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No Path of Exile 2 1.0 release this year, as DDOS attacks blamed for server issues and huge new update revealed

by admin August 20, 2025

Path of Exile 2 developer Grinding Gear Games had previously and optimistically said a 1.0 full release might happen this year. GGG gave it a 65 percent chance of happening when I spoke with the studio in March. But those ambitions have now been ruled out.

Speaking after a presentation for the incoming Third Edict update, also known as 0.3.0, and answering a question asked by me, game director Jonathan Rogers said: “Yes I believe that we probably aren’t going to hit 1.0 this year.

“What it currently comes down to is there are two things we need to make sure of before we can have a release. The first one is that we have to have a campaign finished – that’s obviously important – and the second one is that we have to be in a balance-state where people are actually happy and things are going well. Until we’ve had a release where we’re sure both of those things are true, then we can’t release.

“It could be March [2026],” he added. “We release things every four months so December would be the next one and then March after that, so I would certainly hope that March could happen, but I’m not going to promise anything. Because ultimately it just comes down to: have we met those two criteria? At this point it would be quite hard to get Act 5 in December but we’ll see about that, and as for getting good balance: we have a little way to go with that. But I’m hoping things will be a lot better for this release.”

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The release he’s referring to is the Third Edict, the enormous incoming update for the Early Access version of Path of Exile 2, due 29th August. It will bring, among other things, the fourth act of the game, temporary interlude acts, the game’s first League, a new trading system, a crafting overhaul, a sprinting mechanic, an overhaul for Support Gems and a considerable rework of the existing classes and their skills. Note that there’s no new character class this time around but balance changes took precedence.

I’ll outline some of those changes but before I do there are two other pieces of more urgent news. One is in relation to server issues Path of Exile 2 has been having, which Rogers said were down to DDOS (distributed denial of service) attacks. “I’m very aware of the server problems and this has been a major thing that our server admins have been looking into over the last three months,” he told our congregated group of press. “It’s basically all down to DDOSing; we’re getting DDOSed continuously.”

Grinding Gear Games has, in response, gotten rid of server hosts that couldn’t deal with the problem and added DDOS protection to those that remain. “By the time we do the 0.3.0 launch,” he said, “everything should have DDOS protection in front of it. We’ve done a lot of work in this area. Right now the servers shouldn’t be having any problems because all of that infrastructure’s in place, so as far as I’m concerned, that problem should be fixed.”

Shark monsters, check; octopus-armed pirate captain monster bosses, check…

The other urgent piece of news concerns a free weekend for Path of Exile 2, which will coincide with the Third Edict update on 29th August. For that weekend, you won’t need the £24 Starter Pack in order to play. And I heartily recommend you do play.

Now, to the Third Edict update. The long-awaited fourth act of the game – the penultimate act – takes place across a Polynesian kind of archipelago which you can sail around in any order you please. There are eight islands, 16 new areas, 12 new bosses and more than 100 new monster types. And when you’re done with them, instead of being funnelled back to replaying the existing acts, as you are currently, you will now play new interlude acts. Three of them. These are bespoke versions of the existing acts designed to offer a new experience, meaning yet more new areas and bosses and ideas. But these are temporary; when Act 5 does arrive, they will go.

The big change to Support Gems comes via removing the restriction of having one Support Gem type per character, and from introducing higher tiers of them. There’s also a brand new kind of uber Support Gem called a Lineage Support, which drops from bosses and has the power and potential to redefine your entire character build.

Sprinting is available to all classes and lets you hold down a button to get to places quicker and to outrun enemies, which sounds useful, but if you’re hit while sprinting you will be knocked down, so there’s some risk to it.

…monkey bosses, check. | Image credit: Grinding Gear Games

The myriad class changes are too exhaustive to list, but every class has been looked at and quite significantly altered and buffed. Arguably the most important addition, I say completely without bias as a monk player, is the ability for monks to fight with their bare hands, rather than with a staff, courtesy of the new Hollow Palm Technique. Thank you Grinding Gear Games.

The new, fully asynchronous trade system, meanwhile, gives you a personal merchant – a nice lady called Ange – who’ll stand in your hideout and sell your wares for you. Your items will be listed on the trade website and when someone wants them, it will teleport them directly to your Ange who’ll sell to them, even when you’re not around.

The crafting changes have made it easier to transform and augment items into super-items. Essences and orbs have been reworked and higher tiers of them added, and there’s a brand new Exceptional base item to collect and apply all these juicy bonuses too.

