With this macguffin's loss, the thread of prophecy is severed. (Spoilers!)

YouTuber BOB_BestOfBugs, however, realized that there's nothing stopping you from putting a Netherstone into a container like a crate or a sack (crucial to the Shadowboxing speedrun tech) and then getting rid of that container. I was able to replicate the trick in my own game, but curiously I only got the game over on losing my second Netherstone⁠, so watch out for potentially soft locking yourself here.

What follows is the most luxurious sort of "you messed up, big time" scene you could possibly ask for, shades of firing a mining laser that wipes out all of humanity in System Shock and its remake.

(SPOILERS) YouTube Link

We have just shipped an updated Steam Deck Client to the Stable (default) channel.

General

• Added support for Indonesian language.
• Fixed the "Processing Shaders" dialog flashing when launching a game.
• Fixed manual GPU clocks not getting applied when launching a game.
• Fixed screenshot notifications not showing up when a screenshot is taken.
• Fixed empty folders not being re-created when verifying a game installation.
• Fixed a case where a Library Folder could be forgotten when a drive was unplugged from the system.
• Fixed a case where non-steam games could disappear from the library.
• Fixed issue where some steam:// protocol handlers were not handled correctly due to case sensitivity. Example: steam://url/communityfilepage/<ugcid> was not working correctly.
• Fixed issue with steam://connect/<gameserver ip>:<game server port>/<optional password> was not handled.
• Fixed a case where the System Report upload process would proclaim success even though the operation failed.
• Added a "Save To Desktop" option to the System Report dialog.
• Fixed issue where the virtual keyboard was not showing when requested by the game in game mode.
• Fixed a case where the user would be prompted to install an OS update for a second time after switching between game mode and desktop mode.

Steam Input

• Fixed touchpad input when using the Victrix and Qanba PS4/PS5 arcade sticks
• Reduced lag when switching between pages in the "Edit Layout" view for configurations with large numbers of action sets/layers/mode-shifts
• Fixed the DualSense firmware update dialog from popping up when the controller was connected over Bluetooth and already up to date
• Added the ability to bind Steam Input API trigger actions to button inputs.

Steam Cloud

• Fixed a case where Steam Cloud saves could be synced to a computer that did not have the game installed if the game was available for streaming from another PC.

Remote Play

• Fixed controller buttons being stuck down.
• Added support for 4K high quality streaming presets.
• Fixed occasional crash directly launching a game from the Steam Link UI.
• Fixed device authorization dialog not showing if Steam Link connects while Steam is starting up.

Library

• Fixed some screenshot thumbnails on the activity feed not being properly obscured when marked as spoiler.

Desktop Mode

• Allow the settings window to be resized.
• Improved reliability of Back button.
• Adjusted the low battery notification for laptops/handheld PCs to only fire in the overlay or the main BPM window.
• Fixed windows being able to set minimum sizes larger than their display dimensions.
• Fixed clicking "Play Game" links in event news causing client popup windows to close.
• steamwebhelper support dialog is now shown if the main client window cannot be created at startup.
• Fixed switching from fullscreen to windowed mode when a full-screen video is dismissed.
• Fixed notifications stealing focus when shown in overlay.
• Fixed overlay freezing when a file dialog is shown.
• The overlay tabbed browser will now wait until the overlay has been activated for the first time before restoring saved tabs.
• Added an option to In Game settings that allows toggling whether overlay browser tabs will be restored when starting a game.
• Fixed a bug which could cause a server browser query to stop prematurely without pinging all of the servers.

The most recent Kill Switch master list change details a variety of features and perks disabled in Dead by Daylight in order to resolve a popular survivor exploit. This means that if you’ve experienced it or have even used the technique at some point to become invincible yourself, you won’t be encountering it anymore. Killer mains in DBD, rise up. Now’s your opportunity!

If you’re not yet familiar with the Kill Switch system in DBD, every once in a while Behaviour Interactive disables in-game features to try and combat gameplay issues and exploits. These adjustments are temporary, lasting only until the developer rebalances everything and ensures fair play between fans. For example, Mastermind was disabled previously due to bugs.

Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag’s unexpected disappearance from the Steam store is down to nothing more exciting than a tech bug - and definitely isn’t a sign of an upcoming remake for the pirate entry in the stealth-action franchise.

We have just shipped an updated Steam Deck Client to the Stable (default) channel.

