Netflix’s TV games get a big boost with Jackbox collection
Netflix's party-focused lineup of TV games just got three excellent new additions: Jackbox's Drawful 2, Fibbage 4, and Quiplash 3, available as the Jackbox Party Essentials pack on the platform. Subscribers can access Jackbox Party Essentials at no additional cost and use their phones as controllers to play.
The Jackbox bundle seems like a natural fit for the platform; Netflix's other TV games include multiplayer party versions of Boggle and Pictionary, and people who have already played games in Jackbox's other Party Packs will be familiar with using their phone as a controller. If you get some friends together to check out Jackbox Party E …
Framework is teasing a lot of Linux for its April 21st event
Modular PC maker Framework is hosting a "Next Gen" event on April 21st at 1:30PM ET, and it looks like it might have something to do with Linux. Alongside a newsletter announcing the event, Framework posted a video on Thursday titled "Follow the white penguin." It features a few clear references to Linux, including the iconic penguin, the "I use Arch btw" meme, and a shot cycling through several Linux distro logos, including Ubuntu, Fedora, Arch, CachyOS, and Bazzite.
It also said its products are available in four new countries (New Zealand, Norway, Switzerland, and Singapore), although it suggested holding off on orders until people see w …
Google’s Gemini AI can answer your questions with 3D models and simulations
Google's latest upgrade for Gemini will allow the chatbot to generate interactive 3D models and simulations in response to your questions. With the new feature, you may see options to rotate the AI-generated model, manually adjust sliders on it, or input different values to change the simulation in real-time.
When trying out the feature for myself, I asked Gemini to make a simulation of the Moon orbiting the Earth, and it created a 3D model with a few different ways to interact with it. Along with a slider to adjust the speed of the Moon's orbit, there's also a toggle to hide the line representing its orbital path and a button to pause the …
Castlevania headlines a big list of exciting indie game reveals
A big indie showcase has just wrapped up, and now I have a lot more games to look forward to.
The third iteration of the Triple-I Initiative, an annual showcase for upcoming releases put on by a group of studios, aired on Thursday. It featured some familiar franchises, like an indie-developed Castlevania and a new entry in the Don't Starve series, as well as some impressive new titles.
You can watch the full show here, but here are some of the highlights.
A new look at the Castlevania game from the developers behind Dead Cells
Konami is teaming up with Evil Empire and Motion Twin, which worked on the hit roguelike Dead Cells, on Castleva …
The team behind 1000xResist is making a game about convincing an AI that it isn’t human
When the team at indie studio Sunset Visitor were wrapping up their critically acclaimed first game, 1000xResist, it wasn't long before they started thinking about what they'd tackle next. According to creative director Remy Siu, the studio's goal is to always find ways to reflect the world around them. So when they were looking at the cultural landscape in 2024, there was one theme they couldn't avoid: AI. "That was when we really wanted to dive into what we see as a long tradition of science fiction writing and thinking about artificial intelligence," he explains. "So we thought it was a very interesting time to engage with that in a work …
Mastodon is about to launch its take on Bluesky’s starter packs
Mastodon is preparing to roll out "Collections" in the next few weeks, a feature that allows you to find and create lists of accounts worth following, according to an announcement on Thursday. Collections, which take inspiration from Bluesky Starter Packs, will come with the ability to add up to 25 accounts to a single list.
If you're on a participating server, you'll be able to create a Collection with a short description and topic. You can also mark them as "sensitive," which "hides the description and accounts behind a content warning." As mentioned by Mastodon last year, Collections - then called "Packs" - will come with the ability to …
Slay the Princess’ developer is the latest to expand into indie game publishing
Black Tabby Games, the two-person studio behind the hit indie games Slay the Princess and Scarlet Hollow, is getting into indie publishing. The publishing arm, which was revealed on Thursday, is called Black Tabby Publishing and has already signed deals for two games: Prove You're Human, the next title from 1000xResist developer Sunset Visitor, and a yet-to-be-announced game from the "animation duo" SmallBü.
