You just can't keep a good hack and slash franchise down. In this case, a true titan of the genre seems to be as popular as ever after almost 30 years. Dynasty Warriors: Origins is already gathering steam, as over one million players have downloaded the demo so far, according to publisher Koei Tecmo. Continue reading Dynasty Warriors Origins crosses huge milestone ahead of January 2025 launch MORE FROM PCGAMESN: Dynasty Warriors Origins release date, Best action games, Best war games

Another stage in need of rodent extermination has arrived, and this one could be one of the most troublesome yet. Warhammer: Vermintide 2 is about to get a free update, introducing a new map full of Skaven. This one's an Elven temple, so expect plenty of secrets. Continue reading A new Warhammer Vermintide 2 map arrives soon, and it sounds terrifying MORE FROM PCGAMESN: Best Warhammer games, Best Warhammer 40k games, Best sword games

It's always more than welcome to see a new studio debut with projects that draw on their team's own cultural background for inspiration. This is certainly the case with Eriksholm: The Stolen Dream, the first game from the Battlefield, Mirror's Edge, Little Nightmares, and Unravel veterans at Swedish studio River End Games. A combination of Dishonored and Shadows Tactics-style stealth and storytelling set in a faux-Nordic city, Eriksholm first caught our attention when it was unveiled earlier this year, but it's become even more compelling now that we've been given a closer look at how it plays thanks to a new gameplay trailer. Continue reading Dishonored and Shadow Tactics collide in new stealth game Eriksholm MORE FROM PCGAMESN: Best single-player games, Best story games, Best stealth games

He's DONE: Obama Tries Blaming the RIGHT for Distrust/Division in U.S. and HOOBOY Was THAT Dumb (Watch)

Fresh off its global release, Marvel Rivals is already seeing success on Steam. At the time of writing, the game had a 24-hour peak of 444,000 players and currently has over 300,000 players.

WATCH: Trump Busts Out a New Dance Move As He Accepts 'Patriot of the Year' Award

HOT TAKES: 'Elitist Snob' Mocks Riley Gaines' Education Over Criticism of Justice Jackson, and Hoo Boy

Beginning in February, health insurer Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield was planning to set a time limit for anesthesia coverage during surgeries and procedures. Now, following days of widespread outrage at the health insurance industry generally, Anthem is walking that policy back, the insurer announced on Thursday. In mid-November, the American Society of Anesthesiologists issued a press release about the policy, which was set to take effect in February in states like Connecticut, New York, and Missouri. “If an anesthesiologist submits a bill where the actual time of care is longer than Anthem’s limit, Anthem will deny payment for the anesthesiologist’s care,” they group writes. “With this new policy, Anthem will not pay anesthesiologists for delivering safe and effective anesthesia care to patients who may need extra attention because their surgery is difficult, unusual or because a complication arises.” The letter appears to have garnered little public attention until this week when several posts on social media about the policy change began circulating. The posts gained traction after the CEO of UnitedHealthcare, Brian Thompson, was shot and killed in New York on Wednesday in what police say was a targeted attack. Outrageous. I’m going to make sure New Yorkers are protected. https://t.co/Mqtjeu0ZD7— Governor Kathy Hochul (@GovKathyHochul) December 5, 2024 A spokesperson for Anthem’s parent company, Elevance Health, told The New York Times that “misinformation” about the plan contributed to Anthem’s reversal. “We realized, based on all the feedback we’ve been receiving the last 24 hours, that our communication about the policy was unclear, which is why we’re pulling back,” Janey Kiryluik, staff vice president for corporate communications, is quoted as saying. Thompson’s shooting shocked the public, but it also ignited discussions about the havoc wreaked by the US healthcare system and insurers like UnitedHealthcare. United specifically has been the subject of investigations by outlets like Stat, which found the company uses algorithms to cut off payments and deny rehabilitation care for patients. The rate at which insurers deny patient claims is a closely guarded secret, but ProPublica last year followed one chronically ill patient’s fight to get coverage from United. In some online forums, there was little sympathy for the company and Thompson’s death: Americans carry at least $220 billion in medical debt, which upends lives as insurance companies profit. The shooter’s motives are not yet clear, but shell casings discovered at the scene were found to have the words “delay” and “deny” written on them. Following the murder, healthcare companies like CVS Health began taking down webpages about corporate leadership.

You should definitely skip the base AirPods 4, which are only $9 cheaper right now. | Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge The AirPods Pro stole the spotlight recently with an incredible discount that made them even cheaper than the AirPods 4 with Active Noise Cancellation. But now the script is flipped and the AirPods 4 are currently discounted to $139 ($40 off) at Amazon. That’s a new record low for Apple’s newest pair of wireless earbuds and just $9 more than the version without ANC. The AirPods 4 are a substantial upgrade over the previous generation, with better overall sound quality and a stronger bass profile. They also borrow a couple more features from the AirPods Pro, like the Voice Isolation feature that analyzes your voice to separate it and cancel out the environment, resulting in clearer voice calls. Other features include a wireless charging case with a speaker that lets you trigger a sound from Apple’s Find My app, spatial audio with head-tracking, and adaptive audio. Active noise cancellation is solid in the upgraded pair, but since there are no canal-sealing ear tips, they won’t offer the same dampening. That’s where you’d opt instead for the AirPods Pro, which ultimately sound better and offer a few extra capabilities, like more intuitive volume controls and the ability to use them as hearing aids. But if you don’t mind making some tradeoffs, the entry-level AirPods 4 offer a lot for the money. Read our Apple AirPods 4 review. A few more deals to kick the weekend off If you need a solid pair of earbuds but you can’t justify spending close to $100 or more, the JLab Go Air Pop should have your attention right now. They’re just $9.88 ($15 off) at Walmart, which is their lowest price to date. They don’t do much but play music, but they sound decent, they’re reasonably comfortable, and you can get them in a variety of fun colors. You’ll get eight hours of runtime per charge, with an extra 24 hours available in the charging case. Today only, you can get a two-pack of black Xbox Core Wireless Controllers with a USB-C cable from Woot for $73.59 (about $46 off) with code 20PERCENT. The controllers are often on sale for $40 on their own, so you’re getting a better deal compared to buying them separately. Although Microsoft created the controllers specifically for the Xbox Series X/S launch, you can use them with older Xbox One consoles and on Windows PCs. The Ring Battery Doorbell Plus, which we think is the best battery-powered video doorbell, is matching its all-time low of $99.99 ($50 off) at Amazon, Best Buy, and Target. The doorbell boasts an impressive 1536p video resolution as well as a head-to-toe view that offers better visibility for packages and visitors. While there are cheaper wireless options from Ring and competitors, they’re not quite as responsive as the Doorbell Plus. Other handy features include color night vision, live view, and two-way audio, though you’ll need to pay $4.99 a month for others like recorded video and package alerts.

The Verge Elon Musk’s AI chatbot Grok is now available to free users on X. Several users noticed the change on Friday, which gives non-Premium subscribers the ability to send up to 10 messages to Grok every two hours. xAI launched Grok last year as a “humorous AI assistant,” but it was only available to Premium subscribers. In August, xAI added a text-to-image generation feature to Grok, which turned out to be capable of producing some questionable images. TechCrunch reported last month that Musk’s xAI started testing a free version of Grok in certain regions. Making Grok more widely available might help it compete with the already-free chatbots like OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Google Gemini, Microsoft Copilot, and Anthropic’s Claude. xAI, which raised $6 billion in its latest funding round, is also considering launching a standalone app for Grok — something ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude already have, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal.