It’s been a long road, getting from Lower Decks’ slightly rough-around-the-edges first episode to here. But it hasn’t taken that much time, since Star Trek’s first animated sitcom very quickly found its feet to become my favorite Trek of the streaming era. The second season showed a growing confidence in its own execution, and as the third season concludes, we find it proud to show the world what it’s now capable of.

The clue, really, was in the swift resolution to the Pakled cliffhanger which ended the second year. On one hand, a sitcom like Lower Decks doesn’t need to turn into The Wire to keep you hooked. But it’s also aware that it can sow the seeds of a running plot thread – the story of Rutherford’s implant – into the fabric of so many episodes. And that the payoff was far more interested in the impact on the character than the cliffhanger.

And these strands certainly paid off in “Reflections,” which revealed that a person, or persons unknown, were behind Rutherford’s implant. But even that paid off in a way that you weren’t necessarily expecting it to come back here in the two-ish part finale. And who was the big bad of the season, really? Nothing more than the bete noire of so many Golden Era Trek episodes, the Evil Admiral™. I loved the show’s attempted justification for why Starfleet churns out so many of them – the lack of career development pushes people to extremes – too.

If there was a sore spot, it was that the penultimate episode, “Trusted Sources” wheeled out the hacky Journalist Makes Everyone Look Awful plot. It’s about as hackneyed as the one where a sitcom character has their boss over for dinner yet accidentally forgets to tell their partner. It’s only really a crowbar to get Mariner pushed out of Starfleet in preparation for the finale, and it never looked like it was going to stick given her obvious love of the Cerritos.

Naturally, the season ends with a punch-the-air victory for not just the Cerritos, but the whole California Class. I’ve always loved Lower Decks’ celebration of the painstaking, cautious and fundamentally boring, yet fundamental, work that serving in Starfleet often requires. Its regular rejection of the, uh, more Kurtzmanesque tendencies of the series makes me love it all the more. Because, like science, the best work is often slow, incremental and dull until it marks a fundamental shift in how we understand the universe. And you can’t really do that if you’re spending your whole episode running from an explosion or proving how tough you are.

Another sign of the show’s confidence is in its second crew-lite episode (I’m always a fan of a show that’ll take you elsewhere for an episode or two). This time, it was centered on the fate of the evil Exocomp Peanut Hamper, last seen making a run for it in the first season finale. “A Mathematically Perfect Resolution” allowed the show to both flesh out a previously one-note character, and explore a new corner of the Star Trek world.

Even better, the sparse opening act offered a lengthy showcase for Chris Westlake’s gorgeous score. Star Trek has always been about its music as much as its narrative, and the show is lucky to have both Westlake and Nami Melumad producing virtuoso work on a weekly basis. I can’t wait for a season three soundtrack album, especially since we once again hear the James Horner-parodying Lower Decks Action Theme several times this year.

If I have a concern, it’s that Lower Decks often feels like it’s designed with lasers to milk my nostalgia glands. I’ll often spend a chunk of each episode clapping like a mad seal at the latest Trek deep cut Mike McMahon and Co. throw at viewers each week. The only thing that prevents it from becoming gratuitous fanservice is that these feel mostly earned. And it has been an orgy of references, including an extended visit to Deep Space Nine.

My heart can do nothing but swell when Nana Visitor (Kira), Armin Shimmerman (Quark), JG Hertzler (Martok), Susan Gibney (Leah Brahmas) and George Takei (Captain Sulu!). And the show has the appropriate respect for Trek MVP Jeffrey Combs to bring him back for a quick visit to Agimus, still trapped in Starfleet’s filing cabinet for self-aware, megalomaniacal computers. I didn’t even mention the extended First Contact riff, complete with an appearance by James Cromwell, or the riff on classic TNG episode “Symbiosis” with quite possibly the darkest joke ever seen in a Trek series.

