Tech

Tracing blueprints in Paralives freed me from 25 years of The Sims' grid

Life sim player tradition—or stubbornness—has me trying to build real houses in games, but The Sims' grid-based building never quite matched actual floor plans. Paralives' gridless system uses real-world measurements, which lets me import a real blueprint and trace it directly. One simple trick, which requires

Science

Storm petrels follow crosswinds to find prey

NASA-funded researchers have learned that Mediterranean storm petrels actively seek stiff crosswinds because the gusts carry odors the birds use to navigate toward prey. The birds effectively trade the extra energy needed to fly in a crosswind for the information the wind blows toward them. These sparrow-sized birds routinely undertake

Culture

Berserk returns with chapter Miura wrestled with for 20 years

Berserk is back: chapter 384 released today in Japan’s Young Animal magazine and the team behind the series calls it a milestone Miura had been wrestling with for the better part of two decades. After Kentaro Miura’s passing in 2021, Kouji Mori and the apprentices at Studio Gaga

Tech

New Xbox CEO aims to speed up Fallout and Elder Scrolls sequels

It has been eight years since The Elder Scrolls 6 was announced, and little new information has emerged. With development costs and hardware prices rising, large projects face the risk of even longer timelines, and the new head of Microsoft Gaming, Asha Sharma, is being positioned as a potential catalyst

Crypto

Tokenized RWAs Rise; Kraken Offers SpaceX IPO; Prediction Markets Top Gambling

Tokenized real-world assets have expanded sharply even as crypto markets cooled. Binance Research found the market for active tokenized RWAs surged 589% since early 2025, with bonds and money market funds adding $6.5 billion and tokenized stocks up 422%. Demand has broadened beyond equities: tokenized precious metals gained $1.

Culture

All of the God of War Games, Ranked

God of War is about to do something it hasn’t done before: center someone other than Kratos. Before the series heads into the Everywhen as Faye with God of War Laufey, this look back ranks more than 20 years of god‑slaying and Kratos’ dysfunctional family tree from worst

Culture

Ben Schwartz Joins Sam Mendes' Beatles Quadrilogy

Sam Mendes is directing a four-film project that spotlights each member of the Beatles, titled The Beatles — A Four-Film Cinematic Event. The movies are planned for a simultaneous release in 2028, though no specific timeframe has been confirmed. Leading the quartet are Harris Dickinson as John Lennon, Paul Mescal as

Culture

Senator Mark Kelly Names His Top Three Space Movies

Senator Mark Kelly, a veteran of four space missions, posted his three favorite space movies on Twitter. He put Ridley Scott's The Martian at the top, calling it "really a movie about how you use science and engineering to solve hard problems." Kelly said it was

Sports

Alderweireld: Micky van de Ven can ‘level up’ without leaving Spurs

Toby Alderweireld says Micky van de Ven has the talent to “level up” and become one of the best centre-backs in the world, and does not necessarily need to leave Tottenham to get there. The 25-year-old, famed for his pace, joined Spurs from Wolfsburg in the summer of 2023 and

Culture

Alana Haim made Taylor Swift's 'Stevie Knicks' shirt with a Cricut

At Game 4 of the NBA Finals, Taylor Swift and the Haim sisters drew attention with matching 'knickname' T-shirts — including a 'Stevie Knicks' shirt Alana Haim says she made after buying a Cricut when she returned from her last tour. Cricut machines, with prices starting under

Tech

RPG Maker forums to close, risking 15 years of community knowledge

Gotcha Gotcha Games is closing the official RPG Maker forums and launching a new site called RPG Maker Guild, which aims to "provide a welcoming space where RPG Maker creators can connect, share projects, exchange ideas, and continue growing the community together." The closure FAQ says the existing

Culture

Erosion preview: a time-jumping roguelike that leans into emergent stories

Nearly six years after Hades reworked how roguelikes told stories, Plot Twist’s Erosion looks poised to push the genre in a different direction. The developer behind The Last Case of Benedict Fox has built a system that ties player choices and repeated deaths to a shifting world, letting emergent

