As expected, the European Commission will carry out a full-scale investigation into Microsoft’s $69 billion bid to buy Activision Blizzard. Following a preliminary probe, the European Commission announced Tuesday (via Reuters) it believes the deal may “significantly reduce competition” in a handful of areas, including the PC and console gaming markets, as well as among cloud gaming services.
According to the Commission's antitrust officials, Microsoft has the potential economic incentive to prevent competitors from accessing Activision Blizzard’s “high-profile and highly successful games,” including new Call of Duty entries. The body notes it’s also concerned the deal could unfairly advantage Windows against competing PC operating systems. On the surface, that seems like a strange concern, but it’s worth pointing out that the success of devices like the Steam Deck has made Linux something of a viable gaming alternative to Windows.
With today’s announcement, the European Commission now has 90 working days to complete its probe, a timeline that means a decision would arrive on March 23rd, 2023 at the latest.
“For years, Microsoft has been a major player across the gaming supply chain. It is acquiring Activision Blizzard, a highly successful producer of gaming content. We must ensure that opportunities remain for future and existing distributors of PC and console video games, as well as for rival suppliers of PC operating systems,” said Margrethe Vestager, the executive vice president of competition policy. “The point is to ensure that the gaming ecosystem remains vibrant to the benefit of users in a sector that is evolving at a fast pace.”
Microsoft did not immediately respond to Engadget’s request for comment. Following the Commission’s announcement, Activision Blizzard published a letter from CEO Bobby Kotick. “This week the European Commission announced that we have entered the second phase of our review in the region. We will continue to cooperate with the European Commission where, in the countries they represent, we have many employees,” Kotick wrote. “We have been working closely with Microsoft to actively engage regulators in other key countries to answer their questions and provide them with information to assist with their review.”
The Commission won’t necessarily block the deal, but it could significantly delay the transaction and force concessions out of Microsoft. Xbox head Phil Spencer has proactively tried to placate regulators. “We're not taking Call of Duty from PlayStation. That's not our intent,” he recently said. “Our intent is not to do that and as long as there's a PlayStation out there to ship to, our intent is that we'll continue to ship Call of Duty on PlayStation.”
Alphabet's Wing division has teamed up with DoorDash to deliver some convenience and grocery items — such as pantry staples, snacks and household essentials — by drone. Customers can place an order through the "DoorDash Air" section of the DoorDash app and receive their items in as little as 15 minutes.
When they check out, users will need to select a delivery spot for the drone to drop off their package. The DoorDash app will ask them to confirm that the drop zone is clear before the user completes the order.
Wing/DoorDash
The pilot is live in Logan, Australia, where Wing has been testing its services for a few years. DoorDash drone deliveries are only available to a small number of households for now, but availability will be expanded in the coming months. The drones can carry a payload of just over a kilogram, DoorDash said.
This is a big step for Wing, as it marks the first time that the company's services have been accessible through a third-party app. DoorDash employed Wing's new API to make the integration work. Until now, the Wing Delivery App has been the main way for customers to order and receive items via the company's drones.
Wing says it has been working on a way to offer third-party app integration for some time. “We see this new functionality as a logical step on this journey to make drone delivery a plug-and-play option for more businesses and consumers — no matter what app they use,” Wing wrote in a blog post.
Tesla has at least one more recall in store this year, if not as large as the last one. As BBC Newsreports, the EV maker has recalled 40,168 Model S and Model X vehicles over a software defect that can reduce or cut power steering assistance when the car mistakenly treats potholes and other bumps in the road as steering assist torque. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is concerned the sudden loss of help could be jarring enough to lead to a crash.
The flaw affects model years 2017 through 2021 for both cars, and first appeared with the 2022.36 firmware update. As with some of Tesla's recalls, the fix involves a software patch that has already rolled out. Over 97 percent of affected vehicles already have the new code, Tesla says.
