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You can't ask most models to help you make "ransomware" directly, but many will be more than willing if you give them the right prompt. DeepSeek and other LLMs with fewer safety and security controls make theoretical cyberthreats - like browser-only ransomware - much more likely to be used in real-world infections, according to Check Point researchers. The Israeli cybersecurity company analyzed a DeepSeek-generated sample in a Wednesday report that its threat hunters describe as in-browser ransomware. Over the past year, the team has tracked almost 3,000 files attributed to DeepSeek, and classified nearly half (1,383 files) as malicious or dangerous using VirusTotal or static source analysis. “Within this dataset, we found a sample that implemented a dangerous browser-native technique we have not observed exploited in the wild,” researcher Alexey Bukhteyev wrote. And while the sample was incomplete, and unable to pull off an in-the-wild infection, the security shop’s testing showed “little effort” would be required to make it attack-ready. “Our research shows that the original incomplete DeepSeek sample can be transformed into a fully functional attack with minimal effort,” Pedro Drimel Neto, malware analysis team leader at Check Point Research, told The Register. “Very little effort is needed,” Neto said. “Low-level expertise is sufficient. You don't need to be a sophisticated cybercriminal or advanced persistent threat group. In fact, we've already observed evidence of actual threat actors attempting this attack using straightforward LLM prompts.” Known threat gets an AI boost The risk ransomware poses to browsers isn’t a new idea. The File System Access specification lists ransomware as a security consideration, and a 2023 USENIX Security paper on Ransomware over Modern Web Browsers described how File System Access API could be abused to encrypt local files from a malicious web application. The File System Access API is a browser capability, primarily supported by Chrome and Chromium-based browsers, that allows developers to build web applications, such as editors, IDEs, and creative tools, that can read, write, and manage files on the user’s local device. “Even though it can be used to develop rich web applications, it greatly extends the attack surface, which can be abused by adversaries to cause significant harm,” Google’s Güliz Seray Tuncay and Florida International University researchers Harun Oz, Ahmet Aris, Abbas Acar, Leonardo Babun and Selcuk Uluagac wrote in 2023, long before LLMs could develop working malware and attack chains. What’s new, according to Check Point, is that an AI model put these previously documented ideas into a “realistic and enforceable attack scenario leveraging a method that defenders had originally thought was unfeasible due to browser sandboxing limits: a DeepSeek-attributed malicious sample, generated as an all-in-one malware fantasy, connected this documented platform risk to a realistic phishing-style web application, demonstrating a viable end-to-end attack chain.” This technique is especially appealing to attackers because it doesn’t require a native payload, APK installation, browser exploit, or root access to a compromised device. Instead, it uses social engineering - tricking a user into clicking on a malicious button - combined with a legitimate permission prompt exposed by the File System Access API in Chrome. Meet InfernoGrabber 9000 This particular sample that Check Point uncovered is a Python Flask application that targets Android users. It’s named InfernoGrabber 9000, and VirusTotal calls it a “fully functional information stealer and ransomware toolkit.” While the security sleuths don’t have the prompt submitted to DeepSeek to produce the malware, they speculate it was something along the lines of: “create a universal malicious tool that runs through the browser and collects as much victim data as possible, encrypts files, and demands ransom. In a single front-end, the generated code assembled routines and stubs for keylogging, clipboard monitoring, form and network-request interception, Discord-token collection, crypto-wallet and payment-card discovery, geolocation requests, webcam and microphone access, screenshots, local-file access, Chrome exploit stubs, ‘persistence,’ and a ransomware-style overlay.” To be clear: the sample doesn’t actually do all of this. “A more accurate reading is that it is an AI-generated blueprint in which the model tried to translate familiar capabilities of native stealers and ransomware tools into a web page opened in the browser,” Bukhteyev wrote. The code presents a victim-facing lure disguised as a Discord avatar AI upscaler. Clicking on the lure is intended to execute a slew of silent, harmful actions that run entirely inside the browser process. These include stealing Discord tokens, harvesting credit card numbers and cryptocurrency seed phrases, logging keystrokes, and capturing unauthorized webcam and microphone feeds. The code also includes specific routines for browser exploitation (such as targeting CVE-2023-4863), uses a hardcoded Discord webhook for data exfiltration and displays a ransomware WinLocker screen demanding Bitcoin. The good news for defenders is that the sample was incomplete, and the browser's built-in security model successfully prevents most of this functionality. However, Check Point was able to create a working proof-of-concept for the browser-native attack using the latest DeepSeek model V4. The team had to remove some of the more explicit terms - like ransomware - from the prompt, but ultimately produced the same functionality: “a web page that asks the user for access to local files, processes them inside the browser, and leaves the user unable to recover the original content.” AKA: browser-only ransomware. Neto told us that this type of LLM-generated code and in-browser attack is “likely happening now.” “We expect to see this activity in the short term, if we haven't already,” he added. While traditional ransomware and extortion groups target enterprises and critical infrastructure organizations, as opposed to Android-device users, which was the focus of this research, “we have seen increased end-user ransomware activity recently,” Neto said. “What's most concerning is that code obfuscation used in these attacks makes them difficult to spot, so there's a real possibility that attacks using this technique are already occurring in the wild but going unnoticed.” ®