Tech

Xbox exec clarifies Netflix-style in-game ads would be a bad idea

The prospect of Netflix-style ads in video games has grown with the rise of game streaming, and recent comments from Xbox's chief strategy officer Matthew Ball amplified those concerns. Windows Central reported that Ball was considering in-game ads, but Ball pushed back on Twitter, saying he was only

Culture

Cocktail of the week: the Red Lion & Sun’s kimchi bloody mary – recipe

This sour-spicy twist on the classic brunch drink is very easy to recreate at home. Kimchi bloody mary Serves 1 For the kimchi mix (for four serves) 45g Lea & Perrins Worcestershire sauce 45g fresh lime juice 18g kimchi – use your favourite; ours is Kim Kong 5g Tabasco 10g gochujang

Business

GameStop will remove Pro Membership points while keeping the $25 fee

The shift from physical games to digital ones has left GameStop with stores full of toys and collectibles and fewer new consoles and games on the shelves. One of the remaining reasons some customers still buy games there is the Pro Membership program, but that perk is about to shrink.

Tech

Free Android app turns phone into 35-tool science lab

Aachen University developed Phyphox, an open-source Android app that unlocks the scientific capabilities of a smartphone by tapping into its built-in sensors. The app can read the accelerometer, gyroscope, microphone, magnetometer, light sensor and GPS, and it will use a barometer if the phone has one. Data can be viewed

Culture

Matt Reeves Shares First Shot as The Batman Part II Begins Filming

Matt Reeves' sequel, The Batman Part II, has officially entered production. Reeves announced the start of filming on X using the hashtag "First Shot." He first introduced this iteration of the Caped Crusader in 2022; that film was a box office success and has been widely regarded

Culture

Which Horror Villain Do You Have the Best Chance of Surviving?

Which Horror Villain Do You Have the Best Chance of Surviving? Five killers. Five completely different ways to die — if you're not smart enough, fast enough, or self-aware enough to avoid it. Only one of them is the villain your particular set of instincts gives you a fighting

Culture

‘Failure was my thing’: Virginia Evans on her long journey to success

Just as the interview begins at a drizzly party in a leafy London square, someone interrupts to congratulate Virginia Evans — it is Richard Curtis. Her prize-winning novel, The Correspondent, a warm-hearted weepy with gentle humour, already has a film in the pipeline with Jane Fonda lined up to play 73-year-old

Culture

Disclosure Day's ending satisfies but doesn't soar like Close Encounters

Steven Spielberg's Disclosure Day invites comparison with his earlier films about extraterrestrials. It holds up in many ways: like War of the Worlds it's a high-stakes chase, and some animal scenes echo E.T.'s sense of wonder. The closest touchpoint is Close Encounters of

Tech

My kids won't stop asking to play this new version of The Game of Life

I've had my eye on the Toniebox 2, the upgraded audio entertainment system for kids, for months after a family friend gifted us the previous version. The Tonieplay Hasbro Collection brings Monopoly, Guess Who? and The Game of Life to the Toniebox 2, though some interactive characters and

Business

Investors Push FromSoftware to Self-Publish, Target Kadokawa CEO

Oasis Management, an activist investor mounting a takeover bid at Kadokawa, has focused on FromSoftware as it seeks to replace CEO Takeshi Natsuno. The investor argues the studio has left substantial revenue with outside publishers by letting Bandai Namco handle overseas publishing rather than self-publishing. The presentation highlights Elden Ring’

Culture

Sepideh Moafi Confirms Changed Involvement in The Pitt Season 3

Sepideh Moafi said she will not appear in the season premiere of The Pitt's third season and that characters will make staggered entrances as the story unfolds over a single 15-hour day. She added that filming will start in a week and that the new storyline is set

Science

X-59 Reaches Mach 1.4 and 55,000 Feet Ahead of Community Flights

The X-59 experimental aircraft reached a major milestone on Friday, June 12, flying Mach 1.4 (about 924 mph) and reaching 55,000 feet — the conditions required for future flights critical to its mission. It still has months of performance testing ahead, but once those are complete the Quesst mission

Culture

Which Taylor Sheridan Show Do You Belong In?

Taylor Sheridan doesn't write heroes — he writes people who do what they have to do and live with the cost. Four worlds. All of them brutal, complicated, and built on power, loyalty, and the price of survival. Ten questions will reveal which one of his worlds you were