I’m running out of room to heap the usual praise on the cast, all of whom do sterling work on a regular basis. And that’s before we discuss the glorious, last-minute reveal that T’Lyn, the so-called “emotional” Vulcan from last year’s “wej Duj” has transferred to the Cerritos. (Do I want her to join Beta Shift? I have no idea, but I’m looking forward to seeing how she interacts with the gang now she’s here.)

I’m naturally very excited for Lower Decks’ Season 4 but, by my calculations, the next time we’ll see Mariner and Boimler appear in Strange New Worlds. Given that we already know that Tawny Newsome and Jack Quaid look like their characters, I can’t wait to see them appear on the Enterprise bridge and stare lovingly at Pike’s Peak. My favorite nü-Trek series merging with my second-favorite? Be still my beating heart.

It’s a strange feeling. The Callisto Protocol is a new game from a studio with zero releases to its name, but playing it feels like coming home. Its mechanics, environments and monsters are deeply familiar, unapologetically feeding off the immersive sci-fi horror concepts of Dead Space. While playing a preview of The Callisto Protocol on PlayStation 5, I was reminded of that scene from Wayne’s World where the boys are looking down on a film set that looks like Wayne’s basement, but it’s not actually Wayne’s basement, and Garth says, "Isn’t that weird?" They all agree it is.

Playing The Callisto Protocol, I found myself trapped in a world between old and new. Like I said, it was strange. However, once the weirdness wore off, playing The Callisto Protocol just felt good.

Callisto is the first game out of Striking Distance Studios, a team led by Dead Space co-creator Greg Schofield — so yeah, all the references are coming straight from the source. And there are plenty of similarities to go around: Callisto stars a lone space dude fighting through rooms of mutated humans; headshots are less effective than shooting extremities and tentacles; there’s no UI and the protagonist’s health is displayed on the back of his neck; stomping enemies is the best way to ensure they’re dead; there’s a gravity gun that functions like a kinesis ability; and the death screens are particularly gruesome. One early level even has a vignette with the phrase, "shoot the tentacles" scrawled across the wall in blood, riffing on the classic Dead Space blood tag that read, "cut off their limbs."

Striking Distance Studios

I had the luxury of playing the Callisto Protocol preview just a week after trying out Motive Studio’s Dead Space remake, so the similarities stung sharply — but so did the differences. The Callisto Protocol does some things that Dead Space couldn’t, and it’s clearly a bigger game in a more complex world. Where the USG Ishimura in Dead Space often felt claustrophobic, the dead-moon prison colony in The Callisto Protocol feels vast and mazelike, with ladders, vents, long hallways, tight corridors and open laboratories with multiple access points for enemies, all of it overgrown with alien life.

The early game features a variety of enemy types — rushing monsters, tall spitters, leather-daddy tanks and invisible beasts with too many legs, to name a few — and they’re each difficult to kill in their own special ways. The twist is that all of the infected humans, or Biophage, will mutate in front of the player’s eyes when they’re not killed quickly enough, growing stronger in their evolved form. Enemy spawn points are not randomized, a fact that I discovered after dying a few times in a row in a single room. (The death screens are numerous and reach Mortal Kombat levels of brutality in the best possible way.)

All of these details result in a rich sense of strategy, with explodables, ammo drops and escape routes secreted around each combat area. Callisto is a video game for video game people, offering little actual direction while relying on the environment to communicate escape and attack opportunities — a suspiciously red canister in the middle of a long walkway, a ladder rung dangling just within reach, a box barely big enough to duck behind. Each detail blends smoothly into the futuristic surroundings, only standing out when a horde of Biophage are breathing down your neck.

TheCallisto Protocol is a fully formed concept executed with proficiency. The Striking Distance crew clearly know how to make a game feel tense and horrific and satisfying, and with Callisto, they’re just showing off. Only one segment of my playthrough sticks out negatively in my mind: The protagonist essentially finds himself on a water slide, and players have to navigate the concrete pillars and other obstacles in his path. It isn’t a terrible concept, but personally, I don’t need any more on-rails sequences in my games. Overall though, the preview was a haze of sci-fi gore, action and surprise, and I’m excited to play the full game when it comes out on December 2nd.

