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Noting that South Korean pop culture has become at least as loved outside the Republic shouldn’t surprise anyone in 2025—look at the massive critical and streaming success of K-Pop Demon Hunters—an American production, technically, but one that makes the most of its South Korean cast and origins.

It all, perhaps, started with the international rise of K-pop, a broad umbrella term for just about any popular music coming from Korea, though South Korean films had a reverent following stateside long before Parasite’s history-making Academy Award victory way back in 2019. As with art from any country or culture, not all South Korean entertainment is gold, but the TV and movies the country is exporting are more than able to compete on a global scale.

Case in point: Squid Game, the buzzy survival drama captured the world’s attention in a big way over its three seasons, it’s first episode having been the most popular in the streamer’s history, beating the previous record-holder, the similarly buzzy Bridgerton, by nearly 30 million viewers. Even before Squid Game hit, Netflix was betting big on K-dramas—and while being spoiled for choice is a good thing, but it can be tough to know where to begin. Here are some of the best and most popular shows on Netflix that represent the breadth of South Korean TV: crime, horror, rom-com, science fiction, period drama…whatever you’re into, you can probably find a distinct Korean-language take.

Karma (2025)

A deeply satisfying, Coen-esque crime thriller, Karma stars Lee Hee-joon as Jae-yeong as a guy who’s desperately underwater in his debts to a loan shark—but, hey! It turns out that he’s the beneficiary of his dad’s rather large life insurance policy. What else to do but hire a co-worker to kill his father? That part goes fine, but then a couple on a date runs over the body, and, believing that he’s killed the man, driver Sang-hun nearly murders an eyewitness before paying the guy to help him dispose of the body. A hiker finds the body, the insurance payout is delayed, and Sang-hun comes to believe that he’s been played. It’s one of those great, twisty-turny crime dramas from which no character walks away without blood on their hands. Stream Karma.

Karma (2025)

Crash Landing on You (2019)

That title isn’t just a metaphor: The series involves a literal crash landing into the North side of the Korean Demilitarized Zone. Yoon Se-ri (Son Ye-jin) is an heiress and independent business owner whose complicated relationships with her family have caused her to step away from them. On a paragliding trip, a tornado sends her north, and she’s rescued from disaster by a captain in the North Korean Special Police Force. The romance between two strong characters, as well as the sensitive and humane portrayal of life in the north, made this a mega-hit on South Korean TV, and a fan fave worldwide. Stream Crash Landing on You.

All of Us Are Dead (2022 – , renewed for a second season)

For a little Z-drama with your K-drama: In All of Us Are Dead, high school becomes hell, almost literally, when a viral outbreak sees a Hyosan school become ground zero for a strange plague. Though it’s not clear at first, the teenagers soon realize that they’ve been quarantined from the rest of the city. Help isn’t coming. Nihilism isn’t uncommon in zombie narratives, nor are themes involving the breakdown of social structures. All of Us Are Dead, instead, explores the world of a cloistered high school under constant threat as a parallel to our own world: Class and background continue to be potent forces, even (or especially) amid the trauma of the attacks, and arbitrary social hierarchies solidify under the constant trauma rather than adapt. The closed school location is brilliantly utilized, and there’s some appropriately soapy drama, as well. Look for Squid Game‘s Emmy-winner Lee Yoo-mi as spoiled rich kid Lee Na-yeon. A long-gestating second season recently started production. Stream All of Us Are Dead.

The 8 Show (2024)

This might have seemed faintly over-the-top just a few years ago, but now looks and feels like a reasonably good distillation of our current capitalist hellscape. Here, eight strangers are selected to compete in a game in which they’re locked together in a building and sequestered on different floors each night. They earn money for each minute they last in the game, but all their provisions must be purchased with money they’ve won, at an extreme markup. At first, the contestants pool their resources so that everyone gets more money—until they learn that people on higher floors are getting more. Then things get nasty. Stream The 8 Show.

It’s Okay to Not Be Okay (2020)

Discussions around mental health in general remain fraught anywhere in the world, and South Korea is no exception. Though opportunities for treatment are better than in many other parts of the world, social stigma remains a problem. Which is all part of the reason Jo Yong and Park Shin-woo’s miniseries was such a sensation when it was released last year: Writer Jo based the show on her own personal experiences, plus a good bit of research. The series chronicles the slow-burn romance between Moon Gang-tae (Kim Soo-hyun), a health care worker living with his autistic brother, and a famous children’s book author (Seo Yea-ji) with antisocial personality disorder. It’s lovely, and was popular enough in South Korea to inspire a series of children’s books based on the work of the show’s fictional writer. Stream It’s Okay to Not Be Okay.

