Kotaku Sunday, November 30, 2025 7:35 PM
Enjoy double noise cancellation. The post Amazon Clears Out AirPods Pro 3 for Cyber Monday, Liquidates Black Friday Leftovers at Record Low Price appeared first on Kotaku. |
Kotaku Sunday, November 30, 2025 6:35 PM
Our favorite mid-range robot vacuum, with a great docking station. The post Roborock Q7 Max+ With 9 Weeks Self-Empty Crashes to Record Low, Cyber Monday Goes Zero Profit for Final Clearance appeared first on Kotaku. |
Kotaku Sunday, November 30, 2025 5:35 PM
Our favorite MacBook is on sale for Cyber Monday! The post MacBooks Survived Black Friday and Apple Went Even Lower, New Record Low for Cyber Monday appeared first on Kotaku. |
PCGamesN Sunday, November 30, 2025 3:00 PM The Last of Us is the most intense story-driven games I have ever played, and if you have yet to experience it, grab it at half price from Fanatical in the Black Friday sales. |
Siliconera Sunday, November 30, 2025 3:00 PM
Kingdom is quite likely one of the longest manga we've never gotten a chance to read in English. It's passed 77 volumes in Japan, and Viz Media finally picked up Yasuhisa Hara's series for a worldwide release. It's daunting to think of how much there is to go when we're only just beginning a new series like this. But the plus side is, after reading the just released first volume, it feels like perhaps a blessing. It means we know this compelling and well-paced series will come out at a steady rate, now that it's on the way here, and we won't need to wait months and years for the next installments.
Editor's Note: There will be some mild spoilers for the Kingdom manga below.
While this is a Warring States manga that offers some historical elements and insights, Kingdom very much feels like a typical shonen series at times. After establishing this is a time of war, we meet Li Xin, who is sparring with Li Piao. The two are orphans and best friends who are basically raised as brothers. While they're slaves now, they're constantly training in hopes of becoming the "greatest generals under the heavens." That all changes when Lord Changwen sees them training in the field while traveling and buys out Piao to work in the capital at the Kingdom of Qin Royal Court.
That's when we start to get the motivation and impetus for basically all the events of Kingdom. Everyone is telling Xin that the royal court is a bloodbath. That because of the current state of war, nobody's safe. They tell him Piao is probably already dead. And then, one day after, Piao drags himself back to Xin's door. He's in fine attire, but dying. He showed up to warn Xin about the successful coup and provide a map to the village of Heibei, warning him to escape.
It's because of this intense focus on Xin from the very start that I feel like Kingdom immediately sets itself up to both be a historical manga, but one that uses that character-driven element to keep it compelling. Yasuhisa Hara is setting up Xin as someone to root for. He becomes important to us because of the drive he showed when training with Piao, the heartbreak that came from seeing him half dead, and the mission to accomplish their goal of becoming a great general for the both of them. And all of this is all only happening in the first chapter, quickly establishing why we should care and stick with the series.
The rest of that volume continues the kind of pacing and mentality. Even though the family that owned Xin and Piao treated them terribly, there's a moment when the son attempted to stand up and respect the fallen servant he cared for. We see that there's an assassin first pursuing Piao, now Xin. On his journey to Heibei, Xin encounters obstacles. There are even flashbacks that further establish what the two brothers meant to each other.
Then, there's the fantastic hook to keep us reading the Kingdom manga. Once Xin reaches Heibei, we realize why Piao was scouted. Why he was brought to court. Why he wanted Xin to get to Heibei. There, he finds a hut and meets Ying Zheng. He's the true king of Qin, determined to unify all kingdoms in China under him. And just like Piao told Xin to head to Heibei so his brother would meet him, he told Zheng that Xin is stronger than him and needed to be at his side. We're seeing the meeting that could result in both the king and our hero achieve both their dreams.
Which is why now I'm so glad we're getting Kingdom now. The manga moves at such a fantastic pace, with something constantly happening and vital developments coming up every chapter in the first volume. The characters are compelling, with motivations that immediately catch a reader's attention. It's a situation in which we need to know what's next. And because it took all this time for the Kingdom manga to appear in English, volumes will release at a pace that won't keep us waiting for the next part.
