If you had planned to play Fortnite today, you may want to make other plans. At the moment, many players are finding it impossible to log in to their accounts and play games. At 1:13PM ET, Epic Games said it was investigating "an issue," and promised to share more information once it had a solution to the problem.

Epic hasn't said what's causing the problem. However, over on its status website, the company describes the incident as a "major outage." That same webpage notes the Epic Games Store is suffering from "degraded performance," According to Downdetector, there are also reports of people being unable to play GTA Online and access Discord, but it's not clear if those incidents are related. 

Developing...

So you managed to buy a PlayStation 5 – congratulations, you beat supply shortages to obtain one of the most sought-after consoles in recent memory. Now comes the fun part. No PS5 is complete without a library of games and accessories to elevate your experience. Thankfully, you won't have as much trouble getting your hands on those. However, if you're new to the console, the tricky part is knowing what titles and peripherals are worth your time. We’ve gathered our favorites here to make the search easier for you.

PlayStation Plus

Sony

If the PS5 is your first console or you're coming from an Xbox, one of the first things you'll want to pick up is a PlayStation Plus subscription. It’ll help you flesh out your library. Sony gives a handful of free games away to PS Plus subscribers each month, and as long as you maintain an active membership, they're yours to keep. The selection is sometimes hit and miss, but you'll find a few gems every year. You'll also need PS Plus to play most games online, though a subscription isn't required for free-to-play titles like Call of Duty: Warzone. The addition of PlayStation Store discounts and cloud storage make PS Plus a no-brainer if you see yourself using your PS5 constantly.

SteelSeries Arctis 7P+

SteelSeries

Do the people you live with a favor and buy yourself a decent headset. It will help you stop nerves from fraying and is a must for any multiplayer game. The options for gaming headsets are vast, so we recommend picking one with a solid track record. SteelSeries recently updated its iconic Arctis 7 headset with the 7P+ which has improved battery life and a USB-C port for charging. What the company didn't change was the headband design that many people credit for making the Arctis 7 one of the more comfortable headsets on the market. The 7P+ costs the same as the standard 7+ variant, but also adds full support for the PS5's Tempest 3D audio technology.

WD Black SN850

WD

Sony recently released an update to allow PS5 owners to expand their console's internal storage. And it's a good thing, because the 667GB of usable storage the console comes with can feel limiting quickly. We already published a comprehensive guide on the best SSDs you can buy for your PlayStation 5. You'll want to check that article out for a step-by-step guide on how to upgrade your SSD. But if you want to make things as simple as possible, your best bet is a Gen4 M.2 NVME SSD with a built-in heatsink. One of the better plug-and-play options is the SN850 from WD Black. It checks off all the compatibility requirements listed by Sony and is reasonably priced, too.

Samsung T7 SSD

Samsung

If you don't feel comfortable opening your PS5 to install a new SSD, another option is to purchase an external solid-state drive. Keep in mind that you can't play PS5 games from an external drive. However, it takes less time to copy one over from an SSD than it does to download it from the PlayStation Store. One of our favorite portable drives is the Samsung T7. It can write files at a speedy 1,000 MB/s and comes with a shock-resistant enclosure to protect the drive from physical damage. If you plan to use the SSD exclusively for storing games, you can save money by buying the standard model instead of the Touch variant with fingerprint sensor.

DualSense Charging Station

Sony

While you can charge your DualSense controller with the USB-C cable that comes with your PS5, a more elegant solution is the DualSense Charging Station. It can store and charge two controllers simultaneously. In that way, you can always have a second controller ready to go if the one you're currently using runs out of battery. It will also free up the USB ports on your PS5 for other accessories.

Deathloop

Bethesda

This timed exclusive is one of the most stylish games you can play on the PS5. Arkane's latest puts you in a time loop in which you need to learn the schedules of your targets to assassinate all eight of them in a single day. The game's level design is dense in the best way possible, inviting you to learn all of the secrets of each zone so you can execute a successful run.

Death's Door

Acid Nerve

With a title that evokes the end of all things, you might think Death's Door is a bleak game. But that couldn't be further from the truth. Buoyed by a beautiful soundtrack and art style, it's one of the most thoughtful and pleasant indies I've played recently. Developer Acid Nerve's tribute to The Legend of Zelda and Dark Souls is a must-play for those who love to lose themselves in a world of mystery and intrigue.