This is the 17th recall Tesla has issued in 2022. It's not nearly as far-reaching as a September recall over faulty power window functionality, which affected almost 1.1 million cars in the US. Combined, however, the glitches have affected about 3.4 million EVs across the company's lineup. They've included problems with seat belt chimes, overheating infotainment systems and a Full Self Driving bug that let vehicles roll through stop signs. The company also had to change its Boombox feature over worries the external audio playback could override mandatory low-speed sounds.
The power steering defect also comes at a difficult moment for Tesla. The company's stock value has dropped sharply in recent weeks as investors fear Elon Musk's Twitter purchase may have distracted the entrepreneur. Tesla stock is hovering around $190 as we write this — lower than it was in May 2021. Factor in a tumultuous third quarter and it's clear the brand has lost some confidence, even if its sales are still very healthy.
This story contains extensive spoilers for the 2018 game ‘God of War’ and light spoilers for ‘God of War: Ragnarok’.
The God of War series has thrown nearly everything you can imagine at its protagonist Kratos since the first installment arrived way back in 2005. He's ridden giants up Mount Olympus, murdered the pantheon of Greek gods, come back to life from the underworld (several times) and, in 2018's reinvention of the series, dealt with an unruly pre-teen who just learned he was a god. But God of War: Ragnarok, which arrives tomorrow for the PS4 and PS5, manages to add to that impressive list. It throws Kratos and his companions in the middle of a full-on war, the kind of battle that calls to mind epic cinematic showdowns like the climax of Lord of the Rings:Return of the King or Avengers: Endgame.
But I'm getting a little bit ahead of myself. God of War: Ragnarok is the direct sequel to God of War, which saw a semi-reformed Kratos and his son Atreus try to carry out his wife's final wish. Along the way, they inevitably caught the attention of the Norse pantheon of gods, which led to Kratos killing the deity Baldur. Kratos meant to save Baldur's mother Freya from death, but he instead turned Freya into against Kratos and Atreus and also brought about Fimbulwinter, a years-long winter that is the precursor to Ragnarok, which it is said will bring about the end of the nine realms.
Got all that? Clearly, you won't want to play Ragnarok without playing the 2018 God of War first, because you'll be missing a lot of backstory. Assuming you are caught up, you'll feel right at home in Ragnarok. The game quickly and clearly lays out the enemies and the stakes: Odin, leader of the Norse gods, knows Ragnarok is coming, and wants to work with Atreus and Kratos to try to survive it. Kratos, on the other hand, has a more than healthy distrust of Odin, and isn't interested in anything besides staying out of the gods' affairs and helping his son stay safe and prepared for the harsh world they inhabit.
Sony / Santa Monica Studios
Whether by prophecy or their own decisions, Kratos and Atreus unsurprisingly get pulled deeper into the machinations of the gods and begin journeying through the nine realms looking for a solution to the potential world destruction that is now at their doorstep. From a gameplay perspective, that means a lot of the familiar combat that Santa Monica Studio introduced in 2018's God of War. Kratos is again equipped with his Leviathan Axe and Blades of Chaos, and they remain a formidable and extremely fun pair of weapons to use on the many mythical beasts Ragnarok throws at you. Throwing the Leviathan Axe with the PS5's DualSense controller and magically calling it back to you remains one of the most satisfying moves I can think of in all of gaming.
As before, the game starts you out with a powerful but relatively basic set of moves and you can add to that arsenal by upgrading your weapons, finding powerful runic attacks for each weapon, crafting new armor and magical items and unlocking new skills in the game's fairly complicated upgrade trees. As in the 2018 title, there are a dizzying array of moves you can unlock, as well as a treasure trove of armor, all of which affects Kratos' stats. It can be overwhelming, but I also found that I didn't need to think too hard about it, at least on the difficulty level I was playing on. If you play on the harder settings, though, you're going to need to spend a lot of time doing side quests to get the resources you need so you can constantly optimize your gear.