To be honest, I almost expected more out of The Callisto Protocol — more growth since Dead Space, a new perspective on horror, a stronger attempt to be different than that iconic game. Instead, Callisto leans into Dead Space’s original ideas and competes with them directly, even down to the release timing — the Dead Space remake is due out just eight weeks after Callisto. Something about that feels personal, like The Callisto Protocol is shoving something in Dead Space’s face; as if, more than a decade later, Schofield is trying to prove something to EA. That’s not based on any conversations with developers, it’s just a gut feeling I have.

Striking Distance Studios

Conspiracy theories aside, it’s fortunate that Dead Space provides such a timeless foundation for The Callisto Protocol’s playground. The original ideas — immersive UI, strategic combat, horrific killscreens, tight metal corridors — remain effective today, and modern hardware only provides more room for these mechanics to breathe.

The Callisto Protocol contains a few fresh concepts, but its most satisfying mechanics are the familiar ones, spit-shined for a new generation. That said, The Callisto Protocol’s success isn’t guaranteed just because it’s riffing on proven ideas — the game still has to run smoothly and look beautiful. Luckily, it seems Striking Distance got it right in these areas, too. Playing for an hour on PS5, the game is perfectly polished, terrifying and gruesome. Somehow, The Callisto Protocol is entirely new, yet exactly as I remember.

A new Bayonetta game is like the circus rolling into town. Bayonetta is the ringmaster, of course, and she shows up out of the blue with boxcars of strange beasts, weird friends, dangerous spells, magnificent clothing and endless promises to impress. Her stories don’t always make sense, but they’re filled with melodrama and action, magic and gunfire, and once Bayonetta enters the spotlight, there’s no looking away. Especially not when she’s dancing her way through a spell in an outfit made of her own hair, while 40-storey monsters fight to the death at her back.

Bayonetta 3 is full of classic Bayonetta madness, all of it amped up by one degree. The stakes are higher than they’ve ever been, the enemies are absolutely massive, Bayonetta’s magic is incredibly powerful, her outfits are outstanding, and the fights don’t stop coming. A loose plot holds the entire game together – an army of man-made bioweapons called Homonculi is threatening the existence of the multiverse – but it’s just an excuse to throw Bayonetta and friends into an endless string of battles in a variety of crumbling cities. In that way, Bayonetta 3 isn’t very different from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, though PlatinumGames’ latest installment has way more witchcraft, silliness and shoe-operated guns than anything helmed by Robert Downey Jr.

Structurally and mechanically, Bayonetta 3 is as rich as its predecessors. Bayonetta acquires new skills and weapons throughout her quest; she collects fragments of fallen enemies to purchase items, consumables and accessories in the Gates of Hell shop, while orbs unlock abilities on her skill tree. Combat is all about performing stylish combos and executing well-timed dodges, and each fight is infinitely replayable if you’re chasing high scores. There are also plenty of challenges and secrets to find in each level.

Bayonetta 3 is a Switch exclusive, and it struggles as much as any fast-paced action game on that console: At times, inputs feel sluggish and it becomes difficult to track which moves are actually lined up. The game does a fine job of providing visual indicators for attacks and there is a rhythm to be found in the fray, but the entire thing runs in Switch Reaction Time (does not adhere to daylight saving).

For fans of the series, there’s nothing missing in Bayonetta 3 – in fact, there’s just more. More weirdness, more one-liners, more swag, and more combat mechanics. For instance, one section puts players in control of Bayonetta’s witchy buddy, Jeanne, for a side-scrolling action sequence with 1960s espionage flair. Another mechanic allows Bayonetta to control time in short bursts, at times reverting to her younger self. Throughout the game, the Demon Masquerade ability adds hellish features to Bayonetta’s weapons and allows her to transform into various demons, while the Demon Slave skill allows her to summon and control giant creatures of hell, each with a specific moveset.

