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      Still Wakes the Deep Brings Cosmic Horror to a Perilous Oil Rig

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      The Chinese Room has long delivered unconventional game worlds. The metal offshore structure in Still Wakes the Deep might be its most evocatively realized yet.Christmas, 1975: an oil rig off the east coast of Scotland. Inside over breakfast, the chatter of possible strikes and crew members wolfing down baked beans, fried eggs and mugs of tea. Outside, the briny tang of windswept sea air, the North Sea swirling tempestuously below.The teetering rig of the first-person horror game Still Wakes the Deep, which releases on Tuesday for the PC, PlayStation 5 and the Xbox Series X|S, is another delightfully offbeat and beautifully realized locale from The Chinese Room, a British studio.Dear Esther, released in 2012, saw players exploring a moonlit Hebridean island, tromping through purple heather. Three years later, Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture whisked them off to a quaint fictional village in the west of England, zigzagging through arable fields and well-ordered front gardens.“It’s rare, still, for video games to venture away from generic-looking alien planets, abandoned spaceships or the trenches of past wars as settings for their stories,” said Simon Parkin, author of “Death by Video Game: Tales of Obsession From the Virtual Frontline.”The towering metal architecture and claustrophobic halls of Still Wakes the Deep are less naturalistic than the studio’s previous game worlds, but certainly no less evocative. John McCormack, the game’s creative director, possesses an instinctual familiarity with the era.“I can remember the texture of the carpets and the thin line of cigarette smoke that hovers halfway up a room, my granny’s slippers, what the ashtrays look like, how people talk — the slang of the time,” said McCormack, a Scot and a child of the 1970s.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Summer Begins

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      Memorial Day is the starting gun of a new season. Here’s a guide on how to spend the summer months. Memorial Day is a starting gun. While other holidays can be like a finish line — the culmination of so much energy — Memorial Day marks the beginning. The whole summer stretches out in front of us, a track shimmering in the sun.If you’re not yet sure how to spend the long weekend, or the next few months, don’t worry. The Morning has compiled the best ideas and recommendations from The Times to get you ready for the summer. Starting now.For your time outdoorsHere’s motivation to get you back in your garden, or to start a new one.Make your outdoor space work for you with these design ideas.A friend of mine recently lamented not having summer break as an adult. Here are ideas to relax even if you work full-time, like her.Outdoor activities — in the mountains or in your backyard — mean a greater chance of injury. Know your first aid basics.Pools are open and families are hitting the beach this Memorial Day. Try these workouts in the water.More people are building ponds in their backyard for swimming. See some examples.The joy of gardening.Ike Edeani for The New York TimesFor your travelsIf you’re flying this weekend with some time to kill, test your airport I.Q. with this quiz.If you want some entertainment for a long road trip, here’s a collection of great audiobooks, organized by length.Europe is anticipating yet another season of heat waves. Read how locals, and tourists, are preparing.Here are the best beaches in the U.S. and Mexico for each activity, like swimming, surfing or sand-castle building.Fifty years after working at a Massachusetts hotel, a writer examines what’s changed.Stay at one of these five waterside hotels.For your leisureRead the best fiction and nonfiction of the year (so far).Watch these films this weekend — whether in a movie theater or on your couch.Play these video games if you don’t want to leave your house.Laugh with these new stand-up specials.THE LATEST NEWSIsrael-Hamas WarThe Israeli military continued its operation in Rafah, southern Gaza, despite an International Court of Justice order to immediately suspend its campaign there.Some in Rafah have chosen not to evacuate, while others have fled and then returned after being unable to find safety elsewhere.In an Israeli prison infirmary, a Jewish dentist aided a seriously ill Yahya Sinwar. Years later, Sinwar, the leader of Hamas in Gaza, was an author of the Oct. 7 attack.War in UkraineVladimir Putin, likely feeling confident about the war and his hold on power, has overhauled his Defense Ministry.Russia is carrying out arson attacks on sites in Europe in a low-level sabotage campaign to undermine support for Ukraine.Some American precision-guided weapons have proved ineffective against Russian electronic warfare, classified Ukrainian reports show.A military branch of professional musicians travels Ukraine’s front lines and taps into a tradition of music as resistance, The Washington Post reports.More International NewsIn Papua New Guinea.Andrew Ruing, via ReutersAt least 670 people are thought to have died after a landslide in Papua New Guinea, a local U.N. official said.“They knew that’s where they were supposed to be”: A family member of a missionary couple who were killed in gang violence in Haiti spoke with The Wall Street Journal. Read about why aid groups stay in the country.In India, Prime Minister Narendra Modi uses wide-reaching welfare programs to create loyal voters.PoliticsJohn FettermanKenny Holston/The New York TimesSenator John Fetterman, Democrat of Pennsylvania, is picking fights with the progressives he once courted on issues including Israel and immigration.Rates of violent crime in most U.S. cities are down from pandemic-era highs. But rising property crime has made lawlessness an election issue.In Montana, the voting intentions of an influx of wealthy out-of-state newcomers hang over this year’s Senate race.President Biden told West Point’s graduating class that they owed an oath to the U.S. Constitution, not to their commander in chief. See a video.Other Big StoriesSevere storms are likely across portions of the U.S., while summer heat settles in across the South.At least five people have died and three others have gone missing on Mount Everest since the beginning of the climbing season.THE SUNDAY DEBATEShould Justice Samuel Alito recuse himself from cases about the Jan. 6, 2021, attack?Yes. The flags in support of rioters on Jan. 6, waved on Alito’s properties, add to the Supreme Court’s crisis of confidence. This incident “is a stark reminder of the importance of maintaining a clear separation between personal beliefs and judicial responsibilities,” Aron Solomon writes for The Hill.No. Justices have expressed political opinions publicly before, such as Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg about Donald Trump. “In all matters of public interest, justices have opinions — and they are appointed to some extent due to their opinions,” Michael Broyde writes for CNN.FROM OPINIONThe Fresh Air Fund in New York City teaches children about nature — and invites them to dream big, the editorial board writes.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      With Animal Well, the YouTuber Dunkey Goes From Critic to Salesman

