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Naughty Dog working on second game alongside Intergalactic, Neil Druckmann confirms

by admin May 20, 2025

It feels like we’ve only just been introduced to Naughty Dog’s sci-fi action-adventure Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet, but studio boss Neil Druckmann has now confirmed there’s a second game in development at the studio.

Druckmann shared the news in conversation with the Press X to Continue podcast, explaining that alongside Intergalactic – where’s he’s serving as writer and creative director – “there’s another game that’s being worked on at Naughty Dog where I am more of a producer role.”

“And I get to mentor and watch this other team, and give feedback and be, like, the executive in the room,” he continued. “I enjoy all those roles, and the fact that I jump between one to the next, it makes my job very exciting and always feeling fresh. I’m never bored.”

Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet was unveiled in December.Watch on YouTube

This isn’t the first time we’ve heard multiple games are in development at Naughty Dog; the studio said it had “more than one ambitious, brand-new single player game” in the works back in 2023, when it announced the cancellation of The Last of Us Online. Druckmann’s latest statement is, however, the first confirmation since then that multiple projects are still underway.

As to what this second project might be, Druckmann offered no hints, but it’s possible it’s being helmed by Uncharted: The Lost Legacy director Shaun Escayg – who rejoined Naughty Dog back in 2021 after serving as creative director on Crystal Dynamics’ Marvel Avengers.

Druckmann has, of course, been teasing a third The Last of Us game in recent years, but he seemingly backtracked on that in March, telling fans, “Don’t bet on there being more.” For now, his main focus appears to be Intergalactic, which is currently expected to arrive in 2027. And while details on the game are currently limited, Druckmann recently named another actor who’s been cast in Intergalactic after their appearance in The Last of Us’ television show.

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May 20, 2025 0 comments

Product Reviews

Acer Vero B247Y business monitor review

by admin May 20, 2025

Why you can trust TechRadar

We spend hours testing every product or service we review, so you can be sure you’re buying the best. Find out more about how we test.

All around, the monitor world has continued to flourish. People want better displays to work on, create on, game on, and consume on, and the prices continue to rise. So, it’s worth noting when I find a budget monitor that I don’t hate. Not everyone, in fact, very few, needs the biggest and best display.

Even with what I do, I barely need a high-resolution display. I could get most of what I do done on a 1080p screen if needed, or if the budget required it. There are quite a few drawbacks for choosing this kind of display, like screen quality in both picture and frame, the speakers sound like someone whispering into a soup can, but at the same time, if it gets the job done, and saves me a ton of money, why wouldn’t I consider it?

And with that in mind, it’s not hard to recommend the Acer Vero B247Y as one of the best business monitors for anyone looking for a budget display.

Acer Vero B247Y: Unboxing & first impressions

I’m not going to lie, I didn’t expect much when I started unboxing the simple cardboard box that held the Acer B247Y monitor.

But once I opened it up, I noticed it had a DisplayPort cable, an HDMI cable, a power cable, a stand, and some nice documentation. I could put it all together before I realized what I was doing, and I was using it after mere moments of unboxing.

The monitor is incredibly light, so light that it doesn’t make sense. Once I got this display on my desk, I pretty quickly threw it on a VESA mount monitor arm to get it positioned right where I wanted it, then I got to work using the display.

While it may feel like the exact monitor (probably not), my mom grew up on a corner desk littered with receipts connected via VGA to a tower pc that weighed more than I did, but it’s not half bad when you consider the price.

(Image credit: Collin Probst // Future)

Acer Vero B247Y: Design & Build Quality

Specs

Display: 23.8″ IPS
Resolution: 1920×1080
Refresh Rate: 120Hz (HDMI + DP)
Brightness: 250 nits
Inputs: HDMI 1.4, DisplayPort 1.2, VGA, Audio In/Out, Headphone jack
Speakers: 2x 2W (bless them for trying)
Adjustments: Height, tilt, swivel, pivot
Weight: 12.06 lbs with stand

The display build quality is mediocre despite the realization that this monitor can be found for under $100. It’s super lightweight, which is great for moving it around, but it does not feel premium.

