to blow and how much you care that your tools look like they belong in a Dyson showroom.
At around seven pounds with the battery, it’s not feather-light, but the weight is distributed in a way that makes it feel more like a wand than a cumbersome piece of equipment. It’s a one-handed affair, easily maneuverable around patio furniture or into tight corners. Firing it up is a simple affair with three distinct power levels. On the lower two settings, it’s perfect for sweeping out the garage, clearing sawdust from a workbench, or herding dry leaves across a driveway. It handles these everyday tasks with a quiet confidence, making quick cleanups feel genuinely effortless. The real surprise is how much air it moves without the high-pitched whine that makes your neighbors hate you.
Crank it up to its turbo mode, however, and you get a glimpse of both its power and its limitations. That 720 CFM figure feels legitimate for a few glorious, deafening moments as it blasts stubborn debris and even light, fluffy snow off a car. But this is a 20V tool, not a 56V monster, and that burst of power comes at a cost. The battery, a 4,000 mAh pack, will give you a solid 20-30 minutes of runtime on the lower settings, but leaning on the turbo button drains it in about four minutes. This isn’t the tool for clearing a quarter-acre of wet, matted-down leaves. It simply doesn’t have the endurance.
But that’s the point. The Hoto 20V blower isn’t trying to compete with the gas-guzzling beasts used by professional landscapers. It’s for the person who values design, convenience, and having the right amount of power for modern living spaces. The battery even charges via USB-C, a welcome touch that means one less proprietary charging dock cluttering up your life. It’s a tool designed for the 90% of jobs that don’t require overwhelming force, and it does them exceptionally well while looking cooler than any other blower on the block.
Games Done Quick has wrapped up its 2025 events, but a new year of speedrunning for charity is on the horizon. The organization released the schedule for Back to Black 2026 on Tuesday. You can watch the action from February 5 to 8.
As its name suggests, the event celebrates the Black community through the joy of gaming. Organized by Black in a Flash, the event will showcase all-Black speed runs of titles ranging from popular to obscure.
There are plenty of fun runs on the schedule. Someone will take on Hades II, one of the best games of 2025. Then there's Cuphead, an excruciatingly difficult title even when you have all the time in the world. The schedule has some retro games, like Donkey Kong Country, Street Fighter 2 and Sonic Heroes. You'll also find some little-known ones, like the 1996 Sega Saturn weirdfest, Mr. Bones.
This year's shindig will support Race Forward, a nonprofit working toward racial equity. Last year's Back to Black event raised $44,000 for the same charity.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/games-done-quicks-back-to-black-event-returns-in-february-201500830.html?src=rss
Fubo has issued a statement on its latest row with NBCUniversal over a carriage dispute involving NBC's most popular channels. This past Friday, NBCU networks went dark on Fubo across both live and on-demand services. Fubo subscribers trying to watch NBC content were met with a message that read, “We are working hard to bring this channel back. We are currently negotiating with NBCUniversal and are hopeful that we’ll bring this channel back to you soon.”
Today, Fubo said it has been engaged in good-faith negotiations with NBCUniversal to renew a content agreement for its networks. Fubo said that NBCU's demands, however, would harm its customers, and that the streaming company has not agreed to the proposed terms.
"NBCU is spinning off some of their cable networks into a new company called Versant on Jan 1, 2026. Despite them not being worth the cost to Fubo subscribers, Fubo offered to distribute Versant channels for one year. NBCU wants Fubo to sign a multi-year deal — well past the time the Versant channels will be owned by a separate company. NBCU wants Fubo subscribers to subsidize these channels," the statement reads.
The statement goes on to accuse NBCU of discriminating against Fubo and its subscribers by allowing YouTube TV and Amazon Prime Video to integrate Peacock into the popular streaming services, while not extending the same rights to Fubo. In a blog post yesterday, Fubo said the terms on pricing and packaging being offered by NBCUniversal were "egregiously above those offered to other distributors."
"Fubo has chosen to drop NBCUniversal programming despite being offered the same terms agreed to by hundreds of other distributors. Unfortunately, this is par for the course for Fubo — they’ve dropped numerous networks in recent years at the expense of their customers, who continue to lose content," an NBCUniversal spokesperson told Engadget when asked to comment on Fubo's accusations.
The company also pointed to ten major drops that Fubo has incurred over the past five years including Discovery networks and AMC. A full list of channels that are still dark on Fubo can be found here.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/streaming/fubo-accuses-nbcuniversal-of-egregious-demands-amid-carriage-dispute-193515241.html?src=rss
Ready for some turkey day football? (Getty Images)
saje via Getty Images
The Dallas Cowboys have become as much a part of Thanksgiving Day tradition as turkey and stuffing. The team has played a Thanksgiving game every year since 1978, and this year, they'll be setting the table to host the Kansas City Chiefs at AT&T Stadium. The Chiefs will likely arrive hungry; they haven't appeared in a turkey day game since 2006. The game is set to air on CBS and Paramount+, with kickoff scheduled for 4:30 p.m. ET. If you want to welcome Dak Prescott, Patrick Mahomes and the rest of these two teams into your living room on Thursday (oh, and Post Malone, too — he's performing at halftime), we've got some good news: you can watch the game at a steep discount thanks to an incredible new deal for a subscription to Paramount+.
