Monthly Archives: September 2025

‘Hitman’ Update Finally Puts PC VR Version at Parity with PSVR 2, Includes ‘Freelancer’ Mode

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IO Interactive announced that Hitman World of Assassination has finally got its long-awaited PC VR patch, bringing new life to a sorely neglected port.

The News

IOI released VR support for Hitman 3 (2021) on PC back in 2022, later rebranding in 2023 to Hitman World of Assassination, which included the full trilogy—PC VR support and all.

Still, PC VR support left much to be desired, omitting some of the quality of life stuff, like some iffy two-handed interactions and sometimes buggy visuals, which were largely addressed in the PSVR 2 port when it launched back in March as a $10 paid upgrade to the PS5 game as well as its own $40 ‘Part One’ bundle.

Now, with the latest ‘Season of the Dragon’ patch, the PC VR version is at feature parity with the PSVR 2 port, coming free to all owners of the Standard Edition or above on PC.

The new patch includes:

  • Two-Handed Tweaks – aiming of two-handed weapons has been improved; it is now based on the position of both hands. Previously, it was based on the main hand, adjusted slightly with the support hand.
  • Weapon Collision – weapon collision is improved when wielded with both hands; it is now based around the barrel of the weapon. This should help to prevent drifting when holding a sniper above railings.
  • Bullet in the Chamber – reloading a non-empty magazine doesn’t require you to rack the slide, as per the last patch. Now a chambered bullet is visible when racking the slide.
  • Sharpened Scope – improvements to instances where far away objects could become invisible when looking through a sniper scope, causing great difficulty when sniping from certain vantage points.
  • Third-person Moments – various key moments and kill opportunities are now in third person.
  • Better Cutscenes – some starting and exit cutscenes are now 3D instead of using the 2D “cinema mode” screen.
  • Better Object Interaction
    • Intuitive Interactions – various improvements to touch interactions, including adding hand poses when your hand comes into proximity with them.
    • Pistol Placement – when starting a mission, concealed weapons (e.g. pistols) are no longer stored in a hip holster. Instead, they are placed in the inventory wheel.
    • Grip Position – improved the alignment of various items when they’re held.
    • Holster Feedback – changed how the feedback works for holsters.
    • Toggle Grip – Enabling this allows you to release the grip button while keeping items in your hand.
    • Two-Handed Aiming – controls how weapons are aimed when wielding them with both hands.
    • Firearm Angle – split previous firearm angle option into two options for one-handed and two-handed weapons.

Additionally, both PSVR 2 and PC VR versions now include the rogue-like ‘Freelancer’ mode as well as access to ‘The Sarajevo Six’ DLC and more than 50 Escalations, Elusive Targets, and Elusive Target Arcade Contracts.

As for the PSVR 2 version, IOI says it improved black levels, as some players noted that they weren’t as “inky” as they should be.

If you’re still playing on the original PSVR, IOI says those changes made for PSVR 2 have been integrated “to provide a more consistent experience.”

My Take

Hitman World of Assassination is known for getting near-monthly updates that include new missions and targets, often which feature paid DLC, such as the new ‘The Dragon’ Arcade contract featuring Bruce Lee for $5.

Love it or hate it, it’s a live-service model that needs to keep chugging. Whatever the case, it’s basically made the SteamVR-compatible version the best VR version of the game right now (finally), especially if you have a hefty GPU capable of pushing graphics as high as they can go in VR.

And tightening up access to that DLC pipeline on PC VR—the second most populous VR platform—makes sense, especially as the PSVR 2 platform wanes with the lack of strong support from Sony. Notably, VR support is free on PC VR, which isn’t the case for PSVR 2.

Granted, PC VR probably doesn’t represent a gold mine of DLC purchases—a majority of owners undoubtedly play in flatscreen. Still, leaving PC VR lagging behind PSVR 2 as the game starts its end-year slate of DLC feels like a broader marketing push to scoop up relevance wherever it can be found.

Considering Quest, VR’s most populous platform, doesn’t support the game, but rather a tuned down (and widely panned) standalone version of Hitman 3, IOI could be trying to maximize where it reasonably can with (relatively) little effort.

The post ‘Hitman’ Update Finally Puts PC VR Version at Parity with PSVR 2, Includes ‘Freelancer’ Mode appeared first on Road to VR.