Regardless of the over-abundance of customization, going into battle as Kratos remains extremely satisfying. Whether you're fighting a massive swarm of enemies or focusing your efforts on a massive, ultra-powerful beast, there's a level of fluidity to the combat that makes the player feel, quite simply, god-like. It takes a while to upgrade Kratos and figure out what style of play works best for you, but sometimes you can get into a flow state of total destruction that is a delight.
One of the complaints I had about 2018's God of War was that, while the combat was great, the variety of enemies was lacking compared to earlier games. Santa Monica Studio seems to have taken this to heart and mixed things up significantly in Ragnarok.There are a greater variety of basic enemies, though undead soldiers remain the game's bread and butter. But those armies have some tricky new powers this time, including the ability to hit Kratos with a multi-colored “bifrost” blast — while you're in that state, a single hit explodes that bifrost and significantly reduces your health. There are also new small and agile enemies that I think of as puppet masters; they keep reviving and healing the ordinary soldiers, so unless you track them down and dispose of them quickly, you're in for a rough fight.
Sony / Santa Monica Studios
More significant are the variety of bosses in Ragnarok. In God of War, the larger battles mostly consisted of a few different types of trolls and ogres along with some elemental, but that is most definitely not the case this time. I took down a massive realm-shifting serpent, a building-sized wolf rampaging through Hel, and that's not even mentioning the inevitable battles against the Norse gods.
Once again, the nine realms Kratos and Atreus travel through are simply stunning. Ragnarok, like some other recent PS5 games, has both “favor performance” and “favor visuals” modes. The default performance mode runs at a locked 60 frames per second and scales the resolution between 1440p and 4K. Favor visuals instead locks the frame rate at 30 fps and delivers native 4K graphics. There are also a variety of options if you have a HFR TV; Polygon did a great job of breaking down the technical details here.
Sony / Santa Monica Studios
Whether in performance or fidelity mode, God of War: Ragnarok looks beautiful. The snowy vistas and frozen lake of Midgard put a chill in my bones, and the lush and swampy confines of Vanaheim were real enough to make me want to sweat from the humidity. All of the character models, from Krato and Atreus down to minor characters you only meet a few times, are equally well-rendered — Kratos in particular is more detailed than ever, with his scars, beard, world-weary eyes and callused hands showing the hundreds of years and innumerable trials he's been through.
I would be remiss not to mention the incredible skill and performances from Ragnarok's cast. Returning actors Christopher Judge (Kratos), Sunny Suljic (Atreus) and Alastair Duncan (Mimir) reprise their excellent performances and have a wonderful rapport throughout their extensive time together in this game. Danielle Bisutti, meanwhile, takes her performance as a grief-obsessed, revenge-driven Freya to new levels of desperation in this installment.
A couple of newcomers almost steal the show, however. Ryan Hurst as the overweight, overburdened, often drunk Thor is both comical and terrifying. But Richard Schiff (perhaps best known as Toby from The West Wing) steals the show as the conniving all-father Odin. Schiff perfectly executes the many facets of Odin's character in Ragnarok — he seems to want peace and knowledge, and is almost fatherly at times. But even when he's being kind, Schiff's unsettling performance never lets you forget Odin's long list of cruelties, and the fact that he simply cannot be trusted.
Note: the following section contains light spoilers for God of War: Ragnarok
Despite all this, Ragnarok felt a little too familiar in the first three or four hours, a bit more like an expansion than an entirely new game on a more powerful platform. That all changed at the end of the game's first extended mission, however. God of War: Ragnarok has the same impressive direction as the previous game, where everything is done in a single, hours-long camera shot, without any cuts (aside from when you die, of course). This time, however, the camera panned away from Kratos and slowly, as the cutscene proceeded, settled in behind Atreus. And when the game was back in my control, I was playing as Kratos' son for the first time.
It was a brilliant reveal, and playing as Atreus makes the story far more complex and less linear than it was in the prior game. Atreus naturally has an entirely different combat style, based on more on his bow than hand-to-hand combat. But more than the gameplay, this choice greatly expanded the narrative of the game. It marks the first time the series shifts away from Kratos and gives you a more up-close view of the struggles that persist between father and son as they both try and do the right thing for each other throughout the game.