Starting on November 25 at 12 p.m. ET and running through December 2, you can score either the Paramount+ Essential plan or an ad-free Paramount+ Premium plan for $2.99/month for 2 months. You can use either plan to watch this week's Thanksgiving game, and more than 30 games during the remainder of the season, too.
Here's what you need to know to watch the Chiefs vs. Cowboys Thanksgiving Day game for less on Paramount+.
How to watch the Kansas City Chiefs vs. Dallas Cowboys on Paramount+ for less:
Date: Thursday, Nov. 27
Time: 4:30 p.m. ET
Streaming: Paramount+
Kansas City Chiefs vs. Dallas Cowboys game time:
The Chiefs face the Cowboys on Thanksgiving Day at 4:30 p.m. ET/1:30 p.m. PT.
How to watch the Chiefs vs. Cowboys game without cable:
The Thanksgiving Day game between the Chiefs and the Cowboys will be broadcast on CBS, which means you'll be able to stream it on Paramount+. As a general rule of thumb, as long as a game is broadcast on your local CBS station, it will be available in the Live TV section of Paramount+.
How to watch the rest of the 2025-2026 NFL season on Paramount+:
There are six weeks left in the NFL season (not including the playoffs). Here's a list of every remaining regular-season game of the upcoming NFL season, with every matchup that will air on CBS and Paramount+ in bold, including this year's Thanksgiving Day matchup between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Dallas Cowboys. Note that NFL on CBS games broadcast by your local CBS station can be streamed live on Paramount+ through the Live TV menu.
WEEK 13
Thursday, Nov. 27, 2025
Green Bay Packers at Detroit Lions (Thanksgiving Day), 1 PM ET
Kansas City Chiefs at Dallas Cowboys (Thanksgiving Day), 4:30 PM ET
(CBS/Paramount+)*
Cincinnati Bengals at Baltimore Ravens (Thanksgiving Day), 8:20 PM ET
Friday, Nov. 28, 2025
Chicago Bears at Philadelphia Eagles, 3 PM ET
Sunday, Nov. 30, 2025
Los Angeles Rams at Carolina Panthers, 1 PM ET
San Francisco 49ers at Cleveland Browns, 1 PM ET (CBS/Paramount+)*
Houston Texans at Indianapolis Colts, 1 PM ET (CBS/Paramount+)*
New Orleans Saints at Miami Dolphins, 1 PM ET
Atlanta Falcons at New York Jets, 1 PM ET
Arizona Cardinals at Tampa Bay Buccaneers, 1 PM ET
Jacksonville Jaguars at Tennessee Titans, 1 PM ET (CBS/Paramount+)*
Minnesota Vikings at Seattle Seahawks, 4:05 PM ET
Las Vegas Raiders at Los Angeles Chargers, 4:25 PM ET (CBS/Paramount+)*
Buffalo Bills at Pittsburgh Steelers, 4:25 PM ET (CBS/Paramount+)*
Denver Broncos at Washington Commanders, 8:20 PM ET
Monday, Dec. 1, 2025
New York Giants at New England Patriots, 8:15 PM ET
WEEK 14
Thursday, Dec. 4, 2025
Dallas Cowboys at Detroit Lions, 8:15 PM ET
Sunday, Dec. 7, 2025
Seattle Seahawks at Atlanta Falcons, 1 PM ET
Pittsburgh Steelers at Baltimore Ravens, 1 PM ET (CBS/Paramount+)*
Tennessee Titans at Cleveland Browns, 1 PM ET
Chicago Bears at Green Bay Packers, 1 PM ET
Indianapolis Colts at Jacksonville Jaguars, 1 PM ET (CBS/Paramount+)*
Washington Commanders at Minnesota Vikings, 1 PM ET
Miami Dolphins at New York Jets, 1 PM ET (CBS/Paramount+)*
New Orleans Saints at Tampa Bay Buccaneers, 1 PM ET (CBS/Paramount+)*
Denver Broncos at Las Vegas Raiders, 4:05 PM ET (CBS/Paramount+)*
Los Angeles Rams at Arizona Cardinals, 4:25 PM ET
Cincinnati Bengals at Buffalo Bills, 4:25 PM ET
Houston Texans at Kansas City Chiefs, 8:20 PM ET
Monday, Dec. 8, 2025
Philadelphia Eagles at Los Angeles Chargers, 8:15 PM ET
BYES: Carolina, New England, N.Y. Giants, San Francisco
WEEK 15
Thursday, Dec. 11, 2025
Atlanta Falcons at Tampa Bay Buccaneers, 8:15 PM ET
Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025
Cleveland Browns at Chicago Bears, 1 PM ET
