The Federal Aviation Administration is officially recruiting video game players to be part of the next generation of air traffic controllers. Part of that push has been accompanied by a new ad campaign aimed at gamers that uses video game footage and Xbox sound effects to make the pitch that players can earn a six-figure salary by applying their in-game skills to the real world.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy shared a statement about the campaign's outreach to a subset of people who may have some of the necessary skills to work in air traffic control.

"To reach the next generation of air traffic controllers, we need to adapt," said Duffy. "This campaign's innovative communication style and focus on gaming taps into a growing demographic of young adults who have many of the hard skills it takes to be a successful controller."

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Samson: A Tyndalston Story launched on April 8, and it wasn't all that well received, due in part to the crime game's string of technical issues that players have complained about. Developer Liquid Swords, a team made up of former Just Cause developers, has now outlined what is to come in regards to updates this month to address issues and improve the experience.

Samson's first update arrived on April 9, addressing a number of issues, and the second update will come out on April 15. This will focus on improving stability and "refining" the gameplay. The update will also add more polish to the game and include other updates based on fan feedback. The full patch notes were not released for this upcoming update, however.

A third update will arrive on April 22, but there are no details yet on what it will include as of yet.

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Like everything else in life, the price of YouTube Premium is going up in the US. Google has announced that a YouTube Premium individual plan will increase from $14 to $16 per month, while a family plan that allows for up to six accounts to be connected will go up from $23 to $26 per month. The increases will also be hitting YouTube Music plans, with individual and family accounts rising an extra dollar to $12 and $19 per month, respectively. YouTube Premium Lite will also increase from $8 per month to $9.

This isn't the first time YouTube Premium prices have gone up. Google last raised prices in July 2023. In a statement to Variety, Google said it is "updating" YouTube Premium plans to provide a "high-quality experience that supports creators and artists" on the platform.

YouTube Premium and Music 2026 subscription prices

• YouTube Premium Individual: $16 monthly (was $14)
• YouTube Premium Family: $26 monthly (was $23)
• YouTube Premium Lite: $9 monthly (was $8)
• YouTube Music Premium: $12 monthly (was $11)

The big draw to YouTube Premium is that it allows for ad-free viewing of videos, as well as other perks like background viewing, offline downloads for mobile, higher streaming quality, and full access to its music catalog. The free tier of YouTube is ad-supported, but in recent months, viewers have complained about how aggressive Google has become with adverts, as viewers often have to sit through at least two unskippable commercials before a video starts and mid-roll ads.

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Pearl Abyss has teased some new features coming to Crimson Desert, its super-popular open-world action-adventure RPG. Alongside summonable mounts, the South Korean studio is working on adding difficulty settings to the game; that way, you can tailor your experience--and your death--to your skill level.

In a lengthy developer blog on the studio's official website, posted on April 9, Pearl Abyss outlined "some of the new features and content currently in development"--all of which have been shaped by community feedback. In the "New Content and Features" section, the developer shared that it's working on adding three difficulty options "so that everyone--from new Greymanes to the more advanced--can enjoy the adventure at the level that suits them best." Once added, you'll be able to select easy, normal, or hard options to tune Crimson Desert to your preferred playstyle.

While it's unclear if you'll be able to switch between these three difficulty options freely, Pearl Abyss said it's also working on "new combat-focused content." Maybe this will help alleviate just how punishing "hard" may be, while making "easy" as flashy as a Devil May Cry game.

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Recently, a Steam page for "Rust 2" appeared, prompting people to understandably believe that Rust 2 was happening. But it is not.

Garry Newman, the head of Rust developer Facepunch, told PC Gamer, "Nope. We're not making Rust 2." A Steam page for Rust 2 was published recently, albeit with no images or details on it. As for what that page was all about, Newman said, "No idea at all."

The staff at SteamDB, a third-party website that monitors the Steam database, said the Rust 2 page has been flagged as "suspicious" and that it could be "malicious or impersonating another product."