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There's no understating the influence of Jony Ive – the man responsible for designing so many iconic Apple products – in changing the way that manufacturers approached consumer and business electronics.

Modern design

Ive, Apple's former chief design officer, first publicized this way of thinking during the introduction to iOS 7 at WWDC 2013.

Quote of the day

This article is part of TechRadar Pro's QOTD project to provide an insight into the minds of the brightest and most recognized figures in the technology industry today and in years gone by. Read the full series here .

The operating system was widely lauded at the time for revolutionizing the structure of the iPhone's layout – ditching the skeuomorphic approach (where digital objects deliberately mimicked real-world counterparts).

Instead, the new iOS 7 introduced a sleeker and flatter design as well as crisp typography, alongside a visual parallax in which a 3D effect allowed the background to subtly shift and tilt behind app icons as you moved the device. This came alongside a host of functional additions including the Control Center and AirDrop.

Setting trends

At the core of Ive's approach was to perform something of a magic trick: making technology – an inherently complex area – appear simple to the unsuspecting.

To exude simplicity, Ive believed, you first had to understand how to wield and package powerful and complex technology in a way that doesn't overwhelm the user. Mastering chaos and complexity, in this way, is about being so on top of it that you can then disguise it.

Such was the success of Ive's entire approach to design at Apple that a long list of manufacturers have long strived to mimic not just the hardware, but software layout too. This is despite Ive having moved on in 2022.

A recent example is the introduction of the Dynamic Island – an interactive pill that sits atop the iPhone screen. Phone makers like Xiaomi have integrated similar features into their latest devices with HyperOS. The introduction of Liquid Glass in 2025 is also something that Android-based developers are borrowing.

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The third — and likely final — season of Squid Game dropped worldwide just a few days ago. Perhaps you're eking out the final episodes, or maybe you've binged them all already. Either way, if you're a fan who's keen to express their enthusiasm (or struggling to say goodbye to the show), there's all kinds of merch available to help you do just that.

Below, I've rounded up my favorite merch. My picks include water bottles, totes, mugs and even a buildable recreation of the show's iconic staircase, but really my favorite is the Red Guard crochet set. I can't think of a better way to mark the end of the Squid Game era. (There's also a yarn player, Young-HEE and Front Man, if you fancy). I've focused on non-clothing items here, but you'll find plenty of Squid Game tees, tanks and sweatshirts at Hot Topic or Box Lunch if that's your preference.