Baltimore Ravens at Cincinnati Bengals, 1 PM ET (CBS/Paramount+)*
Arizona Cardinals at Houston Texans, 1 PM ET
New York Jets at Jacksonville Jaguars, 1 PM ET (CBS/Paramount+)*
Los Angeles Chargers at Kansas City Chiefs, 1 PM ET (CBS/Paramount+)*
Buffalo Bills at New England Patriots, 1 PM ET (CBS/Paramount+)*
Washington Commanders at New York Giants, 1 PM ET
Las Vegas Raiders at Philadelphia Eagles, 1 PM ET
Green Bay Packers at Denver Broncos, 4:25 PM ET (CBS/Paramount+)*
Detroit Lions at Los Angeles Rams, 4:25 PM ET
Carolina Panthers at New Orleans Saints, 4:25 PM ET
Indianapolis Colts at Seattle Seahawks, 4:25 PM ET (CBS/Paramount+)*
Tennessee Titans at San Francisco 49ers, 4:25 PM ET
Minnesota Vikings at Dallas Cowboys, 8:20 PM ET
Monday, Dec. 15, 2025
Miami Dolphins at Pittsburgh Steelers. 8:15 PM ET
WEEK 16
Thursday, Dec. 18, 2025
Los Angeles Rams at Seattle Seahawks, 8:15 PM ET
Saturday, Dec. 20, 2025
Green Bay Packers at Chicago Bears, TBD
Philadelphia Eagles at Washington Commanders, TBD
Sunday, Dec. 21, 2025
New England Patriots at Baltimore Ravens, 1 PM ET (CBS/Paramount+)*
Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Carolina Panthers, 1 PM ET
Buffalo Bills at Cleveland Browns, 1 PM ET (CBS/Paramount+)*
Los Angeles Chargers at Dallas Cowboys, 1 PM ET
New York Jets at New Orleans Saints, 1 PM ET (CBS/Paramount+)*
Minnesota Vikings at New York Giants, 1 PM ET
Kansas City Chiefs at Tennessee Titans, 1 PM ET (CBS/Paramount+)*
Atlanta Falcons at Arizona Cardinals, 4:05 PM ET
Jacksonville Jaguars at Denver Broncos, 4:05 PM ET
Pittsburgh Steelers at Detroit Lions, 4:25 PM ET (CBS/Paramount+)*
Las Vegas Raiders at Houston Texans, 4:25 PM ET (CBS/Paramount+)*
Cincinnati Bengals at Miami Dolphins, 8:20 PM ET
Monday, Dec. 22, 2025
San Francisco 49ers at Indianapolis Colts, 8:15 PM ET
WEEK 17
Thursday, Dec. 25, 2025
Dallas Cowboys at Washington Commanders, 1 PM ET
Detroit Lions at Minnesota Vikings, 4:30 PM ET
Denver Broncos at Kansas City Chiefs, 8:15 PM ET
Saturday, Dec. 27, 2025
Seattle Seahawks at Carolina Panthers**
Arizona Cardinals at Cincinnati Bengals**
Baltimore Ravens at Green Bay Packers**
Houston Texans at Los Angeles Chargers**
New York Giants at Las Vegas Raiders**
Sunday, Dec. 28, 2025
Pittsburgh Steelers at Cleveland Browns, 1 PM ET (CBS/Paramount+)*
Jacksonville Jaguars at Indianapolis Colts, 1 PM ET
Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Miami Dolphins, 1 PM ET
New England Patriots at New York Jets, 1 PM ET (CBS/Paramount+)*
New Orleans Saints at Tennessee Titans, 1 PM ET (CBS/Paramount+)*
Philadelphia Eagles at Buffalo Bills, 4:25 PM ET
Chicago Bears at San Francisco 49ers, 8:20 PM ET
Monday, Dec. 29, 2025
Los Angeles Rams at Atlanta Falcons, 8:15 PM ET
WEEK 18
Saturday, Jan. 3, 2026, or Sunday, Jan. 4, 2026
New Orleans Saints at Atlanta Falcons**
New York Jets at Buffalo Bills***
Detroit Lions at Chicago Bears**
Cleveland Browns at Cincinnati Bengals***
Los Angeles Chargers at Denver Broncos***
Indianapolis Colts at Houston Texans***
Tennessee Titans at Jacksonville Jaguars***
Arizona Cardinals at Los Angeles Rams**
Kansas City Chiefs at Las Vegas Raiders***
Green Bay Packers at Minnesota Vikings**
Miami Dolphins at New England Patriots***
Dallas Cowboys at New York Giants**
Washington Commanders at Philadelphia Eagles**
Baltimore Ravens at Pittsburgh Steelers**
Seattle Seahawks at San Francisco 49ers**
Carolina Panthers at Tampa Bay Buccaneers**
*During the regular season, consult your local TV listings to see which, if any, NFL on CBS games will be broadcast by your local CBS station. NFL on CBS games broadcast by your local CBS station can be streamed live on Paramount+. **Time and broadcast assignment TBD. ***Subject to change.