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Elsewhere, blocking and parrying have been reworked, more passive skills have been added to the already ridiculous passive tree – and passives with interesting abilities at that, not just percentage bonuses – plus attribute requirements for items have been lowered by a quarter across the board.

On top of all that we’re getting the game’s first seasonal League – the hope is to have one with each major update – called Rise of the Abyssal. This places you (a new you, I think) in a world plagued by abyssal invaders, and has you closing fissures and pits to the abyss that appear. It’s got some clever procedural ideas about the kinds of boss creatures that crawl out of the pits, and there’s the chance of finding a pit you can jump into, which will lead you to an abyssal city.

In other words: there’s a lot, and there’s more I haven’t covered here. It’s a significant effort by Grinding Gear Games to about-turn mixed recent reactions to the game. We’ll have to wait and see if it works.

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August 20, 2025 0 comments

Gaming Gear

The path to Agentic AI: overcoming complexity to embrace the autonomous enterprise

by admin June 24, 2025

The future of enterprise AI isn’t just about insights – it’s about a monumental evolution of how businesses buy and sell in the global economy.

AI agents are poised to take automation beyond any capabilities that we’ve witnessed to date, shifting from AI tools that assist decision-making to independently thinking entities that augment execution at scale.

Deloitte predicts that by 2027, half of all companies will use GenAI to launch agentic AI pilots or proofs of concept, marking a significant transformation in how businesses operate.

Challenges on the Path to Agentic Adoption

While agentic AI holds immense promise, organizations must first overcome multiple hurdles. Case in point: Another recent survey found that more than 85 percent of enterprises will require upgrades to their existing technology stack in order to deploy AI agents. Most businesses are still in the early stages of AI adoption, and scaling agentic workflows from initial investments to drive enterprise-wide ROI remains a major challenge.

The road to agentic AI requires rethinking IT infrastructure, ensuring seamless and quality data integration, addressing security and compliance risks, and fostering organizational trust in autonomous solutions – all while ensuring the right guardrails are in place. Without a well-defined strategy, companies risk inefficiencies, implementation barriers, reputational risk, and missed opportunities to harness AI’s full potential.

Complexity in Scaling

Agents individually aren’t enough. They can’t be deployed in isolation and need to work in coordination across systems to execute complex multi-step processes – manifesting as agentic workflows. Unlike monolithic systems with predictable interactions, an agentic workflow orchestrates a network of AI agents to solve intricate and layered problems autonomously with machine-scale analysis and human in the loop decision making.

Businesses need advanced orchestration frameworks capable of managing these complex interactions, ensuring robust error handling and maintaining workflow continuity across teams. Developing a clear roadmap will be critical in helping organizations deploy and scale AI agents effectively.

Accountability and Governance

With multiple agentic workflows operating independently yet collaboratively, ensuring accountability is a major challenge. Without a well-defined governance model, businesses risk a lack of oversight, which can lead to noncompliance, financial discrepancies, and reduced trust in AI-driven processes. Agents need to understand the rules of business that humans follow – rules that are defined by legal frameworks, ethical practices, and captured in contracts between customers, suppliers, and partners.

By “gut checking” decisions against contractual terms before taking action and ensuring clear audit trails are in place across the business, agentic decision-making becomes transparent and traceable, and far less likely to result in unnecessary liability.

Ensuring Data and Privacy

In any enterprise system, it’s critical for organizations to handle sensitive information responsibly and securely. Before deploying agentic workflows, ensure that data is clean and structured so sensitive information may be used by multiple agents simultaneously without exposure.

This applies to bank account details that are necessary for supplier payments, employee personal information, and contract data, as prime examples. Businesses should also establish secure data pipelines and continuous compliance measures to mitigate risks while enabling AI agents to function effectively and responsibly.

Trust and Change Management

Adopting agentic workflows requires more than just technical capability – it demands cultural change. Many organizations struggle with trusting AI agents due to concerns about reliability, accuracy, bias, ethical implications, and lack of transparency.

In fact, a recent study revealed data output quality and security and privacy concerns are among the top 10 barriers to AI adoption. Resistance to change within organizations, combined with a lack of understanding of how AI agents work, can create obstacles.

For businesses to fully embrace agentic AI, increase AI literacy and awareness around how AI agents operate with internal training and a top-down call to action driven by leadership. Emphasizing security protocols and privacy protections will also help to build confidence.

The First Step Toward an Autonomous Enterprise

So where can businesses realize immediate value from AI agents and agentic workflows?

AI agents are only as good as the data they train on. If enterprises want to drive profitability and capture returns from their AI strategy, they should start by looking at the data that drives the flow of commerce. Commercial agreements and the critical data they contain are foundational to how enterprises buy and sell, while also providing the compliance constraints agents need to do their jobs well without adding layers of risk.

