The next season of Apex Legends kicks off on August 5, and it will see the arrival of a new, permanent game mode. Respawn says it built Wildcard as a faster-paced alternative to the core battle royale mode. For instance, when you take out an enemy, they won't leave behind a death box. Instead, their loot will scatter around them, making it easier for you to spot and pick up an item you need or want.

Another big difference here is legend stacking. You and your teammates will all be able to play as the same character, if you like. Respawn has retooled the Kings Canyon map for Wildcard, adding ziplines, gravity cannons and other fun stuff to the playground. Second chances will give you another opportunity to pick up the win if things don't pan out for you at first.

It's highly likely that Wildcard has been in the works for quite a while, but it's a bit unfortunate for Respawn that it's debuting the mode several weeks after Epic Games added a new, faster-paced battle royale option of its own to Fortnite. Rounds of Blitz Royale — which Epic designed primarily for mobile devices — can last just a few minutes each. Still, it's probably been a couple of years since I last played Apex, and Wildcard has me intrigued enough to dive back in.

There are plenty of other updates coming to Apex when the Showdown season starts, of course. Caustic will have a new ability called Field Research, while his gas canisters and grenades will deal more damage. Meanwhile, Bangalore's smoke canister will be able to breach doors and gain an EMP upgrade. In addition, Respawn is retooling the mid-to-late game with powerful passive abilities called Amps. These will allow you to unlock boosts like infinite ammo, extra armor and healing upgrades.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/a-new-faster-paced-game-mode-is-coming-to-apex-legends-on-august-5-150048274.html?src=rss

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It seems like LeBron James' legal team has been trying to stop the spread of viral AI videos featuring the basketball star. As 404 Media reported, a law firm representing James has sent a cease and desist letter to a person behind an AI platform that allowed Discord users to make AI videos of James and other NBA stars.

As 404 noted, these videos have been circulating for awhile but it's one particularly strange clip that seems to have gotten James' lawyers involved. The video, which reportedly racked up millions of views on Instagram, shows a pregnant James being loaded into an ambulance after telling an AI Steph Curry to "come quick our baby is being born."

404 reports that at least three Instagram accounts that had shared the clip have since been removed, though the video is available on X. The founder of the AI platform used to make the videos also posted about the cease and desist letter he received. It's unclear what is in the letter, or if James' lawyers were also in touch with Meta about the videos. We've reached out to the company for more info on its rules. 

Of course, LeBron James is far from the only public figure to grapple with unwanted AI versions of themselves. Social media scammers routinely impersonate celebrities to promote sketchy products and other schemes. We've previously reported on such scams involving deepfakes of Elon Musk and Fox News personalities that have proliferated on Facebook. Jamie Lee Curtis also recently had to publicly plead with Mark Zuckerberg to take down deepfaked ads of herself.

Screenshots via Veo and Meta AI

But the videos of James are a little different. They don't feature fake endorsements and seem to be more of a prank meant to go viral in the way that lots of "AI slop" does. And James and other celebrities will likely continue to have a difficult time preventing these kinds of deepfakes from spreading. Some quick testing by Engadget showed that it's relatively easy to get AI chatbots to create images and video of "pregnant LeBron James."

We first asked ChatGPT, Gemini and Copilot to make such a photo. All chatbots initially refused, saying that such an image could go against their guidelines. But when given an image of James and asked to "make this person eight months pregnant," Google's Gemini delivered a 7-second clip of the basketball star cradling a pregnant belly. (We've reached out to Google to clarify its rules around such content.)

Likewise, Meta AI seemingly had no reservations about producing images of "pregnant LeBron James" and promptly delivered many such variations. While these creations aren't as detailed as the initial video that went viral, they do highlight how difficult it can be for AI companies to prevent people from circumventing whatever guardrails may exist.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/lebron-james-is-reportedly-trying-to-stop-the-spread-of-viral-ai-pregnancy-videos-211947871.html?src=rss

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Elden Ring Nightreign is finally adding a two-player co-op mode on July 30. Prior to this, FromSoftware's spinoff could only be played solo or with three players. The so-called Duo Expeditions come as part of patch 1.02.

This is something fans have been asking for, as not everybody has two friends available at once to tackle a tough-as-nails 3D adventure. FromSoftware has released a trailer to accompany this news, so you can see the two-player co-op in action.

Beyond Duo Expeditions, the forthcoming patch will include "quality-of-life UI improvements" and options for filtering Relics. We don't know what the UI upgrades will look like, but July 30 is right around the corner.

This news comes just two months after the company tweaked the game to make the single-player experience a bit easier. It had been notoriously difficult, even for fans of FromSoftware. That update introduced an automatic revival mechanic and increased rune rewards for solo expeditions.

There's no doubt about it. Elden Ring Nightreign is a bona-fide hit. The company also recently shared that the game has reached five million players. The wider Elden Ring universe is slowly but surely becoming a cultural juggernaut. There's a movie in the works, to be directed by Alex Garland. That's the guy who made Annihilation, Ex Machina, Civil War and the underrated TV show Devs.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/elden-ring-nightreign-is-adding-two-player-co-op-next-week-182708700.html?src=rss

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Another weeklong round-the-clock spree of speedrunning video games has come to a close, with Summer Games Done Quick raising $2,436,614 for Doctors Without Borders. Held in Minneapolis, the event saw 37,776 donations, with the highest contribution being a solo $61,200 donation.

This year, 2,600 in-person attendees got to experience a hectic relay race pitting two teams of four against each other to complete a Super Mario Maker 2 level and a full playthrough of Donkey Kong Jungle Beat in less than an hour while using one of the most unique controllers ever made, the DK Bongos. The crowd is just as important during these speedruns, and that proved true with a particularly electric crowd during the AEW Fight Night Forever run that finished in around 40 minutes.

If you didn't happen to catch it live, GamesDoneQuick's Twitch channel has every run archived so you can relive the fun. The organization's next event, Flame Fatales, will feature an all-women and femmes speedrunning showcase from September 7 to 14. After that, GamesDoneQuick will launch its brand new Games Done Queer event from October 31 to November 2.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/summer-games-done-quick-2025-raises-24-million-for-doctors-without-borders-182314037.html?src=rss

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Awesome Games Done Quick and Summer Games Done Quick aren't the only speedrunning marathons in town. There are others dotted throughout the year, such as Frost Fatales and Flame Fatales. Those all-women and femmes events are also operated by the Games Done Quick organization. The schedule for this year's Flame Fatales has just dropped, and there are lots of fascinating runs on deck.

For one thing, you'll be able to watch an Any% run (i.e. beating the game with any percentage) of Hollow Knight. What's more, SawaYoshi will do this one-handed. The runner is expected to pull this off in around 45 minutes — it typically takes around 27 hours to beat that game.

Some newer titles are in the mix as well, such as Blue Prince. It might seem odd that a puzzle game with a heavy randomization element is on the schedule. ProfessorBurtch will be undertaking what's known as a "B Quest Bingo" run. The idea here is to get to the Antechamber while using a bingo board. Here's an example of such a run (it contains spoilers, of course): 

Elsewhere, we have Any% runs of the wonderful Neva, The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess and New Super Mario Bros. in the mix, along with speedrunning staples like Celeste and The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. The bonus runs include the first act of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 and all regions of Hades II. I'm very intrigued by the Stardew Valley finale, which is a "Marriage% Co-Op Haley/Penny (Lesbian%)" run.

In all, there will be more than 50 speedruns during this edition of Flame Fatales, which runs from September 7 - 14. This year's edition is being held in support of Malala Fund, which is a non-profit that helps girls around the world to have safe, secure and quality education. The event will be livestreamed on the GDQ Twitch channel.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/the-flame-fatales-2025-speedrunning-event-includes-blue-prince-hades-2-and-clair-obscur-runs-171451081.html?src=rss

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Cycling season may have only just started, but that’s not stopping Garmin from looking ahead to when all the roadies need to take their bikes indoors. On Tuesday, the company announced the Tacx Alpine, an indoor gradient simulator for its family of NEO smart trainers. The accessory can replicate inclines of up to 25 percent and declines of up to -10 percent, with adjustments made either manually through a built-in control panel or automatically when using the device with a compatible apps like Zwift and Garmin’s own Tacx Training software.

In those same apps, the Tacx Alpine also allows for real-time virtual steering adjustments. Naturally, Garmin Connect support is also included for stat tracking and more. In short, the Tacx Alpine is designed for those who want spice up their off-season training since pedaling a road bike on an indoor trainer is about the most boring thing ever.

Garmin says mounting the front of your bike is easy. Inside the box, you’ll find adapters for both quick release skewers (9 x 100), and thru axles (12 x 100, 15 x 100 and 15 x 110), so the Tacx Alpine will work with most modern road bikes. However, trainer compatibility is limited to Garmin’s NEO 2T and Neo 3M models. Those cost $1,400 and $2,000 new respectively, and the accessory itself will set you back $1,100, with Garmin not planning to offer bundles at launch.