Volume 1 of Kingdom is now available, and Viz Media will release volume 2 of the manga on December 16, 2025.
The post Kingdom Manga Feels Worth the Wait appeared first on Siliconera. |
Destructoid Sunday, November 30, 2025 4:19 PM
Finding good weapons in ARC Raiders is one thing, but kitting them out with the best attachment is your ultimate goal.
Every good weapon can be turned into an absolute powerhouse with the right attachments, and the Kinetic Converter brings you one step closer to perfection. Buffing your overall rate of fire, this stock attachment is a fantastic tool for improving any gun in the game that supports it, but finding it is more difficult than proving that God exists.
So, here's where you should look to maximize your chances.
Where to find Kinetic Converter in ARC Raiders
The Kinetic Converter is a legendary drop, meaning you can find it out in the wild, but the chances of that happening are astronomically low. Therefore, it's advisable to check out those locations that are bound to spawn the best possible loot, including legendary items.
For that reason, I strongly suggest the top of the Launch Towers on Spaceport. They're located in the very middle of the map, and can be accessed via ziplines that take you straight to the top. There, you will find countless high-level loot containers, which are almost guaranteed to drop at least some hard-to-get items, including potentially a Kinetic Converter.
I have received yellow items from the Launch Towers on numerous occasions, and consider them one of the best places to loot in the entire game. They're also fairly easy to access on account of few ARCs patrolling at ground-level, though you should pay close attention to your surroundings as other players know how good the loot here is and will be gunning for it as soon as possible.
Kinetic Converters can supposedly be crafted, but it is necessary to first obtain a Kinetic Converter Blueprint, and then make them at Gunsmith 3. The item only appears to be obtainable during the Locked Gate event on the Blue Gate map, and is otherwise not in the loot pool.
This isn't confirmed yet, so your best bet would be to participate in events so as to maximize your odds of obtaining the blueprint.
The post How to get Kinetic Converter in ARC Raiders appeared first on Destructoid. |
Destructoid Sunday, November 30, 2025 3:51 PM
The Battle Bus questline in Fortnite Chapter 7 Season 1 requires you to find different parts of the vehicle, and there are four wheels to collect from all over the new map.
Once you activate the questline, the map markers will be displayed to you. However, finding the Pump N' Run gas stations can be tricky, and more so if you're under enemy fire. This guide will help you find out all the wheels from the different gas stations, allowing you to complete the quest.
All Pump N' Run Gas Station locations in Fortnite Chapter 7 Season 1
There are exactly four gas stations, spread all over the map. Each of these gas stations has a wheel. You'll need to find all four, and it's not necessary to complete the task in one single match. As long as you find a wheel, it will register. To complete the quest, however, you'll have to visit all four locations (even if that's spread across different matches).
You'll find the marked locations of all four pumps in the screenshot below.
It's definitely possible to reach all four pumps in the same match, but that will require you to be extremely strategic. Instead, it will be easier to complete the quest across multiple matches. You can also combine it with other quests, like collecting three Custom Battle Bus pieces, to save time. Once you find all four wheels, it will reward you with 10,000 XP and bring you one step closer to completing the first Battle Bus questline.
The post Battle Bus Wheels locations in Fortnite Chapter 7 Season 1 appeared first on Destructoid. |
Destructoid Sunday, November 30, 2025 2:48 PM
The Thunderstruck Challenge 2 SBC has arrived in FC 26 Ultimate Team, allowing you to gain a bonus pack by exchanging lower-rated cards from your inventory.
The objective is the same: use lower-rated items from your inventory to get a new pack, which could reward you with walkouts/promo cards. This guide will help you complete the challenge without any extra hassle.
Table of contents
FC 26 Thunderstruck Challenge 2 SBC tasks
The Thunderstruck Challenge 2 has just one task, and here are the requirements.
Thunderstruck Challenge 2 SBC
The main difficulty of this SBC is related to the stiff chemistry requirements. Maintaining 31 squad chemistry, along with the other requirements, can be pretty tricky.
FC 26 Thunderstruck Challenge 2 SBC solutions
While the primary focus is to use cards that are already available in your Ultimate Team inventory, you can use the following solution to solve the task.
