Sony just divulged the list of PlayStation Plus Monthly Games for March, and there's a little something for everybody. These will all be playable on March 3 for subscribers on any tier. After downloading, the games will stay in a player's library as long as the subscription remains active.

First up, there's Monster Hunter Rise. This was initially a Nintendo Switch exclusive before making the jump to other platforms. This is a decent Monster Hunter game with a focus on verticality. There are tools to quickly scale large cliffs and engage in aerial combat. It can be played solo or via a four-person squad. The gameplay loop is as addictive here as ever. Fight monsters. Gather materials. Upgrade weapons and armor. Rinse and repeat.

Slime Rancher 2 just hit consoles last year, after some time in early access. This sequel improves upon everything that made the first game great, which included capturing and farming various slimes. There's a fresh location to explore and an absolute boatload of new slimes to capture. Sucking up dozens of slimes at once is a simple pleasure akin to completing a level in PowerWash Simulator.

The Elder Scrolls Online Collection: Gold Road is the definitive version of the game, offering access to all zones, biomes and quest arcs. This online game can be played cooperatively, but there's also a lot of PvP content. It's set 1,000 years before Skyrim, but there are many iconic locations from that game to explore.

Finally, PGA Tour 2K25 is the latest entry in 2K's long-running golf sim. This one has an expanded solo mode, in addition to a course designer tool. It's also cross-platform.

As new games enter the catalog, old titles vanish. Subscribers have until March 2 to download Undisputed, Subnautica: Below Zero, Ultros and Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/playstation/marchs-ps-plus-monthly-games-include-monster-hunter-rise-and-slime-rancher-2-182644562.html?src=rss

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An open-world racing game from a studio formed by ex-Forza Horizon developers was due to be published by Amazon, but that is no longer the case. As reported first by The Game Business, UK-based Maverick Games is now in "active dialogue" with prospective new publishing partners for its currently untitled debut game, which remains in development.

Maverick was founded in 2022 by Mike Brown, who served as the Horizon series’ creative director during his stint at Playground Games, and was able to tempt a number of other ex-Playground veterans to join the new studio. Little was publicly known about the game Amazon picked up, but shortly after Maverick was established Brown told GamesIndustry.Biz that his ambition was to make a game that was AAA, premium and eventually released with the intention of "winning all the awards."

"As part of our strategic evolution to focus on projects that leverage Amazon’s unique strengths and scale, including the recent re-launch of Luna and our Tomb Raider franchise partnership with Crystal Dynamics, we have decided to release Maverick Games from their publishing agreement with Amazon Game Studios," an Amazon Game Studios representative said in a statement to The Game Business.

"We have tremendous respect for the Maverick Games team and the compelling narrative-led driving experience they’re creating," the companty said. "This decision allows Maverick Games the flexibility to find a publishing partner whose strategic priorities are better aligned with bringing their game to market. We’re proud of what we accomplished together during our partnership and wish them every success in the future."

Amazon’s push into gaming has yielded mixed results. It seemingly remains committed to developing its Luna streaming service, but as a publisher and developer things haven't been smooth. 2020’s free-to-play multiplayer shooter Crucible vanished so quickly that most people have probably forgotten that it ever existed. The MMO New World has proved more of a hit, but Amazon is still winding down support for the game next year. The future of the company’s Lord of the Rings MMO is unclear, but The Game Business reports that last year’s cuts to its MMO division also affected the team working on that game.

Earlier this week, it was announced that the Amazon Games-published co-op dungeon crawler King of Meat will shut down on April 9, less than a year after its October 2025 launch. The company does still have a pair of Tomb Raider games on its release slate, one of which is a reimagining of the original series entry from 1996. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/amazon-abandons-open-world-racing-game-by-former-forza-horizon-devs-170234100.html?src=rss

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Google sent out an AI-generated news alert that included the N-word, according to reporting by Deadline. The push notification featured a link to a story by The Hollywood Reporter regarding an incident at the recent BAFTA Film Awards. The word appeared in the notification under the link.

This was first spotted by Instagram user Danny Price, who accompanied a screengrab with a caption reading "what an interesting Black History Month this has turned out to be." Google has since apologized and said that it has "removed the offensive notification" and is "working to prevent this from happening again."