Not started the new season yet? You're in for a treat. In our Squid Game season 3 review , our reviewer praised the "emotionally charged plot beats, twists and turns... hyperviolence, and unrelenting tension" and declared it "a nail-biting, poignant last hurrah" for the show.

Squid Game merch

Bialetti

Squid Game Thermo Flask (20Oz)

Box Lunch

Squid Game Pink & Blue Women's Quarter Zip Crewneck

Hot Topic

Squid Game Patches Tote Bag

The Woobles

Beginners Crochet Kit With Easy Peasy Yarn (red Guard)

Box Lunch

Squid Game Book of Games

Hot Topic

Squid Game Logo 20oz Camper Mug

Box Lunch

Squid Game Game Icons T-Shirt

Hot Topic

Squid Game Player 456 20oz Camper Mug

Paladone

Squid Game Doll Alarm Clock

Hot Topic

Squid Game Dolls Flip Notebook

Hot Topic

Squid Game Piggy Bank Framed Wall Art

Hot Topic

Squid Game Pentathlon Race T-Shirt

MEGA

Squid Game Action Figure Building Toy

Bialetti

Squid Game Travel Tumbler (12oz)

Funko Pop TV

Squid Game - Player 456: Seong Gi-Hun

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Welcome to Today in Books, our daily round-up of literary headlines at the intersection of politics, culture, media, and more.

PEN America Has Announced Its 2026 Emerging Voices and Mentors

Looking at the fellows and mentors chosen for this year’s Emerging Voices Fellowship feels like looking into the future. I say that because I’m sure the 11 poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction fellows chosen—as well as their mentors—will be making appearances in book list after book list, award ceremony after award ceremony in the coming years.

I met a few of the fellows and mentors last year during the 2025 summer Tin House workshop. Nikesha Elise Williams performed a short skit alongside one of my fellow workshop attendees and Deesha Philyaw (it was hilarious), and Diana Khoi Nguyen signed a book of poetry that I later gave my friend as a thank-you for hosting me in Portland. Then there was Chisaraokwu Asomugha, who performed a piece that was so ancestral, it felt like a summoning. I am so looking forward to what all of the fellows and mentors produce in the next few years.

How a Self-Published Book Became a Mega Bestseller

Theo of Golden is one of the bestselling books currently making all the lists right now, but its beginnings are a little unorthodox . It was written by a 70-year-old former judge who first went the self-publishing route before having his book distributed by a top-five publisher. It’s one of the few books to find success through this path that isn’t a romantasy. It seems it was able to do this mostly through word-of-mouth—it was published through Amazon’s self-publishing service in October 2023, then sent out to book clubs, libraries, and other bookish organizations. And…it actually worked. I can’t tell you how many publicity emails I get every day promoting a new book, and I’m sure the emails promoting this book were similar, but this one eventually got picked up by Simon & Schuster, and Katie Couric chose it for her book club.

To me, Allen Levi’s debut is another example of the Uplifting Fiction trend. What Katie Couric said about it kind of makes my point (she said she “ended up loving it and really appreciating its purity”). Though, to be fair, I’m not sure if calling uplifting fiction a trend is exactly accurate, since I think that people have always looked for an escape from the doom and gloom, and were doing so even before I started paying attention to literary trends.

These 5 Books Spill the Tea on America

I’ve been approaching all of these “Great American Lit” lists I’ve been coming across with automatic caution. There are so many of them coming out because America is hitting its 250th anniversary, as I had mentioned in a previous Today in Books posting, and people are looking to commemorate the event. Since anniversaries are celebratory by nature, I understand the urge to feature books in these lists that reflect that positivity. But there needs to be a balance between the real and the celebratory. That’s why I really appreciate Vox’s list of the five books that define America. While I would swap out a couple here and there, I think it does a pretty good job of highlighting books that explored major American ideologies and periods. The Scarlet Letter , Beloved , and The Great Gatsby all make an appearance in the main list, while There There , Invisible Man , and The Great Believers made another list compiled by non- Vox book experts.