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      After a decade of humorously reviewing games, the man known as Dunkey began a publishing company to support indie projects, starting with the mazelike Animal Well.Freewheeling assessments of the gaming industry have attracted millions of fans to the YouTube reviews of the personality nicknamed Dunkey, whose self-deprecating humor sweetens his critiques of popular video games.“Kirby is a lot like me,” he said while reviewing the pink puffball’s latest adventure. “He is a big fat guy that sucks up all the food.”“I’m just a referee on this one so you cannot get mad,” he explained in a middling review of Spider-Man 2, aware of the game’s rabid fan base.“This is an evil game made by an evil man,” he proclaimed about Elden Ring’s difficulty. “And whoever’s job it was to balance the damage-scaling on enemies did not show up for work.”Now Dunkey, whose real name is Jason Gastrow, is hoping to parlay his 14-year rise as an entertaining critic into a serious business publishing indie games, something few influencers have attempted.On Thursday, his publishing company, Bigmode, released its first game, Animal Well, in which a mysterious blob explores a complex labyrinth while encountering animals that might help or hinder its journey. Billy Basso spent seven years making the game, which relies on well-designed puzzles and hidden secrets to motivate players and has generated extra attention because of Dunkey.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      No Rest for the Wicked Is Moon Studios’ Pivot Into Dark Fantasy

