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Forza Horizon 5 is the entire reason I have an Xbox Series S. Im not really a car guy in real life if money, practicality and burning through fossil fuels were less of a concern, Id get a fun hot hatch with a stick, for sure. I dont care about luxuries or exotics, and I drive a 12-year-old Prius C in real life. But Forza Horizon 5 so skillfully melds open-world exploration, intense competition and replayability while also letting me try out dozens of cars Ive daydreamed about driving that it felt like a must-buy. My colleague Jess Conditts review of Forza Horizon 5 in 2021 pushed me over the edge. A couple months later, I got my hands on my first Xbox console and had put a startling amount of time into the game; I was far more addicted than I expected and having an absolute blast. In the three-plus years since, I have fallen off it a bit. Its not a daily or weekly play at this point, but there are definitely times where it gets its hooks back into me and I hit my favorite tracks, try different cars or dive into the weekly challenges. And now, Forza Horizon 5 is available on the PS5, my preferred console. Its probably the biggest Xbox-born franchise to go cross-platform at this point and just the latest example of how Microsoft appears to be done thinking about console exclusives. More broadly, the company has given plenty of signs that consoles that sit under your TV arent its main priority moving a high-profile game like Forza Horizon 5 is just another example. It works for me, though, because it means I really dont need an Xbox anymore. I might keep it around for a bit, because Im a pack rat and there are still a handful of titles on Game Pass Id like to play at some point. But there are so few games that one needs an Xbox for at this point that I could dump it and really not miss much of a beat there are already tons of games Ill never get around to without worrying about Game Pass. And unsurprisingly, Forza Horizon 5 runs perfectly on the PS5. Everything that makes the game great on the Xbox shows up here, and I generally prefer the DualSense controller over the Xbox one. The triggers feel great for pumping the gas and brakes, and the haptic feedback is generally better too. Im a little sad to give up all my progression on the Xbox version specifically my garage full of cars Ive earned over the last few years. But, its also fun to start fresh and have a reason to unlock everything again and start fresh on the games many missions. Even though this game is three and a half years old, its still worth picking up now. Developer Playground Games has been consistently adding new content, including the Hot Wheels and Rally Adventure expansions from 2022 and 2023. And along with the PS5 launch, theres a new Horizon Realms feature (coming to all platforms) that rounds up 11 limited-time evolving world areas that were previously featured in seasonal updates. Im not expecting much more in the way of major content updates at this point, but if youre new to the game on PS5 there is more than enough to keep you busy for a long time. Playground Games Visually, the game matches its Xbox Series X counterpart, with 60 FPS performance mode and 30 FPS graphics mode. Its an upgrade over the Series S version Ive spent so much time with, as that console maxes out at 1440p, and there are graphical upgrades that go beyond just resolution. But Forza Horizon 5 is an absolutely gorgeous game regardless of what console youre playing on, and Im not a pixel junkie. If you have the game already on an Xbox console, theres no real reason to buy it on the PS5 unless youre looking to streamline how much is under your TV. As it turns out, thats where Im at right now. I need to cut back on my hoarding tendencies, and as much as I appreciate the tiny footprint of the Xbox Series S and the solid selection of Game Pass titles, I do not have unlimited space or time. I really appreciate what I got out of this little console over the years, but I dont think its a stretch to say that 75 percent of the time I used the Series S as a Forza machine. But hey, Microsoft got its cash from me and I got years of enjoyment, so Im not mad. I just hope if theres another Forza Horizon game in the future that it hits the PlayStation at the same time as the Xbox assuming there still is a console called Xbox, that is.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/playstation/forza-horizon-5-is-on-the-ps5-so-i-no-longer-need-an-xbox-110016202.html?src=rss
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Picture this: youre zooming through space in a torpedo-shaped ship doing the dangerous job of salvaging material in a planets cluttered orbit when some giant, alien cousin of a fangtooth fish pops up out of nowhere and starts chomping at your tail. Pretty stressful day at work if you ask me. One might even be forgiven for, ahem, accidentally crashing the ship in such conditions. In the Playdate game Suborbital Salvage, though, your supervisor isnt so sympathetic. Slam into an asteroid or drone and youll be ridiculed til kingdom come by the snarky cat who writes your performance reports. If the fish catches you with one of its enormous teeth, any resulting losses are your fault for feeding it (a violation of company policy). That cat has something to say about every slip-up you make, and its hilarious. In a weird way, it almost becomes part of the reward for finishing a run. Every time I catastrophically ended my turn, I wasnt only eager to see my scores, but also what new insult the cat would have ready for me. Your actual goal in Suborbital Salvage is to collect as many of the little C tokens as you can, and travel as far as possible while navigating a space filled with hazardous objects. Games Right Meow Controlling the ship is a bit tough at first, too. You have to use the crank to point it in the right direction, while also pressing the B button (or D-pad buttons) to fire the thrusters. The physics takes some getting used to and theres that fish chasing you all the while. The farther you get, the more complex the areas get, and youll have to dodge everything from asteroids and mines to what look like giant space mushrooms, and navigate through labyrinthine pipe systems. Flying through rings will give you a boost to get away from the fish, as will flipping the ship in a 360. The game had me on the edge of my seat concentrating on my survival at just about every second, but its not needlessly difficult. Once I got the hang of the controls and how my ship behaves, I was able to get pretty far. But there are leaderboards to show how you stack up against other players in the different areas of the mission salvage recovery, distance and overall performance which is always humbling. As are the remarks of that damn cat. Come for the thrilling space adventure, stay for the trash-talking feline. Some of my favorite lines so far include: I dont know if its occurred to you but You really should try flying through the rings, not into them; You know, most people try to steer AWAY from space rocks; and Are you between a rock and a hard place? No really. Where did you go? At one point, the cat simply said, Just be better. (In the Settings menu, there's an option to toggle the dialogue from Roast me to Shutup cat, but really, why would you do that?) Suborbital Salvage, by Games Right Meow, is available in the Playdate Catalog for $8.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/suborbital-salvage-is-a-thrilling-endless-runner-for-playdate-that-pelts-you-with-asteroids-and-insults-230014518.html?src=rss