In fact, it feels like if I sneeze or cough too aggressively, it might fall down, which is why I added it to my monitor arm. The black plastic frame looks cheap, but it hides the cheap factor quite nicely since it’s matted black.

The port layout is simple and easy to use. No frills, no add-ons, just video in. Sometimes, that’s all you want, and with this guy, that’s all you get.

(Image credit: Collin Probst // Future)

Acer Vero B247Y: In use

Jokes aside, this monitor is good enough to get some business work done. I of course wouldn’t use it for graphic design or much creative work, if any, but for Slack, documents, email, browsing the internet, Excel sheets, and so on, this display gets the job done for cheap. Especially if this monitor is not frequently used, sits in a high-traffic office area where it could get damaged, or if you are simply just working on basic tasks and don’t require 4K at all.

Plus, since it’s so cheap, you can spend that money on accessories, a better computer, or just simply save it for something else.

Moving on, I wouldn’t recommend using this display for playing any audio of any kind. It’s actually comical to me that they even tried adding speakers to this, coming in with a whopping two 2W speakers. I tried taking a video call through this and the speaking voices were terrible, music is worse, and I didn’t dare try any sort of mixing audio levels for a video or project through this.

If you’re looking for a simple monitor to get business work done that won’t break the bank, then this is a monitor you should consider. It’s a good budget option. But, if you’re going to expect it to be great for gaming, consuming high-resolution content, color grading, or anything like that, I would look elsewhere.

(Image credit: Collin Probst // Future)Swipe to scroll horizontally

Attributes

Notes

Rating

Design

Cheap and simple

⭐⭐⭐

Ease of use

Easy to use

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Practicality

Right for a budget

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Price

Very cheap

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Acer Vero B247Y: Final verdict

If you find yourself looking for “any monitor” within a budget, you should check out the B247Y as your budget solution.

It’s great for budget setups, secondary setups, your old tower pc that just needs a display, a server display, replacing the monitor you just broke and don’t want to pay for a replacement for, or for displays you are worried are going to quickly break for one reason or another.

Bump up the resolution with our round-up of the best 5K and 8K monitors for professional use.

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May 20, 2025 0 comments

Game Reviews

Every mainline Elder Scrolls game and DLC, ranked

by admin May 20, 2025

The Elder Scrolls VI is coming. Slowly, but it is. We all dearly miss this series that’s already way older than many of the people playing it nowadays, so we should perhaps look to the past for some great TES moments that we might have missed.

What better time than now, or the four years that we’ll have to wait in line, to read about the best and worst games in the series to get you ready for TES VI? Note that this is about the single-player RPGs, so The Elder Scrolls Online is not part of our rankings here.

Image via MobyGames

I know I’m a big meanie for putting the oldest game in the franchise in the lowest rank, but this is actually a great achievement for the series. How many franchises can boast that every single sequel in their catalog has managed to outdo the original?

Arena, even with the help of some neat fan-made mods, looks and plays very dated nowadays. Still, it was a revolutionary thing back in the day—and one that you can still enjoy for some of its merits and archeological value.

Screenshot by Destructoid

Daggerfall greatly improved upon its predecessor in terms of graphics, scope, and size. Though ancient, Daggerfall remains one of the games with the largest play area in gaming history, although you’ll probably get bored before seeing one-tenth of the whole thing. I’d call Daggerfall too dated to play nowadays if you’re not a game history buff, but you can experience a much prettier version if you get the Unity remaster, which I totally recommend.

Oblivion’s first expansion begins with some dumb and repetitive design choices that might end up causing a bunch of players to give up on it, but those who brave through the great filter are in for one hell of a treat.

Knights of the Nine invites players to go through the trials and tribulations of knighthood, and it turns out it’s actually a pretty fun ordeal. Also, one of the things that always bothered me about Oblivion was the lack of a direct confrontation against a villain. Yeah, sitting back while a dragon goes on a kaiju fight against the Devil isn’t that awesome, Oblivion. Luckily, KON more than solves that problem.