Itaewon Class (2020)

Another great example of the willingness of South Korean producers to tackle increasingly challenging social issues alongside the action and drama, Itaewon Class stars Park Seo-joon as Park Sae-ro-yi, a high school kid whose life is shattered by Geun-won, the son of the powerful owner of a food conglomerate. First, he’s suspended for fighting back against the bully, and then his father is killed in a reckless driving incident involving Geun-won. Instead of consequences for the rich kid, it’s Sae-ro-yi who winds up going to prison for nearly beating his father’s killer to death. On release, he opens up a local bar for outsiders while plotting to bring down the all-powerful conglomerate that ruined his life. The staff at his bar includes a transgender woman, a Guinean-Korean, and another ex-con, all of whom struggle with acceptance but find a home among the other underdogs at the bar. Stream Itaewon Class.

Business Proposal (2022)

A lot of the shows on this list are on the heavy side; it’s time to lighten things up with this popular romantic comedy/drama series. The set-up is classic romantic tomfoolery: Shin Ha-ri (Kim Se-jeong) goes on a blind date pretending to be her best friend, who didn’t want to go because her dad set the whole thing up. Ha-ri is just doing her bestie a solid, but things get complicated when the date turns out to be Kang Tae-moo (Ahn Hyo-seop), CEO of the company where Ha-ri works. Sick of his grandfather’s pressure to find the right woman and secure the future of the family business, Ha-ri decides he’s going to marry his date—who is, again, pretending to be someone she’s not. Complicated in the best tradition of the genre, and also pretty darned cute. Stream Business Proposal.

The Frog (2024)

Following his wife’s death, Yeong-ha (Kim Yoon-seok) just wants a quiet life in the secluded town where he lives, renting out the house next door as a vacation rental—though he’s not even all that enthusiastic about that. It’s all going fine until a young woman shows up with her son, the same woman abruptly leaving behind blood stains and, even more disturbingly, the kid. Though it’s a bit of a spoiler, this very-slow-burn and cinematic thriller takes place in multiple time periods—a clever storytelling technique given the show’s unchanging locale. Stream The Frog.

The Frog (2024)

The Silent Sea (2021)

Bae Doona, whom you’ll know from everything from Cloud Atlas to Sense8 to Rebel Moon) stars in this twisty-turny sci-fi drama that starts on a dry, near-waterless Earth of the near-future, following a team of astronauts and scientists sent on a mission to an abandoned lunar base. They’re tasked with retrieving a mysterious sample, and it soon becomes clear that the bureaucrats on Earth know a lot more about that sample than they’re telling. Suffice it to say that nothing goes particularly well—there are deaths, betrayals, and a deadly something that might be humanity’s future, but might just as easily be its end. Stream The Silent Sea.

Vincenzo (2021)

Having been adopted into an Italian organized crime family as a baby, Park Joo-hyung took on the name Vincenzo Cassano, eventually becoming a mafia consigliere. After his adoptive father Don Fabio dies, Fabio’s biological son comes gunning for his brother, whom he now sees only as competition. He flees to Seoul on the hunt for a secret stash of money, but in the process discovers a love interest and a new adversary in a giant business conglomerate that quite deserves to be taken down. Another incredibly popular series, this one definitely puts a unique spin on the tropes of the mob drama. Stream Vincenzo.

Alice in Borderland (2020– , third season coming soon)

Video-game-obsessed Arisu gets his wish, after a fashion: He finds himself, along with a couple of friends, transported to an alternate, eerily abandoned version of Tokyo—the title’s Borderland—vividly brought to life via some clever green-screen work. The three are directed to an arena and given the instructions for the game—one they’ll be playing whether they want to or not. The first competition, for example, involves a locked-room-style puzzle; if they fail, the room goes up in flames with them in it. Think Ready Player One, with deadlier stakes. There are games each night, though the rules allow for winners to get time off…there are a lot of rules, actually, but the games are cleverly and sadistically constructed. The third season is on its way. Stream Alice in Borderland.

Sweet Home (2020 – 2024)

Based on the title alone, you might guess that Sweet Home is a charming family comedy about three generations of a single family living under one roof. But no, it’s actually about the residents of an apartment building who’ve holed themselves up inside against the zombie-esque plague ravaging the world (here, the infection turns people into a variety of monsters, but otherwise the plot works along traditional zombie lines). High school student Cha Hyun-soo lost his entire family to a car accident, and moves into the building just in time. The added twist? Hyun-soo eventually gains control over his own infection and develops something like superpowers. This popular series is based on a very, very popular webtoon. Stream Sweet Home.