Most of Bayonetta’s demons are inspired by classically spooky animals like moths and spiders, but one of her forms is a literal train. A little over halfway through the game, Bayonetta is infused with the energy of Satan’s choo-choo and she’s able to summon a hellish tank engine during fights. Attacking as the train with Demon Slave slows down time temporarily, allowing players to quickly draw a track and indicate points of damage along the route, ideally in the path of nearby enemies. Let go of the Demon Slave button and the train barrels down the ghost track in real time, dealing hefty damage to anything it hits. Bayonetta also acquires the ability to turn into a literal train-witch hybrid through Demon Masquerade, rushing forward with heavy-duty chainsaw-like attacks. Because of course she does.

Nintendo/PlatinumGames

By the time the train demon appears, it actually fits into the rest of the game nicely. Bayonetta’s world has always been wacky, and 3 is no exception. If you can handle the idea of Umbra Witches and bartending angels, you can deal with some light locomotive play.

I don’t take Bayonetta games too seriously and this feels like the right move, especially after playing the third installment. The series’ sense of combat is rich and its storyline is incredibly intricate, involving divine wars and parallel universes, and yet it all just feels like an excuse to make Bayonetta dance her way through a spell while massive monsters fight in the background. Thankfully, this is the best part of the series – Bayonetta is powerful and fighting in her (gun)shoes feels great, but her personality is what makes this franchise a cult hit. Bayonetta is confident, sarcastic and always correct; her outfits are stunning and so are her friends; she dances like an angel; she never has a hair out of place and her one-liners never stop. She’s a drag queen in a universe loosely held together by witchcraft, and the chaos of this combination is truly magical.

Bayonetta 3 is ridiculous and slightly disjointed, but that's precisely what makes it so wonderful. It builds on a multiverse of weird and witchy ideas, and it delivers exactly what fans of the series expect – something totally unexpected.

Nintendo/PlatinumGames

Days before Elon Musk’s deal to acquire Twitter could finally close, workers at the social company are warning that staff cuts would be “reckless.” Timereports that an open letter from an unspecified number of Twitter employees, directed to Musk and Twitter’s board, is making rounds within the company.

The letter comes on the heels of a report from The Washington Post, that Musk wants to cut as much as 75 percent of Twitter’s roughly 7,500 staff. “Elon Musk’s plan to lay off 75% of Twitter workers will hurt Twitter’s ability to serve the public conversation,” the letter says. “A threat of this magnitude is reckless, undermines our users’ and customers’ trust in our platform, and is a transparent act of worker intimidation. We cannot do our work in an environment of constant harassment and threats.”

The letter also includes a list of demands for “current and future leadership” of the company. In addition to “fair severance policies for all workers,” letter writers want Musk to keep existing employee benefits in place, including remote work. Musk has previously criticized remote work, and suggested most Twitter employees should return to the office.

The letter also hints at the potential ideological divide between some Twitter workers and Musk, who has said he favors less moderation. “We demand that leadership does not discriminate against workers on the basis of their race, gender, disability, sexual orientation, or political beliefs,” the letter says.

It’s unclear how many workers have signed onto the letter so far. But it’s yet another sign of how messy things could get for Twitter employees under Musk. After a months-long legal battle, the deal seems to be on track to close by the October 28th deadline.

Remember back in 2014 when U2 gave away an album's worth of songs to every iTunes user in the world? And it turned out that a large number of them didn't want said album anywhere near their music library — to the point that Apple had to release a special tool to remove it? That was completely my bad, U2 lead singer Bono wrote in an article for The Guardian. 

When Bono approached Tim Cook, along with Eddy Cue and Phil Schiller about the idea, he was met with some incredulity. "Are you talking about free music?" Cook said, according to Bono. "But the whole point... is to make sure musicians get paid."

