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Honkai Impact 3rd gets a Part 2 in February 2024, with a new Martian protagonist and combat system.

Scheduled to release in February 2024, Part 2 will debut its new storyline on Mars, a new location for Impact 3rd, which previously contained its galactic adventures on Earth and its moon. Previously thought uninhabitable in Honkai lore, Mars actually offers a "unique civilization and nature" where "there may also be mysteries hidden behind the daily lives of residents that have yet to be discovered".

In addition to expanding its reach further into the solar system, Part 2 debuts a cast of "new partners from different cultures", introducing brand new main characters and NPCs alongside our shiny new playable character, a Martian native team supporter named Dreamseeker.

First Look Video

The third major patch for Baldur's Gate 3 is now being rolled out, and it includes the long-awaited Magic Mirror feature.

Players can now change their character's appearance by finding the Magic Mirror in camp. Everything other than race and subrace of your character can be altered - though it also can't be used to get rid of any "cosmetic modifications that are a consequence of your gameplay choices". Also, origin characters, hirelings and full illithids can't use the Magic Mirror.

Patch three has also added full support for the game on Mac, with Larian Studios recommending any players on Mac remove any mods and reinstall the game fresh before playing.

Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth made its playable debut this week at Tokyo Game Show, where we were able to go hands-on and see what's new. Intriguingly, however, amongst everything that's different, this all-new entry also feels committed to paying tribute to the series' past - including its original leading man, Kazuma Kiryu, and Sega as a company.

There's even a deliberate comparison made here at TGS between the series' past and present - as Sega's showfloor demos have been set up so visitors have to play Like A Dragon: Gaiden - The Man Who Erased His Name before Infinite Wealth back to back. The former casts its former yakuza protagonist as a spy with fresh gadgets, but is still ultimately a brawler where you beat crowds of thugs into submission, alongside smoking, gambling, and flirting with cabaret hostesses. The latter, meanwhile, continues as a turn-based party-based RPG but with a lighter and more irreverent-feeling touch. Infinite Wealth may have a heavy story - where one man is searching for a connection to his past, while another is coming to the end of his life with still much to do - but it's also about giving fans what they want. And, in this case, that's some much needed fun in the sun.

YouTube Gameplay reveal

Recently at the Tokyo Game Show Valve developer Pierre-Loup Griffais spoke to CNBC about PC gaming and Steam Deck, here's what was said during the interview.

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• When talking about the power of SteamOS - "we would like to work with other hardware manufacturers, so they can adopt SteamOS in the future".
• On VR: "for Steam Deck we don't really have a VR story to it, but it's definitely something we want to explore more in the future".
• For the future: "we're not really seeing growth stop after COVID, so for us it's really important to keep working on the current version of the Steam Deck, put together software updates we just released a big SteamOS 3.5 update that's added new features we're going to keep doing that - but also work on the hardware side supply chain, retail presence, work with distributors to get the Deck available worldwide and expand its audience so we're going to be focusing on that short term - in the future we're looking at the PC market and where technology is going and see if there's any interesting opportunities there".
• When asked about console cycles, games being higher-end and Steam Deck upgrades: "right now we're looking at this performance target that we have as a stable target for a couple years, we think that it's a pretty sweet spot in terms of being able to play all the experiences from this new generation and so far the new releases coming out have been great experiences on Steam Deck. We're working with developers on future releases and we're monitoring the feedback there but so far it's been pretty good on the horsepower front".

Twitter Thread

Just around 24 hours after Musk made his comments, more than 42,000 new users joined Bluesky, making it the biggest signup day yet for the currently invite-only platform that launched earlier this year.

Bluesky saw a total of 53,585 new signups by the end of Tuesday, September 19. The new users gained in that single day make up 5 percent of the platform's entire user base of 1,125,499 total accounts.

The new user signups are tracked via the third-party website "Bluesky Stats." Looking over Bluesky signup numbers on the tracker for the past month, it appears that the platform usually sees from 10,000 to 20,000 new signups per day. Bluesky has doubled its usual daily new user numbers already, with many more hours left in the day still to go.

It's impossible to know whether Musk's comments about charging users to post on X really played a role in this, but it almost certainly had some effect.

The same day Taylor Swift posted a message encouraging her followers to register to vote, over 35,000 people reportedly made a “Run (Taylor’s Version)” to do so on Vote.org.

“Vote.org saw record-breaking traffic to our site this week as we celebrated National Voter Registration Day, a highly encouraging sign of voter enthusiasm especially among newly eligible voters. Time and time again young people are showing up and demonstrating they care about their rights and access to the ballot box,” Andrea Hailey, CEO of Vote.org said in a release.

The American multi-genre singer-songwriter’s post also linked to the organization’s website, according to the release. In the Instagram post, Swift called on her army of fans, also known as “Swifties” to “[r]egister to vote in less than 2 minutes” via the nonprofit’s site.

Owners of the FreeStyle Libre 3, one of Abbott Laboratories’ flagship glucose monitors, received an email this week warning them to “disable automatic system updates on your iPhone” because the new operating system’s StandBy Mode and Assistive Access Mode “may impact your ability to receive time-sensitive notifications including glucose alarms and notifications indicating that alarms are unavailable.”

“Key Steps to Optimize your FreeStyle Libre System on iOS 17,” the email reads. “While our teams are working quickly to verify and confirm compatibility, we recommend that you disable automatic operating system updates on the smartphone using the mentioned apps. Please check the compatibility guide on myfreestyle.com before the new operating system is installed.”