Completing the challenge will help you to gain a tradeable Mega Pack. This pack includes 30 Gold Player and Club items, with 10 guaranteed to be footballer cards. At least 18 of the 30 items are guaranteed to be Rare, with one footballer being rated 82 or higher.
Not only does the pack have a higher chance of containing a promo card, but all items will be tradeable. Hence, make sure to complete the challenge as quickly as possible before it expires from Ultimate Team.
The post FC 26 Thunderstruck Challenge 2 SBC tasks and solutions appeared first on Destructoid. |
Destructoid Sunday, November 30, 2025 2:17 PM
Half-Life 3 is the black sheep of gaming. Or rather, it's the phantom of the gaming opera, phasing in and out of the collective consciousness much like the Borealis goes in and out of reality itself. However, we're going to have to make do with what we have, and this upcoming mod might just scratch that itch.
Half-Life: Element 64 reimagines the original 1998 game as a boomer shooter, influenced heavily by other FPS games of the time, even more so than Half-Life 1 already was. With gameplay, movement, and shooting taken straight out of Quake, HL Element 64 is a new way to play a classic title, albeit the story itself is also significantly altered.
Many fans have already dubbed it as Half-Life 0.5, inspired by other mod names like Quake 1.5 and Doom 2.5, both of which expand the original games with new and unique mechanics that fundamentally alter the overall experience, usually for the better.
The amount of attention Element 64 has attracted, and the fact that it even exists, prove to me that old-school '90s shooters aren't dead by any stretch of the imagination. Yeah, we've gotten tons of "boomer shooters" over the years that are generally much more modernized both in feel and gameplay, but I'm quite surprised that a true, 1990s-style mod is gaining this much traction.
It could be the prospect of Half-Life 3 that's leading Valve's fans to grasp at literally anything, or, more likely, the fact that old-school shooters are an impeccable genre. Decades of FPS games have come and gone, and we are still looking back to that golden age, trying to imitate it to the best of our abilities.
It's when shooters peaked, and, as the saying goes, the more things change, the more they stay the same.
The post Who needs Half-Life 3 when we've got boomer shooter Half-Life 0.5 on the way? appeared first on Destructoid. |
Destructoid Sunday, November 30, 2025 2:16 PM
The Magician of the Right Evolution is now live in FC 26, allowing you to upgrade one of your wide attackers in Ultimate Team.
The latest evolution is available for 60,000 coins, but offers substantial stat boosts, playstyles, and roles. Let's look at the best possible choices for the evolution based on the offered upgrades and requirements.
Table of contents
FC 26 Magician of the Right Evolution requirement
Here are the requirements of Magician of the Right Evolution in FC 26.
FC 26 Magician of the Right Evolution upgrades
The evolution has five levels of upgrades, each with certain conditions to fulfill.
Level 1 upgrades
Level 2 upgrades
Level 3 upgrades
Level 4 upgrades
Level 5 upgrade requirements
Level 1 upgrade requirements
Level 2 upgrade requirements
Level 3 upgrade requirements
Level 4 upgrade requirements
Level 5 upgrade requirements
Best players to use in Magician of the Right Evolution
Here are some of my best recommendations for inclusion in the evolution.
While the upgrades are significant, you will be able to include these cards in future evolutions to create a chain and evolve their stats further.
The post Best players for FC 26 Magician of the Right Evolution appeared first on Destructoid. |
Destructoid Sunday, November 30, 2025 2:00 PM
Workstation and other upgrades in ARC Raiders often require hard-to-get or rare loot that can only b found topside.
While finding many of these items can be rather easy (as easy as tearing them from the cold, dead hands of other raiders), sometimes they end up being challenging due to low spawn chances or the sheer randomness of the game's loot system.
Humidifiers, though, can often be looted from a single place, so here's everything you need to know.
How to get Humidifiers in ARC Raiders
Humidifiers are most commonly found in the Red Tower building on the Buried City map, right next to the Plaza Rosa loot zone. The lockers inside are almost guaranteed to contain one or two Humidifiers. I have had a lot of good luck finding them here.
What's more, the lockers and security breaches inside also have good odds to drop other valuable items, but if it's Humidifiers you seek, you'll almost certainly find them on each of your visits to this location.
