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Articles by Bill Smith
Alleged Leaked Mass Effect 5 Trailer Captures the Sequel That Died With BioWare
Yesterday Electronic Arts closed BioWare after more than three decades and ended work on the next Mass Effect game, which the company described as still in early development under a small team of roughly fifty people. Hours later a burner account on Reddit posted a two-minute internal trailer that Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier and IGN both confirmed as genuine footage created for the project.
Tony Stark’s Screen Used Acura NSX Roadster Concept from The Avengers Reaches Auction
Robert Downey Jr. drove away from the final scene of 2012’s The Avengers in a low, open roadster finished in a deep red close to Iron Man’s armor, wearing a New York plate that read STARK 33. That exact car now sits on Cars & Bids with no reserve, and every dollar of the winning bid goes to a charity chosen with the buyer. American Honda will also cover the platform’s buyer’s fee once the sale closes on October 31.
LEGO Greenlights Fan-Designed Daft Punk Alive 2007 Pyramid Stage Set
Fans of the French electronic duo have waited years for something like this. On October 22, 2026, the LEGO Group and Daft Punk announced a new partnership that brings the robots into the brick universe, and the first concrete step is an official set recreating the glowing pyramid stage from the 2007 Alive tour. The stage design has long been connected with the duo.
Tuin Doom Enhanced Mod Finally Lets You Rocket Through Doors in Classic DOOM
Locked doors in classic DOOM levels have always forced a specific route, usually involving a colored key card found after clearing a few rooms of demons. Tuin Doom Enhanced, the customized Windows build created by the modder known as tuin and based on Duct-Tape DOOM, removes that restriction. Rockets and exploding barrels now carve real openings through walls, doors, floors, and ceilings, and the resulting holes affect both how the level looks and how the player can move through it.
Electronic Arts Officially Closes Legendary Studio BioWare and Ends Work on Next Mass Effect Game
BioWare’s long run as one of the most influential studios in role-playing games ends today as Electronic Arts announced its closure along with the cancellation of early work on the next Mass Effect title. Founded in 1995 in Edmonton by a group of doctors who left medicine for game development, the studio built a reputation on titles that let players shape stories through dialogue choices and party companions.
Unitree H2-X Kung Fu Legend Guardian Robot Unleashes Flying Kicks and Car Lifts in Fresh Demo
Unitree released a short video this week introducing the H2-X Kung Fu Legend Guardian, a full-size humanoid built on the company’s existing H2 platform and positioned for security and rescue work. In the opening sequences the robot climbs onto the roof of a scrapyard car, flips off, then delivers knees, elbows, and punches that leave clear dents in doors and hoods. It jumps from a platform labeled four meters high, lands, rolls, and stands again, then chains aerial kicks and backflips amid sparks.
How a Gamer and Claude AI Boosted Frame Rates in Oblivion Remastered
A longtime fan of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion grew tired of the hitching and low frame rates that stuck around after the remaster arrived on PC. Even after moving from an older graphics card to a Radeon RX 9070 XT paired with a Ryzen 7 5800X and 32 GB of memory, towns still crawled and travel stuttered hard enough to pull him out of the world.
Game of Tobi Releases Super Mario Galaxy Port Running on Original Game Boy Advance
Tobias Friedly, known online as Game of Tobi, has put the source code for his Super Mario Galaxy Game Boy Advance port on GitHub after months of work that started as an ambitious side project. Players who supply their own legal USA Wii ISO can now build a ROM that runs the full movement system, planetary gravity, camera behavior, and a substantial amount of the original game on hardware that first shipped in 2001. Movement feels like a continuous flow rather than a succession of steps.
Michael MJD Revives Sony’s Forgotten 2011 Xperia Play Gaming Smartphone Hybrid
Michael MJD recently pulled a Sony Ericsson Xperia Play out of relative obscurity, the 2011 smartphone that tried to blend everyday mobile use with handheld gaming in one sliding package. Announced that February at Mobile World Congress and released in Europe the following spring, with a U.S. Verizon version arriving in May for about two hundred dollars on contract, the device carried the Xperia name rather than any PlayStation branding even though its box noted PlayStation certification.