"'No,' I said, 'I don’t think we give it away free. I think you pay us for it and then you give it away free, as a gift to people. Wouldn’t that be wonderful?'" Bono wrote.

"Tim Cook raised an eyebrow. 'You mean we pay for the album and then just distribute it?' I said, 'Yeah, like when Netflix buys the movie and gives it away to subscribers.' Tim looked at me as if I was explaining the alphabet to an English professor. ‘But we’re not a subscription organization,'" Cook said in the excerpt. "'Not yet,' I said. ‘Let ours be the first.’ Tim was not convinced. ‘And this is just to people who like U2?' ‘Well,’ I replied, ‘I think we should give it away to everybody. It’s their choice whether they want to listen to it."

It was clearly a humbling lesson for the band when they realized that many people not only didn't want to listen to it, but didn't want it there in the first place.

"As one social media wisecracker put it, ‘Woke up this morning to find Bono in my kitchen, drinking my coffee, wearing my dressing gown, reading my paper.’ Or, less kind, ‘The free U2 album is overpriced.’ Mea Culpa," he wrote. "'I take full responsibility. Not [U2 manager] Guy O, not Edge, not Adam, not Larry, not Tim Cook, not Eddy Cue. I’d thought if we could just put our music within reach of people, they might choose to reach out toward it. Not quite.'"

Bono also recalled a happier tie-up with Apple on the iPod, which feted its 21st anniversary just yesterday. It was U2 that convinced Steve Jobs to let them be in those famous iPod silhouette ads for the first time, and also talked him into building the U2 edition iPod in black with a red click wheel — marking the first time it wasn't white. Amusingly, they also asked Jobs for some Apple stock, even a symbolic amount — which he refused, in his typical direct style. "'Sorry,'" said Steve, according to Bono. "'That’s a dealbreaker.'"

Microsoft and Discord plan to make joining a voice channel from an Xbox console easier. If you’re a frequent Discord user, you may recall the companies recently launched Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S integration. Following a beta test in July, Discord started rolling out the feature to all Xbox users in September. Unfortunately, in its current iteration, the integration isn’t as straightforward as one would hope; joining a voice chat involves a transfer process that requires the Xbox mobile app.

That’s about to change. In a blog post spotted by The Verge, Microsoft announced it was removing the need to use a phone to join Discord voice chats as part of a beta update Xbox Insiders can try out right now. The new software adds a server browser that allows you to join a voice channel directly from your console. You’ll still need your phone handy if you want to call a specific friend over Discord, but the update otherwise simplifies what was an overly complicated process previously. While the feature is currently in beta, Microsoft will likely roll it out to all Xbox users sometime over the next few weeks.

Adrian Kwiatkowski, a hacker from Ipswich in England who stole two unreleased songs by Ed Sheeran, has been sentenced to 18 months in prison, according to the BBC. Kwiatkowski sold Sheeran's tracks, along with 12 other songs by American rapper Lil Uzi Vert, for cryptocurrency worth £131,000 (US$148,000) on the dark web. UK prosecutors said Kwiatkowski got his hands on the unreleased tracks by hacking into their cloud-based accounts. They didn't specify which cloud services those were, but he stole from a lot more artists, because authorities found 1,263 unreleased songs in his possession. 

American authorities launched an investigation back in 2019 after several musicians reported to the New York District Attorney's office that someone using the name Spirdark had hacked their accounts and was selling their content online. Investigators eventually linked Kwiatkowski to the email address Spirdark used with the cryptocurrency account involved in the case. Further, his UK address was linked to an IP address that was found in relation to one of the hacked devices. 

When he was arrested, London police found seven devices that contained 1,263 unreleased songs by 89 different artists. Authorities found more incriminating files in his hard drive, including a document where he detailed the method he used to hack into the victims' accounts. They also found his Bitcoins, which he admitted to receiving in return for the songs. In all, he pled guilty to 19 charges that included copyright infringement and possessing criminal property, enough to put him away for a year-and-a-half.