This story follows the aforementioned BAFTA incident, in which an audience member with Tourette syndrome shouted the N-word when Michael B. Jordan and Delroy Lindo took to the stage to present an award. Tourette syndrome activist John Davidson, who made the comment, said he was "deeply mortified if anyone considers my involuntary tics to be intention or to carry any meaning." The incident has sparked outrage and a renewed discussion on the realities of living with vocal tics.

AI makes lots of high-profile errors and this isn't the first time it has ruined a news alert. Apple actually scrapped its own AI push notifications last year when the tool made a series of embarrassing mistakes, including wrongly telling readers that the man accused of killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, Luigi Mangione, had shot himself.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/google-sent-an-ai-generated-push-alert-that-included-a-racial-slur-195951493.html?src=rss

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© Unsplash / Nahrizul Kadri

Three years after announcing plans to produce a film based on the viral YouTube short, The Backrooms (Found Footage) in 2023, A24 has released the first teaser for its adaptation. Backrooms, as the film is now called, is directed by the short's original creator, Kane Parsons, and will be released on May 29, 2026.

The teaser offers little to go on for anyone who hasn't watched the original short or the series of videos Parsons made after it, but it is replete with The Backrooms' hallmark: ominous liminal spaces. Layered over footage of stranger and stranger rooms (or perhaps one room becoming the platonic empty retail spaces popularized by short), the voice of Chiwetel Ejiofor tells the film's other star, Renate Reinsve, about a "place" he discovered that's full of rooms.

Parsons' original video is inspired by a creepypasta called "The Backrooms" that originated on the forum 4chan in 2019. The YouTube series expanded on the basic concept of a liminal space that exists outside reality with monsters and a mysterious company researching The Backrooms. It's unclear how much of that larger lore will be incorporated into the feature film adaptation, but since the teaser is missing the digital video filter that gave the YouTube short its distinct look, it seems possible Parsons could be going for something a bit different. Well that, and the fact the film stars two Oscar-nominated actors.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/tv-movies/heres-the-first-teaser-for-a24s-adaptation-of-the-backrooms-194300513.html?src=rss

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Waymo had set out some big plans for expanding its autonomous vehicle taxi program across the US in 2025 and it appears to be continuing that pace into 2026. Today, the company announced that the first public riders can begin using its fully autonomous ride-hailing service in Dallas, Houston, San Antonio and Orlando. 

To start, these robotaxi rides will only be available for a small number of people with the Waymo app in those cities. "We will be inviting new riders on a rolling basis to ensure a seamless experience across our initial service areas, as we meaningfully scale our operations ahead of opening our service to everyone later this year," the company said in the blog post announcing the expansion.

Google-owned Waymo is now operating in ten commercial metro areas. It announced its plans to start testing its vehicles in these four US cities in November. The company also began a test phase in Miami at that time, and Waymo's robotaxi service began accepting riders in that locale in January.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/transportation/waymo-will-start-offering-robotaxi-rides-in-four-more-cities-192841871.html?src=rss

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As spicy as the PlayStation State of Play that took place a couple of weeks ago was overall, there was one major first-party game that was notably absent from the showcase: Marvel’s Wolverine. Insomniac Games’ latest superhero blockbuster was already slated for a fall release and now the studio has revealed exactly when you’ll be able to get your claws on it. Marvel’s Wolverine is coming to PS5 on September 15.

That’s it. That’s the announcement. There’s no new trailer to accompany the news, other than a six-second release date reveal video that popped up on YouTube. Insomniac previously said it would reveal more details about Marvel’s Wolverine this spring.

Technically, this release date means that Marvel’s Wolverine will debut in the last week of summer rather than in the fall. Still, it’s one of the relatively few blockbuster games you can expect in the tail end of this year because many major developers and publishers will be staying well clear of GTA VI.

Insomniac’s game will have a couple of months of breathing room before GTA VI soaks up all of the air in the gaming world when it arrives on November 19 — assuming Rockstar doesn’t announce another delay. However, parent company Take-Two plans to rev up its marketing machine for the game this summer, so it’s looking like GTA VI’s release date will hold this time.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/playstation/marvels-wolverine-will-hit-ps5-on-september-15-175500927.html?src=rss

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Apple just dropped a full trailer for the fifth season of its hit sci-fi show For All Mankind. This is the first real look at the upcoming batch of episodes, which premiere on March 27. We got an extremely short teaser trailer last month but that only showed a guy on a motorcycle riding across Mars.

