If you received a bunch of gift cards for the holidays, consider it a blessing. Whoever gave them to you likely wanted to give you a gift you'd actually use, and rather assume (incorrectly), they wanted to ensure you'd get their money's worth on something you actually like. Maybe there's nothing on your wish list at the moment, but you're keen to spend that gift card on something that will make your commute easier or your home feel more cozy. Below are some of our favorite items that are well worth that $50 gift card you're eager to use up, from power banks to streaming sticks to smart lights.

Check out the rest of our gift ideas here.

• Apple is exploring new headsets and smart-home devices to expand its lineup.
• Its plans don't always work out; it scrapped a car project and faces weak demand for the Vision Pro.
• Apple's future profits depend on the success of devices other than the iPhone.

Apple's possible future product lineup suggests the giant is entering a new era.

Many devices are reportedly in the works at the tech giant, and many of them are very different from its golden child, the iPhone. Apple followers including the Bloomberg reporter Mark Gurman and the Taiwan-based supply-chain analyst Ming-Chi Kuo have said it's exploring new headsets, smart-home devices, and more.

The tech industry has long speculated about Apple's next big thing. The answer may lie in the slate that people have been reporting on for the past several months.

Creating a hit product isn't easy. The company in February scrapped plans for a car, and its $3,500 Vision Pro has gotten mixed reviews in the months since its release. On November 10, Gurman said Apple was focusing on smaller wins that could generate revenue on the same level as its iPads or wearable tech.

That requires Apple to tiptoe into new territory where competitors may already be making strides.

Bloomberg, also in November, reported on a wall-mounted smart-home tablet in Apple's production lineup that could operate home appliances, use Apple Intelligence, and access Apple apps.

The report said the project, code-named J490, could come as early as March, a month before new Apple Intelligence features are expected to roll out.

Though smart-home tech isn't a cash cow for Big Tech, another futuristic smart-home device is said to be on Apple's radar: a tabletop robot with an iPad-like display and a robotic arm.

Analysts from Morningstar, Deepwater Asset Management, and EMARKETER were skeptical about the device's profitability — or the probability of its existence — when Business Insider asked them about it in August.

Apple is also reportedly developing a smart lock and doorbell system, Bloomberg reported on Sunday. The device would allow a person to open their home's door by scanning their face, the report said. It's unclear whether the doorbell system would work with existing third-party locks or if the company would partner with a lock maker.

The technology could certainly introduce competition to Amazon's Ring and Google Nest. However, the report said it's unlikely the product would launch until the end of 2025 at the earliest.

Meanwhile, Kuo, known for his often accurate Apple product predictions, said in early November that the tech giant had delayed production of a cheaper Vision Pro to "beyond 2027" and would move ahead with a Vision Pro with its M5 processor and Apple Intelligence for 2025.

In the wearables category, Apple is said to be exploring AR glasses — perhaps inspired by the prototype Orion glasses Meta showed off in September — though they're far from production stages. The Morningstar analyst William Kerwin previously suggested that smart glasses are likely Apple's ultimate eyewear goal.

CEO Tim Cook, who's been in the role for 13 years, is guiding the company into a new future. The next line of products Apple launches could solidify his legacy.

• The NYC townhouse where Bob Dylan lived quietly with his kids from the 1980s to 2005 is for sale.
• The enclave, with only 20 homes and a shared garden, remains a favorite haunt of actors and musicians.
• It's just a coincidence that the movie about his life is in theaters now, the listing agent said.

A New York City home where Bob Dylan lived quietly for years is for sale.

The legendary singer-songwriter rented the townhouse on East 49th Street in Manhattan in the 1980s — then loved it so much that he bought it under a business associate's name in 1990 for an undisclosed amount.

In 2005, he sold it to the current owners for $4.45 million; they have put it on the market with an asking price of $7.25 million.

The five-story home is in Turtle Bay Gardens, a landmarked enclave of 20 1860s-built townhouses on East 49th and East 48th whose backyards lead to a shared garden for residents only.

Dylan, one of the best-selling music artists of all time, had young kids at the time and liked the privacy, "Dylan's local fix-it man at the time" told real-estate news site Curbed.

Turtle Bay Gardens has long attracted creative types, including Hollywood and Broadway greats. Previous renters of Dylan's home, at 242 East 49th Street, included Mary Tyler Moore.

Broadway composer Stephen Sondheim called No. 244 home for 60 years until his death in 2021; it sold for $7 million in 2023, according to property records. Katharine Hepburn lived next door, at 244 East 49th Street. Child actor turned fashion designer Mary-Kate Olsen and her ex Olivier Sarkozy owned 226-228 East 49th Street from 2024 to 2022.

The current owners of Dylan's home used it as a pied-à-terre, according to Sotheby's International Realty agent Lisa Larson, who has the listing with her colleague Angela Wu.

"They just weren't coming to New York very often, so they rented it out, and now they've just decided to sell it," Larson told Business Insider.

It hit the market on December 5. The Bob Dylan biopic, "A Complete Unknown," with Timothy Chalamet as Dylan, is released in theaters on Christmas Day, December 25.

Larson said that the timing is a happy accident.

"I didn't even know there was a new Bob Dylan movie," Larson said. "It was totally coincidental, because we were just waiting for the last tenant to move out."

Take a look inside Dylan's former house, which has a mix of old-school features and modern amenities, and the secret garden on which it sits.

A house Bob Dylan lived in from the 1980s to 2005 is on the market for $7.25 million.

Starting in the 1980s, Dylan rented the home from a married couple: screenwriter Garson Kanin and his wife, actor Ruth Gordon.

He started out renting, then liked it so much he bought it.

The home is located in a somewhat hidden micro-neighborhood called Turtle Bay Gardens.

"It's got a pretty esteemed history," Larson said. "It has a lot of playwrights, writers, actors, and musicians who have lived in this enclave of 20 homes."

Owners of the 20 townhouses on East 49th and East 48th Streets can access a residents-only shared garden via their private backyards.

Turtle Bay Gardens was named a historic district by New York City's Landmarks Preservation Commission in 1966. It was built with a fountain modeled after the Villa Medici in Rome.

"It's got this unique feeling of being this special little enclave in the middle of a whole bunch of hustle and bustle and high rises," Larson said.

The current owners bought the home from Dylan for $4.45 million in 2005 and then renovated it.

"They did a more modern kitchen, they redid all the bathrooms — they did a lot of capital improvements," Larson said. "It's got all the conveniences of a modern house, but yet it still retains a lot of its old-world characteristics."

According to Larson, Dylan had installed a lot of mirrors around the townhouse that didn't survive the renovation.

The current owners used the home as a pied-à-terre and visited New York City less than five times a year.

The owners had rented out the townhouse for the last year, Larson said.

The ground floor features a patio and garden that lead to the shared garden.

The parlor level also has a terrace that leads to the lower level.

"It's not super unique to have necessarily a small terrace or a balcony on the parlor floor, but for you to be able to walk out onto it and then walk downstairs to access the garden below is pretty unique and pretty special," Larson said.

A unique feature of the home Dylan owned is the brick staircase from the private patio that leads to the shared garden.

"In my opinion, the backyard is one of the prettiest in all of Turtle Bay Gardens because it has that bi-level aspect to it, and just beautiful brickwork and stonework," Larson said.

The five-bedroom, 5½-bathroom home has around 5,400 square feet of interior space.

The library has a fireplace — one of seven in the home.

The archways throughout the five-story home are original. The elevator, though, was added on after Dylan sold.

Larson said the home is 19 feet wide.

"Some 19-footers have elevators and some don't," she added. "Having an elevator is huge."

A million different online multiplayer games seem to arrive each week, but good games you can play on the couch with a buddy aren’t as common. If you’re looking for a suggestion, we’ve rounded up a selection of our favorite couch co-op games below, from 2D platformers and lengthy RPGs to chill puzzlers and intense shooters. Just be aware that we’ve limited our selection to genuine co-op experiences, not games like Mario Kart or a Jackbox Party Pack that may be playable on one machine but are largely competitive by nature.

Check out our entire Best Games series including the best Nintendo Switch games, the best PS5 games, the best Xbox games, the best PC games and the best free games you can play today.

Kostas is set to become Australia men’s youngest Test batting debutant in 71 years with ‘The Baggy Greens' set to roll the dice on a problem position a year out from the Ashes

• James Mangold's new film "A Complete Unknown" is a Bob Dylan biopic.
• Timothée Chalamet stars as Dylan, Monica Barbaro as Joan Baez, and Elle Fanning as Sylvie Russo.
• "A Complete Unknown" arrives in theaters on December 25.

James Mangold's highly anticipated film "A Complete Unknown" follows Timothée Chalamet as Bob Dylan during his rise to renown in the early '60s.