The path to agentic AI is not a straight line. Yet by strategically addressing challenges, businesses can unlock new levels of intelligence and operational efficiency to embrace their future as an autonomous enterprise.

We list the best performance management software.

This article was produced as part of TechRadarPro’s Expert Insights channel where we feature the best and brightest minds in the technology industry today. The views expressed here are those of the author and are not necessarily those of TechRadarPro or Future plc. If you are interested in contributing find out more here: https://www.techradar.com/news/submit-your-story-to-techradar-pro

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June 24, 2025 0 comments

Game Reviews

Doom: The Dark Ages’ path tracing upgrade tested – maximum fidelity, reasonable performance

by admin June 19, 2025

Doom: The Dark Ages has finally received its promised path tracing upgrade on PC, adding a further dimension of visual fidelity to an already impressive game. To see how the new graphics mode compares to the standard RT available at launch, some testing was in order.

I ran the game on a high-end desktop PC with an RTX 5090 graphics in the new path tracing mode, while my colleague John tested the game on a laptop RTX 5090 with standard RT graphics. It made for a fascinating comparison, with some areas exhibiting just how good the standard RT graphics already were, while other scenes showed off the kind of uniquely realistic visuals that only path tracing can provide.

We opted for the second mission in the game, Hebeth, as it includes plenty of Doombase-style shiny surfaces and therefore ought to be a good showcase for the new graphics techniques in play.

Here’s the full video comparison of the new path tracing graphics in Doom: The Dark Ages versus the standard RT available previously. Watch on YouTube

One of the first thing we noticed is that the cutscenes show relatively few changes in side-by-side comparisons. That’s because the cutscenes are authored with plenty of extra light sources placed just where they’re needed to light subjects with the cinematography in mind, in comparison to gameplay which needs to look correct no matter what the player is doing. Given that the game already featured ray-traced global illumination (RTGI), that means these controlled scenes tend to look fairly similar between a PC running with standard RT and path tracing.

Once in gameplay, the stone floors near the start of the level provide our first out-and-out difference versus the standard RT presentation. With path tracing enabled, these rougher surfaces provide reflections, with bright nearby objects clearly visible, even when off-screen. By contrast, the standard RT look has a more conservative roughness cut-off, with only shiny surfaces sporting reflections. This even extends to your weapons, with the shotgun and other armaments reflecting bright light sources in the path tracing mode.

Interestingly, these reflections are often more mirror-like and coherent in the standard RT mode to save performance, whereas the path tracing has a duller but more realistic (and expensive) look.

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The path tracing BVH also includes elements that are dropped in the standard RT mode when they don’t appear on-screen, most notably force-fields and holograms, but there’s plenty of other particles, leaves and transparencies too. Objects in the reflection also sport more complex materials, which is quite evident in the glossier environments found in the interiors of this level.

Of course, the path tracing mode isn’t just about reflections – it also uses a higher number of bounces for its global illumination. This can make some scenes noticeably lighter, eg allowing light to bounce multiple times to reach an interior space from the sun and sky outside.

You can see more objects in the reflection with path tracing engaged – such as the pickups here – as well as seeing reflections on rougher, less glossy surfaces. | Image credit: Digital Foundry

The path tracing mode also suffers from fewer incidents of light leaking through solid walls to illuminate areas it shouldn’t, thanks to its more fine-grained per-pixel light calculations. Having the better denoiser of ray reconstruction enabled in the path tracing mode also gets rid of the stippled look of volumetric lighting in the standard RT mode.

Emissives are another area where the path tracing mode looks significantly more realistic. Light sources in your environment, such as fires, gun tracers and even LED light strips, actually produce light that shines on its surroundings with path tracing enabled, something that’s disabled in the standard RT mode.

The difference in lighting can be significant, with the larger number of light bounces allowing more accurate lighting of darkened spaces. | Image credit: Digital Foundry

Emissive lighting is another feature enabled in the path tracing mode, allowing for a greater number of light sources – which can combine beautifully with the improved RTGI and reflections. | Image credit: Digital Foundry

There are relatively few differences in terms of shadows, with most scenes taking place indoors and already featuring quite sharp shadows. Instead, you’ll see more noticable changes outdoors, where long distance shadows are sometimes presented more clearly in the path tracing mode that are incredibly soft and diffuse in the standard RT mode, due to how coarse the calculations are to save performance. There’s less shadow break-up in outdoor scenes too.

