It's rare for a game's concept to hook me within a few seconds, but Twelve Minutes managed to do that way back in 2015. Before it gained an all-star cast including Daisy Ridley, James McAvoy and Willem Dafoe, it was an intriguing indie point-and-click adventure with a Groundhog's Day-esque time loop and a unique, top-down perspective. Its interactive narrative, combined with a wealth of cinematic influences, made it seem as if developer Luis Antonio was crafting something meant just for me.

That's pretty much how I felt at the beginning of the game. You play as a man who comes home to a small apartment. Your wife has some special news, which you celebrate over a romantic dinner. All of a sudden, a cop starts pounding on the door and accuses her of murder. Things go downhill fast, and in an instant you're right back to the beginning of the night. Your mission: Figure out what the hell is happening.

Sounds like a solid thriller, right? But after spending six hours with the game, I was furious. What started out as a fun mystery devolved into a repetitive slog. I was forced to abuse my seemingly lovely wife. Sometimes I had to watch her be repeatedly tortured by that sadistic cop. And I became a murderer myself, several times over. Making things even worse, my reward for that hellish journey was an array of twists so convoluted, so mind-numbingly dumb, I was angry about it for days. Say what you will about the works of M. Night Shyamalan, but at least his twists feel original. (And yes, I know those twists occur less often than you may think.)

I won't spoil where Twelve Minutes ultimately goes. And, to be honest, I'm hesitant to even point out that a story has twists at all. But for a mystery like this, I figure that's to be expected. All of this time looping detective work just has to lead to something truly dramatic! And it's clear that Luis Antonio genuinely wants to blow your mind. It's just a shame almost everything falls flat at the end.

That's not to say Twelve Minutes isn't worth playing. The game's early hours set up a fascinating mystery box. Your small apartment has a cramped kitchen and living space, a bathroom, a bathroom and a closet. That's it. Everything you need to complete the game is there (or gets there later). Some of those puzzle pieces feel organic, like the mugs that you can fill with water, or the large knife tempting you in the kitchen. Some of them, like the light switch that can electrocute people on cue, are hilariously convenient.

I realized Twelve Minutes was doing something special early on when it managed to work its way into my subconscious. I thought of new things to try during long walks and after sleeping on a particularly annoying problem. That's a sign that, for a while at least, I was genuinely invested in the story. It helps that Twelve Minutes also has some solid voice work, which goes a long way toward connecting you to the characters. You don't get a full look at anyone's face (even if you try to scope out the cop through your front door's peephole), so it's nice to have some human performances grounding the story. If you’ve got Xbox Game Pass, it’s worth checking out the game just to experience its first few hours.

After the novelty wears off, though, the game quickly takes a turn for the worse. Eventually, you'll have to complete a long series of tasks over and over until you figure out your next step. And sometimes that can mean doing the same five tasks dozens of times. Twelve Minutes gives you a few easy ways to speed things up, like a single dialog option that can prove you're actually going through a time loop and that she's genuinely in danger. But a few more narrative shortcuts would make the game's rough last act more tolerable.

One major moment gives you only a few seconds to show one character a specific item. It's easy to miss that's something you can even do. And even when I knew what I had to do, after looking up a few guides, I still failed to trigger the right interaction several times. At that point, the game began to feel less like a puzzle I needed to solve and more like a Saw trap that I needed to escape from.

Annapurna Interactive

I suppose these issues could be overlooked if Twelve Minutes had a better script, but even in that respect it fails. It's stronger toward the beginning, but like a J.J. Abrams story, it has no clear idea where to go at the end. Characters start to act in completely different ways, which is hard to swallow after seeing them in one light for several hours. A sympathetic turn for Dafoe's cop feels particularly out of place, after seeing multiple loops where he kills you and your wife, and that’s even after getting the MacGuffin he's looking for. You don't need to have an ACAB tattoo to call him a monster.

I wouldn't write off Twelve Minutes a bad game, but based on where the story goes, it’s ultimately disappointing. Luis Antonio and his team spent over seven years working on the game, and it's a shame to see my enthusiasm for it fall apart in six hours.

Earlier this month, Roku released the last of the TV shows and movies it acquired when Quibi shut down at the end of 2020. Now the company is looking to the future. On Monday, Roku announced it’s bringing back Most Dangerous Game, one of the more popular titles it acquired in the transaction, for a second season.

