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Renée Zellweger returns to the role that earned her an Oscar nomination for more lessons in love and life.

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• Amazon has officially announced that The Rings of Power season 3 is in the works
• The popular high fantasy show's next entry will start filming in early 2025
• Returning directors Charlotte Brändström and Sanaa Hamri will be joined by Stefan Schwartz on the filmmakers' roster

The Rings of Power season 3 is officially in development at Amazon MGM Studios – and principal photography is set to begin this spring (that's autumn for southern hemisphere readers).

In one of the most unsurprising reveals of 2025 so far, Prime Video's biggest TV Original is set to deliver more high-fantasy thrills and spills in another installment. The announcement, made today (February 13), confirms that Amazon is moving ahead with a third chapter of its Lord of the Rings prequel series but, truthfully, the show's renewal has been a foregone conclusion for some time.

Six months have passed since The Rings of Power season 2 debuted on our screens, so some viewers might have started to worry that Prime Video's most expensive series would become the latest program to be canceled before its time. However, speaking to me ahead of season 2's launch, showrunners J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay told me that they "were already working" on season 3, so I was always convinced it would return.

A new season means new rings, right? (Image credit: Prime Video)

Admittedly, the work undertaken on The Rings of Power's next season didn't guarantee that one of the best Prime Video shows would be renewed. Nevertheless, the confidence displayed by Payne and McKay during our conversation, coupled with the amount of script work being conducted half a year ago, means another trip to Middle-earth was far more likely than not.

In an Amazon MGM Studios statement accompanying the reveal, Head of TV Vernon Sanders said: "The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power continues to captivate audiences worldwide and we're thrilled that a third season is underway. The creative team has an extraordinary vision of what’s to come with stories that have left us enchanted and enthralled. We look forward to continuing this epic journey, for our global customers, delving even deeper into the legendary tales that shaped Middle-earth."

Prime Video confirms season three of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power.Acclaimed directors Charlotte Brändström, Sanaa Hamri, and Stefan Schwartz set for upcoming season. pic.twitter.com/ABSEBj1TVQFebruary 13, 2025

While there were no cast announcements, newcomers or otherwise, Amazon confirmed that next season's likely eight-episode installment will be helmed by three directors. Charlotte Brändström and Samaa Hamri, who oversaw multiple episodes for season 2, return as part of the filmmaking team. They'll be joined by Stefan Schwartz, a veteran of film and TV whose credits include Luther, Fear the Walking Dead, and My Lady Jane.

As I mentioned, filming will begin sooner rather than later, and, like season 2, it'll be shot at the Amazon-owned Shepperton Studios in the UK. And, according to The Hollywood Reporter, season 3 will be set years after its predecessor, so you can expect The War of the Elves and Sauron to be in full swing – oh, and the creation of a certain ring to be underway.

Need a refresher on what happened in The Rings of Power's second outing on one of the world's best streaming services? You'll want to read my ending explainer on The Rings of Power season 2 to see how it sets up the show's next entry. And, if you're searching for more news on what lies in store for the series' various characters in season 3, check out my exclusive interviews with Sauron actor Charlie Vickers, Gandalf star Daniel Weyman, and Elrond and Gil-galad pair Robert Aramayo and Benjamin Walker below.

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• 'A very astute observation': The Rings of Power's Elrond and Gil-Galad actors drop a big hint about the elves' new safe haven in the season 2 finale

Is 2025 shaping up to be the year of agentic AI? The hype is already building as experts predict a new wave of the technology will drive two or three times the productivity gains possible with current large language models (LLMs). Governments are piling in: most recently, the UK’s new Labour administration announced plans to “turbocharge” growth and deliver a “decade of national renewal” via an AI Opportunities Action Plan.

But where there is opportunity, there is also risk. Agentic AI offers threat actors new ways to reach sensitive data and sabotage business-critical systems for gain. The autonomous nature of the technology could also lead to unintended consequences and potentially unsafe decision-making.

Organizations must therefore try harder to understand where risk is most acute, and take proactive steps to mitigate it before embarking on their own agentic AI journey.

Agentic AI for good and bad

Does the tech match the hype? Salesforce certainly thinks so. It describes agentic AI as a “third wave” of innovation, following predictive AI modelling and LLM-powered generative AI. The company’s chief scientist, Silvio Salvarese, describes where the tech is headed:

“Self-adaptive agents enabled by multi-agent reasoning—agents that can learn from their environment, improve through experience, and collaborate both with humans and agents from our enterprise customers, partners, vendors, and even the personalized AI assistants of consumers, which are becoming a bigger part of their lives every day.”

This is good news, not just for the large organizations already trialing the technology, but smaller businesses that will also benefit in time as it becomes more mature. PwC claims the technology could generate between $2.6tn and $4.4tn annually for global GDP by 2030.