That might seem like a lot to pay for an accessory designed to make your indoor rides less monotonous, but it’s broadly comparable with the rest of the industry. Wahoo, for instance, sells its Kickr Climb simulator for $750, but it doesn’t come with a steering feature. Meanwhile, the Elite Rizer, which offers both steering and gradient simulation, costs $1,000. Either way, if you’re looking at one of these, chances are you already spent a pretty penny on a fancy carbon road bike and the thought of dropping another $1,000 on your hobby doesn’t phase you.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/wearables/the-tacx-alpine-is-a-1100-gradient-simulator-for-your-garmin-smart-bike-trainer-110041344.html?src=rss

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The first thing in F1 the Movie, before a single word of dialog is uttered, is a pair of AirPods Max. They're so comfortable, Brad Pitt's lovable loser protagonist Sonny Hayes is able to sleep with them all night, then hop up and begin his day of driving fancy race cars. If you paid $550 for the AirPods Max, you too could be like Brad Pitt!

It's hard to ignore the blatant commercialism of F1 the Movie; you might as well call it a $300 million ad for Formula One everything Apple. The film is produced by Pitt and F1 darling Lewis Hamilton, and it's Apple's first stab at producing a big budget summer blockbuster for theaters. In the hands of Joseph Kosinski, the director behind the thematically similar Top Gun: Maverick, F1 the Movie is undoubtedly thrilling, delivering an unparalleled sense of speed that more than rises to the occasion of "big, dumb, fun summer flick." As a connoisseur of action films and just about anything that features wildly fast cars, I'd go as far to say that F1 is one of the best racing films ever made.

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Sure, you've seen this movie before — one where absurdly beautiful people devote their lives to their sport, all for the love of the game. In many ways, Kosinski and writer Ehren Kreuger are just repeating what they did for the Top Gun sequel. F1 the Movie swaps Tom Cruise with Brad Pitt as a talented-but-washed up lead (who is always right about everything, of course), and replaces fighter jets with Formula One racers. Kosinski even replicates part of the magic of that previous film by placing cameras within the cars (powered by iPhone sensors and Apple's A-series chips, Wired reports, as well as unreleased Sony 6K cameras) to accurately capture the experience of driving at speeds of 200 miles per hour.

If you can get past the generic characters and formulaic nature of the film — Pitt's Sonny Hayes is a fallen racing star recruited by an old friend (Javier Bardem) to save his struggling F1 team, all the while butting heads with a young publicity-obsessed teammate (Damson Idris) — F1 the Movie's sheer technical prowess makes it a must-watch Summer blockbuster on the biggest screen you can find. On IMAX screens, it'll be presented in that format's extra-tall 1.90:1 aspect ratio for its entire duration, instead of switching between aspect ratios like other IMAX films. (I saw it on a local theater chain's premium screen and it looked great, but I also plan to get a full IMAX viewing soon.)

While Apple would probably want us to focus on the novelty of using iPhone cameras in Formula One cars, it's the Sony cameras that truly make F1 more than your typical racing film. As you can see in behind the scenes footage, those cameras can rotate quickly in the middle of the race. That helps Kosinski capture the hectic nature of driving at incredibly fast speeds — we instantly go from seeing the point of view of the road to the driver's struggle to keep pace with the action. They're reacting to extreme G-force and struggling to hold onto the wheel,and we're right there with them.

F1 is one of those films where you might find yourself unconsciously holding your breath during its most extreme set pieces. But it’s also one of those movies where you’ll probably have to turn off your brain a bit to truly enjoy it. Ignore the uncritical adoration for Formula One racing, the fact that Pitt’s character is almost a total cipher or the stereotypical romance. 

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The riskiest thing F1 does is place Sonny Hayes’ AirPods Max – which aren’t waterproof or water resistant in any way – perilously close to his ice bath after a brutal race. (I could easily see Apple executives giving Kosinski a note to make sure the AirPods Max never touches water. We wouldn’t want to have unrealistic expectations for Apple products, after all.)

Some sports films are transcendent explorations of the nature of human endurance (Chariots of Fire), or character dramas where winning isn’t really the point at all (Rocky.) And sometimes car go fast. That’s still perfectly enjoyable.

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This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/tv-movies/f1-the-movie-review-a-shameless-apple-ad-that-will-blow-your-socks-off-144808364.html?src=rss

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