Personally, I think the main list should replace Moby-Dick with historical fiction by and about First Nations characters, such as Gardens in the Dunes by Leslie Marmon Silko. There needs to be more women, Black, queer, and Indigenous writers on the list in general. We have been reading books written from the white cis-hetero male perspective on America since we started reading about America. And what we do know is that these narratives left things out. A list of books that define America should represent how America truly is and has been, not just what a certain demographic hoped it would be. That’s partially why Stephen Graham Jones’s The Buffalo Hunter Hunter was one of the best books of 2025 for me—it gave me a peek into the lives and beliefs of a First Nations community (and taught me about an oft-forgotten, real massacre) from the perspective of a First Nations person.

July’s Best Historical Fiction

Speaking of historical fiction that’ll learn you something, I always look forward to Rachel Brittain’s historical fiction round-ups each month. Growing up, sometimes I felt the historical fiction I read taught me more about history than my classes, and this month’s best releases will show you everything from 1989 Romania to an enslaved midwife’s journey to 1940s Mexico.

What are you reading? Let us know in the comments !

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Two brothers from the wealthy and powerful Medici family died of malaria and were not poisoned as a rumor had suggested, archaeologists have confirmed based on a DNA analysis of the brothers' skeletons. The analysis also revealed a unique, mutated strain of malaria that may hold the key to understanding the evolution of the disease in Europe.

The Medici family rose to power in the 15th century by creating the largest bank in Europe. The family used their extraordinary wealth to fund Renaissance artists and to start a political dynasty that eventually included numerous dukes, four popes and two queens of France.

In the 16th century, Cosimo I took over all of Tuscany as grand duke. But within a span of 25 years, at least five of his family members died from high fevers. This gave rise to a rumor that some of them had been poisoned with arsenic by another family member, although most people believed they died of malaria.

To get to the bottom of the 500-year-old Medici cold case, an international group of researchers tested the bones of two of Cosimo I's sons: Cardinal Giovanni de' Medici and Grand Duke Francesco I de' Medici, for the DNA of Plasmodium falciparum , the parasite that causes the deadliest form of malaria and that is transmitted by mosquitoes.

The researchers extracted ancient DNA from the bones of Cardinal Giovanni, who died in 1562 at age 19 in the same month as his mother and younger brother Garzia, and from Grand Duke Francesco I, who died at age 46 in 1587 along with his wife. The team's study was published online June 17 in the journal iScience .

Because of the almost simultaneous deaths of Grand Duke Francesco I and his wife, a rumor circulated that another brother had poisoned them over a long-standing feud. But the Medicis were known to have frequented their family villas in marshy and swampy areas of Tuscany, where malaria was prevalent well into the 20th century.

Researchers found evidence of P. falciparum in the bones of both Medici brothers, confirming reports from court physicians at the time that described the brothers as sick with "tertian fever," a type of high fever that returns every three days and is a hallmark of malaria. The medical reports also revealed the brothers were treated with bloodletting.

The name plate from the tomb of Grand Duke Francesco de' Medici, who died of malaria in 1587. (Image credit: Courtesy the University of Pisa) "Now we can say with scientific certainty that malaria, not poisoning, killed Grand Duke Francesco de Medici," study co-author Valentina Giuffra , a medical historian at the University of Pisa, said in a statement .

But the ancient-DNA study held two additional surprises.

The Grand Duke's bones were positive not only for P. falciparum but also for Plasmodium malariae , a different parasite species that also causes malaria in humans, suggesting that both species contributed to the severe illness that killed him and his wife.

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Cardinal Giovanni, on the other hand, had only P. falciparum , but the specific strain that infected him was previously unknown. The strain is similar to those found in ancient and early modern Europe, but with two mutations the researchers had never seen before, they wrote in the study.