This is the first real-deal trailer and it's absolutely stuffed with footage indicating where the next season will take viewers. I'm going to get into some spoilers here, so read at your own risk.

For the uninitiated, For All Mankind is an alternate history show that started with a simple premise. What if Russia landed on the moon before America? That has since ballooned into all kinds of stuff which include, as mentioned above, a potential war on Mars.

For All Mankind is a show famous for its time jumps, and season five takes us all the way to an alternate version of 2012. Many of the show's original surviving characters are still kicking around, but they are old as paste and not exactly fit for high-octane space travel. Remember, the first episode started in the 1960s. Franchise lead Ed Baldwin (Joel Kinnamen) looks particularly dusty.

Much of the footage features newer characters, including the grandson of Baldwin. Season four ended with a Mars colony asserting its independence via asteroid theft. Now it looks like Earth is striking back, which could lead to a full-scale war. This is giving me The Expanse vibes, which is never a bad thing.

The show must be clocking good numbers for Apple TV+, as the streamer recently announced a spinoff called Star City. Details are scant, but it looks to cover similar events of the mainline show from Russia's perspective.

New episodes of For All Mankind air each Friday. This season will feature ten episodes and concludes on May 29.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/tv-movies/for-all-mankinds-latest-trailer-teases-a-war-on-mars-174822481.html?src=rss

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Good news for all Ryan Coogler fans: The Sinners director is bringing back a beloved TV show. Hulu has officially green lit a pilot of Coogler's X-Files reboot, a project three years in the making, Deadline reports. Coogler has a five-year exclusive television deal with Disney, Hulu's parent company. 

Coogler is directing and writing the pilot episode, with Jennifer Yale coming on as showrunner. She previously held the role on The Copenhagen Test. Actress Danielle Deadwyler, known for roles in Till and The Harder They Fall, has signed on as co-lead. 

The show will follow the original storyline of two FBI agents who bond as they work on cases around paranormal and unexplained phenomena. No confirmation has come over whether former stars Gillian Anderson and David Duchovny will have any role in the reboot. 

The news came on Sunday, the same day Coogler won the BAFTA for Best Original Screenplay for Sinners. Coogler made history this year with a record 16 Oscar nominations for Sinners, including Best Original Screenplay and Best Picture. Coogler also wrote and directed Creed, Black Panther and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/tv-movies/ryan-cooglers-x-files-reboot-gets-the-green-light-at-hulu-140735536.html?src=rss

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© Stuart Wilson/BAFTA via Getty Images

You can get any of the Samsung Galaxy Book 6 models in the US, starting on March 11. In fact, you can make a reservation right now through Samsung’s website and its experience stores. The company launched the Book 6 series of laptops, namely the basic Book 6, the Book 6 Pro and the Book 6 Ultra, at CES earlier this year. They’re powered by Intel’s new Core Ultra Series 3 processors, which were also announced at CES and which promise great graphics and battery life.

All three models come in grey and with AI features, such as AI Select and Search that you can use to look for information using natural language. The basic Book 6 laptop will set you back at least $1,050, while the Book 6 Pro’s prices start at $1,600. The Book 6 Ultra will cost you at least $2,450. The Galaxy Book 6 Pro will be available in 14- and 16-inch versions and will come equipped with up to Core Ultra X7 processors and Intel Arc graphics. Meanwhile, you can equip the 16-inch Galaxy Book 6 Ultra with up to Core Ultra X9 processors. The most expensive Book 6 promises significant performance improvements, thanks to its new 5th-generation MPU, Intel Arc graphics and NVIDIA’s RTX 50 series GPUs.

The Book 6 Ultra and the 16-inch Pro have slimmer profiles than their predecessors, though the former has a more traditional laptop shape and the latter looks more like the MacBook Air. It’s worth noting that Samsung redesigned the Ultra’s components across a larger surface area so that it can distribute heat more evenly. Both the Book 6 Pro and Ultra can last for up to 30 hours of video playback, since they feature Samsung’s longest-lasting batteries yet. Both models also come with AMOLED 2X (2,880 x 1,800) displays with refresh rates going up to 120Hz.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/computing/laptops/samsung-galaxy-book-6-series-will-be-available-in-the-us-starting-on-march-11-125140613.html?src=rss

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