Demon's Souls

Sony

If you've had the itch to try FromSoftware's Soulsborne series but don't know where to start, you'll find no better introduction than Demon's Souls. Developer Bluepoint Games has lovingly recreated the crumbling kingdom of Boleteria for the 4K era, making this remake one of the best-looking games on the PS5. Yes, it's as tough as you've heard, but a handful of quality-of-life improvements, including a much-needed performance mode, make the journey all the more rewarding.

Ghosts of Tsushima Directors Cut

Sucker Punch Productions

You've played games like Ghost of Tsushima before. It borrows from the familiar open-world formula popularized by Assassin's Creed and other Ubisoft titles. But that's not a knock against it. Far from it, Sucker Punch's latest is so easy to recommend because it executes the open-world concept flawlessly. The studio has created a beautiful playground steeped in Feudal Japanese culture, myth and history for players to explore, with something interesting to find beyond every ridge. Combat is also a highlight, allowing you to play either as honorable samurai, terrifying assassin or a mixture of both. And once you have finished Tsushima's touching single-player story, there's the excellent Legends multiplayer mode to keep you busy for the long haul.

Hades

Supergiant Games

If you pick up only one game from this list, make it Hades. It is as close to a perfectly executed game as you'll find. Everything from the art style, music, story and gameplay mechanics coalesces into one of the most memorable experiences in recent memory. Even if you're not a fan of rogue-like games, don't worry: Hades is so successful because even when you die, it never feels like you've wasted your time.

Electric transport startup Rivian is delaying deliveries of its 400-mile R1T pickup truck to 2023. In an email to customers obtained by Electrek, CEO RJ Scaringe said the company is prioritizing the production of R1T vehicles equipped with its 314-mile “Large pack” battery. Once those orders are fulfilled, it will then turn its attention to the more affordable “Explorer Package” trim and “Max pack” battery.

“In setting our delivery timing, we optimized our build sequence around the build combination that would support us ramping as quickly as possible and therefore have the largest possible positive climate impact,” RJ Scaringe writes in the email. We’ve reached out to Rivian for more information.

In the same message, Scaringe notes Max battery variants account for approximately 20 percent of the 71,000 R1T and R1S preorders the automaker has secured as of December 15th of this year. That suggests the delay involves about 14,200 vehicles. Rivian is allowing people to change their orders if they want to get their R1T earlier. It also promised to share more information on delivery timings in early 2022.

Rivian has delayed deliveries of the R1T several times over the last few years. The truck was originally scheduled to debut in 2020, but the company eventually pushed that date back to September 2021. The pandemic and chip shortages have played a part in that, but Rivian also doesn’t have a lot of manufacturing capacity at the moment. It plans to break ground on a new factory in Georgia next summer. However, that won’t be complete until sometime in 2024. In the meantime, the company also has a 100,000 vehicle order it needs to fulfill for minority owner Amazon.

In 1881, archaeologists discovered the mummy of Amenhotep I in Deir el-Bahari, a village outside of Egypt's famous Valley of the Kings. For 140 years, scientists have been unwilling to unwrap the king’s body out of fear they’ll damage his ornate face mask and bandages. But thanks to computer tomography (CT) technology, they don’t have to take that risk anymore. Researchers at Cairo University recently digitally “unwrapped” Amenhotep to learn about his life and dynasty.

The scans revealed he was about 35 years old when he died. "Amenhotep I seems to have physically resembled his father: he had a narrow chin, a small narrow nose, curly hair, and mildly protruding upper teeth," Dr. Sahar Saleem, the lead author of the study, told PA Media. It’s not clear why he passed away at such a young age. Researchers found no evidence of external wounds or disfigurements that may have contributed to his death.

Sahar Saleem et al.

What they did discover were various post-mortem injuries that were likely inflicted on the body by grave robbers. That damage was “lovingly repaired” by mortuary priests of the 21st Dynasty some 400 years after Amenhotep’s death. They used a resin-treated linen band to reattach the head and neck together. Researchers also found some 30 amulets hidden among Amenhotep’s bandages. The fact they were still there even after his reburial likely disproves the long-held theory that priests of later dynasties would reuse the ornaments in the funeral rites of their pharaohs.