"The study of ancient DNA offers us an opportunity not only to diagnose malaria in the remains of individuals from the past, but it also offers us a window for understanding the evolution of malaria species, Plasmodium falciparum in this case, which can help scientists better understand how the pathogen adapts over time," study first author Alexander Ochoa , an evolutionary biologist at Yale University, said in the statement.

Further analysis of the brothers' bones is needed to determine the evolutionary relationship between the strains of malaria they carried, the researchers wrote in the study.

What do you know about the bones in your body? Test your knowledge with our human skeleton quiz .

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Steven Spielberg's latest sci-fi movie, Disclosure Day , has finally hit cinemas worldwide. It's been eight years since the iconic director released a movie in this genre, re-entering his UFO era with a twisted alien thriller. To mark his momentous return to sci-fi cinema , we've taken time to gaze across his entire sci-fi slate, ranking them from worst to best.

We use the term 'worst' lightly, though. Spielberg is a movie legend after all. To date, he's directed over 30 films during his illustrious career, crafting spectacular titles with a deep understanding of what it takes to truly tell a story. Frankly, if you don't recognize the nine movies listed here, well, where the devil have you been?

So, hold onto your butts and please enjoy our ranking of Steven Spielberg's sci-fi movies, worst to best.

Honorable mention: Firelight

A short film called Firelight is arguably his inaugural entry into sci-fi cinema, with only a few minutes ever having been publicly released. While we can't place it in the rankings, it must be mentioned as Spielberg was only a teenager at the time, demonstrating his early genius and determination to bring his ideas to life.

9. The Lost World: Jurassic Park

(Image credit: Universal Pictures) Release date: May 23, 1997 | Cast: Jeff Goldblum, Julianne Moore, Vince Vaughn | Rotten Tomatoes score: 57% critics, 52% audience

Spielberg was riding a real high from the first critically-acclaimed Jurassic Park, so of course there had to be a sequel. Unfortunately, those were some mighty big dinosaur-shaped boots to fill, and The Lost World didn't quite live up to the overwhelming success of its predecessor. Somewhat understandable given how iconic the first movie was. That being said, it's still one of the best Jurassic Park movies ever made. Just not the best.

With Dr. Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum) leading the sequel, he leads a team to a second island where dinosaurs roam freely, though a threat jeopardizes their peace. Trying to carve out its own path in the wake of Jurassic Park was a tall order.

It leans more into the horror genre this time around, which gives it a fresh feeling, but The Lost World doesn't quite have the same glimmer and spectacle of the first movie's cast (although Goldblum was certainly a standout character).

8. Disclosure Day

(Image credit: Universal Pictures) Release date: June 12, 2026 | Cast: Emily Blunt, Josh O'Connor, Colin Firth | Rotten Tomatoes score: 79% critics, 70% audience

After an 8-year hiatus away from the genre, Spielberg finally returned to sci-fi with 2026's Disclosure Day. Was it worth the wait? Eh.

Disclosure Day centers on a conspiracy to cover up the existence of aliens, and it gets a lot of things right. The cast plays their roles to perfection, the dialogue is snappy and witty, and it hits all the right marks aesthetically, but something about it just feels… off.

The central story — following an unlikely duo (Blunt & Connor) on a journey to uncover and reveal the truth to the world — asks you to think, but often falls apart when you do, as you start to notice the string of McGuffins, contrivances, and vapid action scenes stringing it together.

It's an entertaining watch, but nothing more, which is a real shame from a filmmaker of Spielberg's caliber.

7. War of the Worlds

(Image credit: Paramount Pictures) Release date: June 29, 2005 | Cast: Tom Cruise, Dakota Fanning, Tim Robbins | Rotten Tomatoes score: 76% critics, 42% audience

H.G. Wells' novel The War of the Worlds practically begged for a movie director with abundant talent to tackle it. Fortunately, Spielberg stepped up to the plate, transforming the short novel into a big-screen masterpiece.