Image via Bethesda

Remember when I talked about a confrontation with a cool villain in the entry above? Well, Shivering Isles is all about going after a mad god in an equally mad world. This one is filled with memorable moments worthy of Morrowind, but the star of the show is the main quest. One of the quarrels one can have with Oblivion is the lack of open-endedness, but you won’t find that here, as your decisions will finally impact the story.

Image by Bethesda

You can never do wrong with vampires and werewolves. Both had been staples of the series for a while, but now they take center stage in the main plotline. The main story is fun, but even more fun are the Werewolf and Vampire skill trees that you can now unlock and explore to quench your thirst.

Before there was Bloodborne, there was Skyrim’s Dragonborn. It teased a great confrontation with someone capable of rivaling the Dovahkiin, and we got that, but the star of the show, in my opinion, was the Lovecraftian elements. Skyrim is gorgeous, but I find the environments a bit repetitive. Dragonborn solves that in spades by taking us to a new area filled with eldritch horrors that will likely stay in your mind, as you slowly lose it to madness.

Tribunal, the first expansion for Morrowind does away with the massive and beautiful areas of the main game. It makes up for that, however, by inviting players to solve an engrossing conspiracy whose setting is based on classic TES concepts. It’s a short but sweet experience that you should totally get into if you like the original Morrowind, as it raises the overall difficulty and expands upon its challenges.

Important note: Do not install Tribunal as soon as you begin your adventure in the original game. This will create a high chance of powerful ninjas showing up to kill your character whenever they go to sleep. This is not a joke.

A hero arrives at a snow-covered island to go on a werewolf-hunting adventure. Bloodmoon isn’t Skyrim, but only because it doesn’t take place in Skyrim. Morrowind’s second expansion more than sows the seeds for what would become Skyrim by sending players on a darker adventure in a Norse mythology-inspired land. If you love Skyrim and want to experience a “demake” of sorts, this is the one for you.

Image via Bethesda Softworks

They finally did it. There was speculation, there were rumors, but when the Oblivion remaster shadow dropped on one sleepy day, the internet was damn near set on fire. It was a fun time, sure, but still just a remaster.

That’s why it ends up in the fourth spot on this list, two whole places behind the original. The OG was the one that showed us all what games could really do with its living world and roaming NPCs. The remaster is a fantastic homage to what is undoubtedly an Elder Scrolls classic.

Image via Bethesda/Steam.

Well, there’s not much left to say about this one. I mean, there are a lot of people talking crap about it on the Internet, but they write their negative reviews while on their coffee breaks from their 500+ hour-long playthroughs, so do those even count?

Skyrim is a massive success, a game that has remained popular for over a decade, and one that so many claim is the strongest entry in the series. I disagree, as I’m not a fan of how it hand-holds us throughout the main quest, but who am I to say that this is not the ultimate TES experience for you?

Image by Bethesda

Even though Skyrim blew its numbers out of the water a few years later, Oblivion was the breakthrough game for this series. Oblivion made not just the series, but RPGs in general, the hot new mainstream thing.

Back when it came out, Oblivion looked better and brighter, thanks, absurd HDR, than any other game on the market. Oblivion looked like an impossible feat for a console, but it was the real deal. Moreover, it featured a more console-friendly approach to its combat and overall gameplay than its predecessor, which sacrificed some depth but allowed Oblivion to put the Xbox 360 on the map as a serious threat to the PlayStation 3.

Image by Bethesda

Even though many might contest my decision, I must rub salt in the dissidents’ wounds by stating that this wasn’t even a close one. Though old enough to drink in the US, Morrowind remains not just one of the best RPGs of all time, but one of the best exploration games ever — an achievement it simply did not owe us.

If you ever feel like taking a break from the main quest, you can just walk in a direction — any direction. It’s ok, as you’ll surely stumble upon some underground area where you’ll have an unforgettable adventure and likely get a cool new item. Morrowind doesn’t take players by the hand and never fails to reward the adventurer inside you. The combat might be a bit dated by today’s standards, but it also features the deepest gameplay in the series, making it a perfect marriage between clunky and fun. We may never ever get anything quite like Morrowind, and the world is a sadder place for that.