Raspberry Pi 500+ puts the Pi, 16GB of RAM, and a real SSD in a mechanical keyboard

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The Raspberry Pi 500 (and 400) systems are versions of the Raspberry Pi built for people who use the Raspberry Pi as a general-purpose computer rather than a hobbyist appliance. Now the company is leaning into that even more with the Raspberry Pi 500+, an amped-up version of the keyboard computer with 16GB of RAM instead of 8GB, a 256GB NVMe SSD instead of microSD storage, and a fancier keyboard with mechanical switches, replaceable keycaps, and individually programmable RGB LEDs.

The computer is currently available to purchase from the usual suspects like CanaKit and Micro Center, and generally starts at $200, twice the price of the Pi 500.

Raspberry Pi CEO Eben Upton’s blog post about the 500+ says that the upgraded version of the computer has been in the works since the regular 500 was released last year.

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Notable Zwift Events for the Weekend of September 27-28

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This weekend’s big events are the kickoff to Zwift’s 2025/26 Fondo Series. But we’ve also selected two unique races and two unique group rides, none of which we’ve featured before. Check them all out below!

� zFondo Series on Bambino Fondo

✅ Bonus XP 　✅ Popular 　✅ Endurance Challenge

Zwift’s popular monthly Fondo Series is back, and it kicks off this weekend! This is by far the most popular event happening this weekend, so if you’re looking for a longer effort you can race if desired, this is it.

Read all about the Zwift Fondo Series >

We’ll be on the Bambino Fondo route (52.6km, 581m).

Multiple timeslots this weekend
Sign up at zwift.com/events/tag/zfondos

�Rise & Shine, The Century Quest

✅ Beginner-Friendly 　✅ Endurance Training　✅ Unique Event

The folks at Team Evolve have spun up a new weekly ride concept where the purpose is to progressively ride longer (5km added each week) until you hit 100 miles in March.

This weekend is the first ride of the series: 30km on France’s R.G.V.

Sunday, September 28 @ 8:30am UTC/4:30am ET/1:30am PT
Sign up at zwift.com/events/view/5051835

� HISP London Minitour, Stage 1

✅ Stage Race　✅ Unique Event　✅ Popular

Based on early signup numbers, this new race series looks to be a popular one. It’s a 4-stage series, raced each weekend, with mass starts and not categories. And it begins this week with the first stage on Greatest London Flat (31km, 222m).

Enter individual races for the fun of it, or compete in all four stages. There’s a GC on ZwiftPower which uses cumulative time to rank riders across the series!

Multiple timeslots this weekend
Sign up at zwift.com/events/tag/hisp

� SWX Saturday Easy Free Ride

✅ Fresh Ride Host 　✅ Beginner-Friendly 　✅ Banded

We’re featuring this event because it has a decent number of early signups, and it’s hosted by a group we haven’t seen before!

This is a banded ride, so you can ride at whatever pace you’d like. You’ll be on Watopia’s Country to Coastal for 60 minutes.

Saturday, September 27 @ 3:15pm UTC/11:15am ET/8:15am PT
Sign up at zwift.com/events/view/5119036

� Team Evolve’s September’s Omnium

✅ Omnium　✅ Unique Event

Looks like Team Evolve gets two features this weekend! On Sunday, they’re hosting a three-race omnium that will take a total of ~95 minutes to complete. You earn points based on your finishing position in each of the race, then the rider with the most points in each category wins the Omnium.

This is a three-race series:

  • Race 1 Croissant 12.5km iTT
  • Race 2 Petite Douleur 24.8km
  • Race 3 The Bell Lap 8km 4-lap crit

Bike are neutralized – same weight, CdA, and upgrade level. As always, be sure to read event description for more details.

Sunday, September 28 @ 5pm UTC/1pm ET/10am PT
Sign up at zwift.com/events/tag/evolve

How We Make Our Picks

We choose each weekend’s Notable Events based on a variety of factors including:

  • Is the event unique/innovative in some way?
  • Are celebrities (pro riders, etc) attending/leading?
  • Are signup counts already high, meaning the event is extra-popular?
  • Does the ride include desirable unlocks or prizes?
  • Does the event appeal to ladies on Zwift? (We like to support this under-represented group!)
  • Is it for a good cause?
  • Is it just plain crazy (extra long races, world record attempts, etc)?
  • Is it a long-running, popular weekly event with a dedicated leader who deserves a shout out?

In the end, we want to call attention to events that are extra-special and therefore extra-appealing to Zwifters. If you think your event qualifies, comment below with a link/details and we may just include it in an upcoming post!

The ROG Xbox Ally X handheld gaming device will cost you $1,000

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Microsoft has finally revealed how much the ROG Xbox Ally handheld consoles will cost you, now that they’re available for preorder. The ROG Xbox Ally X, which the company describes as the “ultimate high-performance handheld” that’s “built for the most demanding players,” will set you back $1,000.

