The free story DLC for Sea of Stars, the excellent Chrono Trigger-inspired indie RPG, will be available to download starting May 20. You might fear that a free expansion is going to be light on content, but the new Throes of the Watchmaker quest clocks in at eight hours. Its a substantial add-on for those who have rolled credits on the main campaign, which youll need to do before the quest unlocks.
The DLC reunites the main games protagonists Zale and Valere, who journey into a miniature clockwork world designed by the titular Watchmaker. His magical invention is threatened by an ominous cursed carnival, and its up to the now experienced Solstice Warriors to save the day.
As well as a brand new area to explore, the expansion introduces a new playable character in Artificer, a laser-wielding robotic sharpshooter who joins the party on their quest to save the land of Horloge. And to really drive home the circus theme of the piece, Zale swaps his sword for juggling balls, while Valere becomes an acrobat. There are new combat abilities and combos to master for each character, tied together by a progression loop that is separate from the main game.
Sea of Stars composer Eric W. Brown returns for the DLC with an all-new score that includes additional original songs from co-composer Yasunori Mitsuda of Chrono Trigger fame.
Sea of Stars made a huge splash when it arrived back in August 2023. Heavily inspired by SNES-era RPGs, it cleverly takes the best bits of the genre gorgeous pixel art, a proper overworld map, memorable music while doing away with the more controversial 90s tropes, like grinding and random battles. The turn-based combat system incorporates Mario & Luigi-style timed button inputs, and allows you to reduce the damage received from incoming attacks by breaking locks with specific attacks of your own.
Throes of the Watchmaker is the second Sea of Stars DLC add-on, following the (also free) Dawn of Equinox update, which added local co-op and combat refinements. The full game is available on PC, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X/S and Xbox One, and costs $35.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/the-upcoming-sea-of-stars-expansion-throes-of-the-watchmaker-arrives-on-may-20-140025090.html?src=rss
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US automakers will get some relief from US President Donald Trump's tariffs, according to a new White House fact sheet. Prior to his new executive order, manufacturers had to pay a 25 percent tariff on any parts used in any US-assembled vehicles. Now, they'll be able to deduct up to an amount equal to 3.75 percent of the price of a new US made car until April 30, 2026, and 2.5 percent until April 30, 2027. In addition, automakers will only be required to pay tariffs on steel or auto parts (not both as before), depending on which is higher.
The new rules reportedly came at the request of manufacturers, who said they need time to move parts production to the US. "We just wanted to help them during this little transition, short term. We didnt want to penalize them," Trump told reporters.
The 3.75 percent figures was reached by multiplying 15 percent of imported parts that make up a vehicle's sale price by the current 25 percent import tax. So if a $40,000 car had $6,000 or 15 percent of imported parts, the manufacturer would effectively pay no tariffs, but any higher percentage of foreign parts would result in some tariff being paid. The White House said the rebates wouldn't cost taxpayers anything since they'd come out of tariffs collected.
The White House pointed out that the US trade deficit on auto parts was $93.5 billion in 2024. A large chunk of those ($19.5 billion worth) came from Canada, and large numbers of US vehicles are also built in that country. However, the reason that US automakers manufacture cars and car parts in Canada is because it's cheaper, largely because of the high cost of employee healthcare in the US. So, even if automakers manufacture more parts in the US, car prices are still likely to go up.
The average price for a new vehicle in the US was $47,462 last month, according to The Associated Press. One noted analyst predicted that the original 25 percent tariffs could add $4,711 to the cost of a vehicle, while also boosting the cost of ownership and maintenance. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/transportation/trump-temporarily-eases-car-tariffs-following-automaker-complaints-130011086.html?src=rss
During an earnings call, Samsung's chief financial officer Soon-cheol Park told reporters that "ongoing uncertainty surrounding US tariff policies continues to pose a potential risk of demand slowdown." According to Financial Times, Park said that US tariff policies and stronger export controls against artificial intelligence products are expected to have an impact on product demand in the second half of the year. In addition to a downward trend on sales, the company also expects tariffs to raise prices for the components it uses on its mobile phones, which will have further impact on its revenue.
Samsung's call discussed its results for the first quarter of 2025, which ended on March 31. The company posted KRW 79.14 trillion in revenue ($55.6 billion), an all-time quarterly high mostly due to strong Galaxy S25 sales. It also posted KRW 6.7 trillion ($4.7 billion) in profit, which is slightly lower than the previous quarter's KRW 6.5 trillion ($4.6 billion).
Despite the record revenue, Samsung's chip business already took a hit due to tougher US export controls to China on chips used in hardware for artificial intelligence. The division posted KRW 1.1 trillion ($774 million) in operating profit, down from KRW 2.9 trillion ($2 billion) last quarter. Financial Times previously reported that Samsung had a boost in profit in the first quarter of the year thanks to Chinese customers stockpiling memory chips ahead of US tariffs, but the impact of US export restrictions overshadowed the increase in orders. The publication has also noted that the tariffs the US will be imposing on semiconductors and consumer electronics will lead to an increase in prices of its smartphones and TVs, which are mostly made in Vietnam and Mexico, respectively. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/samsung-says-us-tariffs-will-affect-prices-and-demand-for-smartphones-and-memory-chips-124537214.html?src=rss
Toyota and Waymo have announced that they've entered a preliminary agreement, along with the former's mobility tech subsidiary, Woven by Toyota, Inc. To be clear, they're not in the midst of developing anything yet they're still exploring a potential collaboration between them. Ultimately, however, the goal is to develop a new autonomous vehicle platform together, presumably for robotaxies. They're also aiming to "leverage Waymo's autonomous technology and Toyota's vehicle expertise" for future personal vehicles.