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May 20, 2025 0 comments

Crypto Trends

Senate Stablecoin Bill Passes Key Vote as GENIUS Act Regains Momentum

by admin May 20, 2025

Against all odds, the Senate’s stablecoin bill has regained political momentum, passing a key procedural vote Monday evening that has set the legislation on track for passage within days.

Less than two weeks ago, the bill, dubbed the GENIUS Act, failed to pass the same procedural cloture vote—which ends debate on a measure and advances it towards full floor consideration. At the time, a perfect storm of political winds conspired to derail support for the bill among pro-crypto Democrats. Chief among them: mounting anger in the Democratic Party over President Donald Trump’s perceived crypto-related conflicts of interest.

But tonight, key Democrats jumped back aboard the measure. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ), Mark Warner (D-VA), Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-PA), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), and Angela Alsobrooks (D-MD)—all of whom voted against cloture on the GENIUS Act earlier this month—supported the measure tonight. Alsobrooks and Gillibrand initially co-sponsored the bill.

Having received more than 60 votes, the bill will now cruise towards a full floor vote, which could happen as soon as tomorrow, one Senate source familiar with the matter told Decrypt. If all goes according to plan, the vote on the bill itself should see the same margin of passage as tonight’s procedural vote.

The bill would then need to pass a vote in the House before heading to President Trump’s desk. If signed into law, the GENIUS Act would establish a framework for legally issuing stablecoins in the United States.

Stablecoins are crypto tokens, generally pegged to the U.S. dollar, that allow holders to enter and exit digital asset trades without accessing fiat currencies directly. They can also be used to easily send payments and remittances across borders. It is anticipated that once stablecoin legislation passes, once-hesitant Wall Street giants will flood the sector, bringing billions of dollars, if not trillions, into crypto.

What gave the GENIUS Act new wings just days after the bill nearly death spiraled? Last week, Senate Democrats ironed out a new draft of the legislation, which they touted as containing major concessions from Republicans on issues like conflicts of interest, national security protections, and Big Tech.

But it’s unclear if those measures will have enough teeth to make them enforceable. While the new draft forbids all senior executive branch officials from launching their own stablecoins, for example, it still allows the president and vice president to do so—sidestepping the Trump-related concerns that made ethics a prominent issue for the legislation in the first place.

In a similar vein, new language added to the bill in the eleventh hour would prevent Big Tech corporations from launching stablecoins if said corporations tracked and sold users’ sensitive financial data—unless they got customers’ consent to do so in their terms of service.

Another factor that may have shifted political calculus enough to get the GENIUS Act over the 60-vote hump: increased lobbying pressure from industry leaders, who realized that if the bill didn’t pass, hopes for passing any crypto legislation on Capitol Hill this year might die along with it.

Coinbase, for instance, which boasts a tremendous lobbying presence in Washington, had previously dragged its feet in supporting standalone stablecoin legislation—a move intended to increase the likelihood of Congress passing a single crypto bill covering several industry sectors, but that nonetheless frustrated other digital asset policy players. In recent days, with crypto’s entire legislative agenda on life support, Coinbase notably turned up the heat in a push to get the GENIUS Act over the finish line.

The firm’s CEO, Brian Armstrong, made explicit pleas for the bill to be passed immediately. Stand With Crypto, a pro-industry political watchdog launched by Coinbase, warned it would lower politicians’ grades if they voted against cloture on the GENIUS Act tonight—a move the organization notably did not make after the initial cloture vote on the bill earlier this month. Over the weekend, an in-app notification sent out by Coinbase, and seen by Decrypt, urged American users to send their senators a letter demanding the GENIUS Act be passed immediately.

Behind such signifiers churns an immense amount of money. Last year Coinbase, along with a handful of other major American crypto companies, raised over $300 million for pro-crypto super PACs that spent heavily on congressional races. The same super PACs have already raised tens of millions of dollars for the 2026 midterms.