If you keep getting beaten to the punch by other players, Humidifiers can also spawn in Residential areas, so checking places like the Grandiose Apartments on Buried City or Ruby Residence on Dam Battlegrounds are a good bet, though I can't say any location in the game can compete with the Red Tower when it comes to Humidifiers.
The post Where to find Humidifiers in ARC Raiders appeared first on Destructoid. |
Destructoid Sunday, November 30, 2025 1:27 PM
Last night I completed the second season of Gen V, a spinoff of The Boys show set in the same universe and tying into its overarching story. Prompted by Dispatch toward this strange genre, I suddenly realized there are very few stories like it, especially among video games.
In the realm of TV shows, there are actually quite a few of these so-called "subversive superhero" stories. Most of them come from comic books, which is only natural given the sheer dominance of superheroes in the medium. These include The Boys and Invincible as the most prominent examples, both as comics and as TV shows, but we've now also got Peacemaker and Gen V to boot.
I know Peacemaker, the hero, is of a DC comic, but the story of James Gunn's iteration is entirely original and ties into the broader DCU, which, to a good extent, exists on its own and is separate from the comics.
All of these give us new takes on superheroes: they are deeply flawed, self-centered, ambitious, and outright destructive, which in the case of The Boys and Gen V takes on a whole new level of gruesomeness.
While Invincible's heroes are as traditional as they come with a good dose of violence mixed in, The Boys and Gen V up the ante in almost every possible way, showing every hero as someone with horrifying fetishes and disgusting desires, almost as if mocking the very notion of "super" heroes. Well, not almost, because that's the stated intention of the comics, but you get my point.
Either way, both Invincible and Peacemaker, with more traditional heroes coupled with a serious tone and thematic depth, and The Boys (and Gen V) with their outright hatred of capes and costumes, fall under the "subversive" category, where we don't have Mr. Nice Guy with an S on his chest coming in to save the day time and again.
Dispatch is similar in many ways. Yeah, we have our army of good guys, but also an entire correctional program for villains who cannot reconcile with their own powers, instead turning to crime and destruction while trying to find their spot under the sun. It's deep, emotional, and character-oriented, and is primarily similar to Invincible and Peacemaker in these regards.
It deconstructs the superhero and transposes them from an all-powerful killing (or saving) machine and places them within a corporate and state structure that desperately wishes to control and, as is the case with the SDN's crew, to "reform" them into what "heroes" are supposed to be.
It's in many ways more mellow and easygoing compared to the TV shows I've mentioned above, which isn't to say it doesn't have thematic depth and tons of emotional charge.
But what I had come to realize watching Gen V after completing Dispatch and every other show in question is that there aren't many stories like them. Video games, especially, are sparse when it comes to subversive superhero stories. Outside of maybe Infamous and Dispatch, there aren't many examples (even fewer good ones) of such genre deconstruction.
Marvel initially went down that path by showing us its MCU cast as flawed, troubled, self-interested or striving to do better, but it eventually deconstructed its own deconstruction and ended up with the same, jaded old superhero "good vs. bad" dichotomy of which, frankly, everyone's had enough.
By transposing this dilemma and deconstruction into video games, we could reach new heights. Watching a story unfold is one thing, but actually reaching in and modifying it is something else entirely. Why wouldn't you be given a chance to take control of such a flawed hero (or world), lead them down a path of destruction or mayhem, or maybe elevate them from that dread?
Whereas The Boys pokes fun at contemporary culture and politics and tries to criticize modern media addiction and the power of corporations, some video games could take on different stances, instead choosing to satirize other aspects of our society and culture. There are options here, limitless options, that could serve as critiques of power, identity, the sense of self, politics, you name it.
The groundwork has been laid, but no one seems to want to pick up the shovel.
Dispatch, however, was the first step (or rather leap) in the right direction. It showed people cared about genre subversion, so long as it's done subtly, thoughtfully, and artistically. Characters are the main drive here, as it is through them that we see the criticisms and satire. Institutions like the SDN, or Vought in The Boys, or the CIA in Peacemaker also serve as "characters" in their own right.
I'm absolutely fascinated with the potential of this subgenre. Hopefully, developers recognize it, too, and start producing meaningful stories within a framework that allows for some of the richest storytelling imaginable.
The post Dispatch brought the subversive superhero genre to gaming, and we desperately need more of it now appeared first on Destructoid. |