Mercedes-AMG GT SUV Packs 1153 Horsepower Into Its First Electric Form
Mercedes-AMG spent 59 years building its reputation on hand-finished engines and aggressive tuning, yet its first full-size SUV developed entirely in Affalterbach arrives with no combustion engine at all. Built on the AMG.EA architecture that also underpins the electric GT 4-Door Coupe, the 2028 GT SUV reaches U.S. dealers in summer 2027 in three versions that share a low, wide stance, a 0.27 drag coefficient, and standard rear-axle steering that can turn the rear wheels up to six degrees.
Hyundai Elantra N Monochrome Edition Offers Stealthy Looks and Full Pace
Hyundai pulled the covers off the Elantra N Monochrome on October 19, 2026, as a special edition built for people who want the car’s full performance without drawing extra eyes on the road. Company planners developed it after hearing from owners who liked the driving experience but preferred fewer bright accents in daily use. Body panels and accent parts are painted completely black, with the dominating colors being Abyss Black Pearl or Performance Blue.
Adam Savage Learns How Everyday Model Kits Built Classic Star Wars Ships
Adam Savage sits down with Lorne Peterson, one of the original model makers hired at Industrial Light and Magic in 1975, and the conversation quickly turns to the practical choices that gave the ships their worn, functional look. Peterson shows off a rare Darth Vader service award he received after forty years with the company, then explains how he and a friend arrived for their interview carrying a dusty Kennedy toolbox instead of the cardboard boxes most freelancers used.
PS5X Emulator Finally Runs PlayStation 5 Games on Xbox Series X in Developer Mode
Xbox Series X owners can now boot certain PlayStation 5 titles on Microsoft’s console through an experimental port called PS5X. Developer Devran Cosmo Uenal built the project by adapting the open-source KytyPS5 emulator, which normally runs on Windows and Linux PCs, into a UWP application that operates exclusively inside Xbox Developer Mode. His September video showed the PS5 build of Quake II running with an Xbox controller, and three additional titles soon followed.
Honda Partners With Builders to Ready Dynamic Wireless Charging Roads for Electric Truck Trials
Drivers of electric trucks could soon keep rolling without pulling over for a plug if a new system from Honda works as planned. The company has spent the past several years on dynamic wireless power transfer, the idea of sending electricity from the pavement into a moving vehicle. In early October 2026 Honda R&D said it had finished the underlying technology with two construction firms, Taisei Corporation and Taisei Rotec.
Maker Recreates the Toy Story 2 Cleaner’s Chest as a Real Workshop
Decades after Toy Story 2, the multi-layered chest that appears when the cleaner restores Woody continues to pull makers who want those drawers and compartments to exist outside the animation. Chris Borge, a maker from South Australia focused on digital fabrication and 3D printing, took the idea on as a prototype for a mobile workshop.
Alef Aeronautics Celebrates Thousandth Logged Flight Over Tesla Roadster
Alef Aeronautics released video on Thursday of its electric flying car lifting off vertically and crossing above a Tesla Roadster, marking the California company’s 1,000th logged flight. The clip arrived the same day Tesla showed its redesigned Roadster performing a brief airborne hop with cold-gas thrusters at a SpaceX site in Texas. In the Alef footage the vehicle rises cleanly, maintains a level cabin, and glides over the Roadster along with a Cybertruck and other cars parked nearby.
Fallout Tale of Two Wastelands RTX Remix Project Brings Neural Rendering to Capital Wasteland
Ruins across the Capital Wasteland pick up sunlight and shadow in ways Bethesda’s original fixed lighting never quite managed when Fallout 3 first arrived. A small fan effort has been stitching RTX Remix, ray reconstruction, and neural rendering into Tale of Two Wastelands, the long-running project that drops Fallout 3 and its expansions into the Fallout: New Vegas engine so both games can run as one continuous playthrough.