General

• Added support for Indonesian language.
• Fixed the "Processing Shaders" dialog flashing when launching a game.
• Fixed manual GPU clocks not getting applied when launching a game.
• Fixed screenshot notifications not showing up when a screenshot is taken.
• Fixed empty folders not being re-created when verifying a game installation.
• Fixed a case where a Library Folder could be forgotten when a drive was unplugged from the system.
• Fixed a case where non-steam games could disappear from the library.
• Fixed issue where some steam:// protocol handlers were not handled correctly due to case sensitivity. Example: steam://url/communityfilepage/<ugcid> was not working correctly.
• Fixed issue with steam://connect/<gameserver ip>:<game server port>/<optional password> was not handled.
• Fixed a case where the System Report upload process would proclaim success even though the operation failed.
• Added a "Save To Desktop" option to the System Report dialog.
• Fixed issue where the virtual keyboard was not showing when requested by the game in game mode.
• Fixed a case where the user would be prompted to install an OS update for a second time after switching between game mode and desktop mode.

Steam Input

• Fixed touchpad input when using the Victrix and Qanba PS4/PS5 arcade sticks
• Reduced lag when switching between pages in the "Edit Layout" view for configurations with large numbers of action sets/layers/mode-shifts
• Fixed the DualSense firmware update dialog from popping up when the controller was connected over Bluetooth and already up to date
• Added the ability to bind Steam Input API trigger actions to button inputs.

Steam Cloud

• Fixed a case where Steam Cloud saves could be synced to a computer that did not have the game installed if the game was available for streaming from another PC.

Remote Play

• Fixed controller buttons being stuck down.
• Added support for 4K high quality streaming presets.
• Fixed occasional crash directly launching a game from the Steam Link UI.
• Fixed device authorization dialog not showing if Steam Link connects while Steam is starting up.

Library

• Fixed some screenshot thumbnails on the activity feed not being properly obscured when marked as spoiler.

Desktop Mode

• Allow the settings window to be resized.
• Improved reliability of Back button.
• Adjusted the low battery notification for laptops/handheld PCs to only fire in the overlay or the main BPM window.
• Fixed windows being able to set minimum sizes larger than their display dimensions.
• Fixed clicking "Play Game" links in event news causing client popup windows to close.
• steamwebhelper support dialog is now shown if the main client window cannot be created at startup.
• Fixed switching from fullscreen to windowed mode when a full-screen video is dismissed.
• Fixed notifications stealing focus when shown in overlay.
• Fixed overlay freezing when a file dialog is shown.
• The overlay tabbed browser will now wait until the overlay has been activated for the first time before restoring saved tabs.
• Added an option to In Game settings that allows toggling whether overlay browser tabs will be restored when starting a game.
• Fixed a bug which could cause a server browser query to stop prematurely without pinging all of the servers.

This impressive overhaul mod for Devil May Cry 5 comes from modder 'Sparky1j' and is called "Devil May Crowbar". Due to the name of the mod, it's easily overlooked, but the project is an impressive project from the modder that deserves to be tried out.

Not only does this mod replace DMC 5's main characters with Gordon Freeman (Dante), Gman (Vergil), Kleiner (Nero), and Grigori (V), but it also replaces various enemies and the character's weapons with weaponry seen in Half-Life. In addition, this DMC 5 Overhaul mod replaces various enemies in the game with Half-Life equivalents. Another cool feature of the mod is that the 'Subhuman' and 'Devil Trigger' themes have been replaced with custom mashups.

YouTube Video Link
Mod Link on Nexus

Even though the Z1 comes with 3x fewer RDNA3 CUs compared to the Z1 Extreme, it offers superb efficiency at 15W.

After months of waiting, benchmarks of AMD's vanilla Ryzen Z1 chip have finally surfaced, giving us some insight into the chip's performance before we see it appear in handhelds later this year like the ROG Ally. We first heard about the APU back in May, alongside the Z1 Extreme, as gaming-optimized mobile APUs designed for handheld gaming PCs, but only the Z1 Extreme was in reviewed systems.

Now, in a review published by David Huang on Zhulanlan using an unnamed gaming handheld, we've learned that that the Z1 excels specifically at low-TDP gaming featuring power ratings around 15W. At 15W, the chip is extremely efficient, featuring vastly superior performance per watt compared to the Ryzen 7 7840U at 25W.

...

The Z1 is even more impressive when its power envelope is cut in half to just 15W. At this power rating, the chip only loses 15-18% of its performance while cutting its power consumption in half. Even at 15W, the chip offered mostly playable performance, outputting 31 fps in Cyberpunk 2077 at 720 p/low, and anywhere between 36 to 60 fps in Genshin Impact, Star Rail Central Starskiff Haven, and Forza Horizon at 720p as well. The only game the Z1 had trouble with was Metro Exodus at 720p normal settings, with a frame rate just below 30FPS. But this problem can easily be remedied by dropping some settings or dropping the base resolution with upscaling.