This also opens up the opportunity for new pairings, as Atreus and Kratos are both accompanied by characters familiar and unknown. These new pairings expand the story far beyond just Kratos and Atreus, showing a variety of different conflicts between parents and children all dealing with generational trauma and trying to simply be better than they were before, with varying results.
End of spoilers
Thanks to the many new characters, the world feels more alive and populated than any other previous God of War game. The dwarven realm of Svartalfheim has a number of settlements along its vast lake, and you meet a number of new allies in Vanaheim, the home realm of Freya and the other Vanir gods. We also get to meet both the human and godly residents of Asgard, Odin’s homeland. It makes sense that in the brutal conditions of Fimbulwinter you don’t run across a lot of ordinary humans, but I do wish that the main area of Midgard did contain at least a few more glimpses of how humans live in this universe.
While I’m a big fan of Ragnarok’s story, the game does occasionally feel overlong. God of War was one of my favorite games of the PS4 generation, alongside The Last of Us and Horizon Zero Dawn. The sequels to those latter two games were both masterfullyexecuted — but also occasionally hampered by the need to make everything bigger and grander than the prior games. The same is true for Ragnarok: it took me about 28 hours to play through the main quest, with very little side questing done. More than just the sheer hours, though, was a simple feeling that the narrative got a little too weighed down at times when I was eager for some momentum to bring through to the game's climax.
But what an ending it was: The last three hours or so of Ragnarok pull together everything God of War does well, from difficult, high stakes combat, majestic and massive set pieces and surprising narrative twists to a satisfying and emotional denouement. I won't say any more, but a little bit of narrative flabbiness was completely forgiven by the breathtaking finale.
It's slightly too much of a good thing, but not enough to keep me thrilled about the idea of playing again at a more leisurely pace, where I can do more exploring. And when you finish up the main story, there's still plenty you can do around the nine realms, including a few side quests that only unlock when the game is complete (I definitely caught a tease of another incredibly difficult battle to come).
While God of War: Ragnarok may have benefitted from a little bit more editing, it's not nearly enough to deter me from recommending it. Anyone who enjoyed God of War should play Ragnarok as soon as possible — and if you never played the first game, give it a shot and then move right along to this brilliant sequel. I don't know if or when we'll see Kratos and Atreus again, but Ragnarok was a fitting conclusion to the Norse saga and one of the best games I've experienced in a long time.
Netflix has released an interactive experience that you can fire up and play with the trivia-loving members of your family these holidays. It's called Triviaverse, and it was designed to throw rapid-fire questions at you, which you'll then have to answer within a time limit. You can play it alone and contend with three rounds of increasing difficulty per try, but you can also play with a friend in a turn-based bout with two rounds each. The one who's entered the more correct answers within the time limit wins the match.
The company says the show pulls its questions from any topic "you can imagine," from science to history to pop culture, so it would help having a wide variety of interests. You'll unlock badges the higher the score you get, including Bird Brain while you're just starting out. Keep at it for fun or for bragging rights, and you may just get the ultimate Triviaverse God title.
The streaming service has been exploring subscribers' interest in interactive content over the past few years, releasing shows and episodes you can play an active part in, such as Black Mirror: Bandersnatch. Last year, it took a big step towards achieving its gaming ambitions and rolled out games to all Android and iOS users. And just this September, it announced that it's forming an in-house gaming studio in Helsinki, Finland to create original games that don't have ads or in-app purchases.
Netflix already has a trivia game: It launched its first interactive daily quiz show Trivia Quest earlier this year. Triviaverse has a simpler format, however, and seems like something you could do in between tasks or play with friends in between other games. The experience is available in English, Spanish (LatAm), Portuguese (Brazil), French, German, Spanish (Spain), Italian, Korean and Japanese. It's also accessible from all devices that can run Netflix's interactive experiences, including smart TVs, streaming media players, consoles, browsers and mobile devices.