Yet as AI systems move from assistive use cases to working dynamically and proactively on their own, caution is also required. Threat actors will relentlessly target a rapidly expanding AI attack surface, probing for vulnerabilities and misconfigurations to steal training data and data stored in “vector” databases, as well as look for opportunities to poison data/models. With unauthorized access, they can feed incorrect or biased data into the AI system to manipulate its behavior/outputs. There’s also a risk of introducing malware and/or vulnerabilities from the supply chain; especially the open source components used in great number by AI developers.

All of which could result in data breaches, extortion, service outages and major reputational/financial risk.

Unintentional misalignment

Yet there’s more. Because the value of agentic AI systems is that they can work autonomously, there’s a risk of models making unpredictable decisions. This is what’s known as “unintentional misalignment”—as opposed to “intentional misalignment” which occurs when someone deliberately tries to use AI in attacks, perhaps via prompt injection or data poisoning.

There are plenty of examples of unintentional misalignment to be concerned about. Consider a self-driving car programmed to prioritize passenger safety. It may misinterpret these directions by swerving into pedestrians to avoid a minor collision with another vehicle, thereby causing a far more severe accident. Agentic AI might also unintentionally DoS the infrastructure it runs on if resource consumption isn’t carefully controlled—by creating endless sub-problems to solve.

RAG risk is already here

These aren’t necessarily theoretical risks. Retrieval augmented generation (RAG) is another emerging type of AI which, like agentic systems, is designed to overcome the limitations AI developers are finding with LLMs—ie that training data is beginning to run out. RAG uses search algorithms to query third-party data sources like web pages and databases, processes what it finds, and then integrates it into a pre-trained LLM. In this way, it can provide more accurate and up-to-date answers than a traditional LLM could—and in so doing, reduces the likelihood of hallucinations. That’s why it’s increasingly popular in use cases like financial analysis, patient care and online product recommendations.

To function, it utilizes various components including LLMs, LLM-hosting platforms, open source code, and vector databases, which provide the crucial indexing and retrieval capabilities. However, these are riddled with security holes. Aside from the well-understood risks of malicious or vulnerable open source components, research reveals the existence of multiple CVEs, from 2024 alone, in LLM-hosting platform Ollama. With over a thousand new releases each year for the platform, these become hard to track, never mind patch. The same research reveals vulnerabilities in popular vector databases like Weaviate.

It also claims to have discovered scores of servers running open source LLM-hosting software llama.cpp, hundreds of instances of vector database ChromaDB, and thousands of misconfigured Ollama servers—all exposed to the internet without any authentication required. In the case of Ollama, this could provide threat actors with access as many as 15,000 discrete LLMs. Alongside vulnerability exploitation, this presents threat actors with an attractive opportunity to steal sensitive data and sabotage, manipulate or disrupt AI services. Given that agentic AI uses many of the same components as RAG—including LLMs and vector databases—it is arguably exposed to similar threats.

Stepping back and managing risk

So how can organizations hope to get back on the front foot? Most importantly, by approaching AI from a security-by-design perspective. That means ensuring security leaders get a seat at the table when new projects are being discussed. And that data protection impact assessments (DPIAs) are run before any new initiative is launched.

First, take a “human-in-the-loop” approach to ensure critical decisions made by agentic AI can be reviewed and, if necessary, overridden by IT experts. Real-time monitoring of AI behavior and performance will flag when there’s something anomalous for members of the IT team to inspect. Periodic audits of AI systems can also help to ensure they are making properly aligned (and no biased or risky) decisions.

A focus on governance is also important to provide ethical guidelines for AI development and usage, and regular reviews for compliance with such rules. Employees handling AI should be trained to enhance their literacy of the technology, and ability to use it ethically, safely and securely.

Finally, organisations should look to AI security leaders to help mitigate immediate cyber-related risks. Zero trust is an appropriate approach to take here, to ensure only authorized users can access AI systems, and to swiftly detect malicious activity like prompt injection and data leakage/theft.

As a wave of agentic AI breaks over global organizations, and the tech becomes embedded in ever more business processes, the risk of something going wrong—intentionally or otherwise—will only grow. Let’s get ahead of that risk now, rather than wait for it to escalate and potentially derail important projects.

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• A small number of reports of RTX 5090 power cables overheating and melting have been confirmed
• This follows widespread reports of similar issues with the previous RTX 4090
• However, it's possible that third-party cables could be to blame this time around

Remember ‘cablegate’? Back in late 2022, users started to report that the power connectors of their Nvidia RTX 4090 graphics cards were overheating and essentially melting into unusable hunks of plastic - and now, according to some buyers, the same issue could be plaguing the newly-released RTX 5090.

Now, I covered the cablegate fiasco when the story was at its peak, and at the time, I was willing to assign at least some portion of the blame to Nvidia, as the PCIe Special Interest Group (PCI-SIG) had previously published a report warning of ‘thermal variance’ risks regarding the 12VHPWR adapter used for the RTX 4090. This time around, though, I’m really not so sure Nvidia is at fault.