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A new age of piracy is almost here, as Windrose is setting sail for Early Access waters starting April 14. Revealed during the Triple-I Initiative Showcase this week, anyone looking to grab the game during this phase of its development can grab it for $30 and chart their own course across stranger tides at the following times:

Windrose Early Access launch timesApril 14US

• 1 AM PT
• 4 AM ET

Haiti

• 4 AM ET

Brazil

• 5 AM BRT

UK

• 9 AM BST

Germany

• 10 AM CEST

South Africa

• 10 AM SAST

Russia

• 11 AM MSK

Uzbekistan

• 1 PM UZT

China

• 4 PM CST

Korea

• 5 PM KST

Japan

• 5 PM JST

Australia

• 6 PM AEST

Developer Windrose Crew has also announced a $40 Supporter Bundle that includes the game and a selection of jaunty sea shanties recorded by Seán Dagher. One of Steam's most-wishlisted games, Windrose looks like it'll scratch that itch for a Black Flag remaster with its combination of ship combat, crews to hire for your expeditions, and survival elements. Set during an alternate Age of Piracy, players can explore procedurally generated biomes filled with hidden mysteries and hand-crafted dungeons on their journey to conquer the seas.

Naval combat includes all the greatest hits from the genre--from trading cannon fire to sending boarding parties over--and the game is fully playable in solo offline or co-op modes. Windrose also focuses on customization, as players are free to shape the world around them with island strongholds, fine-tuned combat, and a selection of vessels to sail the oceans on. If you're interested in trying it out, you can grab a demo for Windrose on Steam.

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The Lord of the Rings and The Boys star Karl Urban plays Johnny Cage in the upcoming Street Fighter movie, and now the actor has said he wants to play another John in a video game movie.

Urban told Square Mile that Rockstar's Red Dead Redemption is one of his favorite video games, and he would jump at the chance to play the first game's main character, John Marston, if there were ever an adaptation of the project for film or TV.

"I mean, come on, John Marston! I'd love to play that character," he said.

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Crimson Desert players can expect several improvements to roll out for the game in the coming months, as developer Pearl Abyss says that it's working on new content and feature updates. The studio says that these have been partially shaped by player feedback gathered from the first few weeks after Crimson Desert launched, and they'll be added to the game from April through June.

Some of the big updates include brand-new content aimed at players seeking to dial up--or lower--the game's challenge, like Boss Rematch and Re-blockading modes. These will allow previously defeated bosses and liberated locations to be tackled once again, and new easy, normal, and hard difficulty options are being added. There are also several quality-of-life upgrades on the way, including food storage with direct access to cooking ingredients, a wardrobe system for outfit and armor organization, expanded storage for materials, and specialized storage for quest items.

Gameplay improvements include additional abilities for characters Damiane and Oongka that will align them more closely with Kliff and his skillset, the option to hide back-mounted weapons, and new character outfits will be introduced. The best news is that new pets and summonable mounts will be added, addressing one of the major fan requests for Crimson Desert. Wrapping all this up is a series of system and graphical updates, including UI elements improvements, adjustable font sizes, customization options for certain controller inputs, expanded configurable keys, and improvements to the rendering of distant landscapes.

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Doki Doki Literature Club has been pulled from the Google Play Store, just a few months after its release on the mobile storefront back in December 2025. In a statement from Serenity Forge, the studio cites that Google chose to remove the game from the Google Play Store as its content violates the storefront's terms of service in "its depiction of sensitive themes."

"DDLC is available on many different major platforms, including iOS, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation, and more," Serenity Forge writes. "We're continuing to do everything we can to find a path forward for getting DDLC reinstated on the Google Play Store. Meanwhile, we're also looking into potential options for alternate methods of distribution on Android devices."

At this point, it's no secret that Doki Doki Literature Club is a disturbing experience that touches on self-harm and emotional abuse, and uses graphic imagery to do so, but there's a big "This game is not suitable for children or those who are easily disturbed" warning on store pages for the game. Audiences are suitably warned that this is a horror game, despite marketing material and the game's first hour disguising the experience as a romantic-comedy visual novel.

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Amazon Board Games: Three For the Price Of Two Sale

Save big on popular board games

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The great thing about board games is that they're social, don't need electricity, and have a built-in offline mode. If you want to stock up on tabletop fun, head over to Amazon to take advantage of a Get Three For the Price Of Two deal. The deal is simple: pick three eligible items from the list, and the price of the lowest-priced item will be subtracted from your total. You don't have to pick only board games, as the promotion applies as long as you choose eligible items from the Amazon store page. So far, Amazon hasn't announced an end date for this promotion, so you might not want to dawdle in case anything catches your eye.

