FromSoftware’s monster designs have really nailed the inherent horror of living in ambulatory sentient meat sacs and this new one from Shadow of the Erdtree is just...

That is a uterus, y’all and if it means Shadow of the Erdtree will tread the “transformative horrors of childbirth” like Bloodborne did, I am so on board. I cannot wait for June 21st, my uterus is ready.

Chevy Bolt owners who were forced to have their battery range nerfed (because of fire risk) might get promised compensation thanks to LG agreeing to pitch in with GM on the relief fund.

The European Commission has given Microsoft until May 27th to hand over the information it needs to assess Bing’s generative AI features, or else face fines of up to six percent of the company’s global annual income.

The EU suspects that tools like “Copilot in Bing” and “Image Creator by Designer” may have violated its DSA rules regarding deepfakes, voter manipulation, and ‘hallucinations.’

The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has decided that Microsoft’s Mistral AI investment “does not qualify for investigation under the merger provisions of the Enterprise Act 2002.” The brief statement comes weeks after the CMA signaled it was looking into Microsoft and Amazon’s AI partnerships. Microsoft invested around $16 million into Mistral and also hired a bunch of Inflection AI staff.

Correction: Microsoft’s Mistral investment was around $16 million, not $2.1 billion.

Remember that 15-year-old Tolkien fan movie that Warner Bros. pulled from YouTube last week for sharing the same name as its upcoming Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum title? Well, it’s back!

Adrian Webster, who played Aragorn in the fan-made film, told IGN:

“Perhaps it was an automated copyright block due to the same title. It’s not quite clear. Anyway, we’re happy it’s back online again just now.”

Anbernic’s Game Boy Advance SP homage goes on sale tomorrow for $65, and the just announced $339 Ayn Odin 2 Mini is a dead ringer for PlayStation Vita but with Qualcomm, Wi-Fi 7 and a 1080p mini-LED screen. Then on Saturday, Ayaneo will reveal its takes on the original Game Boy and Game Boy Micro.

Choices, choices!

In a WhatsApp groupchat, prominent businessmen discussed how to use their “leverage” to persuade Columbia’s president to call in the NYPD.

Some members, including hedge fund manager Daniel Loeb, attended a Zoom meeting with NYC mayor Eric Adams on April 26th. Some participants offered to pay for private investigators to help crack down on protesters, while others promised to donate to Adams’s campaign.

2003’s Need for Speed: Underground is the latest modded RTX Remix game, with over 1,000 additional light sources and almost completely ray-traced lighting. (Headlight ray tracing is TBD.)

2005’s Most Wanted was more my jam, but this looks great. More about it (and downloadable files) here. Also see: ray traced Half-Life and Half-Life 2, and more listed here.

From Polygon’s exploration of the “unlikely, lasting place in gaming history” held by Kim Kardashian: Hollywood:

Headley drew Kardashian, and Zabbal illustrated a background, like Beverly Hills — “a postcard for the location,” which he described as not necessarily accurate, but a “lovely broad impression with a tight, cool palette.”

This early art — Headley’s depiction of Kardashian — was what hooked Kardashian herself. “Kim said many times, ‘I saw that they really got me when I saw how they drew me,’” de Masi said.

Rachel Kondo and Justin Marks’ Shōgun adaptation was originally meant to conclude after its first season, but according to The Hollywood Reporter, FX and Hulu are keen on keeping the ball rolling with two more seasons.

Deadline reports that Blumhouse’s follow-ups to Megan (originally due out May 16th) and The Black Phone (originally due out June 27th) have had their premieres pushed back to June 27th and and October 17th, respectively. At least we also know the Five Nights at Freddy’s sequel now has a December 5th, 2025 premiere date.

I’d like to have a word with this Indiana judge who just decided, after a years-long legal battle, that tacos and burritos are sandwiches. To be fair, the tacos in Indiana probably look more like sandwiches than the ones in California, but still. Tacos, burritos, hot dogs, they aren’t sandwiches. Argue with the wall, everybody.

This editorial suggests one possible future for all of the AI tools we’re seeing:

...it seems just as likely to me that generative A.I. could end up like the Roomba, the mediocre vacuum robot that does a passable job when you are home alone but not if you are expecting guests.

Or when you need to know how to deal with a jammed camera.

GM’s Cruise reportedly settled with the pedestrian who was struck by a hit-and-run driver and then drug 20 feet by one of the company’s driverless cars last October in San Francisco. The settlement, which was reached earlier this year, was between $8-12 million, according to Fortune. The pedestrian has since been released from the hospital, and Cruise just started driving autonomously in Phoenix after months on the sidelines.

Android 15’s second public beta introduced customizable vibrations for notifications for different apps.

9to5Google notes Pixel phones go a step further, using the phone’s microphones and sensors to adjust vibration intensity based on your surroundings. Pixel phones are particularly noisy when they vibrate on a hard surface like a table, and this feature seems to address that problem. Now that’s what I call a good vibe.

Microsoft’s big AI PC event is just days away, and we’re seeing more leaks of ARM-powered Windows PCs with Qualcomm’s new chips inside.

This post from WinFuture’s Roland Quandt shows that, like Dell and Lenovo, Asus plans include a version of the Vivobook S 15 OLED that’s ready to battle Apple’s M-series laptops.