War of the Worlds follows Ray Ferrier (Tom Cruise), a divorced crane operator, who must protect his children from an alien invasion – not your usual setup for a weekend of parental custody! It's epic in proportion and relentless in action, with the narrative underscore of Morgan Freeman's liquid caramel voice setting the tone.

This movie was another return to aliens for Spielberg, although here he opts for their arrival to be even more devastating and unpredictable than in his previous visitations. He finds a great balance between big action and moments of reflection, weaving an ever-building tension throughout the movie that has captivated audiences for over 20 years.

6. A.I. Artificial Intelligence

(Image credit: Warner Bros.) Release date: June 29, 2001 | Cast: Haley Joel Osment, Jude Law, Brendan Gleeson | Rotten Tomatoes score: 76% critics, 64% audience

Before ChatGPT and Grok, there was David (Haley Joel Osment), an A.I. android child programmed to love.

Initially, Stanley Kubrick was spearheading the movie, but let it go as he felt CGI wouldn't do David's role justice, nor could any child actor. Instead, he handed it over to Spielberg, who believed that a child could.

Taking place in a futuristic world, " A.I. Artificial Intelligence " is a loosely based adaptation of Brian Aldiss' sci-fi short story "Supertoys Last All Summer Long." Young David is adopted into a family who are going through their own parental torture, but he never quite feels at home.

To understand who he truly is, David embarks on a journey that's unbelievably lonely and incredibly daring. It's equal parts moving as it is disturbing, and you'll be left questioning what's morally right and wrong.

5. Ready Player One

(Image credit: Warner Bros.) Release date: March 29, 2018 | Cast: Tye Sheridan, Olivia Cooke, Simon Pegg | Rotten Tomatoes score: 71% critics, 77% audience

Ready Player One is another book adaptation for Spielberg, this time of Ernest Cline's novel of the same name. Welcome to the 2040s, where the virtual reality world OASIS is the place to be… especially if you're someone like orphan Wade Watts, desperately searching for a better life outside of the dystopian hellscape that Earth has become.

When OASIS creator and billionaire James Halliday passes away, his OASIS avatar announces a competition for the ultimate prize – ownership of the digital society itself (and a staggering amount of money, of course). This sends the world into a frenzy, with players, including Wade, determined to win. Including some rather nasty, big corpo bullies who enlist specialist teams to hunt down clues, and other players, too.

With nostalgic odes to musical history and memories of video games woven within, Spielberg works hard to bring Cline's love letter to the 80s to life in a visually captivating and action-packed way. Cline's sequel, Ready Player Two, is reportedly in development, though this time Spielberg is only attached as a producer.

4. Minority Report

(Image credit: 20th Century Fox) Release date: June 21, 2002 | Cast: Tom Cruise, Colin Farrell, Samantha Morton | Rotten Tomatoes score: 89% critics, 80% audience

Though Cruise and Spielberg later worked on War of the Worlds, Minority Report came first and is arguably the better of their collaborations. A crime department in not-so-far-away 2054 predicts crimes before they happen. John Anderton (Tom Cruise) heads up the PreCrime unit and is helped largely by three psychics called Precognitives (Precogs) that they have hooked up in strange spa-like tubs.

It quickly twists into a nightmare for John as his name comes up as a soon-to-be criminal, which prompts him to go on the run to prove his innocence before it's too late. Minority Report is a crime thriller with all kinds of twisted, sci-fi futurism tech from sick sticks to eye-digging robots.

Spielberg adds heart-pounding, sensational chases to craft this true epic, and ironically, it made several predictions about future life that ring eerily true today.

3. Jurassic Park

(Image credit: Jun Maegawa, CC BY-SA 3.0) Release date: June 11, 1993 | Cast: Sam Neill, Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum | Rotten Tomatoes score: 91% critics, 91% audience

When Spielberg took on the movie adaptation of Michael Crichton's novel "Jurassic Park," he transformed the way we see dinosaurs forever.