The movie, which hits theaters on Christmas Day, also stars Monica Barbaro as the legendary folk singer Joan Baez and Elle Fanning as Sylvie Russo, a renamed version of Dylan's girlfriend at the time, Suze Rotolo.

Here's how the cast compares to the real-life people they're playing in "A Complete Unknown."

Timothée Chalamet stars as Bob Dylan in his early days as a musician in New York City.

Chalamet is an Oscar-nominated movie star known for a slew of acclaimed films, including "Call Me By Your Name," "Lady Bird," "Beautiful Boy," "Little Women," "The French Dispatch," "Dune," and "Dune: Part Two."

And yet, Chalamet recently told Stephen Colbert that "A Complete Unknown" is "the movie I'm proudest of in my career."

Chalamet learned to play guitar for the lead role and sang live during many of the film's musical performances. He said he spent five years familiarizing himself with Dylan's life, discography, and vocal style.

"A Complete Unknown" begins in 1961, when Dylan moved to New York City as a teenager. He released his self-titled debut album in 1962 and quickly became a fixture in the Greenwich Village folk scene, leading many critics to label him "the voice of a generation."

After releasing a few beloved folk albums, Dylan made a divisive pivot toward rock 'n' roll, punctuated with his electric performance at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival. The controversy was documented by Elijah Wald in his 2015 book "Dylan Goes Electric! Newport, Seeger, Dylan, and the Night That Split the Sixties," on which the movie's script is based.

Today, at 83, Dylan is known as one of the most influential and prolific singer-songwriters of all time. He has won 10 Grammys out of 38 nominations, as well as the Recording Academy's Lifetime Achievement Award, which he accepted in 1991.

Monica Barbaro plays Joan Baez, another prominent folk singer and activist.

Barbaro got her start in TV, landing recurring roles in shows like Lifetime's "Unreal," NBC's "Chicago P.D.," and ABC's "Splitting Up Together." She earned her breakthrough movie role as Lt. Natasha "Phoenix" Trace in 2022's "Top Gun: Maverick."

Like Chalamet, Barbaro was not trained as a singer or guitarist before being cast as Joan Baez, who helped Dylan lead the '60s folk revival. She worked with vocal coach Eric Vetro to approximate Baez's famous soprano.

When Barbaro had a chance to speak with Baez over the phone, she said she reassured the musician, "This is all done out of respect."

"She's just like, 'I'm just outside listening to the birds.' She is Joan. She's not so concerned with protecting [her legacy] or hovering over it," Barbaro told The Hollywood Reporter. "She signed over her songs [to the film], all her arrangements. She and Bob are sort of similar, in that they're not so obsessed with dictating this idea of who they are and who they were. They've been in the public eye for so long."

Baez, 83, also received the Recording Academy's Lifetime Achievement Award in 2007. She was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2017.

Elle Fanning plays Sylvie Russo, aka Suze Rotolo, Dylan's girlfriend at the time.

Fanning, who originally costarred with Chalamet in 2019's "A Rainy Day in New York," was a huge Dylan fan before she was cast in "A Complete Unknown."

"I had posters of him on my wall and wrote his name on my hand every day, partly to be cool," Fanning told The Hollywood Reporter. "I worked with ['We Bought a Zoo' director] Cameron Crowe when I was 13, and he played Bob Dylan a lot. He would play 'Buckets of Rain' over and over again. That's when it started."

Fanning's character Sylvie Russo is based on Suze Rotolo, Dylan's girlfriend in the early '60s. She died in 2011.

Rotolo was cemented in music history when she posed arm-in-arm with Dylan for the cover of his sophomore album, 1963's "The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan." She also influenced Dylan's left-wing politics and inspired the song "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right," among others.

According to Fanning, Dylan asked the filmmakers to avoid using Rotolo's real name because she was "a very private person and didn't ask for this life."

"She was obviously someone that was very special and sacred to Bob," Fanning told Rolling Stone.

Edward Norton plays Pete Seeger, a fellow musician and early mentor for Dylan.

After Benedict Cumberbatch dropped out of the movie, Norton — renowned for movies like "Fight Club," "Moonrise Kingdom," "Birdman," and "Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery" — was hired to portray folk pioneer Pete Seeger.

Seeger's expansive catalog includes the labor-movement anthem "The Hammer Song" and the crossover hit "Goodnight, Irene," both of which Seeger recorded with his folk quartet The Weavers in 1950. He also wrote the patriotic classic "This Land Is Your Land."

Seeger met Dylan in Greenwich Village shortly after the younger singer arrived in town. He is known as one of Dylan's earliest supporters, credited with getting Dylan on the lineup for the Newport Folk Festival. However, according to legend, Seeger was disturbed by Dylan's electric performance at the 1965 edition. Some claim he even tried to cut the sound while Dylan was onstage.

Throughout his life, Seeger was outspoken in support of civil rights, workers' rights, and anti-war efforts, among other causes. He died in 2014 at age 94.

"Narcos" star Boyd Holbrook plays the country-rock icon Johnny Cash.

Holbrook is being hailed as a scene-stealer for his performance as Johnny Cash in "A Complete Unknown."

Cash and Dylan officially met at the 1964 Newport Folk Festival, but they had already been exchanging letters as fans of each other's work.

"I had a portable record player that I'd take along on the road, and I'd put on 'The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan' backstage, then go out and do my show, then listen again as soon as I came off," Cash wrote in his autobiography, per Far Out magazine.

"After a while at that, I wrote Bob a letter telling him how much of a fan I was," Cash continued. "He wrote back almost immediately, saying he'd been following my music since 'I Walk the Line,' and so we began a correspondence."

Dylan's manager, Jeff Rosen, gave Mangold, the director, access to letters that Cash and Dylan exchanged in this era. He told Rolling Stone they became "an instrumental voice in the movie."

The two musicians maintained a close friendship until Cash died from complications of diabetes in 2003. He was 71.

Scoot McNairy plays Woody Guthrie, the legendary folk singer who influenced Dylan.

You may recognize McNairy from "Argo," "Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice," or one of two other films released in 2024: "Speak No Evil" and "Nightbitch."

Before the year ends, McNairy will return to the silver screen as Woody Guthrie, widely known as Dylan's personal hero. Guthrie rose to fame in 1940 with his topical album "Dust Bowl Ballads," which chronicles the Great Depression's effects on American Midwesterners. He continued to sing about anti-capitalist and anti-fascist themes throughout his career.

By the time Dylan arrived in New York, Guthrie was being treated in New Jersey for Huntington's disease.

The movie dramatizes their first encounter, including an emotional performance of Dylan's "Song to Woody," with which he serenades Guthrie in the hospital. Chalamet told Rolling Stone that after filming the scene, he went home and "wept." (In reality, Dylan wrote the song after he and Guthrie had already met, per the magazine.)

Guthrie died in 1967 at age 55.

Dan Fogler plays Albert Grossman, Dylan's manager.

Dan Fogler is best known for the "Harry Potter" spinoff franchise "Fantastic Beasts," in which he played the no-maj character Jacob Kowalski.

In "A Complete Unknown," Fogler portrays Albert Grossman, Dylan's manager from 1962 to 1970. Grossman helped Dylan become an influential figure in the era's folk revival, but his aggressive and intimidating business tactics also earned him a controversial reputation, according to TeachRock.org.

Grossman died in 1986 of a heart attack. He was 59.

Android phones have been the first to feature a bunch of notable standards. They were the first to support 4G, 5G, USB-C (way back in 2015 no less) and in-screen fingerprint sensors. And when it comes to wireless charging, you can trace that lineage all the way back to the Samsung Galaxy S3 from 2012 (though the webOS-poweered Palm Pre and its Touchstone charger is the true OG). Unfortunately, when it came to adding support for the Qi2 wireless charging standard to devices in 2024, it feels like Android phone makers were stuck on outdated patch notes.

The Qi2 standard was officially announced in early 2023 during CES. We even gave it an award, as the spec looked to bring 15-watt wireless charging (and possibly more in future revisions), improved safety and critically the introduction of Magnetic Power Profiles that make it a cinch to align and attach compatible charging pads. In essence, Qi2 was set to bring the simplicity and ease of use iPhone owners enjoy with MagSafe products to the Android ecosystem.

Photo by Sam Rutherford

Even more surprising is that in a rare move for a company that likes keeping its tech siloed neatly inside the walls of its ecosystem, Apple shared core parts of the MagSafe spec with other members of the Wireless Power Consortium (which is the governing body that oversees the Qi and Qi2 standards) to speed up development and interoperability. So you’d think after seeing the convenience and popularity of MagSafe accessories among iPhone users, Android phone makers would have rushed out to add Qi2 to as many devices as possible. But nearly two full years after the spec was finalized, the grand total of Android handsets that support Qi2 stands at one: the HMD Skyline.