Meanwhile, the ROG Xbox Ally “for everyone from the casual player to the avid enthusiast” is priced at $600, and you can pre-order that model from other retailers like Amazon, Best Buy and Walmart. They’re a bit more expensive than ASUS’ regular ROG Ally systems, which are priced from $500 to $800. 

The company unveiled the devices during the Xbox Games Showcase at Summer Game Fest in June, with the promise that it was going to be available by this year’s holiday shopping season. It revealed a couple of months later that the consoles will be on store shelves by October 16, but it didn’t announce their prices until now. 

Microsoft teamed up with ASUS’ ROG division to develop the handhelds. They’re powered by Windows 11 and lets you play any Xbox game you’ve purchased, whether you bought it on your console or your computer, as well as PC games from any store that you install directly on the device. You can use it to stream Xbox games from your console anywhere in your home or from the Xbox Cloud Gaming service. And yes, you’ll be able to continue where you left off when you jump from one device to another. At launch, Xbox will mark thousands of games as Handheld Optimized or Mostly Compatible to indicate if they play well on handhelds. 

In the US, you can preorder the consoles from the Xbox website, ASUS’ website or from local retailers like Best Buy. A SanDisk microSD card designed specifically for the handhelds and a SeaGate SSD that supports Microsoft DirectStorage are now also available for preorder. 

You can also preorder the consoles in Australia, Belgium, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Republic of Korea, Romania, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Taiwan, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, Vietnam, Egypt, Greece, Hungary, Indonesia, Slovenia, South Africa, Thailand and Ukraine. All these markets, including the US, are getting the console on October 16. The handhelds will be available in additional markets in the future, as well, namely in Brazil, China, India, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Philippines and Switzerland. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/xbox/the-rog-xbox-ally-x-handheld-gaming-device-will-cost-you-1000-120029250.html?src=rss

Fiji’s ants might be the canary in the coal mine for the insect apocalypse

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In late 2017, a study by Krefeld Entomological Society looked at protected areas across Germany and discovered that two-thirds of the insect populations living in there had vanished over the last 25 years. The results spurred the media to declare we’re living through an “insect apocalypse,” but the reasons behind their absence were unclear. Now, a joint team of Japanese and Australian scientists have completed a new, multi-year study designed to get us some answers.

Insect microcosm

“In our work, we focused on ants because we have systematic ways for collecting them,” says Alexander Mikheyev, an evolutionary biologist at the Australian National University. “They are also a group with the right level of diversity, where you have enough species to do comparative studies.” Choosing the right location, he explained, was just as important. “We did it in Fiji, because Fiji had the right balance between isolation—which gave us a discrete group of animals to study—but at the same time was diverse enough to make comparisons,” Mikheyev adds.

Thus, the Fijian archipelago, with its 330 islands, became the model the team used to get some insights into insect population dynamics. A key difference from the earlier study was that Mikheyev and his colleagues could look at those populations across thousands of years, not just the last 25.

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Intel Returns To Working On The Habana Labs AI Accelerator Linux Driver

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After being on a hiatus for more than one year and going through several rounds of Habana Labs driver maintainers due to Intel layoffs, there finally is some updated “habanalabs” AI accelerator kernel driver code slated to go into the upcoming Linux 6.18 kernel cycle. There is some new feature work but still no Gaudi 3 support for the upstream Linux kernel…

Valve Launches Steam Link On Pico Headsets & Vive Focus Vision

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Steam Link VR is now available on Pico headsets and HTC’s Vive Focus Vision, making it easier to wirelessly stream SteamVR games from a PC.

The VR version of Steam Link first launched on Meta Quest headsets just under two years ago. As an Android OpenXR app, it actually already ran on Pico headsets if you extracted the APK from a Quest, with some quirks.

Now, Steam Link VR is officially available on the Pico Store and Viveport. The Pico Store version supports Pico 4 Ultra, Pico 4, and Pico Neo 3 Link, while the Viveport version currently supports Vive Focus Vision and will support Vive XR Elite later this year too.

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It was already possible to use PC VR on Pico headsets and Vive Focus Vision. The built-in Pico Connect and Vive Streaming features are free, Guy Godin’s Virtual Desktop is available for $25 on both headsets, and Vive Focus Vision even supports lossless PC VR via a DisplayPort cable. But Steam Link doesn’t require any extra software on your PC, and launches directly into SteamVR.

Steam Link also has a flatscreen mode, which lets you play your traditional Steam games in a floating window within your standalone headset’s home system, forwarding input from a Bluetooth gamepad if you have one connected.