Kingdom (2019  – 2021)

It’s not exactly a history lesson, but Kingdom does open a window into the middle of Korea’s Joseon Dynasty, an era that ran for over 500 years, to nearly the 20th century. History doesn’t record an actual zombie plague during the early years of the 17th century, though, so perhaps a few liberties have been taken. As the series opens, rumors are swirling that the king has died, and his son, Crown Prince Lee Chang, is trying to find out the truth. Turns out that the king did, in fact, die—of smallpox—but the Queen Consort and her father, a powerful courtier, have a plan: they’ve given the king a little-known plant that revives him (you can see where this is headed) in the hope of keeping him alive long enough for the queen to bear a son. Since Lee Chang is merely the son of a concubine, he’d lose his claim to the throne in such an event. The show deftly combines horror and medieval-esque political intrigue, making it rather more than the sum of its parts. The show runs for two seasons with a spin-off movie, Ashin of the North, but there’s always chatter about a potential revival. Stream Kingdom.

Memories of the Alhambra (2019)

It sounds a bit like an episode of Black Mirror, if not nearly so dystopian. There’s an impressive new augmented reality game with a neat, but very specific spinoff: It involves medieval battles in and around the Alhambra fortress in Granada, Spain (where much of the series was filmed). A tech CEO interested in investing travels to Spain to meet the creator, only to find out that he’s gone missing. Fortunately, the creator’s ultra-cool sister owns a local hostel, and, with romance in the air, the two set out on hunt for her brother as the line between reality and fantasy becomes increasingly blurry. Another Korean hit, the show’s got some nice location work and solid special effects. Stream Memories of the Alhambra.

Melo Movie (2025)

Ko Gyeom (Choi Woo-shik, Parasite) is a film critic with an obsessive love of cinema—he dreams of seeing every film ever made which, while quixotic, is also deeply charming. He inadvertently moves next door to Kim Mu-bee (Park Bo-young), an estranged friend from the past with whom he split under mysterious circumstances. The romantic drama uses film references to punctuate its love story, but also to serve as a reminder that, for these two characters with unresolved issues, life is hardly a movie. Stream Melo Movie.

Melo Movie (2025)

Extracurricular (2020)

Just another drama about a seemingly dull teenage overachiever running a sex ring by night. OK, so this one’s pretty unique, blending dark comedy and action with hints of relationship drama. Needing some extra money, Oh Ji-soo runs a prostitution ring when he’s not in school, but is otherwise a typical teenage doofus. His friend Gyu-ri comes from a wealthy family, but still wants in when she learns about Ji-soo’s sideline. Before long, both competitors and the police begin to circle, and life for the teens gets considerably more dangerous. Stream Extracurricular.

When the Camellia Blooms (2019)

I think we can all agree there’s one big thing lacking in the U.S. romantic-comedy genre: serial killers. Oh Dong-baek (Gong Hyo-jin) is a single mom who moves to a small town and opens a bar before kicking off a relationship with a local police officer. It seems at times as though he’s the only one happy to have her around: The older, more traditional women of the town don’t love that Dong-baek is a single mom, and they’re equally scandalized by her booze-related business. The show takes light aim at some of those outmoded views, but also complicates matters with the introduction of a serial killer whose next victim might well be Dong-baek.

Oh, and even though this is technically only one season, it’s 20 long-ish episodes, so a bigger commitment than you might have thought—but fun if you get into it. Stream When the Camellia Blooms.

When Life Gives You Tangerines (2025)

An epic love story that cleaned house at the 2025 Baeksang Arts Awards (that’s South Korea’s most prestigious entertainment award ceremony), Tangerines stars IU as Oh Ae-sun (and as Ae-sun’s daughter and the series’ narrator, Geum-myeong), a young woman born in the 1960s on rural Jeju Island. The series spans decades in her life with friend and later romantic interest Yang Gwan-sik (Park Bo-gum), as South Korea changes around them and their family. It’s a bit like Pachinko in that regard, though the emphasis here is more on family and Ae-sun’s own love story. Stream When Life Gives You Tangerines.

When Life Gives You Tangerines (2025)

Mr. Sunshine (2018)

Another sweeping historical drama (a genre that South Korea excels at, and coincidentally one that I can’t get enough of), Mr. Sunshine takes place at the very end of the Joseon Dynasty, with activists fighting for Korean independence. Naturally, the heart of the epic is a cross-class love story between a vassal returning to Korea after time spent as an American Marine and the granddaughter of a powerful Korean aristocrat. Several significant local and world events serve as turning points over the course of the series’ 24 episodes—so aside from being an impressive feat of period drama, this one is also a window into critical moments in world history from a Korean perspective. Stream Mr. Sunshine.