The study provides an insight into one of the most fascinating periods of Egyptian history. Amenhotep I ruled between 1525 and 1504 BCE, during Egypt’s New Kingdom period. He was among the first pharaohs of the 18th dynasty, a lineage that would later include Akhenaten, the controversial “heretic” pharaoh who introduced the kingdom to a monotheistic-like religion centered around the sun. He was also the father of Tutankhamun or King Tut. 

The first time archaeologists used a CT scan to examine a mummy was in 1977. As the technology has matured and become more accessible, it has allowed researchers to study mummies in ways they couldn’t before. In 2017, for instance, Chicago’s Field Museum was able to dive into its collection, one of the most extensive in the US, with the help of portable CT scanners.

It’s been a few years since we’ve heard from AR company Vuzix. In early 2019, it came out with its first pair of consumer-ready smart glasses. After staying relatively quiet over the past two years, it’s now partnering with Verizon. The two didn’t share many details about their collaboration. What they did say is that they plan to find ways to commercialize AR technology for use in sports and gaming scenarios, especially those involving the need for training. The partnership will combine Vuzix’s new Shield smart glasses and the capabilities of Verizon’s 5G network.

It’s hard to say if we’ll see anything impactful come out of this agreement, but it’s not a surprise to see Verizon become more involved in AR technology. Augmented, virtual and mixed reality wearables have been consistently positioned as one of the primary beneficiaries of the speed and latency enhancements promised by 5G networks. Likewise, the focus on gaming and sports isn’t surprising either. Some of the earliest locations where Verizon had 5G service was in NFL stadiums. They’re one of few places where the carrier’s mmWave deployments shine since there’s enough density there to justify building out all the small cells required to blanket even a small area with ultrafast 5G coverage.

You just got your hands on a new phone. Naturally, your first inclination is to head to the App Store or the Google Play Store to download your favorite apps to your shiny new device. While the Engadget team tries to keep our phones relatively unencumbered, there are some apps we can't live without because they make our work and daily lives easier. Below you'll find a dozen of the best we think you should try.

1Password

1Password

If you only take one piece of advice away from this article, it's that you should download a password manager. It doesn't have to be the one we recommend here. However, we like 1Password for a handful of reasons. Not only will it let you generate strong passwords for all your online accounts, but it also has built-in support for two-factor authentication. That means you don't need to download a separate app like Authy to make your logins as secure as possible. If you have access to a Fastmail account, you can also use 1Password to generate random emails for your logins, giving you another way to protect your privacy. It's also just a well-designed app that's a pleasure to use.

FireFox

Firefox

If it's been a few years since you last used Firefox, now is a great time to revisit it. Partway through last year, Mozilla overhauled the Android version of its browser to bring over many of its best desktop features to mobile. That release saw Mozilla add more robust support for third-party add-ons. It also brought over its Enhanced Tracking Protection feature, which stops trackers from misusing your browsing data. Separately, with Apple allowing you to change your default browser since the release of iOS 14, there's never been a better time for iPhone users to liberate themselves from Safari.

Headspace

Headspace

I subscribed to Headspace at the start of the pandemic. Since then, it's become one of the few apps I use every day. Yes, Headspace is a meditation and mindfulness app, but it's also so much more than that. You'll find it also has a mix of music designed to help you focus and workouts for unwinding at the end of a long day. Across the board, everything it offers is excellent, and you'll find yourself turning to it for more than just peace of mind.

Hopper

Hopper

If you plan to fly somewhere soon, install Hopper on your phone. While it has grown over the years to include a variety of features, at its core, Hopper is one of the best ways to save money on plane tickets. Once you tell the app where and when you want to fly, it’ll tell you whether you should book your flight now or wait. In the latter case, it’ll notify you when it estimates you'll get the best deal. The beauty of Hopper is it will save you from constantly checking websites like Google Flights and Kayak.

Libby

Libby

If you want to do more reading in 2022, forget about buying books through Amazon and download Libby instead. If you're not familiar with the app, it allows you to borrow ebooks, digital magazines and graphic novels from your local library. All you need is a library card, which most systems across the US offer for free. Sometimes you have to wait to borrow the books you want to read most, but you'll find Libby will dramatically expand your reading list.