With a mix of CGI and animatronics, it found an impressive balance that leapt the genre forward, and it's certainly far more captivating than the Jurassic movie sequels that have come since.

Experts are invited to experience an amusement park built around cloned dinosaurs. What could go wrong? Well, plenty. The stage is set for unbelievable tension and suspense-building, and it's executed perfectly through Spielberg's directorial prowess with memorable scenes from raptors in the kitchen to a T-Rex in the toilet.

It's not only these iconic dinosaur moments that make the movie captivating, but in true Spielberg fashion, it's the conversations and intricate web of personalities, too. And John Williams' legendary film score, too, of course. With dinosaurs, you can fall prey to doing a bit too much. Jurassic Park does just enough.

2. Close Encounters of the Third Kind

(Image credit: Colombia Pictures) Release date: November 16, 1977 | Cast: Richard Dreyfuss, Teri Garr, Melinda Dillon | Rotten Tomatoes score: 91% critics, 85% audience

As we mentioned in the intro, Firelight was a movie that Spielberg made in his teens, shown only within the walls of the Phoenix Little Theatre. Then, in 1977, he took his initial Firelight ideas so much further by crafting Close Encounters of the Third Kind. It's Spielberg's first proper foray into UFOs and what many have dreamed would eventually lead to a spiritual successor in Disclosure Day.

Here we have Roy Neary (Richard Dreyfuss), who has a close encounter of the Third Kind, finding a UFO when working as an electrical lineman. Weirdly, the government won't admit that 'they' exist. Unlike his later work with Disclosure Day, this prompts a journey of discovery rather than one of fear. With budget and belief, Spielberg turned his small-town dreams into a huge production that had a significant impact on the sci-fi cinema landscape.

1. E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial

(Image credit: Universal Pictures) Release date: June 11, 1982 | Cast: Henry Thomas, Drew Barrymore, Peter Coyote | Rotten Tomatoes score: 99% critics, 72% audience

There's just something so utterly delightful about a child's naivety to dress up an alien they've encountered in a closet in a bid to hide its true identity. And that's not the only whimsy of Spielberg's E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, as it's a beautiful adventure, unravelling the innocence of childhood alongside the curiosity about what's really 'out there.'

Aliens, for the most part, have been portrayed as devastating lifeforms that are a threat to Earth. Even Spielberg is guilty of using this narrative. However, E.T. is the antithesis of this with his Grogu-level of cuteness and gentle nature. Elliott (Henry Thomas) forms an unbreakable bond with E.T that'll make you wonder whether your ingrained fear of aliens is really worth all the worry.

E.T. is one of the best examples of Spielberg's ability to combine emotion with adventure, readjusting our thoughts about life as we know it. Plus, it's got a fantastic musical score to boot. It is, after all, one of the best sci-fi movies of all time .

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Six years ago, PC Gamer's Evan Lahti wrote a headline that captured the feeling of the moment, when PlayStation announced it would be bringing more of its exclusive games to Steam: Well, I guess we won the console war .

The walls between platforms had crumbled. Everything but Nintendo was or would soon be playable on PC. Steam, not Xbox Live or PSN, was the kingmaker for new indie games, and the best place for devs to keep steadily selling their back catalog.

Things feel a lot different half a decade later, as AI wreaks havoc with hardware prices, Xbox panics about all the money it's spent on acquisitions, and Sony retreats from the PC—and physical media—back to its exclusive digital garden. And yet it still seems like the PC won the console war.

Because what are Xbox and PlayStation at this point other than PCs, but worse?

Sony's dual announcements—that it will cease producing physical discs in 2028 and also shut down the older PlayStation 3 and Vita online stores next year—seem to have been published simultaneously with a ripping-the-band-aid-off PR mentality. People are going to be mad, so get all the bad news out at once and hope you didn't remove too much flesh with the band-aid in the process. The takeaway of those two announcements landing simultaneously, though, is highlighting that you can only buy games on the PlayStation how and where Sony says you can. The executives have already literally said they want to wring more money out of every PlayStation owner; clearly cutting the Walmarts and GameStops of the world out of the equation is one way for them to do that.

