Gaming

While the response to Earth Defense Force 6, the latest in the gory sci-fi shooter series, has been generally positive, many PC users had complaints, specifically about how they were required to sign in with an Epic Games account to play online co-op.

The developers have good news for those players. On Thursday, developer Sandlot released a small update on Steam that removed that requirement. Now you can play online missions without the account. “This application has been modified so that you can play online missions without signing into your Epic Games Account,” the post reads.

Players who have already connected their Epic and Steam accounts can unlink them on the Epic Games website in a browser by following these steps.

Get your weekly teardown of the tech behind PC gaming

This is just the latest instance of a video game team removing a second account requirement for a PC game. This practice has fallen out of favor with players and the industry, with players specifically often review-bombing games to protest those decisions. This has come up a lot with recent PlayStation PC releases such as Helldivers 2, where even developers at Arrowhead Game Studios spoke out against the PlayStation Network account requirement. Granted, this became an issue months after the game released, but the outcry was so loud that PlayStation walked back the decision.

However, it still hasn’t responded to similar criticism for its God of War Ragnarok PC port, which also needed a PSN account and caused it to launch to mixed reviews on Steam (although it’s now sitting at “Mostly Positive”). A community member even created a mod that allowed players to get around the account requirement, although it has since been taken it down.

But discussions around account or launcher requirements have moved to the forefront. Ubisoft just announced that it is going back to releasing its games day one on Steam after years of launching them on its own platform. Additionally, The Dragon Age: The Veilguard will be launching natively on Steam. This facilitates the experience of playing on Steam and — sort of more importantly — the Steam Deck.

Casetify is bringing back the accessories based on Neon Genesis Evangelion that it originally launched in 2023, giving you another chance to grab one or two cases for your Apple devices. The crown jewel of the collection is perhaps the collectible case for the AirPods Pro and Pro 2, which was designed to look like the head of Evangelion Unit-01. It opens from the back to reveal a removable inner case that provides another layer of protection. You could also just carry the inner case if the Unit-01 head is a bit too bulky to fit in your bag or if you want to keep it pristine.

In addition, the collection features cases for iPhones and iPads, including all iPhone 16 models, with photos of Eva pilots, as well as typography highlighting key terms from the anime series. Casetify says its cases aren’t just for collection purposes, though, and can actually protect your devices with their impact-resistant design. There’s also a MagSafe charger with a cord that resembles Evangelion units’ umbilical cables, as well as other MagSafe-compatible accessories. The collection is now available from Casetify’s Co-Lab page, its Co-Lab app and its physical studio locations. Take note that some of these items sold out quickly the first time around, especially the AirPods case which Casetify called a “sought-after item.”

Blizzard’s Diablo IV will receive an update to take advantage of the PS5 Pro’s increased horsepower. It is the first Microsoft game to have a publicly confirmed PS5 Pro upgrade, though others could be in the works.

Blizzard’s Diablo boss Rod Fergusson confirmed this on social media, stating that Diablo IV and the Vessel of Hatred expansion will be “PS5 Pro enhanced.” Fergusson added that he is “very proud of our hardworking team to make this happen.” More details will come later.

Diablo IV launched in June 2023 across PlayStation, Xbox, and PC–this was just a few months before Microsoft’s deal to buy Activision Blizzard closed in October 2023. Since then, Microsoft has brought a number of other games to PlayStation, including Sea of Thieves and Grounded.

Diablo IV is the 55th publicly confirmed game to receive a PS5 Pro enhancement. You can see the full list of titles in the gallery below. The Vessel of Hatred expansion launches on October 7, but it remains to be seen if the PS5 Pro enhancement will be ready at launch or if it may come at a later date.

The PS5 Pro, priced at $700, launches in November. The system has no disc drive, but is compatible with the $80 disc-drive add-on (if you can find it in stock anywhere). Sony began PS5 Pro preorders on September 26, and the console is not selling out as some thought it might. The 30th Anniversary edition, however, sold through all of its preorder stock very quickly.

For more, check out GameSpot’s Diablo IV Vessel of Hatred preorder guide.

Silent Hill 2

MSRP $70.00

“Silent Hill 2’s remake is a faithful tribute to a horror classic that hardly holds anything back.”

Pros

• Detailed characters and world
• Fantastic sound design
• Strong puzzles
• Redesigned boss fights
• Original story is still impactful

Cons

• Padded with backtracking
• Combat gets old

After hours spent hiding from twisted nurses, I’m finally ready to escape Silent Hill 2’s Brookhaven Hospital. I frantically search for a front door key in the lobby, but I find one final doctor’s note first. The journal entry ruminates on an illness that’s taken over the small town, one that’s left its victims lost beyond the borders of reality. The medical world is on the hunt for a cure, but this doctor questions if it’s really a sickness at all. Sure, their patients are lost in a world within their head, but they seem at peace there — happy, even.