Microsoft’s knocked out five generations of Surface Laptop, and it looks like familiarity has bred a small degree of contempt. Sam Rutherford has taken the new machine for a spin, finding there’s not enough change from the previous model. Sure, there are new Intel CPUs and a new Thunderbolt 4 port in the chassis, but that’s about it for major changes.
Instead, you get the same chassis, display and webcam as previous years, none of which are table stakes for a premium laptop in this class. Nor are the lack of graphics options beyond Intel’s Iris XE, which means games will either look rough or run like sludge. And that’s really not good for a laptop that costs the same as the vastly superior XPS 13.
Rivian appears, from a fairly modest start, to have produced two of the best EVs in their classes. Roberto Baldwin has spent some time rolling around in the new R1S, an electric off-roader with some serious power and even better quality of life improvements: You can camp (or live) in your R1S by adjusting its suspension to ensure its cabin is entirely flat, relative to the floor it’s parked on. Pretty cool.
From ‘No censorship’ to ‘No, censorship’ in record time.
Twitter owner Elon Musk previously said lifetime bans were bad, and that “comedy” was once again legal on the platform. Unfortunately, a number of users enjoyed their new freedom to mock the site’s new overlord, prompting something of a rethink. After several high-profile users started impersonating Musk, the super-chill billionaire with a great sense of humor, announced Twitter will permanently ban account impersonators unless clearly listed as a parody.
The one time I went into an AV store to look at projectors, the salesperson tried to upsell me to a $3,000 unit in the first five minutes. That means I’ve never found a unit that could start me on a home cinema journey until I looked at our new buyer’s guide.
Steve Dent has laid out what you need to know before buying a projector and thrown in some recommendations for good yet affordable units. And that should go hand-in-glove with the new audio buyer’s guide, since no movie is complete without an excellent sound system, right?
Airbnb has pledged to improve transparency around the cost of vacation rentals, putting the full price of a stay in search results. It’s to address complaints that you don’t see the hidden charges until you’ve clicked into a listing. That can include a hefty security deposit or cleaning fee, pushing the price well over, say, just visiting a hotel. Unfortunately, the figures aren’t displayed pre-tax, as custom in the US, so there’ll still be some sticker shock when it comes time to hit the button.
Garmin already sells hybrid smartwatches like the Vivomove, but they're really not meant for hikes and other outdoor expeditions. The company is addressing that gap today with its just-launched Instinct Crossover. You'll get a familiar mix of analog hands with smartwatch features like activity tracking and notifications (on an actually-useful display that's rare for hybrids), but in a rugged design that can handle contact with nature. It reportedly meets US military standards for dust, shock, temperature and water resistance, and its 10ATM rating lets it survive dives down to 328 feet. There's even a Tactical Edition that supports dual-format GPS, night vision compatibility and a kill switch.
The battery life is also strong compared to other rugged smartwatches, and even some hybrids. Garmin claims the standard Instinct Crossover lasts almost a month on a charge with full smartwatch features, and 110 hours with GPS tracking. You can easily use this for a weekend camping trip. Not surprisingly, the Solar Edition lasts much longer. It can run for up to 70 days in smartwatch mode when there's adequate light, and it has effectively "infinite" longevity if you're willing to use a battery saver mode that limits you to basics like time and a stopwatch.
You can still expect the usual mix of health and fitness features, such as a pulse oximeter, VO2 Max (maximum oxygen use) and tools for training and hiking landmarks. And yes, Garmin Pay is available if you need to buy an energy drink after your adventures.
The Instinct Crossover is available now for $500 in its base version, $550 for the Solar model and $600 for the Tactical wristwear. That's on par with the Withings ScanWatch Horizon, but they're two very different devices. The ScanWatch is aimed at everyday users who want a reasonably posh-looking timepiece that happens to have a few smartwatch features. Garmin's hardware trades looks in favor of utility in harsh conditions. To some degree, it's a foil for the Apple Watch Ultra — you won't get the Ultra's full-color screen or sheer range of functionality, but you will get many outdoor-oriented features, longer battery life and a lower price.
