Image: Square Enix I have a pet conspiracy theory. The greatest minds in card game design don’t work at Wizards of the Coast on Magic: The Gathering or at Ravensburger on the Disney-themed breakout hit Lorcana. But somehow, through some eldritch pact made with the gods of the collectible card game, Square Enix managed to snag the greatest minds in card game design and has kept them in a vault for the last 30 years working on Final Fantasy card minigames. That’s the best explanation I can come up with for how good Final Fantasy VII Rebirth’s Queen’s Blood card game is.This minigame has nearly eclipsed my enjoyment of Rebirth itself, a game a number of critics are saying is possibly the best game of this generation. I didn’t gasp in awe when I first saw... Continue reading…

Image: Playstack In Casino Royale, James Bond gets a bit of poker advice: You never play your hand. You play the man sitting across from you.Okay, but what if you just played your hand? What if no one was sitting at the other end of the table? Balatro, a new turn-based card game available on most platforms, takes the mechanics of poker and turns them into the basis of a compelling roguelike, the subgenre of games where each playthrough is a single perilous attempt.Balatro is a poker game inasmuch as Scrabble is a word game. Knowing the language and probabilities of poker will help you, but ultimately, this is a logic game. There are no bluffs, no pots, just the pure composition of poker hands satisfyingly paired with a thrilling game loop.This makes B... Continue reading…

Samsung might be known for its great Android phones, but the company also makes some great laptops that are good enough to compete with the likes of HP and Lenovo. For 2024, the company introduced the Samsung Galaxy Book 4 series, which is now available in the United States. Unlike many other laptops this year, these models aren't breaking new ground in terms of design, and they're mostly straight upgrades from the previous generation.

Seagate’s speedy storage expansion cards are reminiscent of retro memory cards but also expensive without these periodic sales. | Image: Seagate Update February 26th, 1:30PM ET: The 1TB model of Seagate’s Storage Expansion Card has sold out, but you can still save $110 on the 2TB version.We’ve griped long enough about the ballooning install sizes of the latest AAA games, but complaining won’t slow the trend. Without some miraculous development in data compression technology, the only remedy today is to buy extra storage. Xbox Series X and S gamers have had it the roughest with the exorbitant markups on its proprietary storage cards, but regular discounts are starting to make them a little more affordable. For example, Seagate’s 1TB Storage Expansion Card is down to $125.99 at Amazon ($94 off), which is the lowest price we’ve seen so far. The 2TB card is also on sale for $249.99... Continue reading…

Dell has plenty of experience making great monitors, and that prowess has led to the creation of the UltraSharp 34 Curved Thunderbolt Hub Monitor. The monitor was first revealed at CES 2024 last month, but officially debuted today. It puts together a few great features that Dell has shipped separately on a few monitors, but not together. The newest UltraSharp 34 Thunderbolt monitor offers a 34-inch IPS Black display, a Thunderbolt hub, KVM switch functionality, and a curved ultrawide form factor.

Bose’s foldable QuietComfort Ultra Headphones are an excellent pair of noise-canceling headphones, if you don’t mind the color white. | Image: The Verge Traveling can be stressful, which is why, if you’re planning on enjoying a relaxing spring break next month, the Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones can make for a great travel companion, especially if you’re flying. The noise-canceling headphones can help ensure you get some peace and quiet even before you land at your destination, and right now, they’re down to a new low of $349.99 ($80 off) at Staples.Unlike the last-gen Noise Cancelling Headphones 700, the QC Ultra fold down for easy storage, which is one of the reasons they remain our favorite pair of noise-canceling headphones for traveling. The long-lasting headphones are also more comfortable to wear than our top pick, the Sony WH-1000XM5, so you won’t need to worry about ear... Continue reading…

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge Netflix confirms to The Verge that it has begun booting longtime subscribers off their Apple iTunes billing plans, and will require them to pay Netflix directly using a credit card or debit card instead. Earlier today, The Streamable reported that Netflix had begun telling customers in “some territories,” but Netflix representative Momo Zhao confirms to us that all “members on the basic plan who were using an iTunes method of payment” will need to sign up directly. It’s been a good run for anyone who signed up before Netflix stopped accepting subscriptions through Apple’s payments system. One person indicated today on X that they’d kept the streaming service’s old $9.99 price for years. Netflix stopped working with Apple Pay and... Continue reading…

Twist on your trainer’s cap and try to catch these deals before they sell out. | Image: The Pokémon Company Oh, would you look at that. It’s Pokémon Day, an annual celebration commemorating the game’s launch on this very day in 1996. Fun fact: Pokémon was first a video game, but it was quickly adapted as a trading card game and anime, both of which are arguably equally as responsible as the Game Boy titles for its success in becoming a global craze.Today, we’re celebrating all facets of our fandom by tuning in to the latest announcements from Pokémon Presents and highlighting a few of the best Pokémon Day deals. Right now, for example, Walmart is discounting Pokémon Legends: Arceus for the Nintendo Switch to $39.99 ($20 off), which nearly matches the title’s lowest price to date.Pokémon Legends: Arceus is a prequel to Shining Pearl and B... Continue reading…

The 1.6 update will be available for macOS, Windows, and Linux on March 19th. | Image: ConcernedApe Stardew Valley developer Eric Barone — better known as ConcernedApe — has revealed when players can expect the next major update to drop, adding fresh content and expanded multiplayer options to the game. Announced on Monday in line with Stardew Valley’s eighth anniversary, update 1.6 will be available for PC (Windows/macOS/Linux) players on March 19th, with console and mobile to follow “as soon as possible.”We have some idea of what content is coming thanks to a “sneak peak” that ConcernedApe shared back in September. This includes three unnamed festivals — one “major” and two “mini” — alongside new items, crafting recipes, rewards for billboard quests, and late-game content that expands each of the five skills: farming, fishing,... Continue reading…

Nvidia’s GeForce Now is a cloud gaming platform that spans many devices. | Image: Nvidia Nvidia’s completely free, no-strings attached trial of its cloud gaming service GeForce Now is about to be very slightly less of a deal — on Wednesday February 28th, Nvidia tells The Verge, users will start seeing ads. They’re only for the free tier — not Priority or Ultimate — and even then, it sounds like they won’t interrupt your gameplay. “Free users will start to see up to two minutes of ads while waiting in queue to start a gaming session,” writes Nvidia spokesperson Stephanie Ngo.Currently, the free tier does often involve waiting in line for a remote computer to free up before every hour of free gameplay — now, I guess there’ll be a few ads too. Nvidia says the ads should help pay for the free tier of service, and that it... Continue reading…

“Odysseus captured this image approximately 35 seconds after pitching over during its approach to the landing site.” | Image: Intuitive Machines (X) The Odysseus lander is likely to remain operating for another 24 hours on the Moon’s surface, despite being tipped over onto its side. Intuitive Machines, the private space company behind Odysseus, tweeted a few images taken by the spacecraft and gave more updates on how long the team expects it will remain operational. Because of Odysseus’ landing position, the panels and antennas aren’t oriented exactly as planned, making it harder for it to generate power and communicate. Controllers on Earth will continue to collect data until its solar panels are no longer exposed to sunlight, which they anticipate will happen on Tuesday morning. Flight controllers intend to collect data until the lander’s solar panels are no longer exposed to... Continue reading…

With the upcoming Windows 11 2024 update and the fact that some laptops will soon feature a Copilot key, Microsoft is going all-in on AI with Copilot. It’s the rebranded version of Bing Chat, now available on Windows desktop, Microsoft Edge, and Android or iPhone. Copilot gives you access to GPT-4, AI image generation with DALL-E 3, and the ability to search the web.