Bloodhounds (2023 – )

Woo Do-hwan and Lee Sang-yi star as unlikely besties Kim Geon-woo and Hong Woo-jin, a couple of would-be boxers trying to save their families from the euphemistically named loan shark organization Smile Capital. The fistfights are thrillingly choreographed, and Woo and Lee are, by all accounts, best friends in real life—which lends an air of believable bromance to this action-crime drama. A second season is on the way. Stream Bloodhounds.

Slashdot reader Charlotte Web shared this report from the Register:

Among the software developers who use Microsoft’s GitHub, the most popular community discussion in the past 12 months has been a request for a way to block Copilot, the company’s AI service, from generating issues and pull requests in code repositories. The second most popular discussion — where popularity is measured in upvotes — is a bug report that seeks a fix for the inability of users to disable Copilot code reviews. Both of these questions, the first opened in May and the second opened a month ago, remain unanswered, despite an abundance of comments critical of generative AI and Copilot…

The author of the first, developer Andi McClure, published a similar request to Microsoft’s Visual Studio Code repository in January, objecting to the reappearance of a Copilot icon in VS Code after she had uninstalled the Copilot extension… “I’ve been for a while now filing issues in the GitHub Community feedback area when Copilot intrudes on my GitHub usage,” McClure told The Register in an email. “I deeply resent that on top of Copilot seemingly training itself on my GitHub-posted code in violation of my licenses, GitHub wants me to look at (effectively) ads for this project I will never touch. If something’s bothering me, I don’t see a reason to stay quiet about it. I think part of how we get pushed into things we collectively don’t want is because we stay quiet about it.”

It’s not just the burden of responding to AI slop, an ongoing issue for Curl maintainer Daniel Stenberg. It’s the permissionless copying and regurgitation of speculation as fact, mitigated only by small print disclaimers that generative AI may produce inaccurate results. It’s also GitHub’s disavowal of liability if Copilot code suggestions happen to have reproduced source code that requires attribution. It’s what the Servo project characterizes in its ban on AI code contributions as the lack of code correctness guarantees, copyright issues, and ethical concerns. Similar objections have been used to justify AI code bans in GNOME’s Loupe project, FreeBSD, Gentoo, NetBSD, and QEMU… Calls to shun Microsoft and GitHub go back a long way in the open source community, but moved beyond simmering dissatisfaction in 2022 when the Software Freedom Conservancy (SFC) urged free software supporters to give up GitHub, a position SFC policy fellow Bradley M. Kuhn recently reiterated.
McClure says In the last six months their posts have drawn more community support — and tells the Register there’s been a second change in how people see GitHub within the last month. After GitHub moved from a distinct subsidiary to part of Microsoft’s CoreAI group, “it seems to have galvanized the open source community from just complaining about Copilot to now actively moving away from GitHub.”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

In 2019, Record Store Day partnered with manufacturer Crosley to revive a 3-inch collectible vinyl format first launched in Japan in 2004. Five years later, a new 4-inch-sized format called Tiny Vinyl wants to take the miniature vinyl collectible crown, and launch partner Target is throwing its considerable weight behind it as an exclusive launch partner, with 44 titles expected in the coming weeks.

It’s 2025, and the global vinyl record market has reached $2 billion in annual sales and is still growing at roughly 7 percent annually, according to market research firm Imarc. Vinyl record sales now account for over 50 percent of physical media sales for music (and this is despite a recent resurgence in both cassette and CD sales among Millennials). It’s in this landscape that Tiny Vinyl founders Neil Kohler and Jesse Mann decided to come up with a fun new collectible vinyl format.

An “aha” moment

Kohler’s day job is working with toy companies to develop and market their ideas. He was involved in helping Funko popularize its stylized vinyl figurines, now a ubiquitous presence at pop culture conventions, comic book stores, and toy shops of all kinds. Mann has worked in production, marketing, and the music business for nearly three decades, including a stint at LiveNation and years of running operations for the annual summer music festival Bonnaroo. Both men are based in Nashville—Music City, USA—and the proximity to one of the main centers of the music industry clearly had an impact.

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Japanese toymaker Takara Tomy is releasing a Poké Ball virtual pet toy so you can fulfill your dreams of carrying your favorite Pokémon around with you everywhere. I don’t know how this one slid under my radar when it was announced at the end of August (perhaps because all my attention has been on Tamagotchi Paradise) but now that I’ve seen it, I must have it. While it appears to be a Japan-only release, the product page shows it will have an English language option in the menu. Pre-orders are open (though currently sold out on Amazon Japan), and the device will ship on October 11, according to Essential Japan.