For starters, the issues appear far less widespread than with the RTX 4090; while there were literally dozens of reports back in 2022 (which continued well into 2024), we’ve only seen two isolated confirmed cases of cable-melting with regard to the RTX 5090. The first came from a Reddit user, while the second was reported by the Spanish YouTube channel Toro Tocho Reviews. Both reported the same issue: the power cable overheated and melted at both ends, something we didn’t see in the majority of RTX 4090 connector failures.

Secondly, the first of these cases was confirmed to have involved a third-party power cable from PC-modding supplier MODDIY, introducing a new potential point of failure. Nvidia has now moved over to the 12V-2×6 connection standard for more stable power delivery and more secure pin connections, and although MODDIY claims its cables support the new standard, the Reddit user stated that they’d been using this cable for two years with an RTX 4090. Backward compatibility with third-party 12VHPWR cables is likely to continue to be an issue for Nvidia’s GPUs - notably, MODDIY now has a page on its website advising buyers with RTX 5000-series GPUs to purchase new-for-2025 12V-2×6 cables.

So is there really a problem?

In other words, at least one of these cable-melting cases appears to have been caused by user error: the 12VHPWR cable that melted, despite being physically compatible with the RTX 5090, was presumably unable to handle the power delivery taking place. Nvidia’s latest flagship GPU is a hungry girl, after all, with an obscene 575W TDP.

PC modders are gonna mod, of course, but given the known issues with the previous-gen card’s power connector, I’d personally be very reluctant to use anything but the cables supplied in the box at this point. A Reddit megathread on the topic has been created to compile additional cases, and there’s a fair amount of debate in the comments as to whether Nvidia is to blame or if users should be taking more care to avoid third-party cables - even if they claim to be compatible.

Naturally, I reached out to my contact at Nvidia to ask for a quote, but Team Green declined to comment - not even a ‘we’re investigating’, instead pointing me to MODDIY’s page warning about using older 12VHPWR cables. It seems Nvidia feels more confident this time around, further reinforcing the idea that the cases we’ve seen so far were caused not by the GPUs themselves but rather third-party hardware.

It is still possible that we’re only at the beginning of a tidal wave of similar reports - given the extremely limited availability of the RTX 5090 at launch, we might be yet to see the full extent of the issue as only a small number of users have managed to get their hands on the GPU.

Still, we shouldn’t jump to conclusions. Two cases (with a few more unconfirmed) aren’t exactly the cavalcade of issues we saw after the RTX 4090 launch, so there’s every chance these problems won’t be so widespread. If you were lucky enough to snag one of Nvidia’s new flagship GPUs, my only advice is this: stick with the supplied cables for now! If you've got thoughts on this, please feel free to tell me what a genius/idiot I am in our shiny new comments section below. Frankly, I'd love to chat with someone who actually managed to buy one of these cards...

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• Nikon announces Z-mount versions of the RED V-Raptor and RED Komodo
• The Nikkor Z 28-135mm F/4 PZ cine lens was launched simultaneously
• Since Nikon's RED takeover, we've seen permanent price drops for select RED cameras

Nikon's RED takeover is in full effect, following the launch of two RED cinema cameras with Nikon's Z-mount; the RED V-Raptor and RED Komodo. The Z-mount versions were launched alongside Nikon's own new cinema lens too, the Nikkor Z 28-135mm F/4 PZ.

Nikon instantly became a major player in cinema cameras when it acquired RED Digital Cameras in March 2024, and it's taken less than a year for us to see the fruit of the takeover, with Z-mount versions of two super popular RED cine cameras in the filmmaking industry.

It's a sucker punch to Canon – the RED Komodo 6K was previously only available with Canon's RF-mount, but its future is now firmly in camp Nikon. There will be various lens mount adaptors available, including Nikon Z to Nikon F and Nikon Z to PL, but RED's future is shifting away from Canon lenses.

What's more, the Nikon effect has extended to RED camera pricing, the cine camera maker's name, plus Nikon's own cameras are benefitting from RED tech. Let's take a look at what's been happening.

The new Nikkor Z 28-135mm F/4 PZ is now available – here's it's mounted to a Nikon Z9 camera and DJI RS4 Pro gimbal, plus the lens will be directly compatible with the new Z-mount RED cameras. (Image credit: Nikon ) The Nikon effect is in full swing, and I expect more is to come

In and of itself, there's little that's new in the Z-mount versions of the RED V-Raptor and Komodo, besides the lens mount and what Nikon says is improved autofocus capabilities. The biggest impact is direct compatibility with Nikon Z-mount lenses, of which there are many, and which now includes the Nikkor Z 28-135mm F/4 PZ – a versatile and gimbal-friendly zoom with cine features that costs $2,596.95 /£2499 and has an April 2025 sales start date (Australia price and availability TBC).

What's even more exciting, especially to indie filmmakers, is Nikon slashing the prices of RED Komodo 6K bundles. In September 2024, we saw permanent price reductions of as much as $3,000 off – for example, the Komodo 6K Camera Production Pack now costs $11,995 (was $14,995). Still not cheap by any means, but more affordable for pros. Prices for the RED Komodo 6K with Z-mount start at $6,995 (around £5,600), while the RED V-Raptor 8K costs $29,995 (around £24,000 - converted from USD).