Open Table

Open Table

With restaurants reopening in cities throughout the US and the rest of the world, there's a good chance you plan to eat out sometime soon — and so does nearly everyone else. That means you'll likely need a reservation to dine at some of the most popular spots in your city. In North America, the closest you'll find to a single platform that nearly every restaurant uses is Open Table. For that reason alone, it's a must-download if you eat out a lot. It's also a handy tool for discovering new spots to visit since you can filter by cuisine and area.

Transit

Transit

There's nothing worse than waiting for a bus on a cold winter’s day or watching three go by one after another. Avoid both situations with one of the best public transit planning apps on Android and iOS. Transit excels where other apps in the category fail thanks to its clean, easy-to-use interface that highlights all the options near you. It also has one of the better algorithms for predicting departure times, so you'll know exactly when you need to run out of your house or apartment to catch the next bus, train or streetcar.

Paprika

Paprika

Paprika is the best $5 you can spend to make feeding yourself even easier. At its core, it allows you to download recipes from your favorite websites and make them accessible on all your devices. You can also use it to scale the size of the meal you're about to cook and convert between metric and imperial measurements. Add to that a meal planner, shopping lists and a tool for tracking the ingredients in your pantry, and you have an indispensable app for home cooks.

Pocket Casts

Pocket Casts

With podcasts becoming ever more popular with each passing year, there's a good chance you already have a handful of favorite shows you listen to every week. As much as Spotify would like to convince you it has the best podcast app, that distinction goes to Pocket Casts. We like it because it offers a consistently great experience across every system it supports. And if you use a mix of platforms from Apple, Google and Microsoft, you don't have to worry about syncing, either. It’s also nice to use software that doesn’t feel caught between two worlds in the way that Spotify does. Pocket Casts isn’t trying to be anything more than an app for listening to podcasts. That’s not something you can say of Spotify, and it’s often a source of frustration for those who turn to it for music.

Pocket

Pocket

Another way to read more in 2022 is to download Pocket. It's among the most popular read-it-later apps out there, allowing you to save articles you find online. Much like Pocket Casts, what makes this app compelling is that it offers a consistently excellent device-agnostic experience, making it a great option for those who haven't gone all-in on one ecosystem. Whether you use Chrome, Safari or Edge, you can install a browser extension to save articles you stumble upon. You can then read them later without distractions on your phone or tablet. Just don't forget to make a dent in your Pocket reading list occasionally.

Telegram / Signal

Telegram

We understand, asking your friends and family to install another messaging app on their phone can sometimes feel like a Sisyphean task, but the effort has also never been more worth it. In Telegram and Signal, you'll find two of the most secure chat apps on the market. We especially like Telegram here at Engadget because of how complete it feels from a feature standpoint. For example, it includes an edit feature that comes in handy when you make a typo, and a Secret Chat tool for when you want messages to disappear. If you do make the switch to Telegram or Signal, you'll also free yourself of the Meta ecosystem. That might not seem like much, but when Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp went down earlier this year, it left many people without a way to communicate with their friends and loved ones.

Tunnelbear

Tunnelbear

After a Password manager, one of the best tools you can use to safeguard your online privacy is a VPN. Again, there are many options out there, but we like TunnelBear for its simplicity and whimsical ursine theme. A VPN isn't as essential as a password manager, but you'll want to get one if you frequently find yourself traveling or using the public WiFi at places like cafes and libraries. Using a VPN in those contexts will ensure your connection is protected with encryption so that any information you send over remains safe and private.

Snapseed

Snapseed

Most recent phones come with great cameras. Still, even with the latest iPhone, Samsung Galaxy or Google Pixel, almost every photo can benefit from an edit before you share it. The options you have for photo editing apps are nearly endless, but if you want something that works well, look no further than Snapseed. It's an old favorite that offers a comprehensive suite of editing options but never gets bogged down in too many sliders and dials. Best of all, it makes it easy to save edits to your camera roll and upload them to apps like Instagram.

After far too many delays over the years to count, NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has a launch date. Provided there’s not another last-minute setback, the successor to Hubble Space Telescope is scheduled to take flight on Saturday, December 25th.

NASA expects the Ariane 5 rocket carrying the JWST to lift off no earlier than 7:20AM ET on Christmas Day from the Guiana Space Center in Kourou, French Guiana. You can watch the entire event unfold, beginning with pre-launch coverage, starting at 3AM ET. The space agency will broadcast the launch on its NASA Live website, as well as on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Twitch.