Speaking of performance, the full path tracing mode is light – at least in relative terms. We saw around a 39 percent drop in frame-rate with path tracing engaged versus standard RT in our test scene, using a high-end PC with an Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090 graphics card and AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D using 4K DLSS Performance and ultra nightmare settings.

The path tracing mode of Doom: The Dark Ages is expensive, as you’d expect, but it works out as being an average 39 percent drop in performance versus the standard RT – one of the lighter performance penalties we’ve seen from a path tracing mode. | Image credit: Digital Foundry

That’s a significant drop, but still a smaller margin than we’ve seen in other games, like Cyberpunk 2077. It speaks to both how much RT is provided in the base game – and how well architected id’s latest release is, as we’ve come to expect from the studio.

Going through this footage, one thing that struck me is just how scalable Doom: The Dark Ages is. The game still looks pretty reasonable even on “low” settings or on more limited consoles like the Xbox Series S, but there’s a huge assortment of visual niceties that you can add on if you have the performance to spare.

This new path tracing mode is the logical conclusion, bringing unparalled realism to the game’s fantastical environments for those on higher-end PCs – and earning major plaudits for id’s top-tier developers.

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June 19, 2025 0 comments

Three Path of Exile Secrets of the Atlas mercenaries stand together

Product Reviews

‘I can’t even hit anything’: Path of Exile player watches helplessly as his mercenary wipes out screens of enemies before he can even reach them

by admin June 17, 2025

POE1 | 3.26 – When Your MERCENARY has a better build than you – YouTube

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Path of Exile’s new mercenaries are very strong. Unlike Diablo 4’s mercs, PoE’s are essentially NPC allies using all the same gear and items a player could. At high enough levels, they’re arguably better than we could ever be—tireless soldiers on the frontlines of the war for loot.

PoE streamer Pohx Kappa discovered this firsthand soon after the new league (read: season) started. Despite running an AOE-based build made for running through enemies and leaving their smoldering corpses behind, his merc simply deleted every monster in sight before he could even touch them.

“I can’t even hit anything!” Pohx exclaims while watching his merc wipe the screen clear of enemies with a wave of energy bolts. “I can’t even explode the mobs!” he said, realizing he was now playing PoE like it was a walking simulator.

Grinding Gear Games may have made mercs a little too powerful. There are already clips of streamers playing in hardcore getting unexpectedly one-tapped by them. You’re allowed to take a peek at their equipment before accepting a duel against them, but there are some skill combinations that might be doing too much damage.

If you can survive the duel, however, you can have them at your side while you clear out maps. Most experienced PoE players seem to be loading them up with supportive items, like a weapon that prevents elemental ailments from affecting nearby allies (AKA: you). We’re still early in the league though, so I expect players will discover even more broken ways to set them up soon.

Pohx’s experience is apparently what it’s like to bring a merc along with you while you’re leveling up a new character. Mercs can stick around as long as they’re within 20 levels of you, so some people are keeping a few around to power level themselves later.

I’ll be very curious to see how GGG decides to balance them. Surely it will make sure they don’t pop players out of nowhere, but nerfing them so you don’t randomly find one with a better build than you might kind of ruin the fun. That said, nobody would want a meta where you’re the support as your merc does all the work for you, right?

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June 17, 2025 0 comments

Crypto Trends

1,850,000,000 XRP Open Interest Sets Price on Rare Breakout Path

by admin June 10, 2025

XRP has seen a bullish twist in the last 24 hours as investors bet heavily on the asset, causing a spike in open interest. According to CoinGlass data, XRP spiked by 5.11%, resulting in traders committing $4.26 billion to XRP’s futures contract.

XRP’s on-chain activity spikes amid consolidation

Notably, open interest signals the volume of futures contracts investors have opened on XRP as they anticipate a bullish rally. Traders committed a total of 1.85 billion XRP during this period.

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The development has positively impacted XRP, as the price climbed from a low of $2.25 to a peak of $2.33. This marks a shift for the coin, which plunged to $2.09 within the last seven days, testing the $2 support level.

The current increase in open interest suggests investors are optimistic about a possible breakout amid ecosystem developments. Recently, XRP displayed resurgence as on-chain activity surged, with market volume soaring by 800 million in daily transactions.

As of press time, XRP is changing hands at $2.28, representing a 0.93% increase after a slight correction. Despite the bullish sentiment in the ecosystem, the asset has lost the critical $2.30 support level again.

Regardless, market participants remain optimistic that XRP could rally and retest the $3 level again. The technical indicators suggest the asset could break out soon after this protracted consolidation.