Nikon has also officially stripped back its subsidiary's name too, from RED Digital Cameras to simply RED, which is what most people call it anyway.

In the other direction, Nikon cameras are benefitting from RED tech. Back in September 2024, four RED LUTs color profiles were made available to Nikon's current mirrorless cameras, including the Nikon Z6 III, Nikon Z8, and Nikon Zf, and even certain DSLRs like the D780. Nikon's N-Log video footage can now be stylized into Rec.709 color using any one of RED’s Film Bias, Film Bias Bleach Bypass, Film Bias Offset, and Achromic – color profiles co-developed with cinema colorist Eric Weidt.

I don't expect the Nikon effect to stop here either. What do you think – what are the most exciting developments we can hope for from Nikon's RED takeover? Better video features in Nikon's mirrorless cameras? More Z-mount cine lenses? Let me know in the comments below.

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• Lies of P: Overture is due to launch in 'Summer 2025'
• It's a DLC prequel to the soulslike's main campaign events
• You will need the base game in order to play this DLC

Lies of P: Overture, a DLC expansion of the 2023 soulslike game, is finally arriving sometime in "Summer 2025".

The expansion was revealed during the February 12 PlayStation State of Play, and according to an official PlayStation Blog post written by developer Round8 Studio's Jiwon Choi, Overture is set to be a prequel to the main events found in Lies of P.

"As you might have guessed from the title, Lies of P: Overture takes you back in time to uncover the hidden stories of Krat," the post reads. "Now, you will venture back in time to experience the harrowing journey that birthed that fateful moment. Through Lies of P: Overture, we aimed to fully refine, forge and complete the story as we originally envisioned it."

The trailer for Lies of P: Overture shows off plenty of interesting gameplay additions. The protagonist now has access to weapons like a bow and arrows, as well as plenty of extremely flashy combat moves.

Snow-covered locales are featured prominently - a biome that wasn't really present in the main game. And yep, it also looks like there'll be plenty of monstrous new boss fights to challenge, too.

A release date for Lies of P: Overture isn't set in stone just yet, but it will be out sometime this summer. As such, we can probably expect it to launch somewhere between the months of June and September of this year.

It's news that particularly excites me, especially as we haven't heard anything about the DLC since a brief teaser from the developer way back in 2023. Lies of P is also my favorite soulslike from beyond the FromSoftware stable. It tops our list of the best soulslike games, largely owing to its gloriously macabre setting, innovative weapon-mixing combat, and a surprising faithfulness to the source material.

Similarly, it ended up being my personal 2023 game of the year. In short, I'm unsurprisingly incredibly excited for Lies of P: Overture.

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The first information about the Monster Hunter Wilds roadmap has been revealed. Post-launch, players can expect regular updates, with two small DLCs having already been announced. Looking at previous games, we can expect new monsters and Event Quests moving forward, spaced out throughout the year.

Monster Hunter Wilds is another step forward for the long-running co-op action franchise. For one, its huge open world is more seamless, and more alive than ever before, with distinct seasons that promise to mix up hunts in interesting ways. If the Monster Hunter Wilds beta is anything to go on, we could see the game land on our list of best multiplayer PC games by the end of the year.

Here's everything you need to know about Monster Hunter Wilds' roadmap and upcoming DLC updates. We'll detail what's been announced in terms of post-launch support, and as we move through the year, we'll also take a look at the schedule moving forward. It's clear that Capcom intends to support the game for a while, so stay tuned for regular updates to this page.

Monster Hunter Wilds roadmap

(Image credit: Capcom)

Monster Hunter Wilds currently has two post-launch title update DLCs planned. You can find these listed below, with some details on each.

• Free Title Update 1 - Spring 2025 (Mizutsune, Event Quests, Additional Updates)
• Free Title Update 2 - Summer 2025 (New Monster, Event Quests)

Monster Hunter Wilds Free DLC 1

(Image credit: Capcom)

First up, we have the Free Update Title 1 DLC. This is the one we know most about, as it's already been revealed that Mizutsune will be the main monster added. For those that don't know, Mizutsune is a kind of bubble dragon, that moves around like a dancer, elegantly weaving through the air. It's seriously formidable, secreting bubbles that will give you Bubbleblight, increasing your evasiveness, before making it difficult to move around without slipping. In Monster Hunter Rise, you needed to ensure you were stocked up on Cleansers, to combat this ailment.

Of course, Mizutsune could be retooled for Monster Hunter Wilds, so we will need to wait and see just how it looks before planning out how to take it down.

Alongside Mizutsune, there will be some new Event Quests to take on. These are available at the Mission Board and generally involve slaying groups of monsters, to earn new rewards. Again, we'll have to wait for the specifics, and for more explanation as to what "additional updates" means. Free Title Update 1 will be added sometime in Spring 2025.