Valve says it also plans to release an OpenXR APK for other headset makers to use to validate Steam Link works, and for users of unsupported Android OpenXR headsets to try.

“As always, we’re excited about our continued work in SteamVR, and appreciate all of the feedback from the community along the way”, Valve notes.

Time Is Running Out On Our Autumn Deal To Help Support Linux Hardware Reviews

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Just a friendly reminder that our autumn promotion is ending in a few days for those wishing to join Phoronix Premium at a discounted rate. Less than 1% of readers currently do so for helping to support the site and its Linux hardware testing and open-source news operations over the past 21 years. Joining Phoronix Premium gets you ad-free access, multi-page articles on a single page, custom forum avatar support, and other benefits all while helping for operations to continue during this difficult period for the web/ad industry…

Journalist warns of widespread debt bondage risks in Taiwan’s bicycle industry following forced labour allegations

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On Wednesday, American customs officials revealed that they will block the import of bicycles manufactured in Taiwan by Giant Bicycles after a US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) investigation “that reasonably indicates forced labour use”.

The CBP alleges that it has identified five ‘forced labour indications’ during an investigation of Giant, including debt bondage, where a person is forced to work to pay off a debt. 

For investigative journalist Peter Bengtsen, this is not a surprise. “The risk of debt bondage,” he told BikeRadar, “is the rule, not the exception, for migrants employed in Taiwan’s bicycle and other industries.”  

Bengtsen has led investigations into the labour conditions of Taiwan’s bicycle, car, electronic and other industries. Between 2022 and 2025, Bengtsen and his team conducted 200 interviews with migrant workers, gathering testimonies that covered debt bondage and other forced labour indicators. 

Bengtsen’s work investigating labour conditions in the Taiwanese cycling industry was published in Le Monde diplomatique in June 2024 and February 2025. 

His piece from 2024 asked whether major cycling brands were overlooking forced labour risks. Around a dozen of Giant’s migrant employees were interviewed for the story, with Bergtsen reporting that Vietnamese employees said they paid $5,700 to home-country recruiters, while Thai employees said they paid up to $3,200.  

Following the CBP’s announcement, Giant said it was “firmly committed to upholding human rights and labour protections”. Warren Rossiter / OurMedia

Bengtsen reported in his story from earlier this year, ‘The Bicycle industry’s dirty secret’, that one Vietnamese employee had paid $5,500. “I had to pay up front. I borrowed everything from the bank and mortgaged the house,” they said. 

“Migrant workers in Taiwan are vulnerable to forced labour due to several factors, of which high recruitment fees and limited freedom to change employers are key,” Bengtsen told BikeRadar.

“For decades, workers hired from abroad have paid exorbitant fees to home-country recruiters and Taiwanese labour brokers for jobs and services. As a result, workers borrow significantly from banks and money lenders, often at excessive interest rates, and thereby risk debt bondage while working in Taiwan to pay off loans.

“Other migrant vulnerabilities include language barriers, lack of knowledge of laws and rights, lack of support measures or knowledge thereof, and lack of organisation and representation. Fear of repatriation for speaking up adds to the vulnerabilities,” he went on.

Following Bengtsen’s second report in Le Monde diplomatique, the publication received a statement from the Taiwanese Bicycle Association (TBA), an industry trade association that represents companies engaged in exporting bicycles, components and accessories.

The TBA said: “Taiwanese companies have strictly abided by the labour regulations in Taiwan, which nonetheless, may in one way or another, differ from the international method and reference for betterment. We would always obey Taiwan’s labour law and try our very best when there’s room for improvement.” 

Giant said it will file a petition to seek the revocation of the import ban, and that it is “firmly committed to upholding human rights and labour protections”.

It said it has taken “concrete actions” in the last year, including the implementation of a Zero Recruitment Fee Policy and upgrading employee housing to provide a “safer and more comfortable living environment.”

Many of the world’s biggest bicycle brands have had bikes or components made in Taiwan. The country is the biggest exporter of bikes to Europe, and trade data shows 28 per cent of bikes imported to the US in 2022 came from Taiwan.

The US can ban imports of goods if they are suspected of being made as a result of forced labour. The country has imposed regulations on imports from China’s Xinjiang region, because members of the minority Uyghur community have been detained and forced to work, according to US officials. 

The CBP’s statement says Giant has “profited by imposing such abuse… resulting in goods produced below market value and undercutting American businesses by millions of dollars in unjustly earned profits”.

CBP’s statement echoes the logic behind Donald Trump’s tariff trade war earlier this year, which aimed to make it harder for foreign companies to compete in the US. One trade organisation called the tariffs “devastating” for the US bicycle industry.