At this point, you might be saying that product development cycles are multi-year processes that are difficult to change prior to launch. And in most cases, you’d probably be right. But let's be honest, it’s not like Samsung, Google, Lenovo and others didn’t see this coming. Like Apple, practically all of the big Android phone makers are also members of the WPC, so they would have known about the development of Qi2 long before it was officially announced. On top of that, the first iPhone with MagSafe was the iPhone 12, which came out four years ago. So even if we assume that the first time Samsung, Google et al were presented with the idea of a magnetic wireless charging system was during Apple’s keynote in the fall of 2020, you’d imagine that’s still more than enough time to engineer similar technology for use on today’s Galaxy and Pixel handsets.

Photo by Sam Rutherford

For manufacturers, another concern when adopting a new standard is that there may not be enough accessories and other compatible peripherals on sale to make implementation of new tech worth it. We’ve seen this in the past with modular phones like the LG G5 and Moto Z Force line and the funky palm-reading tech on the LG G8. However, because Qi2 and MagSafe gadgets are largely interchangeable, there’s already a huge market of options like Anker’s MagGo line of power banks, which are some of my current favorite portable battery packs.

Another annoyance is that some phones like the Razr Plus and Pixel 9 Pro Fold will even stick magnetically to some Qi2 accessories and may even suck down a tiny bit of juice. Unfortunately, this is more of a coincidence caused by the magnets used to help keep foldables open or closed, rather than an intentional use case. This means that even though these devices may appear to support Qi2 at first glance, accessories don’t maintain a firm grip and often slide off even in what appear to be ideal circumstances. Even cases that claim to add support for Qi2 are hit or miss, resulting in a poor experience for Android phone owners hoping to recreate the magic of MagSafe on their own. It’s really a shame, because it almost feels like with a few small tweaks Google, Moto and others could unlocked Qi2 support on a wider range of devices without a ton of extra effort or cost.

Photo by Sam Rutherford/Engadget

Unfortunately, while many Chinese phone makers have avoided Qi2 up until this point, that’s sort of to be expected with manufacturers like Oppo often favoring proprietary tech like its 65-watt AirVOOC wireless charging instead of more widely accessible industry standard. And because the Galaxy S24 family came out at the very beginning of 2024, Samsung didn’t have quite as much time to add Qi2 to its current flagship lineup as Google, which launched the Pixel 9 series just a few months ago. Regardless, this still doesn’t explain the general reluctance of OEMs to adopt what I’d argue is one of the most meaningful upgrades in accessibility and general usability you can add to a smartphone today.

But the most frustrating thing is that six months ago, our friends at CNET pondered why we had yet to see any Qi2 Android phones. And as we’re nearing the end of the year, there’s still only a single model trying to spark hope that 2025 will be different. So kudos to HMD for doing what Samsung, Google et al. couldn’t be bothered to figure out. Now I’m just worried that if things don’t change next year, one of the most promising standards could end up in the graveyard (at least for Android phones) before ever getting a chance to thrive.

• Warning: Major spoilers ahead for "The Brutalist."
• Guy Pearce told BI that the ending and how his character exits the movie is "brilliant."
• "It's important what the audience imagines," he said.

Brady Corbet's three-and-a-half-hour epic "The Brutalist" is filled with eye-popping visuals and moving sequences as it chronicles the life of László Tóth (Adrien Brody), a Hungarian Jew who survives the Holocaust and emigrates to post-World War II America. It all leads to a shocking end centered around Guy Pearce's character, the bombastic wealthy industrialist Harrison Lee Van Buren.

The bulk of the movie focuses on Van Buren commissioning Tóth, an architect, to create a massive community center. The endeavor stretches Tóth's talents and patience for most who work with him, but he seems to always have Van Buren's support. Van Buren even helps Tóth get his wife Erzsébet (Felicity Jones) to the US and allows them to live on his estate during the center's construction.

Years into the project, Tóth and Van Buren travel to Italy to order the marble needed to complete the community center. The two enjoy a party there one evening, and Van Buren rapes Tóth. Tóth returns home a changed man, filled with anger towards everyone.

By the end of the movie, Tóth tells his wife what happened in Italy. She then barges in on Van Buren and his family having dinner with guests. Erzsébet calls Van Buren a rapist in front of everyone, which leads to an argument, and Van Buren's son Harry (Joe Alwyn) forces Erzsébet from the room.

Once things calm down, Van Buren has disappeared. Harry begins to search the house for his father while also seemingly having a panic attack. When no one can find Van Buren in the house, they expand their search around the estate and through the unfinished community center.

He is never found.

Pearce doesn't know what happened to Van Buren — but that's not the point

Pearce told Business Insider he didn't have much discussion with Corbet, who cowrote the screenplay with his wife Mona Fastvold, about Van Buren's dramatic exit.

"That was on the page," Pearce said. "It was pretty clear in the script that we go out of the room, we come back, and the dinner guests say, 'He's gone to bed,' and then Joe goes looking for me, and I'm not in bed, and we just don't know where he's at. He's become nothing."

Pearce said looking for answers to what really happened to Van Buren isn't the point. "It's not important even to know what happened to him, it's important what the audience imagines," he said.

"I think the unsatisfactory nature of a character who is so present and so dominant and so controlling then just evaporates — I thought it was brilliant."

After watching the movie, Pearce said what struck him about the scene was how it raised the question of if this was the first time Van Buren sexually assaulted someone.

"Watching how that scene played out — while I was busy hiding behind a chest of drawers in that dining room so I wasn't caught on camera — watching Joe run around as desperate as he was looking for me, there was something there that tells us that there's more to this," Pearce said. "It was harrowing stuff." 

"The Brutalist" is now playing in theaters.

The Russian government has banned crypto mining in ten regions for a period of six years, according to reporting by the state-owned news agency Tass. Russia has cited the industry’s high power consumption rates as the primary reason behind the ban. Crypto is particularly power-hungry, as mining operations already account for nearly 2.5 percent of US energy use.

This ban takes effect on January 1 and lasts until March 15, 2031. The country’s Council of Ministers has also stated that additional bans may be required in other regions during periods of peak energy demand. It could also go the other way. The ban could be temporarily lifted or altered in certain regions if a government commission examines changes in energy demand and deems it necessary.

Cryptocurrency mining has only been fully legal in Russia since November 1, as the country has had a rocky relationship with the practice. Miners must register with the Ministry of Digital Development and energy consumption limits are continually monitored.

The country banned the use of cryptocurrencies as legal tender back in 2022, but does allow cross-border payments. The latter is largely seen as an attempt by Russia to avoid sanctions in the wake of the invasion of Ukraine.

Russia isn’t the only country to put the kibosh on crypto mining due to the industry’s obscene energy demands. Kosovo outlawed the practice back in 2022 to conserve electricity during an energy crisis. Angola did the same in April of 2024. That country’s law goes a step further and criminalizes crypto mining. Several European countries, like Iceland and Norway, have started to strictly regulate the industry due to energy shortages.

Lilium, a company working on flying taxis that can take off and land vertically, has ceased operations. As TechCrunch notes, German media Gründerszene was the first publication to report that it laid off 1,000 workers a few days ago after it failed to secure more financing to continue its technology's development. Patrick Nathen, the company's co-founder, has announced that the company has stopped all operations on LinkedIn. Tagging his co-founders, he said that they can no longer continue working on their "shared belief in greener aviation," at least under Lilium.

The German company has been testing its VTOL electric air taxis for a while now. Its vehicle took off for the first time for its maiden flight back in 2017, and it completed its first phase of flight tests in 2019. Lilium was able to prove that its VTOL air taxis are capable of flying at speeds of over 100 kilometers per hour, though the Lilium Jet prototype it unveiled in 2019 was supposed to be able go as fast as 300 kmh and to have a range of 300 kilometers. 

Lilium has been struggling financially over the past year, but its CEO reportedly remained optimistic about being able to secure enough funding as recently as last month. Gründerszene said that a small number of people will remain employed to help with liquidation. The company has yet to announce what will happen to its technology and the rest of its assets, but its patent attorney, Fabien Müller, wrote in a post that he's managing the transition of Lilium's intellectual property.

Several prominent California Democrats are calling on the U.S. Department of Transportation to approve a grant application for $536 million in federal funds to move forward with the state’s long-awaited high-speed rail network.

The monies would come from funds already allocated in general to "federal-state partnership[s] for intercity passenger rail grants" through the 2021 "Bipartisan Infrastructure Law" and made available via the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2024.

Democrats urged Secretary Pete Buttigieg to approve the funds, saying progress on the "California Phase I Corridor" is "essential to enhancing our nation’s and California’s strategic transportation network investments."