“So why, I ask myself, why in the name of healing him must we drag him painfully into the world of our own reality?” the writer wonders.

That’s always been the key to Silent Hill 2’s horror, and it’s carefully preserved in Bloober Team’s faithful remake. The PlayStation 2 classic is filled with creepy monsters that will stalk anyone unwise enough to enter the town of Silent Hill, but that’s not the source of its fear. The real scary part is what lies outside of the city limits: a harsh world where monsters roam free on two legs instead of hiding in the shadows. Maybe it’s safer in the fog.

While it may be an unnecessary project, Silent Hill 2’s remake keeps the original’s haunting essence intact by staying true to its unsettling atmosphere, off-kilter tone, and uncomfortable moments. It’s a respectful revisit that only veers off course when it tries a little too hard to add pounds onto a sleek horror game. Even with some extra weight, the tortured story told here is every bit as harrowing as it was in 2001.

New look, same feel

Remaking Silent Hill 2 is no easy task. Though many games over the past two decades have been inspired by the PS2 classic, very few have quite nailed its feel. It shares DNA with genre peers like Resident Evil, but it’s a horror game that feels as otherworldly as its own alternate universes. It’s eerie, antagonistic, and always just enough off-center to keep players off balance at all times. I was skeptical that anyone could pull it off, let alone Bloober Team; psychological projects like The Medium have always felt indebted to Silent Hill, but they’ve never quite hit the mark. Perhaps sensing its own shortcomings, Bloober dials in on the original game to truly understand what makes it special and deliver a remake worthy of its legacy.

The core is still the same. It’s a survival horror game about James Sunderland’s trip to a foggy, monster-infested town in search of his “missing” wife. All of the set pieces, disturbing bosses, haunting music, and iconic cinematics appear as I remember them, but with a modern sheen. That begins with a visual overhaul that trades in PS2 dreariness for Unreal Engine 5 realism. Though the original release derives its power from its filthy textures, Bloober finds a new eeriness in its uncanny approach.

Characters are more painstakingly detailed, capturing more physical nuances from its top-notch cast. Characters like Angela benefit most from that change; she’s more manic when she’s wildly swinging around a knife, more detached as she ascends a flaming staircase. Eddie is especially haunting, with a rougher face and dead eyes that contrast with his total mental collapse. Then there’s James, brought to life by a well-cast Luke Roberts, whose unsettling nature is only emphasized by upgraded animations. He sleepwalks through some of the story’s most disturbing moments, seemingly unphased by it all, but he turns into an aggressive killer the moment he starts wailing on a monster with a lead pipe. You can feel that something’s off about him well before the truth of his quest is revealed.

The town of Silent Hill is more realized here too, with more explorable spaces around town. A ratty American flag hanging from a porch gives me a better sense of who might inhabit its homes. When I run into a laundromat, I’m met with dingy washing machines that look like they haven’t been cleaned in a decade. Despite having a modern sheen, Bloober works more grit into every corner of the deteriorating town. It feels like a true ghost town, but one that’s still just left of reality.

More technical updates double down on horror. While the original release is plenty scary, it’s more on a psychological level. The remake brings more horror to the fray through darker lighting that hides monsters in shadow. The sound design especially stands out, creating a wall of unnatural sound that persists throughout. When an enemy is nearby, radio static erupts from my DualSense speaker. At first, I think that it too clearly telegraphs approaching enemies. By the end, it becomes a source of madness. When it begins to crackle, it triggers a Pavlovian reaction in me. I’m suddenly activated, sent into a blind rage as I try to smash every enemy I can find just to make it stop.

Of course, the most crucial part of Silent Hill 2 is its fog. That’s so important that its previous remaster was heavily criticized largely because of its changes to its density. Bloober opts for a white wisp haze over the ashen haze of the original. It may be contentious with nitpickers, but it works here. It’s less apocalyptic, but it’s still a thick wall that’s hard to see through. When I hear an enemy creeping nearby, I’m sent into a panic as I struggle to find it through the noise. It’s still an oppressive mystical force that lords over me, only showing me what it wants me to see and when it chooses to. I’m powerless to its almost holy presence.

Gameplay overhaul

The changes here aren’t just technical ones; Bloober gives the original a major gameplay rework too that brings it more in line with Capcom’s Resident Evil remakes. There are pros and cons to that approach that create a clear contrast into how the scope of big-budget games has shifted between 2001 and 2024. It feels like publisher Konami’s directive here was to make Silent Hill 2 feel like a modern game. Beyond the makeover, it’s a bigger game with expanded combat, more puzzles, and much larger explorable spaces. While there’s nothing about those changes that’s actively bad, they don’t always feel additive.