Two-time Academy Award-winner Christoph Waltz will reprise his role as antagonist Miles Sellars, with David Castañeda, best known for his role in Netflix’s The Umbrella Academy, joining the cast as the show’s new protagonist. Roku describes Castañeda’s character, Victor Suero, as a down on his luck fighter who is forced to participate in the deadly contest at the center of the show to protect his sister.

It’s not surprising to see Roku decide to bring back Most Dangerous Game. The shorts Roku acquired from Quibi have played a significant role in its plan to find a niche among giants like Netflix and Amazon, and Most Dangerous Game was one of the few shows Quibi renewed before its demise last year. Roku hasn’t said when the new season would debut.

Esports is most commonly associated with high-octane competitive games such as League of Legends, Rocket League and Call of Duty: Warzone. A chill farming sim might not immediately spring to mind, but very soon, some of the world's finest Stardew Valley players will face off for thousands of dollars.

Creator Eric Barone (aka ConcernedApe) said the first official Stardew Valley Cup event will take place at noon ET on September 4th. “It’s a competition of skill, knowledge and teamwork, with a prize pool of over $40k,” Barone wrote on Twitter.

Barone and Stardew Valley streamer Zach “UnsurpassableZ” Hartman have concocted more than 100 challenges for competitors to tackle, as Kotaku notes. Four teams of four players will each have three hours to complete as many of the tasks as they can. The challenges include things like giving someone a gift they love at the Feast of the Winter Star (worth 25 points), winning the ice fishing contest (15 points) and completing item bundles in the Community Center (10 points each).

Players will have to prioritize the tasks, since some might not be entirely worth the points at stake. For instance, unless players are able to craft a ton of staircases, it can take an hour or so to reach the bottom of the mines, which is worth 10 points. Hartman will also add five surprise challenges during the event, each of which are worth 50 points, so competitors might have to adjust their plans on the fly.

Barone and Hartman will be commentators for the event, which you can watch on Hartman's Twitch channel.

It's actually not the first competitive Stardew Valley event with cash at stake. A few Stardew Twitch Rivals competitions have taken place. One event in 2019 had $35,000 on the line, and included challenges like catching all five legendary fish as quickly as possible and obtaining the most gold.

In recent weeks, we’ve seen one retro Nintendo game after another shatter the record for the most expensive video game sold at auction. At the start of July, a copy of The Legend of Zelda went for $870,000. Days later, a mint version of Super Mario 64 sold for $1.56 million. Now another Nintendo collectible has set a sales record, but this one is a bit different.

Over the weekend, a special commemorative edition of a Game & Watch system sold for approximately $9,100 on Yahoo Japan. As most Nintendo fans know, the Game & Watch predates the far more successful Game Boy. What makes this unit unique is that it was commissioned by Game & Watch creator Gunpei Yokoi after Nintendo sold more than 20,000 million units of the handheld. Before this weekend, this version of the console had never come on the market before.

What’s unclear is just how many units of the commemorative edition Game Nintendo produced. According to Beforemario, a blog devoted to games and toys the company made between the 1960s and 1980s, the unit is “extremely” rare. “If I had to guess, I would say there were more than three made [one for each of the individuals pictured on the plaque], but again, just a guess,” John Hardie, the director of the National Videogame Museum in Fresco, Texas, told Ars Technica.

Given the current state of the video game collectibles market, what seems like a one-of-a-kind historical artifact selling for so little is surprising. Part of that could be the result of the Game & Watch market. As Ars Technica points out, you can find common versions of the handheld for about $50. Rarer variants like the Ballon Fight one can go for as much as $2,000 if they’re in good condition.

Around 38 million records from north of a thousand web apps that use Microsoft's Power Apps platform were left exposed online, according to researchers. The records are said to have included data from COVID-19 contact tracing efforts, vaccine registrations and employee databases, such as home addresses, phone numbers, social security numbers and vaccination status.

Data from some large companies and institutions was exposed in the incident, according to Wired, including American Airlines, Ford, the Indiana Department of Health and New York City public schools. The vulnerability has mostly been resolved.

Researchers from security company Upguard started looking into the issue in May. They found data from many Power Apps that was supposed to be private was available for anyone to access if they knew where to look. 