Meta acknowledged in a statement to The Washington Post that Threads is intentionally blocking the search terms and said that other terms are being blocked, but the company declined to provide a list of them. A search by The Post discovered that the words “sex,” “nude,” “gore,” “porn,” “coronavirus,” “vaccines” and “vaccination” are also among blocked words.

“The search functionality temporarily doesn’t provide results for keywords that may show potentially sensitive content,” the statement said, adding that the company will add search functionality for terms only “once we are confident in the quality of the results.”

Lucky Tran, director of science communication at Columbia University, discovered this himself when he attempted to use Threads to seek out research related to covid, something he says he does every day. “I was excited by search [on Threads],” he said. “When I typed in covid, I came up with no search results.”

Other public health workers criticized the company’s decision and said its timing was especially poor, given the current coronavirus uptick. Hospitalizations jumped nearly 16 percent in the United States last week and have been rising steadily since July, according to CDC data, though they remain less than what they were for the comparable week a year ago. Deaths are less than a quarter of what they were year to year, CDC statistics show.

(OP: Sorry, paywall, can't find another source yet. Someone got an archive?)

Meta acknowledged in a statement to The Washington Post that Threads is intentionally blocking the search terms and said that other terms are being blocked, but the company declined to provide a list of them. A search by The Post discovered that the words “sex,” “nude,” “gore,” “porn,” “coronavirus,” “vaccines” and “vaccination” are also among blocked words.

“The search functionality temporarily doesn’t provide results for keywords that may show potentially sensitive content,” the statement said, adding that the company will add search functionality for terms only “once we are confident in the quality of the results.”

Lucky Tran, director of science communication at Columbia University, discovered this himself when he attempted to use Threads to seek out research related to covid, something he says he does every day. “I was excited by search [on Threads],” he said. “When I typed in covid, I came up with no search results.”

Other public health workers criticized the company’s decision and said its timing was especially poor, given the current coronavirus uptick. Hospitalizations jumped nearly 16 percent in the United States last week and have been rising steadily since July, according to CDC data, though they remain less than what they were for the comparable week a year ago. Deaths are less than a quarter of what they were year to year, CDC statistics show.

(OP: Sorry, paywall, can't find another source yet. Someone got an archive?)

Users on TikTok searching for “WGA” are met with a screen claiming that the phrase “may be associated with behavior or content that violates our guidelines.” No videos return. Users are also unable to search for the “WGA” hashtag.

TikTok has also blocked the search term “WGA strike.”

Additionally, it appears that TikTok is blocking results from any simple search that includes “WGA” in the search term. Including “WGA” in addition to another word — like “WGA support” or “WGA strong” — blocks results.

Update (9/11/23): A TikTok spokesperson told Media Matters that “WGA has been inadvertently blocked as part of the platforms’ protections against QAnon conspiracy theories.” (WWG1WGA is a common QAnon phrase.) The spokesperson added that searches for “Writers Guild of America” and “Writers Guild of America Strike” were not impacted. Searches for “WGA” and related terms now appear to function normally.

(Thanks mike591, SCB, crowsby, and others for putting in the comments)

Users on TikTok searching for “WGA” are met with a screen claiming that the phrase “may be associated with behavior or content that violates our guidelines.” No videos return. Users are also unable to search for the “WGA” hashtag.

TikTok has also blocked the search term “WGA strike.”

Additionally, it appears that TikTok is blocking results from any simple search that includes “WGA” in the search term. Including “WGA” in addition to another word — like “WGA support” or “WGA strong” — blocks results.

Update (9/11/23): A TikTok spokesperson told Media Matters that “WGA has been inadvertently blocked as part of the platforms’ protections against QAnon conspiracy theories.” (WWG1WGA is a common QAnon phrase.) The spokesperson added that searches for “Writers Guild of America” and “Writers Guild of America Strike” were not impacted. Searches for “WGA” and related terms now appear to function normally.

(Thanks mike591, SCB, and others for putting in the comments)

Microsoft is done supporting the original Surface Duo, three years after it first launched on September 10. The company has stated from the very start that the Surface Duo would receive just three years of OS updates, meaning today is the last day that Microsoft has to stay true to its word.

Going forward, Microsoft will no longer ship new OS updates or security patches for the original Surface Duo, meaning Android 12L is the last version of the OS it will ever officially receive. Surface Duo only ever got two major OS updates, one shy of the average three that most high-end flagship Android devices get these days.