Nanolathe is the latest example of a fascinating subgenre of real-time strategy game: Chris Taylor's 1997 hit Total Annihation but with something more. Nanolathe offers an open source MIT-licensed 2.5D RTS engine reimplementing the original plus three decades of the quality-of-life tweaks: a perfect access point for anyone who played it way back when but might now be intimidated by Beyond All Reason's sprawling 150-player Götterdämmerungs. — Read the rest

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It's kind of bleak that gambling ads have become so ubiquitous, right? It feels like every time you turn on the TV or click on a YouTube video, you're greeted with some morally bankrupt celebrity — usually Kevin Hart — trying their hardest to make blowing your life savings on a parlay fun. — Read the rest

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I'm about to say something bold and trailblazing: the triple-A game development industry isn't particularly creative and has stagnated significantly, in large part thanks to overinflated budgets bringing with them astronomical revenue goals that heavily discourage risk-taking or innovation. Cower as this fresh young firebrand says what we're all thinking! — Read the rest

The post Minesweeper as a triple-A game appeared first on Boing Boing.

If you've been engaging with the American job market lately, first of all, I'm so sorry. Second of all, you've probably run into an AI-powered "automated recruitment agent": in other words, an AI bot that the company makes you do a one-sided interview with as part of the extended humiliation ritual that is landing a job. — Read the rest

The post Messing with AI interviewers is cathartic appeared first on Boing Boing.

Last week, a clone of Adobe's Creative Suite appeared, said to be reverse-engineered and recreated using AI. Adobe's bad reputation made it easy for the internet to take perverse joy in its misfortune. Out with Adobe's surveillance technology, in with a fast and efficient replacement! — Read the rest

The post "Terrible games" made with AI appeared first on Boing Boing.

Remember when the PS5 Pro launched and we all lost our collective minds about it costing $700, which is, to be fair, still an egregious price for a console? Good times.

If only we knew, right? The enormity of the AI component crunch hadn't quite hit us yet, and a future where people could still afford to play video games still seemed possible. — Read the rest

The post A used PS5 Pro will now run you twice its original launch price appeared first on Boing Boing.

Anthropic updated its usage policy to protect Claude from bullies. Along with clarifications on child sexual abuse material and weapons development, the 2026 Usage Policy update prohibits users from "Engag[ing] in sustained and needless abusive or cruel behavior toward our models"

The update published yesterday, and effective in November, along with sections titled "Do Not Undermine Democratic Processes" and "Do Not Generate Sexually Explicit Content" is a section called "Do Not Engage in Cruel, Abusive, or Psychologically Harmful Conduct." — Read the rest

The post Anthropic wants people to stop being mean to Claude appeared first on Boing Boing.

TL;DR: Protect 10 devices with an AdGuard VPN 5-year subscription on sale for $35.

Most VPNs get by charging you a small fee every month. It seems trivial at first, but once you add it up, you can end up spending hundreds just trying to keep your privacy intact. — Read the rest

The post For the next 3 days, this $360 VPN is only $35 appeared first on Boing Boing.

No longer will Americans have to go without delicious and inexpensive industrial dyes in their foodstuffs. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is reportedly to allow additives to be added to food without safety review so long as they aren't proven to be carcinogenic and introduced at levels below 0.5 parts per billion. — Read the rest

The post New FDA loophole would allow toxic chemicals into food appeared first on Boing Boing.