Monster Hunter Wilds Free DLC 2

Capcom has also revealed Free Title Update 2, which, for now at least, has yet to be fully detailed. We know that it'll add a new monster, as well as new Event Quests. We also know that it'll arrive sometime in Summer 2025.

We'll have to wait and see which monster is added, though we're hoping for Rajang.

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Whether you’re biking to the office or schlepping a camera to a shoot, a laptop bag is your constant companion. These WIRED-reviewed packs do the job.

FDA-approved, cleared, or just regulated? We break down the jargon on your lotions, potions, and gizmos.

As a lover of Obsidian Entertainment’s catalog of incredible role-playing games (RPGs), I think Avowed is absolutely another feather in the developer’s cap. Taking place in the Pillars of Eternity universe, Avowed offers plenty for series fans to chew on lore-wise, while being a rich and inviting gameplay experience for newcomers.

Review info

Platform reviewed: Xbox Series X, PC
Available on: Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, PC
Release date: February 18, 2025 (February 13 for early access)

You’d be forgiven for thinking Avowed is a Skyrim-esque experience with its first-person perspective, flexible build variety, and a focus on real-time combat. But that’s really where the similarities end; Avowed is very much its own beast. And while it might not hold a candle to the breathtaking immersion offered by an Elder Scrolls game, it handily trumps them in regards to both combat and the overall quality of the writing. Witty, engaging, and dripping with tidbits of lore at every turn, it’s certainly up to the usual Obsidian standard.

It is, however, fair to say that Avowed won’t be for everyone. Omissions like the complete absence of a day/night cycle and the inability to pickpocket do hamper some avenues of role play. And even though the game has a satisfying compact 25-30 hour runtime, the occasional filler quest can slow pacing to a crawl.

These complaints aside, Avowed is still definitely worth checking out if you’ve got a fantasy RPG itch to scratch, and it’s a fantastic start for Xbox Game Studios’ 2025 output.

Voice in my head

(Image credit: Microsoft)

The player character in Avowed might just have the most unenviable set of tasks I’ve ever seen in a fantasy RPG. As the envoy of the Aedyran Empire, you’re sent off to the untamed, largely lawless frontier of the Living Lands. It’s a seriously dangerous place that folks nonetheless try their luck on in order to build a new life for themselves.

Unfortunately, the locals aren’t best pleased by the presence of the empire, and most NPCs treat you with the appropriate amount of suspicion. The empire also isn’t doing itself any favors, as it attempts to bring order to the Living Lands through authoritative measures.

As the envoy, you’re thrust into the center of proceedings. Officially, you’re here to investigate and quell the Dreamscourge, a spore-like plague that can turn people and creatures into uncontrollable, murderous lunatics. However, as the game progresses, you do get the feeling that this is just a front for the empire’s true intentions of control and dominance.

Best bit

(Image credit: Xbox Game Studios)

While truly getting stuck into some thrilling combat scenarios was certainly a highlight, by far my favorite aspect of Avowed is its excellent writing and characters. I loved exhausting every dialogue option where I could, just to see what kinds of lore tidbits I could unravel or simply hear what a particularly entertaining character like Marius or Yatzli had to say.

You’re also a godlike, a person born with unique powers and a connection to the Adra, a crystal-like substance that has a consciousness all its own. This entity makes itself known as a veritable voice in your head, and much of the intrigue in Avowed comes from you deciding just how much you can trust it - especially as it seems to regard the Dreamscourge as a boon rather than a plague to be eradicated.

It’s an involving setup that leaves plenty of room for you to make your own choices. And while not every decision you make from quest to quest is directly consequential, there’s enough for you to decide how to conduct yourself and shape the future of the Living Lands. Do you represent the empire with unwavering loyalty, or grow sympathetic to the land’s resistance factions? It’s all presented through Obsidian’s expert penchant for writing, and I found myself eager to keep playing throughout as a result.

And my axe

(Image credit: Microsoft)

So how does character building work in Avowed? Well, there are three distinct skill trees you can invest points into upon leveling up, covering the fantasy RPG trifecta of fighter, ranger, and wizard. Each has myriad perks to help make your character stronger, with new perks opening up as you reach level thresholds.

What I will say is that sticking to one particular archetype (say, exclusively two-handed weapons) isn’t the best idea. Avowed can be a surprisingly difficult game, and given that you can swap between two distinct weapon loadouts at the press of a button, you’re strongly encouraged to mix up your build.

I opted to go for a mix of everything, with a sword and shield as my primary set, and a pistol paired with a grimoire of spells as my secondary loadout. With this I was able to cover practically all bases; strong offense and defense for up-close encounters, as well as two ranged options for crowd control and keeping a distance. What’s great is you’re not locked into any specific archetypes, with point respeccing costing only a small amount of gold.

While you can of course hard-focus your character down a specific skill tree if you’re wedded to a certain weapon type or armor class, I personally loved being able to adapt on the fly, especially as battles typically come against large mobs of enemies. Enemy packs do tend to show signs of organization, too, with pesky ranged units peppering you from a distance while chunkier shield-bearers getting up in your grille. Being able to respond with the same - hopping from a flaming sword to explosive crowd control spells - is where I got the most from Avowed’s combat.

And to be frank, you’ll need all the skills you can get. At launch, the combat AI of the companions you acquire in the game leaves a lot to be desired. It was all too often that I’d witness a close-range tank like Kai (the first companion you’ll meet close to the start of the game) either fail to close the gap to enemies or simply not bother to attack. It was a rare occurrence that companions left an encounter without being incapacitated first. Your party members can’t die, thankfully, but it would be nice to see improvements to their combat behavior in future patches.

With a little help from my friends

(Image credit: Microsoft)

Your party members aren’t much use in combat, then, but that doesn’t mean I don’t love them. Each of Avowed’s primary companions brings a unique, fleshed-out personality, and there’s plenty of banter to enjoy between them a la Dragon Age or indeed Baldur’s Gate 3.

Kai is the first one you’ll join up with, and contrary to his gentle giant appearance and mannerisms, he’s actually pretty loose-lipped which can hilariously cause more problems than it solves. Yatzli, meanwhile, is an absolute delight. Genuinely funny and perhaps ever so slightly unhinged, she became a staple in my party of three (that’s yourself and up to two companions) simply because I couldn’t get enough of her dialogue.

Your companions do have their own skill trees for you to invest in, which include passive perks and active skills they can perform on command which does lend them a bit of usefulness in combat. Typically, these skills are good for crowd control, such as Kai’s ability to stun enemies, or Marius’s trap-laying skills that can hold enemies in place for a good chunk of time.

A land worth living in

(Image credit: Microsoft / Obsidian Entertainment)

In Avowed, the setting of the Living Lands is genuinely breathtaking. More ‘open zone’ than ‘open world’ (like The Outer Worlds, you’ve got a lot of individual areas to explore separated by loading screens). However, each is richly dense with meaningful side quests, opportunities for exploration, and no shortage of jaw-dropping vistas to gawp at.

You have the bustling city of Paradis, itself replete with enterable buildings and winding side paths. It’s a labyrinthine city in nature and it’ll take some time for you to get your bearings there, but that’s partly why I love it; I simply didn’t know what to expect around every corner.

Emerald Stair was another highlight for me, an area absolutely dripping with a morose atmosphere - its deathly quiet farmlands and surrounding forests genuinely left me feeling unsettled. It has an almost dreamlike quality to it, making exploration in itself feel plenty rich and rewarding.

The maps of Avowed are quite large and there’s plenty to explore in each. You’ll be encouraged to, as well, as you’ll want to find valuable resources to craft and improve your gear to keep up with enemies that increase in strength as you progress. Avowed doesn’t employ cheap level scaling, thankfully, and it’s quite easy to wander into areas filled with powerful enemies you’re just not ready to take on. Exploration overall, then, can be as dangerous as it is rewarding.

Over on the performance front, Avowed does occasionally buckle under the weight of its busy, richly detailed areas. I ran into frequent frame rate hitches on PC, but the game was more stable on Xbox Series X. On console, I felt that the 30fps (frames per second) Quality mode was a little too choppy to be enjoyable, but the 60fps Performance mode was much smoother - even if the overall impact on lighting and image quality was quite noticeable.

Should I play Avowed?

(Image credit: Xbox Game Studios) Play it if…

You want a well-written fantasy RPG
Avowed’s world-building and character writing are equally phenomenal, and up to the usual Obsidian standard. You might get a bit lost in the lore if you’re unfamiliar with Pillars of Eternity, but the game’s own narrative is plenty easy to follow along with.

You treasure build variety and challenging gameplay
From gleaming greatswords to face-rearranging spells, Avowed offers a rich power fantasy that you genuinely have to earn given the often high difficulty of enemy encounters.

Don’t play it if…

You were hoping for a larger open world
Skyrim, this is not. The lack of a day/night cycle and some of the more immersive role-playing aspects of Bethesda RPGs aren’t present in Avowed.

Accessibility

Avowed has a good amount to offer in the accessibility department to accommodate players of all kinds. On the camera front, you can adjust the head bob and camera shake strength (or turn them off entirely) if you’re prone to motion sickness. For the user interface, you can adjust text size and there are plenty of subtitle options, from displaying a speaker’s name to adjusting subtitle background opacity. There unfortunately doesn’t appear to be any colorblind options available at launch, however.

There are also five difficulty settings: Story Time, Easy, Normal, Hard, and Path of the Damned. So there’s plenty here to tailor a difficulty experience that’s right for you and, they can be changed at any time.

How I reviewed Avowed

My time with Avowed lasted roughly 25 hours across both PC and Xbox Series X Digital Edition. I was able to carry my save between platforms thanks to the Microsoft account functionality.

Playtime included a full playthrough of the main campaign, as well as a generous helping of side quests and exploration to improve my character’s gear. I predominantly played with an Xbox Wireless Controller on Xbox Series X, and the Razer Wolverine V3 Pro on PC. On console, I played on an LG CX OLED TV.