As the video game industry becomes increasingly unstable, successful indie developers like Among Us creator Innersloth, Palworld maker Pocketpair, and Peak developer Landfall are taking the leap into publishing. They're doing so to help …
The MacBook Neo is the best thing to happen to Windows in years
If there's one thing I know about Microsoft after covering the company for more than 20 years, it's that it will always respond to a competitive threat. Apple's MacBook Air convinced Microsoft and Intel to launch thin and light laptops with the Ultrabook initiative, the iPad pushed Microsoft to create its own tablet hardware, and the threat of Chromebooks saw Microsoft try to match the security and simplicity of ChromeOS with S mode versions of Windows.
A history of fast follows (and my own sources) tells me that Apple's $599 MacBook Neo announcement last month will force Microsoft to seriously improve Windows. A lot of changes are imminent …
A thin, light entry-level gaming laptop is $300 off at Best Buy
It’s tough to find decent gaming laptops under $1,000. However, Best Buy has what I consider to be a good entry-level model for 1080p gaming in Lenovo’s 15.6-inch LOQ laptop, which is selling for $649.99 (usually $959.99) through today, April 9th. Even with its Nvidia’s RTX 4050 (its lowest-tier GPU of the series), the laptop is likely to be performant enough to play many titles at respectable frame rates if you adjust video settings per-game as needed.
A few things stand out to me about this laptop that make it worth considering. For one, I’ve always loved the typing experience of other Lenovo gaming laptops that I’ve used (impressively, this one stocks a full keyboard with a numpad). I also like that, despite being an entry-level machine, it has 16GB of speedy 4,800MHz DDR5 RAM, and you can go up to 32GB by opening up the chassis. Same goes for the SSD — it comes with a somewhat paltry 512GB M.2 PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD, but there are two slots, and each tops out at 1TB.
A few other Verge-approved deals for you
- PC gamers into Destiny 2 can get every expansion for the free-to-play game in one of Humble’s bundles. The top-tier bundle is $28, and includes content dating back to the Forsaken and Shadowkeep expansions as well as newer expansions, like The Edge of Fate and The Final Shape. A fun perk in the $28 tier is a 25 percent off coupon for Marathon, Bungie’s latest game. It’s a punishing extraction first-person shooter for teams up to three players that Destiny fans might dig.
- If you have a Nintendo Switch 2 and are considering getting Resident Evil Requiem, Capcom’s latest entry in the franchise, here’s a deal to consider. The Resident Evil Generation Pack costs $89.99 at Amazon and Best Buy and includes Requiem, Resident Evil 7, and Resident Evil Village. Nintendo stopped selling the bundle on its eShop in March, and now it sells those older games digitally for $29.99 and $39.99, respectively — totaling $140 for all three a la carte. Here’s our review of Resident Evil Requiem.
- You can turn one AC outlet into six (with a pair of USB-C and USB-A ports, to boot) with Anker’s 10-in-1 mountable power strip. It’s down to $15.99 at Amazon, a small, but nice $4 discount off its usual price. Its leftmost USB-C port tops out at 20W charging, while the other supports up to 15W, which is enough if you want to keep your phone charged while you sleep or in between events. In case its 300-joule maximum isn’t high enough to assure you it’ll protect your priciest, most power-hungry devices, Belkin’s six-outlet surge protector offers slightly better protection (up to 1,680 joules) and costs $22.99 at Amazon.
Tesla is un-canceling its plan to build a smaller, cheaper EV: report
It looks like a smaller, cheaper Tesla is back on the menu.
Today, Reuters is reporting that the electric automaker is calling around to suppliers about building an all-new - that is, not based on the Model 3 or the Model Y - electric SUV that would be more affordable than its current lineup. The report, which is based on four anonymous sources in the know, said the vehicle would be built first in China, before eventually being brought to the US and European markets.
If true, this would represent a pretty major reversal for Tesla, and especially for Elon Musk, who has insisted over the past few years that the company doesn't need to make …