The toy costs ¥7,480 or about $51 — but I shudder to think how much that number will jump with tariffs factored in. Per the listing, there are seven partner Pokémon you can care for: Pikachu, Eevee, Sprigatito, Fuecoco, Quaxly, Lucario and Sylveon. And if you pet the device, they’ll react. There are also 150 other Pokémon to interact with, though it’s unclear what the extent of those interactions will be beyond battles (and… washing?). Regardless, l hope Wooper is one of them.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/this-pettable-poke-ball-is-a-tamagotchi-style-toy-with-over-150-pokemon-inside-and-i-need-it-now-215047740.html?src=rss

Microsoft said its Azure cloud platform has returned to normal service after an incident of cut underwater cables that played out over Saturday. The tech giant reported “undersea fiber cuts” in the Red Sea on Saturday morning, which disrupted Azure service throughout the Middle East and led to potential “increased latency” for users. Microsoft said that the latency issue was resolved by Saturday evening and was able to reroute the Azure traffic through other paths.

Microsoft didn’t provide a reason for why the undersea cables were cut. These cables sit on the ocean floor and play the crucial role of delivering massive amounts of data across the world. While ships dropping anchors can sometimes damage undersea cables, there have been more intentional circumstances in the past. In 2024, the internationally recognized government of Yemen claimed that the country’s Houthi movement was responsible for cutting cables in the Red Sea. While Microsoft managed to restore service for its latest episode the same day, it also noted that undersea cable cuts “can take time to repair” and that it “will continuously monitor, rebalance, and optimize routing to reduce customer impact in the meantime.”

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/microsofts-cloud-service-restored-after-reports-of-cut-cables-in-the-red-sea-192312354.html?src=rss

Nintendo has just won another major battle in its longstanding war against piracy. Earlier this summer, a US federal court ruled in favor of Nintendo in a lawsuit against Ryan Daly and the Modded Hardware website. The site was known for selling devices that allowed users to get around Nintendo’s piracy protections, including the popular MIG Switch flashcart that lets buyers play official Nintendo games without the need for a physical cartridge. Besides requiring Daly to pay $2 million to Nintendo, the lawsuit requires him to shut down the website and forfeit the domain to Nintendo as part of an all-encompassing permanent injunction.

The order also prevents Daly from any future involvement with devices that get around Nintendo’s guardrails, including creating, selling, contributing to, hosting other websites related to or investing in other businesses that deal in similar products. While MIG flash carts could be used as a backup for legally purchased physical games, it was more commonly used to pirate official Nintendo Switch titles. Nintendo has steadily fought against mods and pirating tools, including recently granting itself the power to brick Switches that have pirated games on them.

Nintendo is no stranger to taking legal action against those who defy its strict policies. In March of last year, Nintendo filed a lawsuit against the makers of the Yuzu emulator. The suit was settled quickly, with the team behind the Nintendo Switch emulator agreeing to pay $2.4 million. Like the lawsuit against Daly, the team behind Yuzu had to surrender its website and permanently refrain from doing any activities that bypass Nintendo’s rules.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/nintendo/nintendo-wins-a-2-million-lawsuit-against-popular-switch-modding-webstore-174528989.html?src=rss

For most Hollow Knight: Silksong players, the combat is challenging and the boss fights are punishing. However, there’s another layer of complexity for anyone playing the sequel in Simplified Chinese: the bizarre translations. On its Steam store page, Silksong currently sits at a “Mostly Positive” rating across reviews in all languages. Once you filter for the Simplified Chinese reviews, the Metroidvania-style game plummets to “Mostly Negative.”

There are plenty of complaints about Silksong being too hard and not rewarding enough, but the translation issues are a common theme across the reviews for Simplified Chinese. In the reviews and comments, players compared the translations to a jarring mix of ancient and modern Chinese. Tiger Tang, who worked on the Simplified Chinese translation of an indie RPG called OMORI, posted on X that the “translation reads like a Wuxia novel instead of conveying the game’s tone,” referencing the literary genre that features martial arts and is often set in ancient China.

The good news is that the team behind Silksong is aware of the translation issues, as indicated by Matthew Griffin, who handles the game’s marketing and publishing. Griffin posted on X that the team is aware of “quality issues with the current Simplified Chinese translation” and that they are “working to improve the translation over the coming weeks.” When looking at the original Hollow Knight, the reviews are overwhelmingly positive, even when looking at the Simplified Chinese reviews. However, Silksong credits a team of two for its Chinese localization, while the original featured six.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/silksong-reviews-drop-to-mostly-negative-for-chinese-players-due-to-confusing-translations-162631762.html?src=rss

While scientists are still working to understand the effects an extended trip to space can have on the human body, research in recent years has suggested that astronauts may experience some pretty dramatic changes on both the physiological and psychological levels. In the latest study led by a team at University of California San Diego, researchers found signs of accelerated aging in human stem cells that spent roughly a month in space. 