Understandably, there’s a lot of excitement for the JWST to finally make its way into space. Not only will a successful launch represent the end of a tumultuous 14-year development cycle, but the telescope, with its far more advanced sensors than Hubble, will afford astronomers to glimpse at black holes and early galaxies in a way they haven’t been able to do in the past.

Following Lenovo and Intel, Google has become the latest company to announce it won't have a physical presence at CES 2022. "After careful consideration we have decided to withhold from having a presence on the show floor of CES 2022. We’ve been closely monitoring the development of the omicron variant, and have decided that this is the best choice for the health and safety of our teams," the company told TechCrunch. 

Partway Thursday, it seemed only a matter of time before Google would decide to minimize its physical presence at the event. Earlier in the day, fellow Alphabet subsidiary Waymo announced it had made the decision not to attend the trade show in person. Google's withdrawal is particularly noteworthy given not only its stature in the industry but also the amount of money it has invested into the event in recent years. 

As things stand, the Consumer Technology Association, the organization that puts together CES every year, still plans to move forward with the show. "CES 2022 will be in person on January 5-8 in Las Vegas with strong safety measures in place, and our digital access is also available for people that don’t wish to, or can’t travel to Las Vegas," a spokesperson for the CTA told Engadget. "Our mission remains to convene the industry and give those who cannot attend in person the ability to experience the magic of CES digitally."

No matter how many times a new Gundam statue goes up in Japan, it’s always a sight to behold. This week was no different when workers attached the head of the RX-93FF V to its body as a crowd of onlookers and journalists came to watch the spectacle.

The one-to-one recreation is a riff on Amuro Ray’s Nu Gundam from 1988’s Char’s Counterattack. It stands 81.3 feet tall and is located in front of the LaLaport shopping center in Fukuoka, the most populous city on Japan’s southern island of Kyushu. Gundam creator Yoshiyuki Tomino was involved in the design of the statue, including the new tri-tone color scheme that adorns it.

It’s not the first one-to-one scale Gundam statue to go up in Japan. The one most people are probably familiar with is the RX-0 Unicorn Gundam that stands in Tokyo’s Odaiba district. It was a frequent sight during the 2020 Summer Olympics and the source of many a nerd faux pas during the event. Just ask the BBC and this guy.

According to The Mainichi, there are still some finishing touches workers need to add before the Gundam is complete sometime by the end of February. Hopefully the pandemic eases by then so that there's a possibility people outside of Japan can visit it. 

Lenovo has become the latest company to announce it won't have a physical presence at CES 2022. On Wednesday evening, the consumer and enterprise electronics manufacturer said it wouldn't have on-site personnel at the event to protect the health of its employees and customers.

"After closely monitoring the current trends surrounding COVID, it is in the best interest of the health and safety of our employees, customers, partners, and our communities to suspend all on-site activity in Las Vegas," the company said on Twitter. "While this is a change in plans, we are excited for you all to see our latest technology launching as scheduled on January 4th and January 5th."

Lenovo follows Amazon, Meta, Twitter and show sponsor T-Mobile in backing away from the trade show. All four said they would not attend in person due to concerns related to the new COVID-19 omicron variant. And while they're all important names in tech, they're not a hardware player in the same way Lenovo is, nor have they historically had as large of a physical presence at the show as it has in years past.

For the time being, the Consumer Technology Association, the organization that puts together CES every year, still plans to move forward with the event. "Given CES' comprehensive health measures — vaccination requirement, masking and availability of COVID-19 tests — coupled with lower attendance and social distancing measures, we are confident that attendees and exhibitors can have a socially distanced but worthwhile and productive event in Las Vegas, as well as a rewarding experience on our digital access," the organization told TechCrunch.

There's still much that scientists don't know about omicron, but early data suggests it's a highly transmissible strain of the coronavirus. Federal health officials said on Monday the variant accounted for 73 percent of all new cases nationwide the week ending December 18th. It made up 12.6 percent of all COVID-19 cases in the US just seven days earlier. In some areas of the country, including parts of New York states and the Pacific Northwest, the variant's share was even higher. Scientists have also found most non-mRNA vaccines, including Sinovac and Sinophram, offer little protection against the strain. It's understandable then why many companies want to play it safe, and it's fair to say Lenovo probably won't be the last to pull out of CES 2022.