BlackRock speculation fuels ETF optimism

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On the broader crypto market, speculations of BlackRock joining the spot XRP exchange-traded fund (ETF) race remain high. If BlackRock signals interest in XRP, the asset manager could shake up the space.

Although BlackRock previously dismissed any interest in the XRP ETF, a reversal of interest could increase the chances of approval from the U.S. regulator. At the moment, Polymarket bettors remain positive that the Paul Atkins-led Securities and Exchange Commission could give the nod before the end of 2025.

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June 10, 2025 0 comments

GameFi Guides

Gold Reasserts Safe Haven Status, But Bitcoin’s Path May Be Brighter: Analysts

by admin May 31, 2025

In brief

Gold has outpaced Bitcoin in recent days, reversing an earlier May trend.
Gold has surged by roughly 27% year-to-date, while Bitcoin is up about 12%.
Bitcoin exchange-traded funds have collected more cash than their gold counterparts in recent weeks.

Bitcoin sank on Thursday and Friday, continuing its decline for much of the past week as investors pivoted away from the world’s most valuable cryptocurrency in favor of the most traditional safe haven asset: gold.

This recent trend appeared to restore the paths that the two assets have traveled for most of 2025, with gold’s gains outpacing those of BTC.

“There’s no denying it, gold had a great year. Especially during the tariffs—even if you’re a hardcore Bitcoiner, you have to respect what gold did in the first quarter,” Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas told Decrypt.

The two assets have drawn increasing attention as the Trump administration’s trade war has raised fears of rising inflation and global economic slowdown. But gold has spiked a whopping 27%, while Bitcoin is up about 12% year-to-date.

That trend started to reverse earlier this month as Bitcoin reached an all-time high near $112,000 and gold fell from its previous record above $3,440 per ounce. But now Bitcoin has fallen ore than 6% from the peak, and gold remains closer to its own recent high.

The “gold story is not exactly over,” Christopher Wong, FX strategist at Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp, told Decrypt, noting Moody’s stripping of the U.S.’s last top credit rating.

“This adds to doubts over the U.S. dollar as a safe haven and should structurally weigh on the dollar over time,” he said. “In times of economic uncertainty and a lack of safe haven, gold’s appeal as a true safe haven stands out and remains a reliable portfolio diversifier.”

Still, Bitcoin may have the brighter prospects, some analysts have suggested, as traditional finance firms increase their participation in the space to meet investor demand.

CoinShares Head of Research James Butterfill noted to Decrypt that Bitcoin funds have added about $7.3 billion since late April, while gold exchange-traded funds have shed approximately $4.9 billion.

And the spot Bitcoin ETFs approved by the SEC last year now have about $127 billion in managed assets, led by BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT)—which was the fastest fund in history to reach $10 billion—holding nearly $70 billion of that total.

“Since IBIT launched, it’s still doubling gold,” Butterfill said. “To me, it’s like gold won the third set of a tennis match it’s losing. Gold won the battle, [but] Bitcoin is still winning the war.”

He further noted that “over the last five weeks, the flows data suggest BTC is winning.”

Edited by James Rubin

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May 31, 2025 0 comments

Product Reviews

Path of Exile 2 director says GGG is learning from its mistakes while supporting 2 games at once: ‘If you want to lock the date, you can’t lock the features’

by admin May 31, 2025

When Grinding Gear Games first announced Path of Exile 2, it made a promise: PoE1 wasn’t going anywhere, and development on both titles would continue in parallel. Ten months after the last Path of Exile league, it’s clear that the studio bit off a bit more than it can chew, but game director Jonathan Rogers was optimistic in a new interview with YouTuber Talkative Tri this week that things are close to being back on track.

One of the main problems, as he sees it, was that GGG veered from a development philosophy it’d had for a long time.

“If you want to lock the features, you can’t lock the date,” he said. “And if you want to lock the date, you can’t lock the features. In the past, we were always locking dates, but then as we had PoE2 in development, we got to the point where we were locking features instead and I think honestly that wasn’t the best.”

Solana price path to $200 stalls as transactions and addresses jump

by admin May 25, 2025

Solana’s price path to $200 hit a challenge, as it stalled after finding strong resistance at $185 last week.

Solana (SOL) traded at $173.62 on Sunday, May 25, 7.25% from its highest level this month. It remains up by 82% from its lowest level this year.

Third-party data shows that the Solana network and its ecosystem have done well in the past few weeks. The market cap of all meme coins on its ecosystem has risen to $14 billion from last month’s low of $6 billion.