Dynamic Creatures Introduces Hugo the Furry Purple Robot Built for Theme Parks
Hugo appears as a purple, furry figure with small horns, a blue nose, a flower tucked into its hair, oversized hands, and either embroidered shorts or leather lederhosen. In video released by the Cambridge startup Dynamic Creatures, this bipedal character walks through an office, high-fives engineers, hugs children, and dances while carrying a small backpack.
NeodraDynamics Neo1 Rises Thirteen Feet High to Carry Half Ton Loads at Work
Photo credit: Polymarket Visitors walking the floor of the 2026 China International Industry Fair in Beijing came face to face with a machine that stands four meters tall and weighs 1.2 tons. Neo1 from NeodraDynamics Robotics Technology does not look like the smaller electric humanoids that have spent years practicing in labs. Its frame uses a hydraulic-electric hybrid drive, with 39 of its 41 active joints powered by miniature digital hydraulic linear actuators the company built itself.
Victor the AI Agent Faces Recruiter Bot Pat and Salary Talk Falls Apart
Graham Dot Zip has built a following by testing how AI interview bots handle nonsense answers, song lyrics, or endless polite replies. In his newest video he tried the reverse and sent his own AI agent named Victor to represent him while the company sent an AI recruiter named Pat. Pat opened by noticing someone else on the call. Graham explained that Victor knew his resume better and would handle the details.
Chinese Bride Gifts Groom ASUS ROG Astral RTX 5090 After Number Puzzle
Guests at a wedding in Jiangsu province watched the bride guide her new husband through a calculation that looked ordinary on paper. The sum ran 520 times 10 plus 1,314 minus 514 minus 619 plus 666 minus 957 and landed exactly on 5090. In Chinese online shorthand those figures carry familiar meanings: 520 sounds close to the phrase for I love you, 1314 stands for forever, 514 suggests until death, 619 hints at escaping forever, and 666 simply means awesome.
Porsche Mission S Maps a Permanent Mid Engine Path Above the 911
Porsche chose a pier in Queens for the world premiere of its Mission S vision model yesterday, a spot that once framed the earliest photographs of the 550 Spyder back in 1953. That deliberate return to a mid-engine layout sets the tone for a new super sports car platform that will sit permanently above the 911 rather than appear as a limited-run hypercar.
Second-Generation Tesla Roadster Soars Over Cybertruck Using SpaceX Thrusters In Texas Demo
Elon Musk stood outside a SpaceX test site near Waco on Thursday night as an Aero White Tesla Roadster climbed a steep inverted ramp, held fast by suction fans even on the vertical face, rotated in midair with cold-gas thrusters, and settled onto the pavement below. The same car then lifted itself clear of a Cybercab, Cybertruck, Tesla Semi, Model Y, and Model 3 in a single pass, completing what engineering vice president Lars Moravy labeled a kick flip before touching down cleanly.
Monster Persona SE ANC Headphones Deliver Smooth, Beats Studio-Rivaling Sound And Lasting Everyday Noise Control
Monster Persona SE ANC headphones, priced at $39.99 (was $159), suit people who keep music, podcasts, or calls going for hours and prefer steady quiet over constant adjustments. Forty-millimeter drivers push a smooth, relaxed sound that keeps midrange voices and instruments clear while keeping the low end from turning muddy or overly aggressive.
Rockstar Unveils Fresh Grand Theft Auto 6 Launch Trailer Highlighting Romance, Heists, and Music
Rockstar Games put out a new 90-second launch trailer for Grand Theft Auto 6 early this morning, just over a month before the game arrives on November 19 for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X and S. Footage comes entirely from a PlayStation 5 session, and it leans into the sun-soaked, chaotic feel of Vice City and the wider state of Leonida.