See all deals at Amazon

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Mega Cat Studios and Playground Productions are releasing the first all-new Backyard Baseball game in years later this summer, but if you can't wait to try out the game's new features, there's a free demo available right now. And yes, you can play as the GOAT, Pablo Sanchez, along with some other classic Backyard Kids.

Though the full game will be available on consoles as well, the Backyard Baseball demo is currently limited to PC and Mac. It includes a new game mode called Backyard Derby, with the demo limiting your choice of players to Kiesha Phillips, Kenny Kawaguchi, and Pablo Sanchez. You'll be looking to hit as many home runs as possible in a limited time, so we have our money on Sanchez. There's a leaderboard, as well, so you can see how you stack up against other players online prior to the official launch date.

Backyard Baseball also introduces a night mode, complete with fireworks, and you'll likely recognize the field from the original games--just with a modern coat of paint. There will be 11 stadiums in the final game, each remastered from their classic versions.

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Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 has just introduced some new controller options for disabled gamers that provide a greater level of customization in the military shooter. This is a boon for accessibility in a series that continues to cater to players of all skills and abilities.

Co-developers Treyarch and Raven Software took to the official Call of Duty blog on April 9 to announce a new collaboration with the AI software platform Cephable. According to the website, the software "enables players to control games using alternative inputs such as voice commands, face expressions or head movement, and customized buttons" through the company's desktop and mobile apps. Once you download Cephable, you will have a plethora of new customization options for the in-game controls across Black Ops 7's Campaign, Zombies, Dead Ops Arcade, and Firing Range modes.

Specifically, Cephable--which is a free download--lets you use voice commands and other mobility-friendly options to play Black Ops 7. The developers noted in the blog post that, although these new input options will function the same way as a controller or keyboard and mouse, there may be some latency because Cephable controls pass through additional processing and an external service before reaching the game.

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The long-in-development Metal Gear Solid movie that was set to be directed by Metal Gear super-fan Jordan Vogt-Roberts has now been officially announced. Rather than Vogt-Roberts, it will now be directed by Zach Lipovsky and Adam B. Stein.

They directed 2025's Final Destination: Bloodlines and have now been tapped by Sony Pictures to direct the upcoming video game adaptation as part of a new first-look deal at Sony Pictures.

"Metal Gear Solid was nothing short of a groundbreaking cinematic masterpiece that forever revolutionized video games. We are thrilled and honored to bring Hideo Kojima's iconic characters and unforgettable world to life," the pair said in a statement to The Hollywood Reporter.

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Pokemon Champions is entirely focused on competitive battling, but a hidden menu option might help you gain an edge against opposing trainers.

Within the Battle option in the main menu is Battle Data selection, all the way at the bottom. Select Ranked Battles, and although the menu might look empty at first, changing to the Pokemon tab with the shoulder buttons will show you a list of the most-used Pokemon in competition.

And that's not all the data you can use to your advantage--select an individual Pokemon, and you can see their mostcommonly used moves and held items, along with their most-frequent Pokemon teammates and other useful battle stats.

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Crimson Desert has a variety of denizens for you to meet, from food and equipment vendors to armor and hair stylists. There are some you'll want to make best friends with sooner rather than later, and fans of Pearl Abyss' open-world action-adventure game have determined which NPCs you may want to make your BFF--and why.

On the game's official subreddit, user Flomag posted a list on April 8 of the NPCs you should make fast friends with. Many of these denizens can be found within Hernand, so they aren't that difficult to track down, but the benefits they provide could help make your journey in Pywell a little easier or, at least, a bit more convenient.

For example, becoming besties with the grocer, innkeeper, or tailor unlocks their supply contracts, which increases the number of items they sell to you while providing a bit of a discount. The same is true of other shops you'll likely frequent, too, such as the equipment and furniture vendors. Specific NPCs, though, like Ben (in the Greymane camp) and Willian (found around Hernand), unlock pigs and sheep, respectively. You can use these animals for resources like cotton and food, which are good materials for crafting and sustenance.