What other sports can I watch on Paramount+?
With a Paramount+ Essential plan, NFL on CBS games and UEFA Champions League soccer are both included in the price. If you upgrade to a Paramount+ Premium plan, you'll get access to all CBS sports, including Big Ten Football on CBS, NCAA basketball, golf, rugby, and live channels, including CBS Sports Golazo Network and more.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/streaming/how-to-watch-the-thanksgiving-day-chiefs-vs-cowboys-game-for-less-with-paramount-200535979.html?src=rss
OpenAI has announced that it's changing how ChatGPT's Voice mode works on the web and inside the company's app. As part of an update, you can interact with ChatGPT Voice directly within your ongoing chat, letting you see a transcript of your conversation with OpenAI's AI model, along with visuals that demonstrate whatever ChatGPT is talking about.
You can start a voice chat just by tapping or clicking on the "waveform" icon next to ChatGPT's text field. Rather than launching into the original orb-filled interface the feature launched as, voice chats now happen in-line with whatever you were previously discussing. In the demo video OpenAI shared alongside the announcement, ChatGPT was able to display a transcript of the conversation, followed by a map listing popular bakeries and photos of pastries sold at Tartine. OpenAI says that if you prefer the original Voice interface, you can switch back to it by toggling on Separate mode under the Voice Mode section of ChatGPT's Settings.
You can now use ChatGPT Voice right inside chat—no separate mode needed.
You can talk, watch answers appear, review earlier messages, and see visuals like images or maps in real time.
Combining visuals and voice responses together is a natural extension of the multimodal nature of ChatGPT. You can already prompt OpenAI's model with your voice and an image or video, it makes sense that voice responses from ChatGPT should have the same level of detail. Google has explored similar methods for making Gemini Live more expressive during conversations, including letting the AI highlight specific parts of a live video with overlays. This OpenAI feature isn't quite reactive in the same way, but it could make a voice conversation with ChatGPT more informative.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/now-you-can-use-chatgpt-voice-without-leaving-your-chat-195000538.html?src=rss
The upcoming Multiplayer Online Battle Arena (MOBA) game Spellcasters Chronicles will be available to play as a closed beta starting on December 4 until December 8. This is the first closed beta weekend for the free-to-play game and the first online play test, as it was originally announced just a couple of months back.
Spellcasters Chronicles is being developed by Quantic Dream and looks like the company's attempt to compete with big-time MOBAs like League of Legends and Dota. This is a fairly strange title for Quantic Dream, given that the studio is primarily known for narrative games that rely heavily on player choice. The company has been behind games like Heavy Rain and Detroit: Become Human.
In other words, the 3 vs. 3 MOBA with a third-person perspective is an odd duck and we have no idea how it'll play. Luckily, we'll know a whole lot more next weekend. The closed beta takes place on Steam and grants access to six player classes, each with unique abilities. These classes "can summon creatures, cast spells and take fight to command the arena." There's a class called "Swamp Witch" that I'd very much like to play as.
The beta will also unveil a new arena called The Mausoleum and introduce the game's deck-building component. The arena battles will last 25 minutes, with teams being tasked to capture altars to gain enemy territory.
This is just the first closed beta for Spellcasters Chronicles. The developer promises a second beta early next year. That next one will introduce new character classes, arenas, spells and summons.
As for Quantic Dream, it's still developing Star Wars: Eclipse. However, we haven't heard a blip about it in years.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/pc/you-can-try-quantic-dreams-upcoming-moba-during-a-closed-beta-next-week-194038411.html?src=rss
Google is making The Thinking Game, a 2024 Tribeca Festival selection about DeepMind, available for free. The nearly 90-minute documentary offers a glimpse into the AI team's background and breakthroughs.
The film, from the same team as the 2017 AlphaGo doc (also on YouTube), was shot over five years. It chronicles Nobel winner Demis Hassabis' beginnings as a chess prodigy and how that shaped his entry into AI. You'll see DeepMind's journey from building AI that (slowly) learned Pong to one that accurately predicted how proteins fold.
You can watch The Thinking Game below or on YouTube.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/you-can-now-watch-a-google-deepmind-doc-for-free-184911659.html?src=rss