The research focused on hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells (HSPCs), which are crucial in the formation of blood and immune cells. Stem cells were sent to the International Space Station for stays of 32-45 days using specially developed nanobioreactors to monitor them. Another set remained on Earth at the Kennedy Space Center. The cells that went to the ISS showed a host of changes, including reduced self-renewal abilities, greater susceptibility to DNA damage and inflammation in the mitochondria. However, the damage didn’t appear to be permanent. The team notes that the changes were at least partially reversed when the cells were removed from the space environment. 

“Space is the ultimate stress test for the human body,” Catriona Jamieson, director of the UC San Diego Sanford Stem Cell Institute, said in a statement. “These findings are critically important because they show that the stressors of space — like microgravity and cosmic galactic radiation — can accelerate the molecular aging of blood stem cells. Understanding these changes not only informs how we protect astronauts during long-duration missions but also helps us model human aging and diseases like cancer here on Earth.” 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/human-stem-cells-age-more-rapidly-in-space-study-finds-145651426.html?src=rss

Today, Porsche debuted a new 911 variant at the IAA Mobility show in Munich, Germany. It’s the most powerful 911 to date, excluding some limited-run models, and may well be the quickest to 60 mph from a standing start, dispatching that dash in just 2.4 seconds. And it’s all thanks to one of the most interesting hybrid powertrains on sale today.

Rather than just bolting an electric motor to an existing 911, Porsche designed an entirely new 3.6 L flat-six engine, taking the opportunity to ditch the belt drive and move some of the ancillaries, which can instead be powered by the car’s 400 V traction battery.

The system debuted in the 911 GTS T-Hybrid, which Ars recently reviewed. For that car, Porsche added a single electric turbocharger, which works like the MGU-H in a Formula 1 car. It spins up almost instantly to 120,000 rpm to eliminate throttle lag, but also recaptures excess energy from the spinning turbine and sends that to the 1.9 kWh battery pack.

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The Square Enix team behind Final Fantasy Tactics — The Ivalice Chronicles didn’t just remaster the iconic strategy RPG, they had to go through the trouble of remaking the source code from scratch, according to Bloomberg. In an interview with Bloomberg‘s Jason Schreier, the game’s director Kazutoyo Maehiro explained the arduous process of designing The Ivalice Chronicles, which is set to release at the end of the month.

When getting to work on the remake, Maehiro and his team discovered they had to rebuild the source code from the ground up since it was lost thanks to the industry’s unstandardized practices in the ’90s, according to Bloomberg. When translating Final Fantasy Tactics from Japanese to English for the global release, the company would overwrite the original Japanese version’s code. For Maehiro, that meant the team had to undertake a ground-up overhaul and recreate the source code by playing the original game that released in 1997, consulting the game’s master disc and looking at the 2011 version called Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions, according to Bloomberg. Maehiro also said during a PAX West 2025 panel that the team gleaned a lot of lost info from fan-made databases.

Revealing more of the behind-the-scenes decisions for The Ivalice Chronicles, Maehiro told Bloomberg about the debate surrounding Count Cidolfus Orlandeau. Better known as Cid, and appropriately nicknamed Thunder God Cid, this overtuned character joins you later in the game, but many fans complained about him being overpowered. Instead of nerfing Cid, Maehiro told Bloomberg that keeping this character’s power level the same would better represent the storyline since “his role in the story is being that very powerful character who joins your party.” To quell any concerns of Cid being too broken, Maehiro told Bloomberg that the team decided to buff the other characters to even things out. Looking ahead, Maehiro also hinted at exploring sequels for the Final Fantasy Tactics franchise or even brand new games in the strategy RPG genre, given that The Ivalice Chronicles does well, according to Bloomberg.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/the-ivalice-chronicles-team-had-to-remake-the-original-final-fantasy-tactics-source-code-from-scratch-190253342.html?src=rss

Starting September 9, Porsche and Audi will be the latest non-Tesla brands to utilize the Supercharger network. The two automakers announced that some of their owners will get adapters that allow them to charge via the NACS port, which Tesla developed and opened up to other automakers. The rollout comes after the Volkswagen Group, which owns both Porsche and Audi, announced that it would implement NACS compatibility for Volkswagen, Audi, Porsche and Scout Motors in December 2023.