"The Phase 1 Corridor aims to address climate concerns, promote health, improve access and connectivity, and boost economic vitality, while addressing current highway and rail capacity constraints," a letter to the outgoing Cabinet member read.

BUILDING STARTS ON HIGH-SPEED RAIL LINE BETWEEN LAS VEGAS AND LOS ANGELES AREA

Drafted by Sen.-elect Adam Schiff, Sen. Alex Padilla, and California Democratic Reps. Jim Costa, Zoe Lofgren and Pete Aguilar, the letter calls for the funds to go to two projects in particular: tunneling through the Tehachapi Mountains in Southern California and through the Pacheco Pass of the Diablo Mountains in Northern California.

"These investments will continue to support living wage jobs, provide small business opportunities, and equitably enhance the mobility of communities in need – including disadvantaged agricultural communities – all while reducing greenhouse gas emissions," Schiff and the other lawmakers wrote.

"Please consider the enormous value and meaningful impact that FSP-National grant funding will provide to advancing CAHSR beyond the Central Valley," they told Buttigieg.

The bores are needed, the lawmakers said, to connect with other intercity passenger rail systems including the Brightline West, CalTrain, Metrolink and Altamont Commuter Express. 

FLASHBACK: COMER TOUTS HUNTER BIDEN HEARING: RASKIN, SCHIFF ‘PULL STUFF OUT OF THEIR REAR’

According to California Republicans, the overall high-speed rail project is nearly $100 billion over budget and decades behind schedule.

Trump’s DOGE duo of Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy aren’t keen on the idea of continuing to fund what many Republicans consider a costly and unfruitful endeavor.

Rep. Kevin Kiley, R-Calif., said as much earlier this month in remarks on the House floor.

"I am very happy to report that the newly formed Department of Government Efficiency has honed-in on perhaps the single greatest example of government waste in United States history – and that is California’s high-speed-rail boondoggle," Kiley said.

The official DOGE X account also described both California’s high-speed rail expenditures and requested funding in a November tweet.

Earlier this month, Ramaswamy also called the plans a "wasteful vanity project" that burned "billions in taxpayer cash with little prospect of completion in the next decade."

He said Trump "correctly" rescinded $1 billion in federal funding for the project in 2019 and lamented President Biden’s reversal of that move.

"Time to end the waste," Ramaswamy said.

California’s top state Senate Republican echoed the DOGE leaders’ concerns.

"California's 'train to nowhere' has already wasted billions of taxpayer dollars – now Biden wants all Americans to fund this boondoggle," State Sen. Brian W. Jones of San Diego told Fox News Digital.

"When President Trump returns to office in a few weeks, he must defund the high-speed rail. This wasteful government experiment must end once and for all," he added.

If approved, the federal funds will be bolstered by $134 million in state monies from California’s "cap & trade" program, according to the Sacramento Bee.

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At a 2013 conference, Musk floated the idea of a "hyperloop" which was also presented in a white paper. Though it has not yet come to fruition, Musk said at the time he had thought whether there is a better way to get from Los Angeles to San Francisco than what California has proposed.

"The high-speed rail that’s being proposed would actually be the slowest bullet train in the world and the most expensive per-mile," he said. "Isn’t there something better that we can come up with?"

The world’s richest man described Hyperloop at the time as a combination of a Concorde, a rail gun and an air-hockey table.

No game this year captured the imagination of the Engadget crew quite like Balatro did, and when it came time for each staff member to pitch their favorite games of 2024, everyone – and I mean everyone – wanted to write about Balatro. In the end, rather than forcing everyone to fight for the chance to write about their love of the game, we instead decided to ask the team to write their own individual take on Balatro.

My Steam Deck is a Balatro machine and I love it

My Steam Deck is a Balatro machine at this point, and no, I’m not complaining about this. I’ve broken out my Steam Deck for plenty of games before Balatro and I plan on playing lots more on it in the future, but for now and potentially until I take my final breath, its primary function is joker generation.

First of all, Balatro just feels nice on a handheld device. It’s the kind of game that you can play passively while watching TV or listening to a podcast, or with intense focus as you try to collect jokers, stakes, achievements and stickers on the way to Completionist++. The Steam Deck is the ideal platform for this type of game, because, especially in combination with a comfy PC setup, it allows players to flow between these two states without losing progression. The mobile version of Balatro is rad and the Switch version is peachy, but I started playing on PC and, more than 500 hours later, I’m reluctant to start over on any other platform.

I absolutely love curling up on the couch with Balatro, playing it on the PC at my desk, using it as a distraction on long commutes, and getting a few hands in before bed. The Balatro Machine — uh, I mean, Steam Deck — enables my obsession in a seamless way.

— Jessica Conditt, Senior Reporter

Balatro is a card game you can feel

Balatro is a game you mostly play in your head. There’s a giant array of modifier cards, each with their own effects and consequences, and you work through their permutations like you’re tinkering with a chemistry kit. It’s a game of decisions, all of which are contingent on the decisions you’ve made prior. Some work, most blow up in your face.

This is what makes Balatro engaging, but it’s not my favorite thing about it. What I like most is how tangible it is. How it makes a digital playing card game have any felt impact at all. It’s the little tck and shake each card does when scored. The donk when a joker adds to your multiplier, the way the donks speed up and rise in pitch as buffs and retriggers pile up. The thrrrp of the deck reshuffling. The brief delay upon opening a booster pack to raise anticipation, how the pack disintegrates to emphasize the finality of your decision. The sound of coins colliding when you collect interest or buy something. The fire that burns and rises around your score when you’ve passed the goal in one hand, a dopamine hit within a dopamine hit. The way the air gets sucked out of the trancy music when you inevitably fail.

You are not a character in Balatro. You’re just you, staring at cards set against swirling colors. Yet all of these flourishes go a long way toward sucking you into that vortex, really locking you in it, somehow giving a game that most resembles video poker a sense of physical place. Balatro is, among many things, an A-1 example of economical sound design. The easiest way to dilute it is to play it on mute.

— Jeff Dunn, Senior Reporter

The real Balatro was the joker stickers we earned along the way

I am not an achievement hunter — I’m the sort of person who skips sidequests that aren’t interesting and rarely replays games after finishing them. The one “Platinumed” game in my PlayStation collection is the PS4 version of Resogun, and I have 100-percented precisely zero games on Xbox. Why, then, was 2024 the year that I became obsessed with achieving Completionist++ on Balatro?

I received the Completionist Steam achievement, which you get by discovering every card in the game, after a month with the game. It took me another five months to get Completionist+, awarded to those who beat Ante 8 with every deck on gold difficulty. The one thing left for me to do was the game’s toughest challenge: Competitionist++, which involves getting gold stickers on every joker by beating Ante 8 on gold difficulty with each of them active.

As of writing, Completionist++ is still a distant dream. It’s easy to feel like you’ve mastered the game after beating Completionist+; There are simple joker combinations that can take you past Ante 8 with every deck. Completionist++ strips those safety nets from you, forcing you to beat the game’s hardest level without relying on surefire strategies. While I do occasionally miss my high-score chasing early days with Balatro, this challenge has given the game a completely new dynamic for me, as I figure out how to craft a win out of jokers I considered useless before.

If you’ve made your way through all the stakes and are wondering what to do next, Completionist++ is a challenge worth setting yourself. Just a word of warning: I’ve played for 460 hours across my PC and Steam Deck, and I’ve only unlocked 961 of the game’s 1,200 stickers.

— Aaron Souppouris, Executive Editor

Balatro is a deep, complex game for filthy casuals like me

Some of my friends and co-workers are taking Balatro to some wild extremes. Aaron told me he's unlocked and completed about 95 percent of the game; I meanwhile sit at a paltry 19 percent. Another friend routinely shares quick videos from his runs where he racks up hundreds of millions of points in a single hand with Jokers I can't fathom, while my best single hand sits at a little over 3 million.

The good thing, though? This isn’t discouraging; it’s a feature, not a bug. Balatro has somehow managed to be the kind of game you can sink hundreds of hours into in an all-out quest for completion and mastery. Or you can do as I do and pick it up, play for 30 minutes or an hour a few times a week, and come back to it again with plenty to do when you get the itch.

Don’t get me wrong, I’d love to get to the point where I’m grabbing a billion points on a single hand, but my gaming time is limited and I usually choose to spend it on the PS5. But one of the great joys of Balatro is that you can go on a bender and play it for hours, and then not come back to it for days or weeks, and then just pick it up and keep making progress. You’re not going to lose any skills or forget your objectives. It’s a casual, pick-up-and-play game that also hides some incredible depth, and games like that don’t come around too often.