InkBoy Runs Classic Game Boy Games at 30 Frames on Tiny E-Paper
A Waveshare board built for reading pages now keeps up with running and jumping. InkBoy fits a full Game Boy emulator onto the ESP32-S3-ePaper-1.54 V2, a compact module with a 1.54-inch panel that measures 200 by 200 pixels. Stock software on that panel barely managed two updates each second. Custom driving code raises the rate to roughly thirty, enough for Super Mario Land and other original titles to feel responsive instead of frozen between frames.
Xbox Nano Controller Delivers Complete Controls in a Tiny Rechargeable Form for Everyday Portability
Microsoft has rolled out the Xbox Nano Controller today as its smallest option yet, measuring a little over five inches in length and weighing just 3.5 ounces. That makes it shorter and lighter than most modern smartphones, and a clear step down in bulk from the standard Xbox Wireless Controller, which runs closer to six inches wide and roughly ten ounces once batteries go in.
Sony ULT Wear Headphones Deliver Flagship Features and Powerful Bass at a Midrange Price
Most people scanning store shelves for solid over-ear noise-canceling headphones still land on Bose QuietComfort models or Apple’s AirPods Max. Sony has quietly offered a strong alternative since the ULT Wear, priced at $148 (was $248), arrived a little while ago, packing many of the same processor tricks found in the brand’s more expensive WH-1000XM5 while adding a dedicated button that ramps up low-end punch on demand.
Ocarina of Time Remake Overview Trailer Unveils Humming Songs and Hall of Fallen Heroes
Nintendo released a five-minute overview trailer today for the Switch 2 remake of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, giving a straightforward tour of the remake ahead of its November 5 launch. The video walks through Link’s early journey as the boy without a fairy, then moves into the broader kingdom of Hyrule with its people, monsters, and dungeons before settling on the tools and additions that reshape how the adventure plays. The ocarina takes center stage during the presentation.
Matthew Lim Uses Kirigami Cuts to Build Transformable Tables and Everyday Tools
Kirigami, the Japanese practice of cutting paper in addition to folding it, opens possibilities that pure folding alone cannot reach. Matthew Lim applied the method to a series of objects that shift from a completely flat sheet into a usable three-dimensional form and back again, relying on carefully placed cuts and folds rather than fasteners or adhesives. One result is a compact phone grip that springs into place when needed.
Alpine A310 Vision Concept Reimagines Seventies Icon as Electric Supercar Study
Alpine unveiled the A310 Vision at the Paris Motor Show as a one-off study that marks fifty-five years since the original A310 arrived and fifty years since its V6 version joined the range. The concept takes the rear-engined coupe that once sat against the Porsche 911 and stretches it into a low, wide form that keeps the classic presence while updating every proportion for an electric layout.
Japan-Exclusive Midnight Black PS5 Digital Edition Arrives November 19 for 55000 Yen
Sony Interactive Entertainment announced a new Midnight Black version of the PlayStation 5 Digital Edition that remains available only inside Japan. The console carries model number CFI-2200B02S and carries a suggested retail price of 55,000 yen including tax. Preorders open at PlayStation retailers and online stores across the country on October 20, with the actual launch set for November 19.
Pokémon x Beats Pill Special Edition Puts Pikachu and Mimikyu on Portable Sound
Beats and The Pokémon Company International announced a special-edition Beats Pill on October 13 that places artwork of Pikachu and Mimikyu across the speaker’s grill.
Quiet Nerd Builds an Eight Wheel Electric Tank Camper That Spins Within Its Own Footprint
Building an electric 8×8 camper from scratch looks impossible until Quiet Nerd opens a workshop and starts cutting square punch tubing into a lightweight frame. Eight separate 48-volt, 1000-watt brushless differential motors soon sit under that frame, each one ready to push its own wheel. Differential gears generally allow wheels to move at different speeds, which would eliminate any possibility of tank-style steering, but Quiet Nerd opens each gearbox and welds the internal gears solid.