Disastrous Oracle Implementation At Europe’s Largest City Council.

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Longtime Slashdot reader whoever57 writes: Birmingham City Council, the largest such entity in Europe, has been declared effectively bankrupt. There are a couple of reasons for this, but one of them is a disastrous project to replace the city’s income management system using Oracle. The cost of this has risen to $230 million, while the initial estimate was $24 million. There was a failed rollout of the new system earlier this year. “Original plans for the replacement of SAP with Oracle Fusion set aside a 19.965 million-euro budget for three years implementation until the end of the 2021 financial year,” reports The Register. “Go-live date was later put back until April 2022 and the budget increased to 40 million euros. After the council realized it would need to reimplement all of Oracle, the budget for running the old system and introducing the new one increased to 131 million euros.”

“In a hastily convened Audit Committee meeting this week, councilor heard how that date has now been put back until November, expressing their anger that the news hit the media before they were told.” Testing failed with only a 73.3% pass rate and 10 severe deficits, “below the acceptance criteria of a 95 percent pass rate and zero severe deficits.


Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Fostering creativity through open-ended projects with Code Editor for Education

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Tom Mason is Head of Mathematics and Head of ICT at St Joseph’s College, an all-boys secondary school in South East London. He is passionate about teaching and learning, and has a keen interest in digital education practices.

Mr Mason recently set his Year 10 students a creative coding challenge, which they completed using our Code Editor for Education. The challenge not only boosted student engagement, but also showcased the effectiveness of open-ended, student-led learning in computer science education.

Tom Mason

Challenges in the classroom

Teaching coding in a classroom setting presents a unique set of challenges, with one of the most significant being the rise of artificial intelligence (AI). Instead of engaging deeply with concepts like loops, conditions, and sorting algorithms, students now increasingly rely on AI tools to generate entire blocks of code for them, without understanding their functions. 

Meanwhile, traditional teacher-led instruction methods that focus on isolated coding concepts like inputs and outputs often leave students disconnected from the practical and creative aspects of programming. 

Against this backdrop, Mr Mason wanted to give his students the opportunity to:

  • Apply their Python knowledge in meaningful ways
  • Collaborate and problem-solve independently
  • Explore unfamiliar programming concepts in a guided but open-ended fashion

The project

Mr Mason set a simple but powerful brief:

“Over three lessons, build a quiz that asks 10 questions about what you’ve learnt on the course.”

With this simple instruction, Mr Mason gave students a clear idea about what to do, while giving them the freedom to design their quiz however they liked. Students were also told that:

  • Their 10 quiz questions had to relate to Python
  • After creating their quiz, their classmates would give feedback based on key criteria (how well the code worked, the level of creativity, the user experience, etc.)

To complete the project, students used the Code Editor for Education. Created in collaboration with educators and built purposefully for the classroom, the Code Editor supports a range of teaching styles and learning abilities. Its simple interface encourages students to engage with the logic behind their code — they can’t rely on autocomplete.

Code Editor dashboard

Results

The open-ended structure led to an explosion of creativity and problem-solving.

Without step-by-step instructions, students had to independently explore solutions to questions like:

  • “How do I randomise questions?”
  • “How can I hide quiz answers in a separate file?”

Some students created multi-file Python projects, separating the logic controlling how the quiz worked from the content, or static information. For example, some students created one file to store the player’s answers and another file to manage the quiz interface and score logic. Students also created other advanced features:

  • Score tracking based on speed of response
  • Use of external Python libraries
  • Custom input and output formatting
  • Algorithms to randomly order quiz questions 

All students met the base requirements, but the open-ended nature of the project allowed more advanced students to push the boundaries, without the need for additional scaffolding.

Educator reflection

“They couldn’t just Google the answer; they had to think critically and test ideas. That’s what made it powerful.”

Mr Mason noted that the project’s success was due in large part to the flexibility and responsiveness of the Code Editor. Students could iterate quickly, test their ideas, and collaborate, all within a platform built for classroom coding.

“It was the most successful thing I’ve done. I’ll definitely be doing it again every year.”

Key takeaways

  • Project-based learning fosters deeper engagement and knowledge, and creative application of programming concepts.
  • Open-ended prompts empower students to explore and develop their own solutions.
  • Code Editor for Education encourages thoughtful questions and experimentation rather than reliance on autocomplete solutions. With built-in class management and project tools, it offers a safe, browser-based environment ideal for coding in the classroom.

Join St Joseph’s College and the 1300+ other schools helping their students build a strong foundation in text-based programming with the Code Editor for Education.

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