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‘Jawbreaker’ Stage Musical Shines Spotlight On Vylette’s “Trans Narrative” With Non-Binary Actor AJ Paramo
Jawbreaker The Musical, a stage adaptation of the 1999 teen cult film, is making a notable change to one of its central characters by explicitly reimagining outcast Fern Mayo, who transforms into the glamorous Vylette, as a trans character. Writer Darren Stein said the decision followed years of trans fans, including actress Eve Lindley, telling…
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‘Can I cry?’: Stalker 2 devs say its 2.0 update’s engine overhaul was a nightmare—but worth the effort
GSC Game World’s developers say that rebuilding Stalker 2’s underlying engine systems for the game’s 2.0 update was an exceptionally difficult process, but one they believe has significantly improved the experience. The work matters because it aims to address long-standing technical problems and make the game’s open-world simulation more stable, responsive and credible. The update…
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30,000 people line up 24 hours early to play the final Wardogs closed beta, developer responds: ‘YOU PEOPLE ARE CRAZY’
Wardogs, an upcoming multiplayer shooter, saw more than 30,000 players queue up a full 24 hours before its final closed beta test went live, according to PC Gamer. The scale of the early queue caught the development team off guard, with a developer publicly reacting to the turnout by telling players “YOU PEOPLE ARE CRAZY,”…
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C# 15 preview adds union types ahead of November release
Microsoft is preparing to launch C# 15 in November, with a preview build already showing its most heavily requested feature: union types. These let developers group several distinct custom data types under a single umbrella type, giving the compiler a fixed, verifiable list of permitted variants and enabling simpler pattern matching, custom functions for grouped…
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FCC plans robocall scorecard to grade phone companies on spam call blocking
The US Federal Communications Commission has announced plans to create a “robocall mitigation scorecard” that would rate phone companies on how effectively they block illegal spam calls. The move is intended to give consumers clearer information about which wireless, wireline and VoIP providers are actually stopping robocalls, rather than simply checking whether providers have filed…
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Woman fell for ‘romance scammer’ she met on Muslim dating app… now cops say she have inadvertently committed a crime too
A woman in Sandy Springs, Georgia, says she was defrauded by a man calling himself “Yusuf” whom she met on the Muslim dating app Muzz, only to be told by police that she may herself have committed a crime by unwittingly acting as a “money mule”. The case highlights how romance scam victims can be…
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Google releases Gemini 3.8 Flash, its third Flash model in six weeks
Google has released Gemini 3.8 Flash, its third Flash-tier AI model in just six weeks, while its flagship Pro line remains stalled with no sign of the long-promised Gemini 3.5 Pro. The new release arrives in two versions: a general-purpose “workhorse” model for agentic tasks and coding, and Gemini 3.8 Flash Cyber, a specialised variant…
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Dragon’s Dogma 2 Frame Rates Massively Improved with Patch 3.2 on PS5, PS5 Pro
Capcom’s Patch 3.2 for Dragon’s Dogma 2 has delivered dramatic frame rate improvements on PlayStation 5 and PS5 Pro, addressing performance problems that have dogged the open-world RPG since launch. According to Push Square’s testing, the update goes far beyond the developer’s stated goal of general optimisation, transforming how the game runs on both consoles…
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Alexa can verify suspected Amazon scam messages
Amazon has expanded its Alexa for Shopping assistant so it can verify whether an email, text message or phone call claiming to be from the company is genuine, in an effort to counter impersonation scams. Users can ask the AI assistant about a suspicious message and it will check it against Amazon’s own records of…
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Mario Kart 8 Deluxe gets a surprise Switch 2 update, bringing eight-player split-screen to the evergreen racing game
Nintendo has released a surprise free Switch 2 update for Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, with the headline feature being support for eight-player split-screen racing on a single console. This doubles the previous local multiplayer limit of four players and marks a notable enhancement for a title still hugely popular nearly a decade after its original…