First reviewed February 2025

Obsidian Entertainment's latest RPG is coming up just a bit short of its lofty ambitions.

After a dozen hours into Avowed, here are a handful of tips I wish I had known sooner.

“Good game stories are going to be written by good narrative designers,” says Obsidian’s Carrie Patel. The new fantasy RPG she helmed gets an early release today.

Apple often releases a slate of new products in the Spring each year (usually April or May), and the latest rumors suggest 2025 will be no exception.

But with the iPhone SE 4 and M4 MacBook Air seemingly on the horizon, will there be a big Apple event soon or will we see its new products announced separately? We've rounded up the latest rumors here to let you know when to expect Apple's next big launches.

While a repeat of Apple's previous Spring events (like 'Spring Loaded' from 2021) is possible, a more divided flurry of announcements is currently looking more likely according to the latest speculation. Read on to find out the latest on the iPhone SE 4 and more...

When could the Apple event happen?

(Image credit: Apple)

Rumors have been swirling for months that Apple has new products on the way early in 2025, including an iPhone SE, M4 MacBook Air, new iPad Air and 10.9-inch iPad. Sources like Bloomberg journalist Mark Gurman have claimed that they’re all either imminent or will be released in the coming weeks.

Apple has frequently held shows in March over the past few years – for example, in 2022 its 'Peek Performance' event saw the arrival of a new iPhone SE and iPad Air. But there's no guarantee that an event like that will happen this year and the odds are increasingly on there being separate announcements.

Apple also often releases new devices using press releases, and it might decide to do the same in 2025 for the likes of the iPhone SE 4. As the time ticks down towards March, we can expect more rumors to emerge as to whether an actual event is in the cards. For now, here's the latest on all of its apparently imminent launches...

iPhone SE 4

(Image credit: Shutterstock / Foxartbox)

Apple has been heavily rumored to be planning a new iPhone SE, and according to many sources its release date is imminent.

The latest rumors (below) suggest the iPhone SE 4 could land in the week beginning February 17. And this could be the most significant update to the iPhone SE in years – potentially in its entire history.

New iPhone SE is still imminent and should be announced by next week, when the company is holding product briefings. Tomorrow there’s a smaller announcement. For Friday, Apple Vision Pro reps are reaching out to press about an announcement to come. M4 MacBook Air within weeks. https://t.co/UabWO0shjYFebruary 12, 2025

It’s expected to lose the chunky bezels and Home button featuring Touch ID, replacing them with an all-screen look and Face ID for a more modern appearance.

Apparently, we could get a 6.1-inch OLED display, a single 48MP rear camera, Apple’s latest A18 chip and 8GB of memory (which in turn will enable Apple Intelligence), and a USB-C port. It is also said to debut Apple’s in-house 5G modem chip.

• Rumored launch: during the week beginning February 17

M4 MacBook Air

(Image credit: Future / Lance Ulanoff)

After Apple brought the M4 chip to the MacBook Pro late last year. The MacBook Air is next in line, and it’s widely touted to be launching this spring. The M4 chip could only bring modest performance improvements, though, according to rumors.

Don’t expect much else, either: no chassis redesign, no new display, no improved speakers. This will probably be a simple chip upgrade – nothing to sniff at given Apple silicon’s impressive power, but don’t hold your breath for a wide-ranging overhaul.

• Rumored launch: sometime between March and April

iPad Air and 11th-generation iPad

(Image credit: Future / Lance Ulanoff)

A recent rumor claimed that new versions of the iPad Air and the 10.9-inch iPad are on the way, meaning they could well be included as part of a spring event hosted by Apple – or simply announced in a more low-key fashion.

Like the iPhone SE 4, the iPad 11 has also been claimed to be getting Apple’s own 5G modem. And with Apple pushing to bring Apple Intelligence to as many of its products as possible, that also feels like a likely inclusion. It would require a new chip, with the A17 Pro being put forward as a possibility to match the one found in the iPad mini.

The iPad Air, meanwhile, will feature “internal improvements,” Bloomberg reporter Mark Gurman claims. It could also get a new Magic Keyboard for both the 11-inch and 13-inch sizes.

• Rumored launch: sometime in March or April

Apple HomePod with screen

(Image credit: Future)

Apple last updated the HomePod in 2023, but a third-generation model could be coming as soon as this spring – although the latest rumors have thrown that into doubt.

Apparently, the new HomePod may feature Siri voice control and Apple Intelligence, although other sources have called that into question. It might also have an OLED display measuring six or seven inches across, which would give it a new degree of functionality not seen in previous models.

There seems to be a lot of crossover with reports that Apple is working on a home hub device that combines a speaker with a display. Apple is also said to be working on a speaker with a screen that is attached to a robotic arm.

Whether these will be branded as HomePod devices isn’t clear, but they’re still at least several months away from being announced, Mark Gurman believes. So don't expect HomePod news until well after the rumored iPhone SE 4, M3 MacBook Air, new iPad Air and iPad 11.