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      Moon Studios’ newest project, the action role-playing game No Rest for the Wicked, was inspired by Dark Souls, Diablo and “Game of Thrones.”To develop the action role-playing game No Rest for the Wicked, Moon Studios looked far beyond the company’s well-regarded 2015 debut, Ori and the Blind Forest, and its 2020 sequel, Ori and the Will of the Wisps.At first glance, No Rest for the Wicked has combat reminiscent of the Dark Souls franchise’s slow, consequential action and big boss fights, with a dark fantasy setting drenched in the politics and intrigue “Game of Thrones” made popular.But Gennadiy Korol, one of the studio’s founders, is quick to identify several other influences: the fighting games and Monster Hunter series that led to the game’s combo system. The animation of Hayao Miyazaki’s “Princess Mononoke” that steered it away from motion capture. The subtleties of Animal Crossing’s camera that inspired its curved horizon.And with much fondness for the popular Diablo and Baldur’s Gate franchises, along with the often overlooked Nox, Moon Studios hopes to innovate on the genre by wearing its inspiration on its sleeves.“We’re trying to take all these inspirations we have from growing up with these games, from playing recent releases,” Korol said. “We take what we really like and we put it together into this unique mix.”Even its release strategy was guided by previous games. Buoyed by the success stories of Hades and Baldur’s Gate 3, which helped change the perception of early access, Moon Studios released a preliminary version of No Rest for the Wicked on the PC this month. The studio intends to incorporate player feedback as it iterates on the game’s core features, which include crafting mechanics, resource gathering, unique loot and customizable equipment in addition to its quests.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Video Game Reviews: Tales of Kenzera: Zau and Harold Halibut

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      Precision is necessary in Tales of Kenzera: Zau, which brims with Bantu traditions. Through repetition, Harold Halibut demonstrates a subtle mastery of human nature.The good vibes of respect and kindness are earnestly presented in wildly divergent but effective ways in the speedy Tales of Kenzera: Zau, brimming with ancient Bantu myths, and in Harold Halibut, a slow-moving science fiction story that leans on the friendship between a human and a fishlike alien.Through struggle, Zau finds that life is more complex, with dead ends and choices that force you to try again.Surgent StudiosTales of Kenzera: ZauTales of Kenzera: Zau is a paean to one son’s paternal memories where the narrative, gameplay, art and music are carefully woven like silk velvet into a universally relatable experience.Helmed by the actor Abubakar Salim (Assassin’s Creed: Origins, “Raised by Wolves”), the engrossing Metroidvania is his method of processing anguish by refashioning some of the rich African myths his Kenya-born father imparted before he died. The moment you step into a futuristic apartment before the ancient fables unfold fully, you move past neatly placed African-themed paintings, rugs, sculptures and books, hints at what is to come.Overcome by loss, young Zuberi immerses himself in a tome that his father left him, as the surroundings change to become the world of Kenzera. Here, Zau, a young shaman adorned with two beaded necklaces and some white body paint for protection from evil, explores seven labyrinthine territories to defeat giant beings for Kalunga, the God of Death.Zau takes on this daunting task so Kalunga will return life to his father. It’s not only the enemies, but the characters’ exchanges along the twisting paths, that are fascinating to encounter. With commanding aphorisms and adages, Kalunga tempers Zau’s need for immediate answers. Through struggle, Zau finds that life is more complex, with dead ends and choices that force you to try again.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Workers at Microsoft-Owned Activision Vote to Unionize

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      The group will become the largest union at a video game company in the United States, while Microsoft pledged to stay neutral on the vote.About 600 workers at Activision Publishing, the video game maker owned by Microsoft, are unionizing, forming the largest video game workers’ union in the United States, the Communications Workers of America said on Friday. Microsoft recognized the union after the vote count was finalized.The employees work in quality assurance, testing Activision’s games for bugs, glitches and other defects, and 390 of them voted to form a union, while eight opposed the effort, the union said. About 200 workers did not vote.Microsoft acquired Activision Blizzard, the maker of Call of Duty and other blockbusters, for $69 billion in October. As part of its lengthy effort to convince regulators to approve the deal, Microsoft signed a first-of-its-kind pact in the industry to remain neutral if workers wanted to unionize with the C.W.A.Managers were trained not to express an opinion about whether unionization was good or bad, and the C.W.A. said Activision’s management upheld the pact and did not interfere in the workers’ organizing efforts.“That has been, organizing-wise, a huge blessing,” said Kara Fannon, a member of the union organizing committee who works for Activision near Minneapolis. “It has helped with a lot of people who were concerned about union busting or potential retaliation.”The new union is the first at Activision since the pact went into effect.“Microsoft’s choice will strengthen its corporate culture and ability to serve its customers and should serve as a model for the industry,” C.W.A.’s president, Claude Cummings Jr., said in a statement.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      MLB The Show Will Include Women Players for the First Time