For instance, locations like Toluca Prison are expanded into sprawling mazes that take a few hours to complete. Bloober often justifies that growth with deeper puzzles that feel in line with the original release, even when they’re entirely new additions. One has me finding weights throughout the prison and correctly placing them on a scale to unlock different doors. Another has me matching snippets of poems about execution victims to make sense of their crimes. Each one very much feels in the spirit of Silent Hill 2, reimagining it as a more robust series of puzzle boxes.

What’s less effective is all the backtracking that adds to the experience. The remake takes around 14 hours to complete, which is a few hours more than the original, but most of that extra time is spent running back and forth between corridors to solve puzzles. Brookhaven Hospital is especially exhausting at times, as I spend a lot of time trying to remember how to get from point A to point B again as I walk a far off item back to where it’s needed.

Combat has a similar dynamic. On paper, it’s a great upgrade. It’s a tense third-person shooter that effectively creates tension through resource scarcity. Enemies like Mannequins can be unpredictable, skirting away from my bullets. If I don’t want to waste my shots on a monster that skitters into the shadows the moment my flashlight hits it, I have to take my chances with close-range melee combat. That can be dangerous, as a short evasive dodge is only so effective against piles of limbs that erratically lash out.

That system does wear thin eventually, as the remake forces players into battle a lot more because of its tighter spaces. In the original, I could largely choose to leave monsters alone if I so desired. I could let a nurse keep roaming Brookhaven’s halls, leaving a creepy obstacle in my path. It’s more imperative to clear them out here, which reveals how few monster types the original game actually has. I’m largely fighting variations of the same three monsters who become easy to deal with once I know their patterns.

It’s moments like that which bring the folly of remakes like this into light. The original Silent Hill 2 works as well as it does because of its dated design decisions, not in spite of them. Its smaller spaces and concise runtime keep the story moving while offering just enough to do between cutscenes. The remake, on the other hand, stuffs padding into that sleek sequence. The solution to making the PS2 game feel modern often translates to adding more “content,” but what does killing 30 more Nurses or backtracking Brookhaven for an extra hour or two actually add to the story? Some decisions feel more about justifying a price tag to new today’s audiences than supporting the story.

There are plenty of moments, though, where the remake does add meaningful changes. The biggest example comes in its reimagined boss fights, which make some of gaming’s most uncomfortable moments even more visceral. In the original release’s most upsetting moment, James fights a boss dubbed “Abstract Daddy” — a sentient bed that visualizes Angela’s sexual trauma at the hands of her father. That moment falls a bit flat in the original, as James simply guns it down in a bland square room. The fight here is enormous by comparison. The beast chases James through a labyrinthian apartment, smashing through walls like a rampaging bull. Angela’s pain feels more tangible in that moment, her father getting better represented as the dangerous, destructive force he is. Interpretive changes like that are where game remakes can offer value, continuing a conversation with the source material instead of talking over it.

Through the fog

While Bloober Team’s remake takes a lot of liberties with gameplay and upgraded visuals, it stays true to the original where it counts. Silent Hill 2’s story goes largely untouched in the remake aside from some additional dialogue and collectible memos naturally weaved into the PS2 game’s script. Only a few new additions feel out of place and a scene or two loses its edge with cleaner visuals (the iconic prison chat with Maria doesn’t quite feel as haunting here), but it otherwise lets Konami’s original vision play out in all its glory. That’s a bolder decision than it sounds like.

On revisiting Silent Hill 2 for the first time in years, I’m struck by just how unflinching it is compared to today’s big budget games. It’s never out to please players, like the B-movie romp of Capcom’s Resident Evil games. It’s an actively uncomfortable game that skirts the boundaries of sensitivity, something that may shock modern players. But that’s not done without purpose: A story about the ugliness of humanity needs to be ugly.

Silent Hill 2 deals with deep-rooted trauma by meeting its characters at their lowest points. James is a guilt-ridden antihero who practically begs to be punished by the menacing Pyramid Head. We meet Angela in the midst of a breakdown as she struggles to process grief in tandem with grotesque abuse. Eddie, who is sure to uphold the title of the story’s most controversial character, finds himself pushed onto a psychopathic path after years of bullying. Each character is screaming out in pain, even when it’s through their disassociated eyes. And we’re trapped in the fog with them.

The remake barely filters the original’s most grotesque moments. A dog’s murder is described in brutal detail. James remains a loathsome worm of a hero. One puzzle has him wrapping a noose around his neck as it almost looks like he’s praying he’s actually receiving his final judgment. Creepy Mannequins are great for a jump scare, but these are the moments of lasting horror that will stay with me forever. The real fear is that there’s no hope for redemption in a world of unimaginable pain, a horror that feels just as suffocating as the fog of Silent Hill. Who would want to survive in that place?