— Nathan Ingraham, Deputy Editor

Balatro is an almost perfect mobile port

2024 is unquestionably the year of Balatro. It came out of nowhere to fill our heads with dreams of flush fives and legendary Jimbos. But I think what put it really over the top was when it launched on iOS and Android earlier this fall. Not only did the mobile version cost $5 less than the desktop edition on Steam (or console ports), but there are no intrusive ads or extra purchases anywhere in the game. That's including all the crossover cardbacks (like the ones featuring characters from The Witcher, Cyberpunk 2077 and more) and the big forthcoming update due out at the beginning of next year.

On top of that, there’s essentially no difference in features between the mobile and desktop/console versions. Granted, that’s due in large part to the game being a relatively simple title (at least in terms of graphics). But even so, you’d be surprised how easy that is to mess up. The game boots up nearly instantly and even when you’re smashing antes while pushing your score deep into scientific notation, the system doesn’t get bogged down. Throw in a satisfying interface, support for cloud saves, multiple languages and profiles plus a high contrast option that's great for accessibility, and you've got an app that plays well on practically any device.

In fact, I’d argue that foldables like the Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold and Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 are the perfect joker-hunting devices. Their large screens feel like a perfect match for Balatro without ever feeling cramped, which happens sometimes on older gadgets with less roomy displays. Text is generally easy to read (though sometimes less so on tiny devices) and there’s plenty of open space to push things around without getting in your own way. I have a few minor complaints you can read about in my longer piece on Balatro's beauty on mobile devices, but as a whole I'm confident I’m going to get more than my money’s worth for years to come.

— Sam Rutherford, Senior Reporter

This year may not have been as jam packed as 2023 was for gaming, but there were still plenty of amazing new releases. Whether you love a good indie or a big-budget production, this year had you covered. All you needed to do was look a bit deeper than you might have in 2023.

Animal Well

The core of Animal Well isn’t that structurally complicated: It’s a lock-and-key Metroidvania. You go to places to unlock other places and abilities. There are puzzle bits. Platforming bits. Bosses. A sense of progression. Beating the core “story” opens up a couple layers of admirably elaborate and increasingly meta secrets, but let’s be real, most people interested in those are just going to look up the answers online.

And yet, you play it, and you can’t help but think there isn’t much like it nowadays. Why? It’s not just the lo-fi aesthetic. It’s the fact that you never learn what your little blob guy is. It’s giving you a map to mark up yourself instead of providing any instructions. It’s accidentally realizing the disc you’ve held onto for the last three hours isn’t just for throwing. It’s the big monkey that flings rocks at you, just because. It’s the way each screen is a static shot, the way the camera centers the world instead of the player. It’s the eternal wonder and pleasure of uncovering what lies in wait in the dark, behind us, under our feet, outside of our little wells. And then having no clue what it actually means. That’s real stuff.

Animal Well is that rare thing: a modern video game that trusts you to figure it out and has enough grace to let you stumble in the shadows. I bet the ending will leave you slack-jawed.

— Jeff Dunn, Senior Reporter

Astro Bot

Astro Bot is a paean to the three-decade history of PlayStation. It shines a spotlight on every crevice of the brand's timeline, turning both mascots and long-forgotten characters from Sony's archives into adorable bots that you collect along your journey.

More importantly, though, Astro Bot stands squarely in the pantheon of great PlayStation games in its own right. It's an exquisitely designed platformer that's bursting with personality, wit and gorgeous visuals. Team Asobi packed its ultra-charming game with clever ideas and mechanics to keep you on your toes. It even feels great thanks to smart use of the DualSense controller's haptic feedback.

Video games aren’t always supposed to be fun. But Astro Bot wrings pure joy out of every single moment — at least when it’s not kicking your ass in the tough bonus levels.

— Kris Holt, Contributing Reporter

Batman: Arkham Shadow

I never get sick of playing the Batman Arkham games. It doesn’t matter how many times I’ve solved all the Riddler’s puzzles or foiled The Joker’s plans. Batman: Arkham Shadow does a superb job of replicating all the things that make the original Batman games fun, like using gadgets to rack up combos in hand-to-hand combat and swooping out of the darkness to pick off armed henchmen. The game’s most impressive feature, however, isn’t the fighting, Batarang-ing or the satisfying feeling you get when you make a Tyger guard’s leg bend in the other direction. It’s the story.

Batman: Arkham Shadow goes deep into the legend of Batman and its Rogues Gallery of thematic villains. It unpacks Bruce Wayne’s story of perpetual pain and need for emotional redemption just as well as any of the other games and even some of the big-screen adaptations. Batman: Arkham Shadow shows that VR games have a lot of potential to be more than just mindless shooting galleries and boxing simulators.

— Danny Gallagher, Contributing Reporter

Balatro

Of all the games you see on this list, not one was as universally loved as Balatro. Nearly every member of the Engadget team wanted to write about the game. So instead of limiting ourselves to just one blurb, we wrote an entire ode to Balatro.

Crow Country

When I first heard about Crow Country, a 2024 release that was heavily influenced by PS1 survival horror games, I was really intrigued but also a bit worried that it’d be little more than a nostalgia grab. But once I got to playing it, I totally fell in love, and found it to be a unique experience even with all the loving nods to its inspirations.

Crow Country follows Mara Forest, a somewhat shady protagonist, as she explores an abandoned amusement park in search of its missing owner, Edward Crow. There are constant hints to a terrible event that led to the park’s shutdown, and strange skinless monsters are all over the place. In typical survival horror form, you have to manage your resources like ammo and health kits, and you’ll encounter a bunch of puzzles that you’ll need to solve in order to progress. I played Crow Country before the introduction of Hard mode, and found it to be spooky and engaging — but, to my surprise, also kind of cozy, which I really liked. But there’s a game mode for everyone. If you want a more riveting experience, go for Hard mode. If you don’t want to face any enemies, there’s Exploration mode. Survival, the “normal” mode, falls in between those two.

Crow Country is a great game with some light horror and a story that was fun to piece together along the way. It’s perfect if you want to play a horror game that has a creepy atmosphere but won’t have your heart in your throat the entire time.

— Cheyenne MacDonald, Weekend Editor

Dragon Age: The Veilguard

Dragon Age: The Veilguard wastes no time showing off the full glory of its graphical prowess and epic storytelling. Once you’ve spent some time in its (excellent) character creator, it’s only a few minutes until you’re fighting to stop the end of the world. Solas, the previous game’s surprise villain, is trying to tear apart the boundary between the spirit and human world. And in the process, his magical ceremony fills the screen with a glorious array of neon lights, color and shadows. If you’ve got a modern GPU, you’re in for a ray tracing workout.

I’m a gamer of simple pleasures, and I’ll admit, that bombastic opening sequence alone was enough to make me fall for Dragon Age: The Veilguard. What kept me playing, though, was BioWare’s classic formula of intriguing characters and sharp storytelling. I’ll forgive the many missteps of Mass Effect Andromeda, Veilguard’s crew of ragtag heroes make it clear BioWare still has its narrative.

What’s truly surprising, though, is that Dragon Age: The Veilguard is also a decent action RPG, with fast-paced and challenging combat that feels more reminiscent of the recent God of War games than anything from Dragon Age proper. There’s a rich skill tree to follow, and you can always re-spec without penalty.

For a game that could take a hundred hours to truly finish, Veilguard still manages to feel fresh and exciting every time I sit down to play. So really, I don’t mind if it doesn’t hit as hard as previous entries, or if it doesn’t give you as many consequential choices as Baldur’s Gate 3. Sometimes it just feels good to hang out with your fantasy buds and crack a few demon skulls.

— Devinda Hardawar, Senior Editor

Final Fantasy VII Rebirth

The second part of the anticipated remake of 1997’s Final Fantasy VII uses the power of the PlayStation 5 to create a more significant (if not entirely open) world. (It’s also one of the best games to showcase what the PS5 Pro is capable of, offering smoother framerates and crisper textures and detail.) It’s a bigger, better, game than Remake.

Final Fantasy VII Rebirth expands Remake's often constricted alleys and buildings into expansive plains, mountain hikes, and Mythril caverns. What’s interesting about this middle chapter is that the ending of Remake seemingly cut ties with the story we all knew from the original. Despite that, Cloud, Aerith and the rest of the motley crew tour most of the same towns and destinations of the original game. That feeling of nostalgia is paired with a modern, further refined action RPG battle system, with new synergy attacks, materia and summon spells. It’s all a little convoluted, but also meant I got to lean into my favorite characters and their play styles. (No one likes Cait Sith.)

It’s a rolling adventure that folds in extra character and story detail. While exploration in this middle chapter isn’t as expansive as I might have liked, the themed areas are all different from each other, packed with their own battle and exploration themes. I just love the soundtrack of Rebirth – I love it so much that it made it into my most-played albums of 2024.