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May 20, 2025 0 comments

Gaming Gear

Wordle today: Answer and hint #1431 for May 20

by admin May 20, 2025

We’ve cooked up a fresh clue for today’s Wordle, written to give your guesses a boost and turn a few yellow letters green without spoiling all your fun. Try combining it with our tips for maximum puzzle solving effect, or use it early and alone to get your game off to a great start. Need something more? That’s why the May 20 (1431) answer is waiting below.

One green, one yellow—that’s a good start. I just wish that yellow hadn’t taken another three rows to turn green. Always in the last place you look, right? Still, at least my lengthy stroll towards today’s answer gave me the time to rule out almost an entire alphabet’s worth of grey letters too.

Today’s Wordle hint

(Image credit: Josh Wardle)

Wordle today: A hint for Tuesday, May 20

This refers to something carried or spread, and is often used as a suffix. Water and air are common varieties.

Is there a double letter in Wordle today?

No, there is not a double letter in today’s puzzle.

Wordle help: 3 tips for beating Wordle every day

A good starting word can be the difference between victory and defeat with the daily puzzle, but once you’ve got the basics, it’s much easier to nail down those Wordle wins. And as there’s nothing quite like a small victory to set you up for the rest of the day, here are a few tips to help set you on the right path:

A good opening guess should contain a mix of unique consonants and vowels.
Narrow down the pool of letters quickly with a tactical second guess.
Watch out for letters appearing more than once in the answer.

There’s no racing against the clock with Wordle so you don’t need to rush for the answer. Treating the game like a casual newspaper crossword can be a good tactic; that way, you can come back to it later if you’re coming up blank. Stepping away for a while might mean the difference between a win and a line of grey squares.

Today’s Wordle answer

(Image credit: Future)

What is today’s Wordle answer?

One more win? The answer to the May 20 (1431) Wordle is BORNE.

Previous Wordle answers

The last 10 Wordle answers

Past Wordle answers can give you some excellent ideas for fun starting words that keep your daily puzzle-solving fresh. They are also a good way to eliminate guesses for today’s Wordle, as the answer is unlikely to be repeated.

Here are some recent Wordle answers:

May 19: PITCH
May 18: LIVID
May 17: GROWN
May 16: FIFTH
May 15: EAGER
May 14: BONGO
May 13: AWARE
May 12: BICEP
May 11: DOWEL
May 10: YEAST

Learn more about Wordle

(Image credit: Nurphoto via Getty)

Wordle gives you six rows of five boxes each day, and you’ll need to work out which secret five-letter word is hiding inside them to keep up your winning streak.

You should start with a strong word like ARISE, or any other word that contains a good mix of common consonants and multiple vowels. You’ll also want to avoid starting words with repeating letters, as you’re wasting the chance to potentially eliminate or confirm an extra letter. Once you hit Enter, you’ll see which ones you’ve got right or wrong. If a box turns ⬛️, it means that letter isn’t in the secret word at all. 🟨 means the letter is in the word, but not in that position. 🟩 means you’ve got the right letter in the right spot.

Your second guess should compliment the starting word, using another “good” word to cover any common letters you missed last time while also trying to avoid any letter you now know for a fact isn’t present in today’s answer. With a bit of luck, you should have some coloured squares to work with and set you on the right path.

After that, it’s just a case of using what you’ve learned to narrow your guesses down to the right word. You have six tries in total and can only use real words (so no filling the boxes with EEEEE to see if there’s an E). Don’t forget letters can repeat too (ex: BOOKS).

If you need any further advice feel free to check out our Wordle tips, and if you’d like to find out which words have already been used you can scroll to the relevant section above.

Originally, Wordle was dreamed up by software engineer Josh Wardle, as a surprise for his partner who loves word games. From there it spread to his family, and finally got released to the public. The word puzzle game has since inspired tons of games like Wordle, refocusing the daily gimmick around music or math or geography. It wasn’t long before Wordle became so popular it was sold to the New York Times for seven figures. Surely it’s only a matter of time before we all solely communicate in tricolor boxes.

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May 20, 2025 0 comments

Esports

Schedule, results, teams, and more

by admin May 20, 2025

The road to this year’s first CS2 Major is heating up, as the IEM Dallas 2025 shapes up to be a preview for some of the world’s strongest teams clashing from May 19 to 25.