In their announcement, the companies said they're looking to incorporate aspects of Waymo's technology into Toyota vehicles meant for sale to consumers, as well as to accelerate the development and adoption of driver assistance and automated driving technologies. Waymo's work, so far, has been focused on developing robotaxis that riders can hail through an app. The Alphabet-owned company currently operates Waymo One, a fully autonomous ride-hailing service, in San Francisco, Phoenix and Los Angeles. It deploys Waymo One vehicles through Uber in Austin, and it's planning to expand the service to Las Vegas, San Diego, Miami and Atlanta sometime this year. This potential partnership could expand the reach of Waymo's tech.
"Waymo's mission is to be the world's most trusted driver. This requires global partners like Toyota that share our commitment to improving road safety and expanding accessible transportation. We look forward to exploring this strategic partnership, incorporating their vehicles into our ride-hailing fleet and bringing the magic of Waymo's autonomous driving technology to Toyota customers," said Tekedra Mawakana, the co-CEO of Waymo. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/transportation/toyota-and-waymo-pledge-to-team-up-on-a-new-autonomous-vehicle-platform-123032289.html?src=rss
Google Wallet has supported copies of US passports since December and now its UK residents' turn. The company has announced that UK passports will soon be available as digital passes in Google Wallets on Android devices.
To start, Google is partnering with Rail Delivery Group, which provides Railcards or discount passes for a range of travelers. Applying for a Railcard requires identity verification (some of them are also age-based) and individuals should be able to use their digital ID for proof.
Google also announced further updates and features to its Wallet. More states, including Montana and Arkansas, will soon have the ability to put their government IDs in their Google Wallet, and places like Georgia and Maryland will be able to use their digital IDs at the DMV. While travelers can use US passports stored on Google Wallet at select airports, Google cautions that ID passes for UK passports won't work at TSA for now.
The company is also bringing Zero Knowledge Proof (ZKP) technology to Google Wallet. It should also for quick age verification while "ensuring there is no way to link the age back to your identity." Google might use it with its own products or when verifying a person's age on partner apps. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mobile/smartphones/google-wallet-adds-support-for-uk-passports-123019945.html?src=rss
X (formerly Twitter) has been leaning into video content more and more since Elon Musk took over. The latest shift, announced by X's engineering account, sees the platform rolling out 4K video uploads to some of its creators.
The new video resolution should soon be available for all premium subscribers. Currently, they can share videos in 1080p that are a max of 8GB in size and about three hours in length. X has also taken steps such as creating a vertical videos feed a la TikTok and Instagram Reels.
We're starting to roll out 4k video uploads for some creators. Coming soon for all @Premium subscribers! Engineering (@XEng) April 29, 2025
If you're one of the many people done with the platform and want nothing to do with Musk then you can delete your X account. We have a step-by-step guide on how to fully deactivate your profile and clear most of your tweets (posts?) from X. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/x-is-bringing-4k-video-uploads-to-premium-subscribers-120044356.html?src=rss
The gaming industry continues to bleed workers and cancel games, with EA back for another round of brutal news. The company said on Tuesday it decided to "make some targeted team adjustments," which Bloomberg reported as between 300 and 400 eliminated positions, including 100 at Respawn, and the cancellation of an unannounced Titanfall game. Again.
The canned Titanfall game, code-named R7, was reportedly an extraction shooter set in the mech-meets-parkour franchise. Bloomberg says it wasn't close to release, and Respawn's statement that it canceled two "early-stage incubation projects" reflects that. Details about the other scrapped game haven't leaked, but Bloomberg reports that it was canceled earlier this year.
Respawn says it will refocus its resources on Apex Legends and Star Wars Jedi, franchises where EA appears more confident it can profit. Earlier this month, the company previewed another game set in a galaxy far, far away: the Xcom-like tactics game, Star Wars Zero Company.
After culling an estimated 1,130 jobs in 2023, EA laid off five percent of its workforce in 2024. "These decisions aren't easy, and we are deeply grateful to every teammate affected - their creativity and contributions have helped build Respawn into what it is today," Respawn wrote on Tuesday.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/ea-reportedly-cancels-another-titanfall-game-lays-off-several-hundred-employees-205008255.html?src=rss
OpenAI is rolling back a recent update to GPT-4o, the default model that powers ChatGPT, following complaints from users that it made the chat bot act like a weirdo. "The last couple of GPT-4o updates have made the personality too sycophant-y and annoying (even though there are some very good parts of it), and we are working on fixes asap, some today and some this week," said OpenAI CEO Sam Altman in a X post spotted by TechCrunch.
As of midday Tuesday, Altman said ChatGPT was running on an older, less sycophantic version of GPT-4o for all free users. The company hopes to get paid users back on an older release of the model by later today. "We're working on additional fixes to model personality and will share more in the coming days," Altman said, adding OpenAI would share more information about what went wrong "at some point."
OpenAI released the new GPT-4o late last week. By the weekend, people began noticing ChatGPT was being overly agreeable and verbose in its praise. As you can see from the X post below, often that praise was also inappropriate and strange.
When is OpenAI pulling the plug on the new GPT-4o ?This is the most misaligned model released to date by anyone.This is OpenAI's Gemini image disaster moment.image credit : r/u/Trevor050 pic.twitter.com/kNcdnEYMDq AshutoshShrivastava (@ai_for_success) April 27, 2025
Improving the emotional intelligence of its models, in so far as an algorithm can posses the trait, has been a recent focus for OpenAI. For instance, with GPT-4.5, the company said the model was better at responding with warmth and understanding than its previous systems. In trying to bring that same capability to the more affordable GPT-4o, it seems OpenAI got something wrong. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/openai-rolls-back-update-that-made-chatgpt-an-ass-kissing-weirdo-203056185.html?src=rss