The Power Apps service aims to make it easy for customers to make their own web and mobile apps. It offers application programming interfaces (APIs) for developers to use with the data they collect. However, Upguard found that using those APIs makes the data obtained through Power Apps public by default, and manual reconfiguration was required to keep the information private.

Upguard says it sent a vulnerability report to the Microsoft Security Resource Center on June 24th, including links to Power Apps accounts on which sensitive data was exposed and steps to identify APIs that enabled anonymous access to data. Researchers worked with Microsoft to clarify how to reproduce the issue. However, an Microsoft analyst told the firm on June 29th that the case was closed and they “determined that this behavior is considered to be by design.”

Upguard then started notifying some of the affected companies and organizations, which moved to lock down their data. It raised an abuse report with Microsoft on July 15th. By July 19th, the company says that most of the data from the Power Apps in question, including the most sensitive information, had been made private. Engadget has contacted Microsoft for comment.

Earlier this month, Microsoft said Power Apps will keep data private by default when developers harness the APIs. In addition, it released a tool for developers to check their Power Apps settings.

There's no indication as yet that any of the exposed data has been compromised. Among the most sensitive information that was left in the open were 332,000 email addresses and Microsoft employee IDs that are used for payroll, according to Upguard. The company also says that more than 39,000 records from portals related to Microsoft Mixed Reality were exposed, including users' names and email addresses.

The incident underscores the fact that a misconfiguration, no matter how seemingly minor, could lead to serious data breaches. That doesn't appear to be the case here, thankfully. Still, it goes to show that developers should probably triple check their settings, especially when plugging in an API they haven't designed themselves.

One of the most unusual cryptocurrency heists in recent memory has come to a close. On Monday, Poly Network, a decentralized finance platform that saw a hacker named “Mr. White Hat” exploit a vulnerability in its code to steal $610 million in Ethereum, Shiba Inu and other cryptocurrencies, says it has recovered all the money it lost in the theft.

“At this point, all the user assets that were transferred during the incident have been fully recovered,” the company said in a Medium post. Poly Network is now working to return control of those digital currencies to their rightful owners, a process the company says it hopes to complete as soon as possible.

The Poly Network hack took one strange turn after another. Less than a day after stealing the digital currencies, the hacker started returning millions and sent a token indicating they were “ready to surrender.” Everything was going smoothly until they locked more than $200 million in assets in an account that required passwords from both them and Poly Network. They said they would only provide their password once everyone was “ready.” At that point, Poly Network offered the hacker a $500,000 reward.

It’s unclear why the perpetrator had a change of heart, though some experts believe they may have found it difficult to launder and cash out the money they had on their hands. All we have to go on from the hacker is that they were trying to help in their own way.

“My actions, which may be considered weird, are my efforts to contribute to the security of the Poly project in my personal style,” the hacker said in a message they included with the final transaction, according to CNBC. “The consensus was reached in a painful and obscure way, but it works.”

Lumen is a crowdfunded tracking device which purports to analyze your breath to determine what state your metabolism is in. Now, the company behind it is launching an app for the Apple Watch to make it easier for you to use the hardware when you’re on the go. Users will be able to use the device and then see the results on their wrist, in a way that CTO and co-founder Avi Smila says “seamlessly integrated into daily life.”

The pitch for Lumen is, essentially, to enable you to learn as and when you should be eating and in what quantities. The system can tell you when you should eat, based on your metabolism, and suggests carb servings, meal plans and macros for the day. Should it be a lack of a smartwatch app has held you back from buying a Lumen thus far, you can pick up a unit for as little as $199, plus a monthly subscription of $19 a month.

Netflix's live-action adaptation of classic anime Cowboy Bebop has been a long time coming, and the show finally has a release date. The 10-episode first season will start streaming on November 19th.

Although Netflix hasn't posted a trailer just yet, it provided a first proper look at Cowboy Bebop in a bunch of photos. The images show John Cho (Spike Spiegel), Mustafa Shakir (Jet Black) and Daniella Pineda (Faye Valentine) in character, as well as an adorable corgi.

Live-action adaptations of anime haven't typically been well-received (here's looking at you, Ghost in the Shell). There's pressure on Netflix to get this take on Cowboy Bebop right, but things are looking promising. The core cast looks great in the first batch of images, while some key creatives from the 1998 anime are involved. Legendary composer Yoko Kanno returns, while original director Shinichirō Watanabe consulted on the Netflix show.