Citroen 2 CV Concept Returns as an Affordable Electric City Car
Citroën pulled the cover off its 2 CV Concept at the Paris Motor Show this week, and the little electric hatch looks ready to pick up where the original left off after production ended in 1990. Officials describe it as a preview of a production model due by 2028, built in Europe and aimed at buyers who want something compact, light, and priced around 15,000 euros.
Peugeot RCZ Vision Concept Restores Coupe Appeal With Ten Minute Solid State Charging
Peugeot brought the RCZ name back to the Paris Motor Show this year with a concept that treats the old coupe formula as something still worth pursuing. The RCZ Vision sits low and wide on the new Stellantis STLA One platform, measuring 4.65 meters long, 1.94 meters wide, and just 1.35 meters tall. Those proportions make it larger than the original car that ran from 2009 to 2015, yet the height stays almost identical.
Anbernic RG DDS Opens With Two Screens Sized Exactly for Nintendo 3DS Games
Anbernic just showed its RG DDS, a folding dual-screen handheld shaped closely after Nintendo’s classic 3DS clamshell. Open the lid and the top panel measures about 4.7 inches at a 5:3 ratio with 1200 by 720 resolution, while the bottom touchscreen sits near 4 inches at a 4:3 ratio with 960 by 720 resolution. Both custom IPS panels hit 300 pixels per inch and reach 500 nits of brightness, with matched color, refresh rate, and materials so the pair stays consistent in appearance.
Opel STX Concept Reimagines the Classic Estate for Electric Efficiency and Emotional Design
Rüsselsheim has just unveiled a study that treats the long roof and low stance of a traditional estate as something still worth refining. Debuting at the 2026 Paris Motor Show, the Opel STX Concept (Sports Tourer eXperimental) arrives as a fully electric, all-wheel-drive proposition aimed at proving that everyday cargo space and high-speed stability can coexist with a more sculpted, expressive shape.
Prop Department Transforms Ford Festiva Into the Widest Street Legal Car at Ten Feet
Tyler Fever of Prop Department already cut a Ford Festiva into the thinnest street-legal car possible. For the follow-up he reversed the idea and produced a version that measures exactly ten feet from one side to the other. Three more of the little 1988 hatchbacks served as donors, each purchased for roughly $250, so the whole starting collection stayed cheap while still supplying enough parts and metal. That exact width was chosen because it represented the sweet spot.
James Channel Unpacks the Cheap Famiclone Sold as the Latest Windows System
James Channel recently got hold of a small box that promised the latest Windows system, complete with a keyboard, mouse, and enough software to turn any living room into a home office. What arrived instead was a Famiclone, one of the countless unauthorized copies of Nintendo’s original Family Computer that flooded markets across Asia and beyond during the late 1980s and 1990s.
Blade Runner 2099 NYCC Trailer Shows a Dying Replicant and Fugitive Hunting Missing Souls
Prime Video unveiled the full trailer for its limited series Blade Runner 2099 at New York Comic Con on Saturday, introducing a Los Angeles rebuilt fifty years after the events of Blade Runner 2049. Replicants have won an uprising that had been building across the films, leaving humans as second-class citizens in a city no longer shaped by their hands. All eight episodes arrive together on the streamer November 25.
ChaosBench’s Giant Working N64 Controller Turns Mario Kart Into a Full Body Workout
Nintendo 64 controllers already look chunky next to modern pads, with three grips and a stick planted in the middle. ChaosBench took that layout and enlarged it until ordinary button presses turned into arm movements that require real force. ChaosBench began with creating a digital model of a typical game controller, which was then hollowed out with Meshmixer to create place for the internals. The finished shell was then cut into manageable sections that could be 3D printed in PLA plastic.