Team Vitality, fresh off their Intel Extreme Masters Grand Slam victory, aims to sustain their winning streak in a tough 16-team field. But the Niko and m0NESY-led Team Falcons are hungry for revenge after falling short in back-to-back nail-biting grand final encounters against Vitality at IEM Melbourne and Blast Rivals Spring.

The event also marks a huge moment in CS2 history, as s1mple, often called the GOAT of Counter-Strike, makes his debut for FaZe Clan.

The “CS GOAT” returns in a FaZe jersey. Photo by ESL

IEM Dallas 2025 is seen as the final litmus test before the BLAST.tv Austin Major the following week. So, expect to witness fiery matches, especially once the playoffs get going at the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center.

Here’s all you need to know about IEM Dallas 2025.

IEM Dallas 2025 teams and format

M0NESY and Team Falcons are out for revenge. Photo by ESL

Here are the 16 competing teams:

Team Vitality
Team Falcons
FaZe Clan
MOUZ
G2 Esports
Team Liquid
The MongolZ
FURIA
Aurora Gaming
NRG
HEROIC
GamerLegion
3DMAX
BC.Game Esports
Legacy
Lynn Vision Gaming

Teams are divided into two GSL groups, battling in best-of-three matches under a double elimination format. The top three teams from each group advance to the playoffs, while the rest are eliminated. This is how the teams are grouped:

Group AGroup BTeam Vitality
The MongolZ
G2 Esports
FURIA
GamerLegion
3DMAX
Legacy
Lynn Vision GamingTeam Falcons
FaZe Clan
MOUZ
Team Liquid
Aurora Gaming
HEROIC
NRG
BC.Game Esports

Group stage winners directly advance to the semifinals. Runners-up enter the quarterfinals as the high seeds, while third-place teams become the low seeds.

All matches in the single-elimination playoffs are best-of-three. The two remaining teams battle in a best-of-five grand final series.

IEM Dallas 2025 schedule and results

Dallas, get ready for some sick CS2 action. Photo by ESL

Group stage

May 19 (Monday)

Group A round 1

11:30am CT | 6:30pm CEST: 3DMAX 1-2 GamerLegion
- 13-4 Anubis
- 9-13 Ancient
- 11-13 Nuke
2pm CT | 9pm CEST: Vitality 2-0 Legacy
- 13-5 Inferno
- 13-11 Dust 2
4:30pm CT | 11:30pm CEST: LVG 0-2 G2
7pm CT | 2am, May 20 CEST: MongolZ 2-0 FURIA

Group B round 1

11:30am CT | 6:30pm CEST: Liquid 2-0 FaZe
- 13-10 Ancient
- 13-10 Inferno
2pm CT | 9pm CEST: MOUZ 2-0 BC.Game
4:30pm CT | 11:30pm CEST: NRG 0-2 Falcons
7pm CT | 2am, May 20 CEST: Aurora 1-2 HEROIC
- 13-9 Dust 2
- 10-13 Anubis
- 6-13 Mirage

May 20 (Tuesday)

Group A lower bracket quarterfinals

10:30am CT | 5:30pm CEST: Legacy vs. 3DMAX
6pm CT | 1am, May 21 CEST: FURIA vs. LVG

Group A upper bracket semifinals

1pm CT | 8pm CEST: Vitality vs. GamerLegion
3:30pm CT | 11:30pm CEST: MongolZ vs. G2

Group B lower bracket quarterfinals

10:30am CT | 5:30pm CEST: BC.Game vs. FaZe
6pm CT | 1am, May 21 CEST: Aurora vs. NRG

Group B upper bracket semifinals

1pm CT | 8pm CEST: MOUZ vs. Liquid
3:30pm CT | 11:30pm CEST: HEROIC vs. Falcons

(to be updated)

IEM Dallas 2025 final rankings

TeamPlacingPrizeTBDChampion$125,000TBD2nd$50,000TBD
TBD3rd-4th$25,000TBD
TBD5th-6th$12,500TBD
TBD7th-8th$7,000TBD
TBD
TBD
TBD9th-12th$5,000TBD
TBD
TBD
TBD13th-16th$4,000