Porsche / Ashton Stan

Porsche is kicking off its NACS adoption with a “soft launch,” where existing owners of Taycan and Macan Electric models have to reserve a free NACS to DC adapter with the My Porsche app to connect to the Tesla Supercharger network. During this initial phase, drivers of compatible Porsche EVs have to use the Tesla app at Superchargers, but will eventually be able to charge with the My Porsche app in “the coming months,” according to Porsche. Like Porsche, Audi is getting its own branded adapter that will arrive with newer 2025 model year options, including its Q6 e-tron, A6 Sportback e-tron and e-tron GT. Notably, Audi said its Q4 e-tron won’t currently have access to Tesla Superchargers.

For Porsche, any Taycan and Macan Electric from model year 2026 onward will include a free NACS adapter. However, Porsche EVs from model year 2024 or older will have to buy the adapter from Porsche’s online shop or dealerships, which will go for $185. Porsche and Audi are also working on software updates to show Tesla Superchargers on their navigation systems. Despite Porsche and Audi now gaining access to the Supercharger network, Volkswagen Group’s other subsidiaries, including Lamborghini and Bentley, still haven’t committed to adopting NACS.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/transportation/evs/porsche-and-audis-evs-can-now-recharge-on-any-tesla-supercharger-in-north-america-173333649.html?src=rss

8BitDo makes some of our favorite gaming accessories, and right now you can get one of its Nintendo Switch 2 controllers for the lowest price we’ve seen yet. A deal on Amazon shaves 14 percent off the 8BitDo Ultimate 2 controller’s usual $70 price tag, bringing it down to $60 — and with a coupon you can apply before checkout, it drops a bit more to $54. The discount only applies to the white color option.

The Ultimate 2 Bluetooth controller is one of the best Switch 2 accessories out there. (It’s also compatible with PC). This controller has TMR joysticks for greater sensitivity and durability, and has trigger mode switches to flip between linear Hall Effect triggers and non-linear tactile triggers. It’s a great option for those who prefer an Xbox-style controller. The Ultimate 2 charges on an included charging dock, and it’ll automatically reconnect to the console when you pick it up.

It’s also customizable using the Ultimate Software, so you can adjust the button mapping, joystick and trigger sensitivity, vibration and more. It offers three custom profiles so you can save the different configurations. You can play around with the visual effects too. The Ultimate 2 controller has RGB rings around the joysticks with multiple lighting modes to choose from, including Fire Ring Mode, Light-tracing and Rainbow. You can further adjust the colors with the Ultimate Software as well.

It’s a versatile controller that offers a lot of bang for your buck. If you’ve been thinking about picking up a good third-party controller for your new Switch 2, you can’t go wrong with the Ultimate 2.

Follow @EngadgetDeals on X for the latest tech deals and buying advice.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/8bitdos-ultimate-2-controller-for-switch-2-is-on-sale-for-only-54-170940439.html?src=rss

Two authors have filed a lawsuit against Apple, accusing the company of infringing on their copyright by using their books to train its artificial intelligence model without their consent. The plaintiffs, Grady Hendrix and Jennifer Roberson, claimed that Apple used a dataset of pirated copyrighted books that include their works for AI training. They said in their complaint that Applebot, the company’s scraper, can “reach ‘shadow libraries'” made up of unlicensed copyrighted books, including (on information) their own. The lawsuit is currently seeking class action status, due to the sheer number of books and authors found in shadow libraries. 

The main plaintiffs for the lawsuit are Grady Hendrix and Jennifer Roberson, both of whom have multiple books under their names. They said that Apple, one of the biggest companies in the world, did not attempt to pay them for “their contributions to [the] potentially lucrative venture.” Apple has “copied the copyrighted works” of the plaintiffs “to train AI models whose outputs compete with and dilute the market for those very works — works without which Apple Intelligence would have far less commercial value,” they wrote in their filing. “This conduct has deprived Plaintiffs and the Class of control over their work, undermined the economic value of their labor, and positioned Apple to achieve massive commercial success through unlawful means.”

This is but one of the many lawsuits filed against companies developing generative AI technologies. OpenAI is facing a few, including lawsuits from The New York Times and the oldest nonprofit newsroom in the US. Notably, Anthropic, the AI company behind the Claude chatbot, recently agreed to pay $1.5 billion to settle a class action piracy complaint also brought by authors. Similar to this case, the writers also accused the company of taking pirated books from online libraries to train its AI technology. The 500,000 authors involved in the case will reportedly get $3,000 per work.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/apple-faces-lawsuit-over-alleged-use-of-pirated-books-for-ai-training-160016161.html?src=rss

The Pokémon series has had staying power ever since its debut in the 1990s, but it has felt especially popular in recent years, thanks to Pokémon GO and the resurgence of the trading card game. Given that more Pokémon fans are experiencing new ways to play, it’s the right time for developer Game Freak to refresh the video game series. The upcoming Pokémon Legends: Z-A looks to do just that with a more action-oriented focus on a Pokémon trainer’s journey.