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Metas AI chatbots were caught having sexual roleplay conversations with accounts labeled as underage, which sometimes involved its celebrity-voiced chatbots, according to a report from the Wall Street Journal. In test conversations conducted by WSJ, both the Meta AI official chatbot and user-created chatbots would engage in and even steer towards sexually explicit conversations. The fantasy sex conversations continued even if the users were said to be underage or if the chatbots were programmed as minors, according to WSJ. Even worse, the investigation found that chatbots using the voices of celebrities like Kristen Bell, Judi Dench and John Cena would engage in these morally questionable conversations too. WSJ reported that a Meta AI chatbot with Cenas voice said, I want you, but I need to know youre ready, to an account labeled as a 14-year-old, adding that it would cherish your innocence. The chatbots reportedly acknowledged that the fantasy scenarios described illegal behavior in some cases. According to WSJ, the John Cena chatbot detailed the legal and moral fallout that would follow a hypothetical scenario in which its caught by police after engaging in a sexual act with a 17-year-old. In a statement to WSJ responding to the investigation, Meta accused the report of being manipulative and unrepresentative of how most users engage with AI companions. Nevertheless, weve now taken additional measures to help ensure other individuals who want to spend hours manipulating our products into extreme use cases will have an even more difficult time of it, Meta wrote in response to WSJ. The world of AI chatbots has grown rapidly in the last few years, with more competition coming from the likes of ChatGPT, Character AI, and Anthropics Claude. The WSJ report claimed that Metas CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, wanted to loosen the ethical guardrails for a more engaging experience with its chatbots to remain competitive. However, in response to WSJ, a Meta spokesperson denied that the company overlooked adding safeguards. The report also claims Meta employees were aware of these issues and raised their concerns internally. We reached out to Meta for comment and will update the story once we hear back.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/metas-ai-chatbots-were-reportedly-able-to-engage-in-sexual-conversations-with-minors-193726679.html?src=rss
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4chan, the infamous forum known for its anonymous user base posting unhinged material, has made its comeback. A post on the websites official blog, titled Still Standing, detailed the timeline of events that led to 4chans shutdown earlier this month. According to the sites own status checker, the boards and front page are up, but posting and images are still down. The 4chan blog post explains that moderators shut down the servers on April 14 to prevent any more damage after a serious database attack where hackers gained access to the sites source code. The blog post labeled the incident catastrophic since it breached a ton of 4chans databases along with its most important server. The hack even vandalized the website and revealed personal information of the 4chan moderation team and many of its users. The blog post attributed the hack to the sites inability to update the code and infrastructure due to a lack of skilled man-hours. Unsurprisingly, the site was starved for money to address these concerns since its hard for 4chan to find willing financial backers. Advertisers and payment providers willing to work with 4chan are rare, and are quickly pressured by activists into cancelling their services, the blog post read. Putting together the money for new equipment took nearly a decade. Now that the website is back, there will be some crucial changes. According to the blog post, the /f/ board will stay shut down since the 4chan team cant prevent exploits related to the commonly-posted .swf file format. For similar reasons, the resurrected 4chan will also disable PDF uploads for now, but will reintroduce them in the near future. Moving forward, 4chan says it is bringing on volunteers to keep up with the workload of putting the website back together. The moderation team apparently isnt going to let 4chan die easily the blog post read no matter how hard it is, we are not giving up. Still, it feels inevitable that 4chan will run into a similar problem in the future, considering it hasnt solved the root issue of securing money to keep its servers up-to-date.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/4chan-is-back-after-a-nearly-two-week-shutdown-but-it-still-has-some-serious-problems-171124240.html?src=rss
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Its safe to say people are loving Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 so far. The turn-based RPG which is the debut game from French developer Sandfall has been racking up rave reviews in the days around its release, and already soared past some big sales milestones. On Sunday morning, publisher Kepler Interactive shared on social media that the game has sold a million copies since its release on April 24. It hit the first 500,000 in one day. On the games BlueSky account, the team said that the latest figure includes units shipped to retailers, and does not encompass our awesome GamePass players! Expedition 33 follows a group of Expeditioners who have set out to destroy the entity known as the Paintress, who every year paints a number on a monolith that dooms everyone of that age to death, whittling down the population down as the number gets smaller and smaller. Engadgets Mat Smith called Expedition 33 a gorgeously made and well-considered world, and found it to be a solid, enjoyable RPG. The game is available now for PC, Xbox Series X/S and PlayStation 5. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/clair-obscur-expedition-33-sold-1-million-copies-in-its-first-three-days-155554248.html?src=rss
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