— Mat Smith, UK Bureau Chief

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle

When I first learned an Indiana Jones game was in the works, it seemed instantly superfluous. What’s the point when the Tomb Raider and Uncharted games have spent decades translating Indy’s pulpy action into the world of video games? I should have known better than to doubt MachineGames, the developers behind the recent (and excellent) Wolfenstein games. If anything, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle has more in common with Dishonored and Hitman than the bombastic set pieces that have plagued Uncharted’s Nathan Drake. It’s a first-person game, for one, and it focuses more on stealth and problem-solving than mowing down dozens of baddies.

The game begins with a stunning recreation of the opening scene from Raiders of the Lost Ark, a sequence that had me continually dropping my jaw. Many shots are directly mirrored from the original film, the Indy model looks surprisingly life-like, and perhaps the biggest shock of all, voice actor Troy Baker delivers a solid interpretation of a young Harrison Ford. Honestly, his Indiana Jones sounds more like the character I remember than Ford does in the recent (and genuinely great) Dial of Destiny.

While you’re equipped with a gun early on, most of your time is spent investigating large areas like the Vatican, sneaking around restricted areas and punching fascists in the face. You’ll also encounter a few puzzles that pose just enough of a challenge to be satisfying, without being overly annoying.

Five hours into the game, I realized I hadn’t yet fired my gun. And it would take several more hours before that was actually necessary. I can’t think of many other action franchises that practiced such restraint.

MachineGames didn’t just make a good Indiana Jones game — it crafted one of the best Indiana Jones experiences ever made. I’ll take The Great Circle over Temple of Doom any day. It’s so good, it belongs in a museum.

— D.H.

Infinity Nikki

From the hours we spend transmogging items or building gear sets for max stats, fashion has always been low-key essential in video games. So it's about damn time that someone decided to take the plunge, accept that style is everything and put it at the heart of an extremely charming game. Infinity Nikki is the most time I have ever spent in a game's photo mode. How could I not? My in-game wardrobe has been filling up with pieces all over the style spectrum – from the ultimate cozy loungewear to absurdly frivolous pastel confections – and I love them all. Dressing up in fabulous outfits is a big part of Infinity Nikki's immaculate vibes, but there's a whole lot of game here that has wisely taken its design cues from other very good titles.

The influence of Genshin Impact is clear in the approach to gacha systems. The open-world exploration and side questing feel reminiscent of Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom. The Whimstar mechanics are right out of any 3D Mario. But every idea has been toned down so there's no stress and very little challenge. That sounds like it should be boring. It's not. Being in Miraland is a complete joy.

— Anna Washenko, Contributing Reporter

INDIKA

I haven’t stopped thinking about INDIKA since I played it in May. It’s not a constant train of thought or anything, but memories of the game float through my consciousness fairly often and I welcome them each time — funny, heartwrenching and all the emotions in between. And yet, INDIKA is not a game I freely recommend to every person. It’s a satirical and surreal tale about the devil living inside a nun’s head, and while it has laugh-out-loud dialogue and cute buddy-cop moments, it’s also laced with scenes of sexual violence. No matter how delicately and powerfully these scenes are handled, they’re still heavy.

But, if you’re up for it, INDIKA is an utterly unique third-person adventure that deftly balances levity and agony. It offers a flurry of whimsical absurdity, religious criticism and raw human suffering, always with a wink and a nod. INDIKA thrives in the messy area between pleasure and discomfort, and it’s worth a play for anyone seeking something mature and original.

— Jessica Conditt, Senior Reporter

Lorelei and the Laser Eyes

Lorelei and the Laser Eyes is composed of contradictions. It’s a distillation of everything that makes a puzzle game tick, and it’s also a complete subversion of the genre. It’s heartwarming but eerie, mysterious yet satisfying, chaotic and utterly logical. It’s modern, vintage and futuristic all at once.

In Lorelei, players are stranded at the gates of an otherworldly hotel, and the only thing to do is investigate the creativity and tragedy that’s touched its grounds over the decades. The hotel is vast and dotted with secrets, and each of its rooms houses at least one mystery. There are more than 150 puzzles in the game — memorization tests, logic riddles, perspective tricks, math problems, art projects, lunar phases, astrological clocks and mazes — and the solution in one room often unlocks secrets in other areas. It’s a nonlinear experience, though it feels like everything in the hotel is deeply connected. Even you.

Lorelei and the Laser Eyes is for fans of puzzles, narrative twists and David Lynch — but really, it’s for anyone who likes rad new video games. This is a game like no other, and it’s proof that innovation is alive and well in the industry, especially among indie developers.

— J.C.

Metaphor: ReFantazio

Metaphor: ReFantazio improves on the Atlus JRPG formula that I’ve loved across various Shin Megami Tensei and Persona games in every way. Perhaps the game’s greatest triumph is making that classic JRPG grindfest feel unique and purposeful. Rather than crawling through bleak, procedurally generated dungeons to level up between key objectives, you’ll be claiming bounties on monsters, helping locals rescue loved ones or searching for mysterious relics. Add to that an engaging and surprisingly grounded storyline, vibrant characters and a fine-tuned battle system, and you have a clear winner.

The one drawback is that I wish its technical underpinnings were stronger; all the beautiful artwork and stylish menus in the world can’t hide that the game is clearly built on the same engine as Persona 5, stretched to its absolute limits. Coming from the slick Persona 3 remake, which utilized Unreal Engine to good effect, it’s a little jarring to see low-res textures, fizzling lines and weird loads between areas. None of this is enough to stop Metaphor from being a game I recommend to anyone who will listen, though.

Here’s hoping that the next Persona game — which has to be around the corner, right? — takes the gameplay improvements of Metaphor and pairs them with an engine that wasn’t built to accommodate the PlayStation 3.

— Aaron Souppouris, Executive Editor

Neva

Neva packs a hell of a punch. This action platformer tells a devastatingly affecting story about disease, entropy and the relationship between human and animal over time. It's mesmerizing on multiple levels: visually, aurally and emotionally.

The story plays out almost wordlessly, with Nomada Studio largely using its environments, enemy encounters and your progression to tell the tale. You play as a warrior named Alba who tries to cleanse the world of a corruptive force that plagues the environment and possesses animals. Her companion is a titular wolf. Neva grows from a pup to an adult throughout the seasons depicted in the game. Alba can call the wolf to her when they're apart, but the timbre of her cries changes depending on how fraught the situation is.

Neva is a relatively short game, but it's one that will stick with you. Just as the blight does to the landscapes and fauna of this sumptuous world.

— K.H.

Nine Sols

2024 may not be over yet, but I can safely say we probably won’t see Team Cherry release Silksong. In other words, it was another painful year for Hollow Knight fans. But if you love Metroidvanias as much as I do, 2024 was easily one of the genre’s best years since 2017. Even if you only count two of this year’s more popular releases, Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown and Animal Well, there was no shortage of incredible Metroidvanias to play over the last 12 months. But if you ask me, most people slept on 2024’s best release: Nine Sols.

Nine Sols is one of those rare experiences where the elevator pitch actually does the game justice. It’s a 2D Metroidvania with a Sekiro-inspired combat system. I’ll be honest, that alone would have been enough to get me hooked, but the reason I’m still thinking about the game months after it came out in May is because of its story. The only thing I’ll say here is that Nine Sols is the product of Red Candle Games. If that name sounds familiar, it’s because the studio’s previous game, Devotion, was at the center of a major censorship scandal involving the Chinese government. By all accounts, Devotion featured an incredible story, and I wish I could play it after experiencing Nine Sols. The team at Red Candle Games are master storytellers, and if the way Hollow Knight hid its best narrative elements behind item descriptions and environmental details left you wanting more, I think you owe it to yourself to give Nine Sols a try.

— Igor Bonifacic, Senior Reporter

Pepper Grinder

Pepper Grinder is a brisk, no-bullshit 2D platformer. Its hook is the titular device: a giant frigging drill that lets you chew and leap through each stage like a chainsaw-wielding dolphin. You’re never fully in control while the machine roars along, so navigating the quick stages comes to feel like a cross between bull riding and figure skating, as wild and destructive as it is elegant. Put another way, simply moving in this game is a kinetic thrill. The levels themselves refuse to repeat or linger on ideas for too long — some tedious run-and-gun segments toward the end aside — the boss fights are honest challenges and the whole thing is over in about four hours. That’s fine. Pepper Grinder knows what it is, does what it does and does it well. If only more games could be so focused.

— J.D.

Thank Goodness You're Here!