“There is no healing of thy bruise,” one note scratched into a wall threatens. “Thy wound is grievous.”

Silent Hill 2 was tested on PS5.

Meta just announced several updates coming to Facebook during the company’s IRL event in Austin. It’s testing an Explore tab and adding a new video tab.

Let’s start with the Explore tab. If you’ve ever perused Instagram, you likely know how exactly this will work. This tab will house “a variety of content tailored to your interests.”

Meta says that the algorithm has been designed to serve up “content that doesn’t just entertain, but helps you dive deeper into your interests.” Here’s hoping I get nothing but content about wild traversal strategies in . In any event, the new Explore tab is still in the testing phase so it could be a bit before a wide rollout.

The video tab is also getting a major update to accommodate Reels. All of the video content on Facebook will now be housed behind this tab. The content will stream on a full-screen video player that lets users “seamlessly watch the best short-form, long-form and live videos in a single experience.”

The updated video tab starts rolling out to users in the “coming weeks.” This is definitely an attempt by Meta to capture , as the announcement was accompanied by statistics indicating that young adults on Facebook spend around 60 percent of their time watching videos and Reels.

I got news for you, Meta. My dad, who is not a young adult, also spends all of his time on Facebook watching videos and Reels. So we’ll all benefit from this expanded video tab.

Ubisoft and Tencent are reportedly considering different options in order to stabilize the business and prevent further stock-price drops.

According to Bloomberg, Ubisoft’s Guillemot family and Tencent have reportedly discussed turning Ubisoft private, or even Tencent potentially buying out the company. These discussions are reportedly still at an early stage, so it might be a while before we see any results. There’s also no guarantee that the discussions will bear fruit, but Tencent and the Guillemot family are reportedly open to other alternatives.

Tencent owned 9.2% of Ubisoft’s net voting rights at the end of April, and currently holds 49.9% of the Guillemot Brothers’ holding company’s indirect stake. Minor shareholder and hedge fund AJ Investments published an open letter last month asking Ubisoft to go private and change its strategy.

Last month, Ubisoft’s shares sunk to its lowest since 2015, falling by 12.6% after Star Wars Outlaws released to lower-than-expected sales. Ubisoft also delayed Assassin’s Creed Shadows from November 15 to February 14, 2025, taking the feedback it learned from the release of Star Wars Outlaws. In the meantime, Ubisoft is also bringing its games back to Steam at launch in an effort to get more people to buy them.

Connections is the latest puzzle game from the New York Times. The game tasks you with categorizing a pool of 16 words into four secret (for now) groups by figuring out how the words relate to each other. The puzzle resets every night at midnight and each new puzzle has a varying degree of difficulty. Just like Wordle, you can keep track of your winning streak and compare your scores with friends.

Some days are trickier than others. If you’re having a little trouble solving today’s Connections puzzle, check out our tips and hints below. And if you still can’t get it, we’ll tell you today’s answers at the very end.

How to play Connections

In Connections, you’ll be shown a grid containing 16 words — your objective is to organize these words into four sets of four by identifying the connections that link them. These sets could encompass concepts like titles of video game franchises, book series sequels, shades of red, names of chain restaurants, etc.

There are generally words that seem like they could fit multiple themes, but there’s only one 100% correct answer. You’re able to shuffle the grid of words and rearrange them to help better see the potential connections.

Each group is color-coded. The yellow group is the easiest to figure out, followed by the green, blue, and purple groups.

Pick four words and hit Submit. If you’re correct, the four words will be removed from the grid and the theme connecting them will be revealed. Guess incorrectly and it’ll count as a mistake. You only have four mistakes available until the game ends.

Hints for today’s Connections

We can help you solve today’s Connection by telling you the four themes. If you need more assistance, we’ll also give you one word from each group below.

Today’s themes

• STEAK CUTS
• KINDS OF UNDERWEAR
• INVOLVED IN A DENTIST VISIT
• BRANDS THAT HAVE BECOME GENERIC TERMS

One-answer reveals

• STEAK CUTS – FILET
• KINDS OF UNDERWEAR – BIKINI
• INVOLVED IN A DENTIST VISIT – DRILL
• BRANDS THAT HAVE BECOME GENERIC TERMS – CHAPSTICK

Today’s Connections answers

Still no luck? That’s OK. This puzzle is designed to be difficult.  If you just want to see today’s Connections answer, we’ve got you covered below:

Connections grids vary widely and change every day. If you couldn’t solve today’s puzzle, be sure to check back in tomorrow.