Solana’s transactions and active addresses have continued rising. Its transactions have increased by 7.3% in the last seven days to 462.5 million, a figure higher than the biggest chains, combined. For example, BNB Chain had 80 million transactions, while Base, Tron, and Near Protocol had $64 million, 62 million, and 42 million, respectively.

Solana is also the most used blockchain network; its active addresses rose to over 34.7 million. In contrast, Base has 9.2 million, BNB has 7.8 million, while Ethereum has over 2.1 million addresses.

Solana leads all chains on active addresses and transactions | Source: Nansen

Solana is also a major player in the decentralized exchange industry, handling $22.7 billion worth of transactions in the last seven days and $97 billion in the last thirty days.

Solana price technical analysis

SOL price chart | Source: crypto.news

The daily chart shows the SOL price bottomed at $95.40 in April as concerns about its meme coins rose. It then rebounded to a high of $185 as other altcoins rallied.

Solana has formed a small double-top pattern at $184.53 and a neckline at $159.45. A double-top is a popular bearish reversal pattern.

On the positive side, the coin is about to form a golden cross pattern as the 50-day weighted moving average crosses the 200-day average. This pattern often leads to a strong bullish breakout.

Therefore, the most likely Solana price forecast is bullish as long as it moves above the resistance at $184.53. Such a move will see it rise to the psychological point at $200, which is slightly above the 50% retracement level.

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May 25, 2025 0 comments

Crypto Trends

New ATH Not That Important, Shiba Inu (SHIB) Growth Begins, Dogecoin’s (DOGE) Path to $0.30 Begins Again

by admin May 23, 2025

Shiba inu revitalized
Dogecoin falls back

Bitcoin has officially surpassed the $111,000 mark and entered new all-time-high territory. However, in spite of this technical milestone, the overall market reaction has been remarkably subdued. This recent surge feels more like a grind than an explosive move in contrast to the euphoria-fueled rally of 2021 or the parabolic runs of 2017. In terms of technical analysis, Bitcoin is still strongly rising.

The 50-day EMA is now comfortably above the 200-day, confirming a golden cross. The breakout above the resistance level of $102,000 has held firm, and volume is increasing gradually. When you look more closely, though, you start to see indications of overextension. The price has moved far from short-term moving averages and the RSI is well into overbought territory at 77, indicating that a possible correction is imminent.

BTC/USDT Chart by TradingView

Even though the ATH breakout occurred, the lack of substantial capital inflow is more telling. In previous cycles, breaking an ATH usually resulted in a surge of institutional and retail purchases. This time, rather than fresh liquidity flooding the market, it appears to be more about existing capital rotating and shorts being squeezed. Bitcoin’s recent sharp increase was aided by $239 million in short liquidations, but if new buyers do not enter the market, that momentum may not last.

The ATH is more psychological than market-defining in this situation. While it is a confirmation of the long-term bullish structure, it has not yet set off the type of rally driven by FOMO that we have witnessed in past cycles. Short-term upside might be constrained in the absence of that catalyst.

Before the next leg, Bitcoin might need to cool off. It would not be shocking to see a correction toward the $101,000-$102,000 breakout zone, which might offer more solid support for a long-term upward move. The new ATH is more of a checkbox than a party until actual inflows make a comeback.

Shiba inu revitalized

Following some tumultuous weeks, Shiba Inu is displaying signs of regaining strength. The meme-inspired asset has shown signs of a possible change in momentum by convincingly rebounding off the 100 EMA. Due to the subsequent uptick, SHIB has regained its position above the $0.0000150 mark, which is a short-term psychological threshold. This important support level held firm. More encouraging is the 26 EMA’s behavior, which is currently curling upward and closely following the price.

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This is a technical indication that buyers are taking back control and that short-term sentiment is improving, and it frequently signals the start of a momentum expansion phase. If this pattern continues, SHIB might make a serious effort to take back the 200 EMA, which is currently serving as resistance close to the $0.000016 mark.

The return of the asset to a medium-term uptrend would be confirmed by a successful break above the 200 EMA. Traders ought to exercise caution, though, as a double top could form. If volume does not support further upside, the previous high at $0.000017 might serve as a cap, and a failure to break higher could cause a retracement back toward the 100 EMA.

The current bounce appears to be more of a technical relief move than a euphoric breakout, as volume is still low when compared to previous breakouts. However, gains could accelerate if SHIB is able to draw in enough buy-side pressure to break through the 200 EMA.

Dogecoin falls back

As it traces a course back toward the crucial $0.30 level, Dogecoin is making yet another determined effort to regain its gains. DOGE has now decisively broken through the descending trendline, which usually marks the end of a correction phase and the start of a possible recovery rally following a period of consolidation and a steep retracement from prior highs. DOGE is heading toward a crucial test at $0.25, a level that has historically served as strong resistance and is currently trading close to $0.24.