Where to watch IEM Dallas 2025

Catch all the matches live on ESL’s official streaming channels:

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May 20, 2025 0 comments

GameFi Guides

Trump Signs Bipartisan Act Targeting Deepfake Abuse and Online Exploitation

by admin May 20, 2025

In brief

The law mandates a 48-hour takedown of explicit images by tech platforms.
First Lady Melania Trump called the law a “national victory” in the fight to protect children.
Deepfake and revenge porn victims will now be federally protected under U.S. law.

President Donald Trump on Monday signed into law the bipartisan Take It Down Act, a sweeping measure that criminalizes the non-consensual online publication of intimate images, both authentic or AI-generated, and compels major tech platforms to remove such content within 48 hours of notification.

The law goes into effect immediately.

The signing ceremony also marked a rare symbolic moment as First Lady Melania Trump joined the president to add her signature. The law is a capstone of her recent public advocacy campaign focused on online exploitation and children’s safety in the digital age.

“This legislation is a powerful step forward in our efforts to ensure that every American, especially our young people, can feel better protected from their image or identity being abused through non-consensual intimate imagery or NCII,” Melania Trump said.

“AI and social media are the digital candy of the next generation—sweet, addictive, and engineered to have an impact on the cognitive development of our children,” she added. “But unlike sugar, these new technologies can be weaponized, shape beliefs, and sadly, affect emotions and even be deadly.”

The legislation comes amid a surge in reports of deepfake pornography and non-consensual image abuse. High-profile figures like Taylor Swift and Jamie Lee Curtis, as well as underage children, have seen AI-generated images of themselves shared online without consent, some of which have been explicit.

The Take It Down Act is one of the first major federal responses to the threat posed by generative AI.

The law makes it a federal crime to publish or threaten to publish non-consensual intimate images of adults or minors, including deepfakes, with the intent to harm or harass. Violators face criminal penalties, including prison and fines.

For adult subjects, the bill prohibits the online publication of intimate visual depictions when it is intended to cause or does cause harm to the subject.

That includes where the depiction was published without the subject’s consent or, in the case of an authentic depiction, was created or obtained under circumstances where the adult had a reasonable expectation of privacy.

For minors, the bill covers when publication is intended to abuse or harass the minor or to arouse or gratify the sexual desire of a person.

Public websites, online services, or apps that host user-generated content must establish a clear takedown process and eliminate duplicates of flagged content.

The bill received near-unanimous support in Congress, passing the House 409-2 and the Senate by unanimous consent.

Melania Trump had lobbied lawmakers directly to support the bill, hosting victims at a Capitol Hill roundtable and bringing Elliston Berry as her guest to the president’s address to Congress in March.

Edited by Sebastian Sinclair

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May 20, 2025 0 comments

Product Reviews

This new arcade controller from 8BitDo could be your next tournament travel buddy

by admin May 20, 2025

Arcade gaming has created some of the most immediately recognisable and iconic hardware in the videogame scene. Nothing quite spells old school charm quite like an arcade machine complete with a full complement of tactile buttons and switches. With arcade style fighting games still being huge in the tournament scene, these have continued to evolve into better, more portable and customisable hardware purpose built for the needs of the modern gamer. 8BitDo’s latest Arcade Controller range is looking to take that legacy to the next level.

These new pads are touted as being one of the most advanced of its kind, and despite the marketing jargon they actually look very good. Coming in two varieties, one specifically for Xbox and Windows PC, and another designed for Switch and Windows PC play, the new arcade controller sports a hot-swappable PCB with 16 Kailh Wizard low-profile mechanical switches. Pros and hobbyists alike can use this to customise the board to better suit their play styles and preferences.

They also support remapping, and the Xbox one has customizable RGB lighting. This is all done by the control panel at the top left, which can also configure modes like SOCD (Simultaneous Opposing Cardinal Directions) and tournament configs. You can also adjust these via included software, but it’s really cool to see full control on the device. The presser says it’s all easy and intuitive to configure, and having played with other controllers that claim the same, I’m sceptical, but hopeful.