In 2018, the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi alliance partnered with Google to integrate its software platform and services like Google Maps and Assistant into vehicles. Now, Renault Group (Renault, Dacia, Alpine and Mobilize) is expanding that partnership to develop a "software-defined vehicle" (SDV) with Google based on Android Automotive OS. The aim is to deliver "new on-demand services and continuous upgrades to be delivered to the car," with Google acting as its "preferred cloud provider."
To accelerate development, the companies will work together on a "Digital Twin," or a virtual version of the car. It'll use advanced AI capabilities to allow the companies to more easily integrate new features and services into the vehicle, while allowing for "new onboard (In-Car Services) and offboard applications," the companies said. It'll also allow "continuous upgrades to be delivered to the car."
According to the companies, the SDV will allow predictive maintenance and better detection and rectification of failures in near real time if necessary. It'll also allow for a personalized experience that adapts to driving behavior like frequent destinations, EV charging stations used, etc. It'll also help the companies build "insurance models based on actual usage and driving behaviors."
Tesla pioneered the idea of software-defined vehicles, allowing for continuous improvements to its EVs and new features through over-the-air software updates. Other major automakers including Hyundai, Porsche and others have already made plans to create their own SDVs. However, Renault Group appears to be working particularly close with Google to develop its own system.
Signal now has its own ephemeral Snapchat-like feature that you can use to share photos with friends. The messaging app has released the feature a month after it revealed that it was hopping on the Stories bandwagon and was already beta testing the capability. Also called "Stories," Signal's new feature lets you post photos that will remain viewable on the app for 24 hours, unless you erase them before the time is up. Signal says that like everything available on its app, Stories are end-to-end encrypted and will only be visible to the people you've chosen to share them with.
These people could be everyone in your contacts that use the app, along with anybody you've had a one-on-one conversation with or whose message request you'd accepted, even if you'd never added them. You can also create custom stories that will only be available to select viewers you choose — say, your colleagues or people with the same interests. Plus, you can share stories with existing groups. Just take note that everyone in that group will be able to see what you share, even those you'd never interacted with in individual chats.
Seeing as Facebook and Instagram already have similar features, and Snapchat still exists, it remains to be seen whether Signal's take can get people to use the app more. Signal's Stories are now available on its Android and iOS app, and they're "coming soon" to desktop, as well. If you'd rather not see your contact's Stories, or if you're not interested in posting your own, you can alway opt out by going to Settings and toggling on "Turn off stories."
Nintendo has announced a solid quarter of earnings, with revenue for the quarter at 349.5 million yen ($2.38 billion) and a 118.7 million yen ($809.6 million) operating profit. That's up by 15.9 and 18.5 percent over last year, largely in part due to a weaker yen, sales outside Japan and the launch of Splatoon 3.
The company is less bullish on Switch console sales, however, lowering its forecast from 21 million to 19 million for 2022. However, it doesn't think that will affect earnings much, with revenue forecast to be 50 billion yen higher at 1.65 trillion yen ($11.25 billion) and operating profit remaining the same at 500 billion yen ($3.4 billion).
Nintendo said that it has seen a gradual improvement in the supply of semiconductors and other components, along with a "recovery trend in hardware manufacturing for the Switch." However, it lowered the forecast based on sales to date, with the weak yen making up the difference in revenue and profit.
It also detailed what that might mean for consumers who want to buy a Switch for the holidays. "By continually working to front-load production and selecting appropriate transportation methods in preparation for the holiday season, we will work to deliver as many consoles as possible to consumers in every region of the world."
That'll be helped by the launch of a bunch of new games, as well. On top of Splatoon 3, it released Bayonetta 3 in October, Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet in November, Fire Emblem Engage coming in January 2023, and Kirby’s Return to Dream Land Deluxe arriving in February 2023.