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A breakout with significant volume could push the rally to $0.28-$0.30, which could act as a structural and psychological ceiling. The configuration appears promising from a technical standpoint. A potential momentum expansion phase is indicated by the 26 EMA converging with the 50 and 100 EMAs. When accompanied by a distinct pattern breakout, as is the case with the falling wedge that DOGE has just exited, this alignment frequently signals the start of a stronger bullish move.

But traders should exercise caution. If DOGE is unable to break and hold above the $0.25 resistance, there is still a chance of a double top. An immediate retreat back toward support at the 100 EMA or around $0.21 may result from this. This most recent upswing has seen a steady increase in volume, which suggests that interest is returning but is not yet at levels that point to euphoric buying.

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May 23, 2025 0 comments

Product Reviews

Blades of Fire review: Forging a path with mid-budget retro charm

by admin May 20, 2025

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Having toiled away on critically-acclaimed titles in the Metroid series and reviving Konami’s Castlevania series, developer MercurySteam has taken the risk of co-financing their latest project. Blades of Fire is its chance to prove their development skills at crafting their own original idea, and there’s a lot to love about this game’s blend of dark fantasy and mythology.

Review info

Platform reviewed: PS5
Available on: PS5, Xbox Series X|S, PC
Release date: May 22, 2025

That being said, it’s hard not to feel the weight of legacy and industry trends, rather than instilling this world with bold new ideas, holding this game back from greatness.

Rather than focusing on the negatives, there’s much to appreciate in this new game, particularly the father-son-esque bond at the heart of this story. While the game builds up a story about an ancient race of giants known as Forgers, instilling the knowledge to craft weapons from steel into humanity, with this power being seized by the anointed Queen Nerea to curse those who oppose her and turn steel to stone, the plot is simple. Aran de Lira possesses one of the ancient hammers necessary to forge his own steel, and alongside Asdo, the son of his deceased friend, embarks on a quest to kill the queen.

Classic is queen

There’s an almost-quaint retro simplicity to which the world of Blades of Fire is introduced: Aran is a lonely figure with an unspoken past that fuels his desire for a solitary existence, yet he’s more than willing to go and save an old friend he hears in danger nearby. The child desires revenge for his father’s death and, thanks to his knowledge of the Forgers, goes on this adventure with Aran to take down the queen.

The contrast of scholarly child and mysterious scarred older man soon warms to you, and not solely due to the similarities between their bond and that of Kratos and Atreus in the recent God of War titles. Asdo is far from an annoying sidekick, balancing wisdom with genuinely funny quips that are enough to make you laugh without grating (and you can always send him away, if you do wish for him to be quiet). I felt a warmth for Aran and a desire to learn more of his past, especially the guarded secrets of his past relationship to the Queen before her descent to despotic control.

Having first expected a practical but minimal story, I was surprised to find myself attached and with a desire to learn more of the rich lore the devs instilled into this world.

There’s an unabashed videogame-y nature to this world and cast, imbued with a quirkiness reminiscent of mid-budget adventure games abundant in the Xbox 360 and PS3 era

This is balanced with an engaging combat system that, though its quirks and intricacies will take time to learn, thanks to an at-first clunky and uncomfortable control scheme, you soon come to appreciate. Victory requires players to learn enemy attack patterns and the best weapons to counter each of them.

All four face buttons are each mapped to their direction of attack: on a PlayStation controller, this means Triangle will strike from above, X from below, and Square and Circle from each side. Depending on an opponent’s armor, it’s required to consider where you strike in order to deal maximum damage, or at times, inflict any damage at all.

The need to be aware of not just when but where you strike is most important in boss fights. One early sub-boss, a troll, requires you to whittle down its health, then slice off a part of the enemy’s body in order to drain it further before it can regenerate. Whether fighting big bosses – one boss at the end of the Crimson Fort is particularly interesting in how it forces you to learn both attack patterns and strike direction to defeat it most effectively – or small-fry enemies, it rarely tires even after dozens of hours have passed.

It may take time to get used to the stamina system that is required to inflict stronger, quicker attacks, and your hands will strain getting used to the unusual grip of having both block and dodging mapped to the left bumper and trigger, but you soon adjust to the fascinating tension it instils to high-stakes conflict.