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      MLB The Show 24 will feature a career mode that allows gamers to create a female player and steer her journey to the big leagues. The game draws on the experiences of female baseball players.For the first time, women will don Major League Baseball jerseys in MLB The Show, the long-running popular video game.MLB The Show 24 will debut the option to create and play a female player in a reinvented version of the game’s career mode, Road to the Show, in which gamers direct a custom character’s ascent from the minors to the big leagues. The game’s developer, Sony San Diego Studio, announced the new mode Tuesday.The game, which comes out March 19, calls the new career mode Road to the Show: Women Pave Their Way. It includes a storyline that follows the ascendence of two women into the major leagues and touches on the unique challenges they face, according to Sony San Diego Studio.MLB The Show joins other high-profile sports video game franchises that have moved to include women, such as FIFA (now EA Sports FC) and NBA 2K. But the gender dynamics in baseball are far more complicated, because most women and girls play softball instead.Some hoped MLB The Show 24 would help change that.“I think that in the United States especially, we’re brainwashed to think that boys play baseball and girls play softball, when in reality both exist in both worlds,” said Veronica Alvarez, manager of the U.S.A. Baseball Women’s National Team, which will compete in this year’s Women’s Baseball World Cup.Ms. Alvarez, a former national team player herself, and some of her players provided Sony with input for the game’s development.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Mark Dodson, Voice of ‘Star Wars’ and ‘Gremlins’ Characters, Dies at 64

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      He voiced Salacious B. Crumb, the monkey-lizard pet of Jabba the Hutt in “Return of the Jedi,” as well as Mogwai in both “Gremlins” films.Mark Dodson, who voiced strange puppet creatures in “Star Wars,” including Salacious B. Crumb, the cackling monkey-lizard pet of Jabba the Hutt, and “Gremlins” films, died on Saturday. He was 64.His death was confirmed in statements on social media by his agent, Peter DeLorme, and the Evansville Horror Con, the Indiana fan convention where he had been scheduled to appear over the weekend. No cause of death was given.Mr. Dodson’s career began in 1983 on “Star Wars: Return of the Jedi,” when he voiced Salacious B. Crumb, the court jester of Jabba the Hutt that was known for its maniacal laugh.In a 2020 interview, Mr. Dodson explained how he had gotten the role by accident.He was auditioning for Adm. Ackbar, a leader during the Clone Wars, but was so nervous that he asked for a break to compose himself, and was overheard using a deranged voice that the casting director thought was perfect for Crumb.That led to Mr. Dodson to voice several of the Mogwai in “Gremlins,” the 1984 comedy-horror film about a young man who accidentally unleashes a horde of malevolently mischievous monsters on a small town on Christmas Eve.“Let’s say I did get Ackbar — I never would’ve gotten the ‘Gremlins,’” he said. “The ‘Gremlins’ came because the ‘Gremlins’ were made by the same guys who made Salacious. That’s why it came up, ‘They look a lot the same. Wouldn’t it be great for the Gremlins to have that same voice! Who is that guy?’”Mr. Dodson continued working in both franchises, voicing characters in the 1985 television movie “Ewoks: The Battle for Endor” and “Gremlins 2: The New Batch” in 1990.He voiced a scavenger in “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” (2015) and appeared as an uncredited zombie in George Romero’s “Day of the Dead” (1985).Mark Dodson was born on Feb. 1, 1960, in St. Louis, according to IMDb.He also voiced characters in several video games, including “Star Trek Online,” “Ghostrunner,” “Bendy and the Dark Revival,” and “Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga,” once again as Crumb. More