• Rumored launch: sometime in 2025, but still apparently "months away from shipping"

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• IBM’s Finance & Operations teams given an ultimatum
• Workers told they must move closer or accept a redundancy package
• Expensive workers will be replaced with new recruits and AI

IBM has enforced a revised return-to-office policy among its Finance & Operations business unit amid what is being referred to as a ‘soft layoff.’

Reports have claimed employees were told they must relocate to be nearer to the company’s North Carolina or New York offices in order to comply with the new office-working mandate.

Workers who prefer not to do so will need to leave the company, but they will be able to do so with a severance package worth up to six months, depending on how long they’ve been with IBM.

IBM using RTO to enact layoffs

“Managers are being instructed to reach out to their reports and ask that they relocate to Raleigh, North Carolina, or Poughkeepsie, New York,” a spokesperson told The Register. “They must be within 50 miles of one of these sites. If not, they will be offered severance.”

The Finance & Operations division is believed to be a costly unit for the company, but by employing artificial intelligence, fresh graduates and outsourcing, IBM hopes to cut costs. The Register’s source confirmed: “AI will be implemented to replace people.”

IBM’s RTO mandate pushed employees to resign voluntarily, therefore avoiding formal layoffs, hence the ‘soft layoff’ description. Previously, the company has faced allegations of discrimination when enacting layoffs.

Two weeks ago, IBM CEO Arvind Krishna said in the company’s fourth-quarter earnings report: “Three years ago, we laid out a vision for a faster-growing, more-profitable IBM. I'm proud of the work the IBM team has done to meet or exceed our commitments.” Quarterly and full-year revenue were up just 1% year-over-year. IBM hopes for 5% revenue growth in 2025.

Looking ahead, The Register’s source said: “The CEO has stated, 'thousands will be replaced by AI,' and management is currently heavily focused on cuts and slowing hiring.”

TechRadar Pro has asked IBM to confirm its revised policy and the impacts of artificial intelligence on its workforce, but we did not receive an immediate response.

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Keeping your list of Marvel movies and TV shows short and sweet.

• Gemini Live is now more conversational and dynamic
• It is better at translating languages and recognizing accents
• Screen sharing and video streaming abilities coming soon

If you’re a Gemini user then you will have got an email from Google today explaining that the company is rolling out an upgrade to Gemini Live to “make your conversations even more dynamic and engaging”.

The new upgrade to Gemini Live (the conversational part of Gemini that you can access on your phone) means that conversations have been improved by an, as yet unnamed, new AI model. Google stated that “With our latest model, Live can better understand multiple languages, dialects or accents in a single Live chat and help with your translation needs.”

As well as the February improvements to Gemini Live, Google also shared its plans for Gemini Live updates in the future. “In the coming months, we'll also bring screen sharing and live video streaming capabilities to Live.”

These updates hint at a multimodal future for Gemini Live on all devices, where it has the ability to be aware of what is being shown on the screen so you can ask questions about it. Currently that’s something it can’t do unless you own a Pixel 9 phone, which has the ability to "Talk live about this". While you can upload a photo to standard Gemini, and ask the chatbot questions about it, or ask it to extract text from the photo, you can’t do this in Live mode yet unless you won a Pixel 9.

Privacy update

Along with this new ability, Google also issued a privacy update, stating that “As part of providing this improved experience, your audio, video and screenshares are stored in your Gemini Apps activity (if it's on). Your data in Gemini Apps activity is deleted per your auto-delete period in that setting, and you can manage and delete your Gemini Apps activity at any time.”

To access your Gemini Apps activity, on a mobile device, click on your profile picture in the Gemini app, then on ‘Gemini Apps Activity’. In a web browser, go to gemini.google.com and click on the menu icon, then Activity.

(Image credit: Future, Lance Ulanoff) What I found

A conversation being more dynamic is pretty subjective, so I tried a conversation with the new update today and while it went smoothly it was hard to pinpoint what the differences were, if any, from my previous interactions with Gemini Live. Sure, Gemini sounded perky and eager to please, but it has always sounded like that.

The next thing I wanted to try was the translation abilities. I tried to get Gemini Live to translate words from Spanish to English, but more often than not it kept telling me that the word I was saying was the name of a town in California or Michigan, rather than translating it into English! However, that may have more to do with my Spanish pronunciation than Gemini’s ability to translate from Spanish to English. To be fair, I did manage to get it to understand some of my Spanish words and translate them eventually.

So, I’d say it was hard to pinpoint exactly what had changed in Live, however when I asked Gemini Live when it was last updated, it said February 2025, so I’m assuming it has been updated with the new abilities. Let me know in the comments if you’ve noticed that your Gemini chats feel more alive compared to before.

Gemini LIve is currently free to all Android users, but also available in the Gemini app to iPhone users who are subscribed to Gemini Advanced.

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Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, says the National Science Foundation has given money to thousands of "Woke DEI" studies. Researchers say that's misrepresenting science and disparaging important research.

(Image credit: Ron Jenkins)