Dumb, funny, easy to play, I can’t tell if Thank Goodness You’re Here is a tribute to British comedy history or a pastiche about what Americans think British comedic sensibilities are. Either way, it’s a whole lot of fun. You control an unnamed, tiny man who goes around the fictional town of Barnsworth, helping people the only way he can: pummeling objects and people with his little fists. You can hit things, you can jump, and that’s it. That’s all you need to rustle together a flock of seagulls, deliver soup to a sickly man with spaghetti arms and even fix the local fish and chip shop’s fryer.

It looks like a fizzy cartoon that would look at home on Cartoon Network, squeezed through an aggressively Northern English lens. It’s just a shame it doesn’t last longer.

— M.S.

The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom 

Two years in a row with absolutely stellar Zelda games? Sign me up! The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom is not nearly as expansive as Tears of the Kingdom, but it definitely shares some of the same DNA. Don’t let the cutesy toy-like art style fool you. This is a legitimate Zelda game, and not an experiment like Princess Peach: Showtime.

Here are the main takeaways. This is the first-ever game that actually stars the titular Princess Zelda, and no I’m not counting the Philips CD-i title from the 90s. Also, she’s an absolute badass summoner/mage who made me feel more powerful than Link ever did. It plays like a perfect mix between old-school Zelda (A Link to the Past was an obvious inspiration) and the more open-ended modern games like Breath of the Wild.

I spent hours upon hours trying to rig up contraptions to reach faraway sky islands in Tears of the Kingdom and, lo and behold, I did the same thing here to explore the entire map before I made a dent in the main story. There are 127 summonable echoes that combine in fascinating ways to allow for custom puzzle solves and unique methods of travel. It also has old-school dungeons, including one of my very favorites in the whole franchise. I hope we get more playable Zelda titles in the future, as the series bears her name. Also, the next Smash game had better let Hyrule’s princess embrace her inner dark mage. I want to murder that little Earthbound kid with five crows and a Lynel. 

— Lawrence Bonk, Contributing Reporter

Phoenix Springs

I’ve never encountered a game quite like Phoenix Springs. I’ve played point-and-click adventures, sci-fi mysteries and narrative games, but I’ve never seen one that sounds this luscious, looks this dramatic or plays this hypnotically. Phoenix Springs is a noir detective novel come to life but it’s also a cyberpunk vision of the future, and it’s all presented in muted, hand-drawn hues blanketed in light blue shadows. Truly, every scene of this game is gorgeous.

Phoenix Springs stars Iris Dormer, a technology reporter who’s searching for her estranged brother, Leo. Her hunt takes her from the abandoned buildings of a rundown city, to a rich suburb, and finally to Phoenix Springs, a desert oasis bathed in golden light and occupied by a handful of odd, disconnected people.

There’s nothing rushed about Phoenix Springs. Iris walks leisurely through expansive wide shots, her silhouette cutting across high grasses and cold concrete at the same unhurried pace. When she speaks, she sounds like a jaded detective lost in time, her sentences stark and powerful. Haunting choir chords and droning bass lines share screen time with pristine silence and birdsong. Phoenix Springs excels as both a piece of art and a detective game, and it’s the perfect escape for anyone who wants to slow down and get lost in the grit of a neo-noir world.

— J.C.

Still Wakes the Deep

Still Wakes the Deep is quietly one of the best horror games of 2024 — and in a year that gave us Mouthwashing, Slitterhead and the Silent Hill 2 remake, that’s saying something. Still Wakes the Deep comes from the horror masters at The Chinese Room, and it’s a stunning first-person experience that introduces violent paranormal monsters to the Beira D oil rig in the middle of the icy North Sea.

In Still Wakes the Deep, horror comes in multiple forms. The invading creatures move with thin, too-long limbs that burst from their bodies like snapping bungee cords. Large pustules and bloody ribbons grow along the corridors, emitting a sickly cosmic glow. The ocean is an unrelenting threat, wailing beneath every step. And then there’s the oil rig itself, a mazelike platform supported by slender tension legs in the middle of a raging sea, groaning and tilting as it’s ripped apart from the inside. Each of these elements is deadly; each one manifests a unique brand of anxiety.

Amid the life-threatening terror, Still Wakes the Deep manages to tell a moving story about family and regret, thanks in large part to the game’s fabulous voice acting and compelling script. This one was easy to miss amid the glut of good horror games this year, but it belongs at the very top of that list.

— J.C.

Silent Hill 2

There isn’t much to say about Silent Hill 2 and its story that hasn’t already been said a million times; it is incredibly bleak, a masterclass in psychological horror. In the 2024 remake, the story is much the same, but there’s a new intensity to the enemies and environmental elements that takes the horror to another level. Silent Hill 2 (2024) really got under my skin at times, and at others, made me jump out of said skin.

In the game, you play as the confused and grieving James Sunderland, who traveled to the town of Silent Hill after receiving a letter from his dead wife telling him she’s waiting for him. They once vacationed there as a couple, but needless to say, Silent Hill is not as he remembers it. The game presents you with both a fight for survival and mystery that needs solving, as James fights off horrifying monsters and little by little uncovers clues that point to dark events. It’s extremely compelling and genuinely scary, not to mention emotionally effective as the story eventually reveals itself. Bloober Team did a great job with the remake and, as with the original, it’s the kind of game you’ll be thinking about well after you’ve finished playing.

— C.M.

Space Marine 2

At first glance, Warhammer 40K: Space Marine 2 is a simple, by-the-numbers action game in the mold of Gears of War. It’s loud, bloody, and over the top. But the more I played Space Marine 2, the more I came to appreciate how much depth and intelligence it hides just below its shiny Ceramite surface. For one, it absolutely nails the Warhammer 40K setting, both visually and in tone. It’s a game that knows its transhuman protagonists are just cogs in a brutal and repressive regime.

Then there’s the close combat system, which, once again, seems simple but rewards players who take the time to master its rhythm. Just because you’re a super soldier doesn’t mean you can simply charge into combat; instead, you need to block, parry and counter the most deadly opponents on the field. Plenty of other games have employed this rhythm, but Space Marine 2 makes its own and feel extremely satisfying. Add to that a compelling co-op mode that offers a great progression system, and you have a game that I’ve played more than any other this year.

— I.B.

The Last of Us Part 2 Remasted

I’m going to exploit a loophole to write about one of my favorite games that technically came out back in 2020, The Last of Us Part II. However, Naughty Dog released a remastered version for the PS5 in January. Yes, the core game is the same, and the graphics upgrade isn’t nearly as massive as the remake of the first Last of Us that came out in 2022. But as I said in my review of Part II Remastered, the new roguelike “No Return” mode was easily worth the $10 upgrade fee on its own.

I wasn’t going to write this up for our favorite games of the year, thinking it would be silly to go back to this particular obsession of mine yet again. However, my PlayStation 2024 wrap-up indicated that I spent a positively ridiculous 318 hours playing Part II. Yes, I went through the main campaign once this year and also finally got the platinum trophy that had eluded me on the PS4 version — but my rough guess is that I spent somewhere between 250 and 275 hours on No Return alone. Yes, that’s borderline obsessive behavior, but I think it also speaks to how good the combat system in Part II is. And getting to play these encounters with 10 different characters, each with their own traits and quirks, means there’s a ton of replay value here (if I haven’t proved that already). Add in the randomized mods that pop up (invisible enemies, healing when you land a melee hit, tripwire traps populating the arena) and you’ll never have the same run twice.

— Nathan Ingraham, Deputy Editor

Vendetta Forever

Fitness is one of the best selling points for VR headsets. It’s not just a static gaming experience. You can get up, jump around, squat, duck and dive your way in all sorts of different games. Meatspace Interactive may not have had fitness in mind when they designed the rapid action simulator Vendetta Forever, but it’s one of the most fun ways to work up a sweat on a VR headset. Vendetta Forever puts you in the shoes of the target of a series of minimalist assassins. Just like Superhot VR, the action ramps up the more you move, but Vendetta Forever has a unique “LO-KILL-MOTION” gimmick that makes it so addictive.

You zip between your faceless enemies as you snatch weapons out of the air like firearms, ninja stars and even pencils while contorting your body to avoid incoming fire. It’s easy to get caught up in the repeating action as you make your way through action movie staple scenes and learn from your deadly mistakes in gun run after gun run. Vendetta Forever is my favorite way to meet my daily cardio requirements.

— D.G.

If you're traveling for the holidays today, I hope you're not flying on American Airlines, because it still might be a rough day. Earlier this morning, the airline said on X that all of its flights were currently grounded, but since then the Federal Aviation Administration has lifted the stoppage, which was originally issued at the airline's request. Despite the fact that things are returning to normal, there's a good chance these disruptions will have ripple effects making a busy travel day even tougher.

As The Verge noted, a notice posted by the Federal Aviation Administration confirms that there is a "nationwide groundstop" for all AA flights; it also says that this stoppage is at "company request." 