Production started in 2019 but it was paused for eight months after Cho sustained a knee injury on the set. Filming eventually wrapped in March.

Netflix

For a few years now, wireless carriers in the US have offered their customers all manner of video and music freebies. Verizon (Engadget's parent company) has offered free subscriptions to Disney+, Apple Music and AMC+ recently, while T-Mobile has long offered its customers free Netflix access. Today, T-Mobile is adding another freebie to its offerings: Apple TV+. Starting on August 25th, customers on the carrier's Magenta or Magenta Max plans (as well as some Sprint legacy plans) will get one year of free Apple TV+ access. 

If you're already paying for Apple TV+, you can still take advantage of this deal. It'll just add a free year of access and pause billing until the trial is up. If you haven't used Apple TV+ yet, it is naturally available on basically all current Apple hardware, but it's also available on a pretty large number of third-party set-top boxes, gaming consoles and TVs, as well. 

This move comes as Apple itself has cut back on the length of its Apple TV+ free trials. Ever since the service launched, Apple offered a year free to basically anyone who bought new hardware from the company, and it extended that free period multiple times. But lately, people have noticed that Apple is finally charging them for the service, and the free trial period has been cut down to three months. That's still quite generous, but all these changes indicate Apple is keen to start collecting money for Apple TV+. Unless, of course, you're a T-Mobile subscriber, in which case it's a perfect time to start your Ted Lasso binge.

Square Enix might have just found its next big franchise in Outriders. The third-person shooter has become a hit for the publisher (though that hasn't been reflected in royalties for the developer, People Can Fly.) It's easy to see why: the core gameplay is bags of fun, especially when you’re playing with friends.

However, it doesn't quite stick the landing. A by-the-numbers story and limited replayability drag things down a bit. As such, before you pay full price, it might be worth checking out Outriders on Xbox Game Pass first.

You play as an Outrider, an elite soldier who helps prepare another planet for what's left of humanity to colonize it, but something goes drastically wrong. Get past the middling first couple of hours (and some iffy writing and acting), and Outriders kicks into a higher gear once your character becomes mutated. You can select one of four classes, each with their own set of unlockable abilities.

The powers and weapon abilities are a blast to play around with, especially when you team up with a friend and combo your special moves. There are a vast number of potential loadouts and character builds you can run with. You can also switch up your gear, abilities and skill tree at any time. The cover system works well enough, but it's better to play aggressively, since you'll only heal by killing enemies.

People Can Fly/Square Enix

Outriders looks good, with a grimy tone that’s more Gears of War than Destiny. There are a bunch of different biomes, each with a distinct aesthetic, though many parts of levels are just tunnels that funnel you from one encounter to the next. It’s easy to make comparisons with Destiny 2: Both games are futuristic shooters in which you can mow down waves of enemies and constantly hunt for better gear.

Outriders isn’t a live service game, though, nor can you battle other players. It has a focused story, with side missions and endgame challenges you can go on after you finish the campaign. They do get repetitive, though. At a certain point, grinding for better items means little more than seeing higher numbers on your weapon stats and floating above enemies when you attack them. It might have actually been better as an ongoing game with frequent content additions.

Still, there's nothing to lose by checking out Outriders on Xbox Game Pass, where it has been available since its launch day.

For at least the last year or so, there’s been a common refrain about Xbox Game Pass: it’s one of the best deals in gaming. There’s definitely some merit to that, as the service includes a ton of major first-party games, like Microsoft Flight Simulator, as well as Bethesda titles and a bunch of killer indies for a single monthly fee. Offering players easier access to Game Pass on more devices through the cloud sweetens the deal.

Big third-party games are an important aspect of the service as well, including a bunch of EA titles games and, of course, Outriders, which is practically a perfect fit for Game Pass.

Square Enix and People Can Fly deserve props for putting out a lengthy Outriders demo that’s long enough for you to get a good sense of each classes’ powers. If you have Game Pass Ultimate, though, you can keep going without having to pay extra.

Outriders is solid. It's exactly the kind of thing Microsoft could use more of on Game Pass, a fun, big third-party game you might be interested in, but don't want to spend $60 on. Sure, the library has plenty of far better games, but whenever you and a couple of buddies are in the mood for some relatively mindless alien-murdering carnage without having to fire up Destiny 2 yet again, Outriders hits the spot.