(Image credit: MercurySteam)

Nerves of steel

Embodying the blacksmith skills key to the game’s identity, you must collect materials around the world to forge new weapons. You have complete control over the type of steel you use, which determines weight, speed, strength, blocking, and more, and once you’ve refined this selection, you must then physically hammer the weapon into shape. The closer to the real shape, the more refined the weapon, and therefore the more you can repair it before it’s unusable.

It’s fun, at first. After a while, it becomes repetitive and time-consuming. If you craft a good enough weapon, you can automatically recraft it to this level without replaying the minigame, but if you wish to improve this stat or build a new weapon, you must spend upwards of five minutes forging, grinding the momentum to a shuddering halt.

It’s one of a few issues holding the game back, many tied to the long legacy leading into this game’s development and the weight of adjusting the game’s design to chase industry trends. Many senior developers on Blades of Fire worked on the mostly forgotten 2001 action title named Severance: Blade of Darkness, which, beyond visual similarities, is often regarded as a precursor to the Dark Souls genre in its careful use of stamina and deliberate action.

Best bit

While it takes some time to get used to it, getting to grips with this unusual control scheme and observing a difficult boss’ attack patterns to correctly slice, dodge, and weave your way to victory brings about a primal joy that wills you forward towards the next area on your adventure.

While this makes it perhaps unfair to compare a game refining these 2001 ideas to Dark Souls, it’s hard not to see their implementation, and many other mechanics not found in Severance but introduced to this game are clearly inspired by the industry’s wholesale embrace of the beloved FromSoftware title. Players have limited flasks of health potions that can only be restored by resting at anvils, this game’s thematically fitting equivalent to bonfires, and upon death, players must return to the location they were felled in order to rescue their weapon.

Even if we were to credit these ideas to Severance and not an attempt to create a Soulslike adventure, Blades of Fire’s level design and enemies feel best suited to a style of action opposite to the plodding action and unstoppable attack animations of both titles. In battles against undead hordes, you can at times be facing close to a dozen enemies at once, and even your fastest weapons are useless with the rate at which your attacks are interrupted.

As this game lacks the punishment of lost resources or the risk of losing your weapon forever if you die before reclaiming it, recovering your weapon feels more like a chore and an obligatory feature to adhere to the formula than a design suited to the pace of this adventure.

(Image credit: MercurySteam)

A search for souls

It contributed to an overwhelming feeling that the embrace of so many Souls-isms only served to hinder the natural flow of the game, rather than enhance it.

This is before we discuss the game’s cumbersome map, which, through its lack of dimension, can become nearly useless when navigating more complex, multi-level terrain for the next objective.

This is only compounded by the fact that there’s no clear indication in the environment on where to go next, and even the optional objective markers activated by navigating menus and automatically disabled upon clearing that specific objective, unless reactivated, are often useless in more complex multi-level areas. If you’re navigating a multi-floor fortress and miss an inconspicuous door you must unlock with a newly-obtained key, even a marker won’t stop you wandering in circles for 20 minutes or longer, lost and frustrated.

Yet despite my complaints, I felt just enough charm to find myself soldiering forward. There’s an unabashed gamey nature to this world and cast, imbued with a quirkiness reminiscent of mid-budget adventure games abundant in the Xbox 360 and PS3 era, like Enslaved: Odyssey to the West, but non-existent in this modern era of spiraling budgets.

(Image credit: MercurySteam)

For all I can complain about Soulslike inspirations that these days induce more groans than excitement, there’s a simplicity to this quest to go and kill the queen while offering just enough mechanical depth without bogging you down in an overwhelming number of unnecessary systems.

You craft weapons, you fight enemies, you move forward. Simple, but the sense of a human hand touching every asset rather than some overcautious executive or an overzealous focus group drew me even to its flaws.

Blades of Fire is charming, even if its soulslike eccentricities were more of a hindrance to the characters and adventure housed within. This blend of retro simplicity and modern flair won’t be the best game you play in 2025, but it’s likely going to be one of the more charming (and as such memorable), and isn’t that just as good?

Should you play Blades of Fire?

Play it if…

Don’t play it if…

Accessibility features

Accessibility features in Blades of Fire are limited. Camera shake and motion blur can be adjusted, alongside the size and color of subtitles but otherwise, the default text is small, and it lacks many commonplace accessibility features such as colorblind modes.

How I reviewed Blades of Fire

I played just over 30 hours of the game on a base PS5 model using a standard DualSense controller on standard difficulty, getting all the way through the game to the latter stages of the main story.

I utilized an ASUS VG27AQL1A gaming monitor, while for audio, a mix of Denon speakers and a wireless audio adapter, and AirPods Max were used.

First reviewed May 2025

Blades of Fire: Price Comparison

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May 20, 2025 0 comments