Aside from the FAA notice and American Airlines' post on X, there wasn't a real reason given for the delay. But since the grounding was lifted, CNN reports that an American Airlines spokesperson said the stoppage was due to a "vendor technology issue" that has now "been resolved and flights have resumed." 

Update, 9:15AM ET: This story has been updated to note that the ground stoppage has been resolved.

Hyundai is offering select EV buyers a free CCS to NACS (North American Charging Standard) adapter so that they can charge current models at Tesla's Supercharger stations. That will allow owners to charge CCS-port Hyundai models at Tesla's 20,000 strong Supercharger network, once shipping starts in Q1 2025. 

Hyundai is offering the free adapter to owners of 2024 and earlier Kona Electric, Ioniq 5, Ioniq 6 and Ioniq hatchback models, along with 2025 Ioniq 6, Ioniq 5N, Kona Electric Genesis EVs. You'll be able to get the free adapter through the MyHyundai owner site. The adapters will be offered to anyone who purchased a Hyundai EV before January 31, 2025. Sibling brand Kia is also offering free NACS adapters to select customers starting next year, with a full list of supported models set to arrive soon. 

The automaker is joining Ford in offering the perk to its users, and other manufacturers are likely to do the same in the near future. That's because the US government recently announced that NACS is becoming an open industry standard that's likely to be widely used in charger networks across the continent.

Future models won't need the adapter, as Hyundai has joined a host of automakers in changing its charging ports to NACS. That'll begin with the 2025 Ioniq 5, which will have access to Tesla Superchargers as soon as it ships, according to Tesla. Older CCS-based models don't currently have access, but Tesla is likely to enable that once the adapter ships. 

The news is significant because Hyundai recently became second largest seller of EVs in North America next to Tesla. The company currently sells four models: the Ioniq 5 and Ioniq 5N crossovers, Ioniq 6 sedan and Kona Electric SUV. Kia, meanwhile, offers the EV6 crossover, EV9 SUV and Niro EV. 

Kostas is set to become Australia men’s youngest Test batting debutant in 71 years with ‘The Baggy Greens' set to roll the dice on a problem position a year out from the Ashes

Honda and Nissan have officially confirmed the rumors that they're pursuing a merger. Both would still operate under their brands but with a new joint holding company as parent. If Nissan-controlled Mitsubishi also came on board, the combined group would become the world's third-largest automaker by sales volume, with a net worth of up to $50 billion.

Nissan and Honda previously announced plans to work together on EV development, but the joint company would be far more integrated. According to the press release, it could include standardizing vehicle platforms, unifying research and development teams, and optimizing manufacturing systems and facilities. This could help cut costs.

In the US, Nissan sells large pickup trucks and SUVs that Honda doesn't offer, alongside more experience in EVs and plug-in electric vehicles. On the other side, Honda has relatively stable financials while Nissan has been struggling, particularly at home in Japan.

– Mat Smith

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Meta is reportedly adding displays to its Ray-Ban smart glasses

Mostly for notifications.

According to the Financial Times, Meta may add displays to its Ray-Ban smart glasses collaboration. These screens could appear in a future device iteration as early as next year. It’s not aimed at full mixed reality, though. The screens will be on the smaller side and will likely be used to display notifications or responses from Meta’s AI virtual assistant.

Continue reading.

Fans made a native Star Fox 64 PC port with some modern flourishes

There shouldn’t be any legal trouble coming from Nintendo.

Nintendo

A group of fans have made a native PC port of Star Fox 64, which they are calling Starship. Harbour Masters, the team behind the project, used a tool that converts the original game ROM into PC executable code, so it doesn’t use any proprietary Nintendo code. That means it’s technically legal. (I’m sure Nintendo is looking into it.)

Like previous ports, Starship features all kinds of modern bells and whistles to set itself apart from the 1997 original. The frame rate is higher and the port includes frame smoothing technology for better visuals. There’s also another major benefit: It’s moddable.

Continue reading.

Are you tired of feeling safe and happy all the time? Is your daily life overrun by feelings of security, contentment and peace? Do you want an escape from all of the oppressive niceness around you? Well, look no further — these are the games for you.

Here, we’ve collected more than a dozen of the most evocative and disturbing horror games in recent memory. These selections cover a wide range of genres and styles, but each one comes with at least a tinge of unsettling terror. So take a peek, find your game, and prepare your skeleton for some fresh air because you’re about to jump out of your skin.

Check out our entire Best Games series including the best Nintendo Switch games, the best PS5 games, the best Xbox games, the best PC games and the best free games you can play today.

• These days, Hollywood is more focused on animated blockbusters for kids than on live-action movies.
• Although animated movies can be great, I think kids are missing out. They need to see real humans.
• My solution? Getting DVDs of '90s movies from the library for my kids.

Think of your favorite holiday movies as a kid: "Elf," "The Santa Clause," "It's A Wonderful Life," "Home Alone." What do they all have in common? Real people! They're live-action, not animated.

In fact, when you think back to some of your most cherished movies as a kid, assuming you were a kid before the year 2000 — I bet a lot of them are also not animated. "E.T.," "Honey I Shrunk the Kids," "The Parent Trap" (both versions!), "The Sandlot," "The Mighty Ducks," "The Goonies," "Newsies," Hocus Pocus," "The Princess Bride," "The Bad News Bears." And on and on and on.

I don't want to sound like a grump or overly nostalgic — but too many kids' movies these days are animated. I wish Hollywood were producing more live-action kids' movies! You know, with real people!

Please don't mistake this for disparaging the art of animation. I also believe that, overall, kids' movies are far better than when I was a kid. The average kids' movie in 1985 was probably fairly intolerable for an adult; whereas now I am perfectly happy to watch even the most average Pixar or Illumination movie with my kids. "Hotel Transylvania 2?" Totally enjoyable! "Boss Baby?" Fine by me! "Despicable Me 4?" You know what, it's really funny!

I appreciate that animation can create worlds and do things that could never be done in live-action, even with special effects. "Kung Fu Panda" or "Inside Out" simply wouldn't work if they weren't animated, and they're delightful.

In the decades since I was a kid, animated movies for kids have become studio blockbusters. "Inside Out 2," "Frozen II," "The Lion King (2019)," and "The Super Mario Bros. Movie" are in the top 20 highest-grossing movies of all time.

Why studios have moved toward animation

These tentpole films are expensive to make and take years of animation work. (For better or worse, it's possible that AI could make the process cheaper and faster.) There's also a low end of this — if you've ever seen some of the crummy animated movies that are straight to streaming platforms … yikes.

The movie business has changed radically because of streaming, and kids' content has been affected in specific ways. No one buys DVDs anymore, and that used to be a big revenue stream for certain genres like comedies and family movies. Now, it means that a movie generally has to earn a lot during its opening weekend. Hence, more sequels, even for animated kids' fare: Franchises are a safer bet.

This is the reason that for adult films, we see fewer romcoms, comedies, and smart dramas than we did 10 years ago, and more action movies and franchises. That same dynamic is playing out with family movies, too. You can imagine why a studio would rather do another "Frozen" movie than take a risk on something weird like "Mrs. Doubtfire."

The business reasons make sense. But I think kids are missing out if they're not seeing many live-action movies or TV shows — they're not seeing real actors showing emotions or real-world situations playing out. Seeing real kids, real adults, speaking, moving, even singing — that's a different kind of experience. I would posit that seeing real humans on film is important for young viewers to become true movie lovers, and to experience the pleasures of the art of film.

A good movie is a transformative and magical experience — and yes, animated movies can achieve this — but there's something to be said about the magic that real, live acting can bring.

I just wish more of these amazing live-action family movies were being made today.

How I find good live-action movies

When I browse the streaming services for movies for my preschool and elementary-age kids, I find that nearly all the movies available are animated. The rare live-action ones tend to be older movies from the '90s, probably put there to appease millennial parents.

(I would like to give a brief shoutout to the rare Netflix original live-action kids movie, "Yes Day," starring Jennifer Garner. It's delightful and a family-pleaser.)

I can't make the movie business work differently, but I can suggest something to my fellow millennial parents of young kids who want to find more good live-action movies to watch: Try your local library's DVD section. I've discovered that there are tons of good '90s and early '00s live-action movies out there that simply aren't on streaming services.

A hidden bonus feature of watching real DVDs instead of streaming is that it eliminates the thing where you open Netflix, and your kids see the thumbnail for a show they've already watched three times and start begging to watch it again.

I've been doing a fairly regular family movie night with my kids with my own hidden agenda: I get to pick the movie, and I always pick live-action movies. So far, it's been a success with my kids and I've even enjoyed movies I hadn't seen since I was a kid, like "Free Willy." It's enough to hold us over until "Paddington 3" comes out.