At a special Nintendo showcase during PAX West 2025 in Seattle, I spent some limited time with Pokémon Legends: Z-A and its revamped combat system that ditches turn-based combat for real-time action. So far, this new entry in the long-running series is showing promise for a follow-up that could shake up the pokémon meta in the right direction.

Set in the Paris-inspired Lumiose City, Pokémon Legends: Z-A focuses on a new trainer coming into their own as they improve their skills and expand their roster of pokémon. However, Lumoise City has a darker mystery brewing after an unknown force is causing several pokémon to enter a frenzied state that triggers their Mega Evolution mysteriously. As the protagonist rises in the ranks, they’ll soon come to find out what’s behind the rise of rogue pokémon.

Speaking as a lapsed Pokémon fan who occasionally revisits the series for its more interesting entries, I’ve found that Pokémon games tend to be very familiar, stopping a few steps shy of reaching a broader scope that many players have imagined Pokémon games to be since watching the animated shows.

Recent Pokémon games like Legends: Arceus and Scarlet/Violet have moved the series forward in the right ways, and Legends: Z-A is continuing that trend by focusing more on the moment-to-moment actions of being a trainer.

Real-time combat is a significant game changer in Legends: Z-A, and it’s a shift that many returning players will need to adjust to. Arceus set the foundations of a more open-ended style of player activity, but it still reverted to the turn-based tactical approach when the combat kicked in. Legends: Z-A moves away from that.

The demo started with a nighttime training session, in which I had to engage in several pokémon fights with trainers in a designated battle zone in the back alleys of the city. This led me to round corners and find trainers waiting for a fight, employing either a direct approach or more sneaky methods.

During my demo, I was given the team of Chikorita, Weedle, Mareep, and the flying pokémon Fletchling. When you engage in a fight, your trainer stays locked onto their enemy pokémon, with your chosen fighter right at your side. During these fights, you move around in real-time and have active skills that are on cooldowns. This sounds pretty standard for games, but for a Pokémon game, it’s quite the adjustment, one that I really liked after a few matches.

What’s interesting about Pokémon Legends: Z-A is that it’s turned Pokémon into an action RPG, somewhat akin to a smaller-scale Xenoblade Chronicles. In addition to having to engage the right skills at the right time, I also had to dodge enemy attacks to keep my pokémon from taking heavy damage. This action-focused approach gives you far more options in how you want to engage enemies, and there are even opportunities to sneak up on unsuspecting trainers to engage in a sneak attack to start the fight off well. It seems odd at first, but it’s honestly quite amusing to see trainers get walloped by a pokémon’s attacks.

Nintendo

The next phase of the demo focused on another of Pokémon Legends: Z-A’s other innovations – boss fights with rogue pokémon. As you start to track them down, you’ll eventually face off against them in battle, and they’ll even activate their Mega Evolved forms. The boss fight I encountered with Rogue Mega Absol felt right out of other role-playing games, like Final Fantasy or Nier: Automata, and Legends: Z-A presents them as showstopping encounters where you have to subdue these powerful enemies in a special battle zone. The battle was made especially exciting was the addition of the pokémon Lucario joining the fight.I could also activate their own Mega Evolution for a temporary buff – like Final Fantasy’s limit breaks, but for pokémon.

Pokémon Legends: Z-A, much like its predecessor Arceus, takes a new approach to a traditional Pokémon adventure, focusing on interactive exploration and engagement with the world. I liked how it felt like a stylized JRPG, with the addition of quirky side characters and an epic boss fight to clear. It’s very strange to play a Pokémon RPG without turn-based combat, but I found its most laid-back approach to be fair and engaging.

There has often been a desire among Pokémon fans that the series needs a shake-up to reach greater heights, but it has been clear that this is an ongoing process and won’t happen all at once. Pokémon Legends: Z-A does hang onto the familiar premise of a trainer’s journey in the Pokémon world, but a more action-oriented approach to commanding your Pokémon does show some solid promise, and could very well be a strong step forward for the series. And as a lapsed Pokémon fan, it’s definitely one I’ll be keeping an eye on.

Pokémon Legends: Z-A will be released on October 16, 2025 for the Nintendo Switch and Switch 2.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/nintendo/pokemon-legends-z-a-hands-on-135651443.html?src=rss