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Dune: Awakening, the open-world survival game set in Frank Herbert's legendary sci-fi universe, is finally making it so player-versus-player encounters are entirely optional.

When Dune: Awakening first launched last summer, more than a few players felt blindsided by its PvP-focused endgame that required journeying into the Deep Desert map filled with roaming bands of hostile players in order to secure Spice and resources needed to make endgame gear and vehicles. The disconnect between PvP and PvE was made even more confusing due to the fact that the first 60 or so hours of the survival game is almost entirely PvE focused, making the sudden shift to PvP jarring for those who simply wanted to keep progressing as they had been.

While developer Funcom had implemented half measures post-launch (such as making it so a larger portion of the Deep Desert was PvE only), PvE will be the main focus of Dune: Awakening going forward. As detailed in a blog post, Funcom found that 80% of the game's lifetime players engaged exclusively with PvE, making it clear that Funcom needed to "rethink" its approach.

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Actor Jay Klaitz, who famously portrayed Lester in Grand Theft Auto 5, has weighed in with more thoughts on Grand Theft Auto 6, saying another delay could make the game "cooler." He also said he hopes the game does not launch at $100, but instead a price point that's more "accessible."

Speaking to El Dorado, Klaitz said if Rockstar were to delay GTA 6 again, that would only make the game better. He said he enjoyed working with Rockstar's performance director, Rod Edge, on GTA 5, and if a delay meant Edge or someone like him had "the time they need," that would be a good thing.

"It could have been another month or another five months or six months or whatever. It's going to be cool," he said (via GamesRadar).

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The launch of Pokemon Champions has come with more problems than you can fit in a Poke Ball, but a Switch 2-specific bug affecting the game's resolution might take the cake as the strangest issue.

Prominent Pokemon fan account Centro Leaks (via IGN) pointed out that Pokemon Champions runs at a lower 1080p resolution in TV mode on Switch 2, and the current solution to get proper 4K visuals is to undock the Switch 2 and re-dock it. Joe Merrick, owner of fan site Serebii, corroborated the existence of the glitch in an X post.

Pokemon Champions only has a version for the first Nintendo Switch, but it's one of many Nintendo-published titles with enhanced visuals through a free Switch 2 update. According to Nintendo's website, Champions on Switch 2 is optimized for the console's screen and "high-resolution TVs for improved image quality."

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Windrose, the pirate survival game that made a big splash during the most recent Steam Next Fest and is one of the most anticipated titles on the platform with over 1.5 million wishlists, is releasing soon. Very soon.

As revealed during the recent Triple-I Initiative showcase, the co-op pirate adventure will sail into Steam Early Access on April 14, just four days from now. That's extremely soon for a game whose developer Windrose Crew in February stated it wasn't ready to reveal a release date and instead wanted to "ship the game on time in the best condition possible."

That is, however, good news for those who played Windrose's Steam demo (which is still available) and couldn't get enough. For anyone looking to scratch that Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag (seemingly confirmed to be a remake or remaster soon) itch, Windrose is definitely worth paying attention to. The game is fully playable in co-op with up to four players, features ship combat, hirable crews, base building, unique dungeons, and more.

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Back in 2024, Sunset Visitor released its debut game, 1000xResist, to tremendous critical acclaim. Now, the studio is back with a new narrative-driven work of science-fiction: Prove You're Human. But while the two might share the same genre and eagerness to explore the human condition, don't expect more of the same.

"My real desire is to communicate to players who follow us over multiple games that the one thing we really like to do is to surprise people and turn things around on them," Sunset Visitor founder Remy Siu told GameSpot. "I'm excited to see how the audience will discover all the ways in which this is not 1000xResist that we cannot talk about yet."

In Prove You're Human, players take on the role of Santana, a woman who has split her consciousness in two. Following the split, one version of Santana is tasked with entering a digital space and convincing the company's AI system, Mesa, that she is not a human being; her corporeal form, however, continues to "spend her days living the life you’ve always dreamed of in the outside world." Though the events that transpire throughout Prove You're Human remain a mystery, Sunset Visitor has already posed one of the game's biggest question: At the end of the program, will you decide to re-merge your two selves, or will you discard your work self?

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