The Last of Us TV showrunner confirms four season plan, says “no way” to wrap things up in three

by admin May 20, 2025

Craig Mazin, the showrunner behind HBO’s acclaimed live-action TV adaptation of The Last of Us, has confirmed the team is working to a four season plan, insisting there’s “no way” the narrative can be wrapped up in three seasons.

This isn’t the first time the magic number four has been floated in regard to The Last of Us’ TV adaptation, of course. Mazin started the chatter all the way back in 2023, suggesting the show could “end up being three or five [seasons]. But four seems like a good number. Some seasons, because of the story we’re telling, will need fewer episodes and some will need more.”

Then earlier this year, HBO exec Francesca Orsi mirrored those comments, saying it was “looking like four seasons” for the adaption, but stressed HBO didn’t have “a complete or final plan”. Instead, she appeared to defer to Mazin, adding, “I wouldn’t want to confirm that, but it’s looking like this season and then two more seasons after this and we’re done.”

And now Mazin has seemingly made that official in an interview with Collider. Discussing the big Joel moment that kicked off season two, Mazin explained, “It’s so impactful. It’s such a narrative nuclear bomb that it’s hard to wander away from it. We can’t really take a break and move off to the side and do a Bill and Frank story. I’m not sure that will necessarily be true for Season 3. I think we’ll have a little more room there.”

“There’s a decent chance that Season 3 will be longer than Season 2,” he elaborated, “just because the manner of that narrative and the opportunities it affords us are a little different… but certainly, there’s no way to complete this narrative in a third season. Hopefully, we’ll earn our keep enough to come back and finish it in a fourth. That’s the most likely outcome.”

As for season two, there’s just one episode to go following this week’s sixth instalment. Opinions on the second season have been a little more mixed compared to the widely acclaimed original, with Eurogamer’s The Last of Us superfan Victoria Kennedy recently pondering if Mazin and team might have bitten off more than they can chew.

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May 20, 2025 0 comments

NFT Gaming

Sei Labs releases whitepaper for Sei Giga targeting multiproposer EVM L1

by admin May 20, 2025

Sei Labs, the main contributor to the layer 1 blockchain Sei, has announced the release of the Sei Giga whitepaper that outlines the design of the industry’s first multi-proposer Ethereum Virtual Machine layer 1 blockchain.

Sei Giga is Sei (SEI) blockchain network’s new path towards becoming the first multi-proposer Ethereum Virtual Machine L1.

According to an announcement shared with crypto.news, the upgrade proposes a design of parallel blocks, powered by the Autobahn consensus protocol. It means Sei Giga brings a solution to network bottlenecks related to data availability, execution, and storage, among others.

The whitepaper release is the latest major development for Sei as the layer 1 blockchain continues its traction as one of the fastest-growing ecosystems in the market.

Sei has secured over $30 million from some of the leading venture capital firms in the crypto space, including Jump Crypto, Multicoin Capital, and Coinbase Ventures.

“Sei Giga is not just another EVM chain — it’s a reimagining of what’s possible for blockchain performance,” said Jay Jog, co-founder of Sei Labs. “By moving towards multi proposer consensus and rebuilding the execution environment from the ground up, we’re unlocking the scale and speed required for real-world, high-throughput applications — all while maintaining trust guarantees and ease of use of Ethereum.”

Analytics firm Nansen recently pointed out that Sei outpaced other chains as a gaming explosion helped active addresses rise. In the past 24 hours, the active address count has jumped 44%, with over 457k addresses. Daily transactions have also increased by 43% to over 1.03 million.

Sei Giga features include 5 gigagas throughput, 200k transactions per second, and sub-400 millisecond finality. Sei Giga introduces more than 50x throughput, 70x faster block production, and an execution efficiency of 40x.

EVM compatibility means support for Ethereum smart contracts, enabling seamless integration with ETH apps. Decentralized exchanges and trading apps can leverage the upgrade to bolster their user experience.

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May 20, 2025 0 comments