Super Mario 64 Arrives on the Microsoft Zune HD via the sm64-zune Port
Microsoft’s Zune never matched the iPod’s hold on the culture, yet the Zune HD has just gained a new purpose as a Super Mario 64 machine through a fresh open-source port. This week, developer rsheldiii released the sm64-zune repository, which takes the sm64ex decompilation and mashes it up so that the 1996 Nintendo classic Super Mario 64 can run on the 2009 Zune HD with full audio, touch controls, and save support, at least after coughing up a legally dumped USA cartridge ROM.
DamnationX Fan Remake Adds HD Textures Ray Tracing and Online Play to Diablo 1
Fans who still wander the dark streets of Tristram and the levels beneath it now have another way to return. DamnationX is a fan project built on top of DevilutionX, the long-running open-source port that already lets people run the original 1996 Diablo on modern computers with higher frame rates, controller support, and other practical fixes.
Xii-Boy Ultra Packs Real Wii Hardware into a Wire Free Game Boy Shell
Modders have spent years trimming Nintendo Wii motherboards down to the absolute minimum so they fit inside handheld shells that resemble the original Game Boy. Xenii refined that approach across earlier Xii-Boy versions until the latest Ultra revision arrived as a fully modular kit. Tito from Macho Nacho Productions assembled one, and the result sits at roughly 145 by 86 by 27 millimeters while still containing a genuine Wii board that has undergone the standard OMGWTF trim.
Rivian Halloween Mode Brings Ghostbusters Lights Sounds and Games to Every Vehicle This Fall
Rivian owners woke up to a free software update that turns every R1 and R2 into a rolling Ghostbusters prop. Collaboration with Sony Pictures delivered the package starting October 9 and keeps it active through November 2. Bill Murray appears as Peter Venkman in a short film directed by Gil Kenan, the filmmaker behind the recent Ghostbusters sequels. In the spot Slimer digs through a suburban fridge while lights flicker, then an Ecto-R1 arrives with sirens and Murray in the jumpsuit.
How One Collector Commissioned the Only Stretch Limousine From a 1953 Porsche 356
John Dixon already owned a building full of Porsches when he decided his daughter’s wedding needed something more personal than a rented car. Around 2001 he asked Don Boeke, the Dayton customizer known as The Egyptian, to turn a tired 1953 Pre-A 356 into a four-door limousine. Boeke and his crew chopped and grafted components from several stripped 356 chassis, retaining the original curved window front end, a rare find that had come directly from a French market car via the Sonauto importer.
16.2″ MacBook Pro With M5 Pro (24GB RAM + 1TB SSD) Still Wins the Pro Laptop Price Fight
Anyone who needs a laptop that can carry a full day of serious work without constant pauses still lands on the same machine. Apple’s 16.2-inch MacBook Pro with the M5 Pro, priced at $2,499 (was $2,999) in the Space Black configuration with 24GB of unified memory and a 1TB solid-state drive, remains the cleanest answer for the money. Inside, there’s an 18-core M5 Pro built on Apple’s M5 Fusion layout, which combines two third-generation 3-nanometer circuits into a single powerful piece of silicon.
Citroen Ami Outdoor Rolls Back the Roof on a 28 Mile an Hour Electric Quadricycle
Citroen just opened the order books in Germany for the Ami Outdoor, a special edition of the boxy electric two-seater that has been scooting around European side streets since 2020. List price starts at €9,690 including tax, the rough equivalent of $11,000, before delivery and plates. A lease is offered at €65 a month over 36 months after a €1,350 payment up front, with a yearly allowance of 5,000 kilometers. Dutch pricing sits at €9,940, about €1,190 above a plain Ami.
JAS Tensei Reveal Showcases Original Honda NSX with a Carbon Body and a Louder V6
JAS Motorsport finally showed the finished Tensei on October 8, 2026, after months of drawings that only hinted at the shape. Thirty-five cars are planned, each built near Milan from a first-generation Honda NSX and finished to the buyer’s order. Pininfarina signed the body. The name is Japanese for rebirth, which fits a car that still reads as an NSX from across a lot and then refuses to match the 1990 original once you walk closer.
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