Abbott is telling customers who have already upgraded to disable StandBy Mode, which activates the iPhone’s Lock Screen while it’s charging and placed on its side. They are also being advised to turn off “Assistive Access” mode, an accessibility mode for people with disabilities. Abbott says that this mode “will impact your ability to activate a sensor, modify your alarm settings, or receive glucose alarm notifications from our apps.”

Abbott writes on its website that failure to take action when users get an alarm, or failure to use the device “as instructed in labeling may result in missing a severe low or high glucose event and/or making a treatment decision, resulting in injury.”

Amazon has created a new rule limiting the number of books that authors can self-publish on its site to three a day, after an influx of suspected AI-generated material was listed for sale in recent months.

The company announced the new limitations in a post on its Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) forum on Monday. “While we have not seen a spike in our publishing numbers, in order to help protect against abuse, we are lowering the volume limits we have in place on new title creations,” read the statement. KDP allows authors to self-publish their books and list them for sale on Amazon’s site.

Amazon told the Guardian that the limit is set at three titles, though this number may be adjusted “if needed”. The company confirmed that there was previously no limit to the number of books authors could list a day.

The Mississippi Legislature’s attempt to create four unelected special circuit court judges in Hinds County is unconstitutional, the Mississippi Supreme Court ruled today, while upholding House Bill 1020’s creation of a single inferior court in Jackson’s Capitol Complex Improvement District. Justices heard arguments in the case in July.

In an 8-0 decision, the justices agreed with resident plaintiffs Ann Saunders, Sabvreen Sharriff and Dorothy Triplett’s argument that H.B. 1020 “Section 1’s creation of four new appointed ‘temporary special circuit judges’ in the Seventh Circuit Court District for a specified, almost-four-year term violates our Constitition’s requirement that circuit judges be elected for a four-year term.”

“While Section 1 calls these new judges ‘special circuit judges’ on paper, we see nothing special or unique about them—certainly nothing expressly tethering them to a specific judicial need or exigency,” says the ruling, which reversed a lower court decision. “Rather, Section 1’s text merely creates four unelected circuit court judgeships, appointed into Hinds County to serve three-and-a-half years instead of four.” Justice James D. Maxwell II wrote for the majority.

If H.B. 1020 had been fully upheld, Mississippi Supreme Court Chief Justice Michael K. Randolph, who is white and recused himself from the case, would have appointed four unelected circuit court judges in Hinds County, which is more than 70% Black. Opponents said doing so would have diminished the majority-Black population’s ability to select their own judges.

Ubisoft has announced Tom Clancy's The Division 3 and Massive Entertainment, the Sweden-based company behind the first two Division games and the upcoming Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, is developing it. The studio announced this in a new post on Twitter today, linking to a blog discussing the threequel. In it, Ubisoft reveals that Star Wars Outlaws creative director Julian Gerighty will take over as The Division brand's executive producer once Outlaws ships.

Gerighty joined The Division team as an associate creative director in 2014. After Massive shipped the first Division game, Gerighty moved onto Tom Clancy's The Division 2 as creative director. As executive producer of the brand, Gerighty will work on The Division 3 and other projects set in The Division universe like Tom Clancy's The Division Resurgence on mobile and the survival-action shooter, Tom Clancy's The Division Heartland.

Today we take the next step to unify these capabilities into a single experience we call Microsoft Copilot, your everyday AI companion. Copilot will uniquely incorporate the context and intelligence of the web, your work data and what you are doing in the moment on your PC to provide better assistance – with your privacy and security at the forefront. It will be a simple and seamless experience, available in Windows 11, Microsoft 365, and in our web browser with Edge and Bing. It will work as an app or reveal itself when you need it with a right click. We will continue to add capabilities and connections to Copilot across to our most-used applications over time in service of our vision to have one experience that works across your whole life.

Copilot will begin to roll out in its early form as part of our free update to Windows 11, starting Sept. 26 — and across Bing, Edge, and Microsoft 365 Copilot this fall. We’re also announcing some exciting new experiences and devices to help you be more productive, spark your creativity, and to meet the everyday needs of people and businesses.

YouTube Video

Norway’s Fyllingsdalen tunnel is a showstopping piece of urban cycling infrastructure — for a city where car-centric development still dominates.

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Bergen’s most recent attraction is a unique one: In April, the city of around 270,000 opened the Fyllingsdalen tunnel, a three-kilometer bike-pedestrian pathway that was bored through a mountain. Local officials proudly declared Fyllingsdalen tunnel to be “the world’s longest purpose-built cycling tunnel.” (The Snoqualmie tunnel in Washington State is lengthier, but it used to be rail line.)

Fyllingsdalen tunnel is about as photogenic as an urban bike path can get. Inside, it offers art installations and creative lighting; at its exit, there are stunning mountain views. CNN and Smithsonian have lavished it with international attention, and visiting cycling advocates like the Netherlands-based authors Melissa and Chris Bruntlett have swooned.

Last month I hopped on a bike to traverse the tunnel for myself, and I can confirm that it is an ingenious piece of healthy, climate-friendly infrastructure; I have never seen anything remotely like it. The tunnel is also practical, providing a car-free connection between Bergen’s bustling city center and a fast-growing neighborhood on the other side of the mountain.

But — there is a big “but.” As awe-inspiring as Fyllingsdalen tunnel is, it is still only a Band-Aid fix for Bergen’s decades of car-oriented development. The tunnel reflects the city’s current efforts to shift local trips away from cars, but that goal clashes with a national government whose transportation policies still revolve around the automobile. In such an environment, even the most spectacular bike path can only do so much