On November 2nd, the original Mario Party game and its sequel will be available on Nintendo's Switch Online service. The games were first released in the late 90's for the N64 and feature board games with various themes that you can play together with up to four friends. Like with every board game, you roll a dice to advance. At the end of each turn, you play a mini-game — some of them are are solo games, but others make you cooperate with or play against friends. Or CPU-powered bots... in case you don't have anybody to play with. The first Mario Party has 56 different mini-games you can play, while the second one has 65, including duel mini-games that weren't available in the debut title. 

Although these two will be available on the service within a couple of weeks, Nintendo has lined up several more N64 games for addition. In 2023, the gaming giant will add Mario Party 3 to Switch Online's selection, along with Pokémon Stadium and Pokémon Stadium 2, which are strategy games that don't have storylines. Since all the titles we've mentioned so far were originally released for N64, that means you'll need a Switch Online + Expansion Pack subscription to be able to access them. The tier will set you back $50 for an individual membership. That's just a bit more than $4 a month, which is also what the basic subscription costs, except you'll have to pay for a year-long membership at once. 

Facebook is giving Groups a tune-up with new features, not to mention tools to ensure healthy discussions. Like it or not, Reels are coming to Groups — members can share how-to guides, vacation recaps and other videos using the seemingly omnipresent format. You can also update your Group profile to share things you might have in common, and signal that you're open to messages. And if you want to broadcast an event, you can share public Facebook events as Instagram Stories.

The social media behemoth is also making it easier to curb the spread of misinformation within Groups. Admins can automatically move posts with known false claims (that is, verified by fact checkers) to pending posts so they can be reviewed before they're deleted. While leaders could already auto-decline posts and even auto-block posters, this could help them spot trends in bogus content and help make decisions on bans.

Meta

There are efforts to promote conversations, too. Facebook is testing an extension (shown at top) that lets admins allow content that might otherwise be flagged for bullying and harassment, such as describing a fish as "fatty." This will only be available to actively involved admins who haven't either helmed a removed group or committed a serious policy violation. In another test, admins can reward contributions by giving points to community members. You may get badges for welcoming newcomers or providing useful tips, for example.

The changes are both an effort to spur positive engagement and an acknowledgment that Groups have sometimes been the source of Facebook's largest misinformation problems. It put some communities on probation for spreading false 2020 election claims, and banned hundreds of QAnon groups. The ability to allow certain flagged content is unusual — effectively, Facebook is willing to let Groups override its moderation system if they feel there's been a mistake.

Instagram is expanding its efforts to fight abuse, and that includes not-so-subtle encouragement to stay civil. The company is introducing DM "kindness reminders" that ask you to "keep Instagram a supportive place" when you message a creator. This probably won't deter committed trolls when it arrives in the "coming weeks," but the social network clearly hopes it will give pause to people who'd otherwise hurl insults in a fit of rage. You'll see similar prompts when replying to potentially offensive comments.

Filters should also be more useful. Instagram is testing an approach that would enable Hidden Words comment and DM filtering by default for creator accounts. You wouldn't have to switch it on to keep toxic language out of discussions. All users can now use Hidden Words to screen Story replies (they'll sit in the Hidden Requests folder), and the company will soon begin filtering English DM requests involving scams and spam.

You may also have an easier time blocking elusive abusers. On top of the existing power to automatically block new accounts someone creates, you can now auto-block accounts that user already has. A harasser can't just switch to an alternate account to make your life miserable.

The additions come as Instagram faces pressure from the Senate, UK regulators and others to curb abuse and privacy violations, particularly for teens. That's in addition to the continued fallout from whistleblower Frances Haugen's allegations that parent company Meta knowingly pushes anger-inducing content. Updates like this theoretically show that Instagram wants to calm things down.