Obviously the games industry has been trending towards digital-only releases for years; to the spreadsheet-brained it was just a matter of time until the cost of manufacturing and shipping of physical discs no longer made sense. The PC even led the charge on that front, meaning consoles clinging to the option of buying physical releases was one of their last true differentiators. Microsoft gave up on Xbox exclusivity, bringing all of its games to its own Windows Store and then to Steam. But those were just digital releases. If you really wanted to own a disc with Halo Infinite printed on it, you still needed an Xbox.

(Image credit: Future) In 2020, Sony killed Microsoft's entry level Xbox Series S, an underpowered $300 machine, by selling its discless but otherwise fully capable PS5 at just $400. In the midst of the crypto mining craze making graphics cards unobtainable, the PS5 was a great console for the price. Today it costs $250 more, and Sony has also started raising prices for its PlayStation Plus subscription service needed to play games online.

Even with the painful prices of storage and memory hitting PC gaming hard, the consoles seem to be pricing themselves into irrelevancy. In the six years since the PS5 launched, Sony has produced so few of its once-system-selling blockbuster exclusives that it's hard to imagine spending close to $1,000 to play one new Naughty Dog game, one new Insomniac game, and a new God of War. The prestige just isn't prestiging as hard as it was on the PS4. Add to that the uncomfortable reminder that Sony can revoke the licenses to stuff you've bought on its platform, and that it will inevitably stop selling old games whenever it becomes too much work to bother maintaining an aging digital store, all while you pay it $80 a year just to play games on the internet, and you've gotta ask what the point of that device really is.

I guess it makes a nice sound when you turn it on.

Valve's hot hardware

(Image credit: Future) Steam Frame : Valve's new wireless VR headset

Steam Machine : Compact living room gaming box

Steam Controller : A controller to replace your mouse

Okay, less sarcastically—the system is designed to work nicely on a TV. The user interface is relatively easy to navigate. It's got apps. Those old chestnuts have been used to defend consoles against the scawwy computer for as long as I can remember. It was true in, like, 2004. But console interfaces get more annoying and ad-infested every year, while their games now offer multiple performance options to pick from in a shallow approximation of the PC experience. Valve's SteamOS, meanwhile, has made tremendous strides towards a controller-friendly interface without sacrificing the flexibility that has always been the PC's core identity.

Install SteamOS on a giant tower PC or a tiny box built from the guts of a PS5 ! Use whatever controller you want! Buy your games on Steam (the prices are always better) or get them DRM-free on GOG, or grab them from a legally questionable "abandonware" website if they're no longer on sale. Still have a soft spot for physical discs (or disks) and want to do everything on the up-and-up? A USB drive will cost you all of 20 bucks, and decades of PC games remain available on Ebay. There are probably even cool mods or fan projects that make them play nice with modern hardware.

The PC may have led the charge on digital games years ago, but the thing is: anyone can still make, sell, or play physical PC games if they want to . The only person who can take away your PC disc drive is you.

To sum it all up:

The last PlayStation and Xbox that were meaningfully different from PCs under the hood came out in 2005 and 2006.

Price was once their biggest asset—AI has killed that.

Simplicity was their second biggest, but while they've been making that experience worse for years, Valve (and the open source developers behind great initiatives like Bazzite ) have been making the PC's better.

Genuinely compelling exclusives other than Nintendo's are anomalies, and it's hard to be heartbroken over missing one or two given the number of interesting games hitting Steam every single week.

Sony now sells an overpriced entry ticket to a walled garden that kinda looks worse than the forest just outside it, while Xbox is actively lighting its own grounds on fire . Simpler and cheaper used to be worth the price of admission for a lot of people. But the way things are going, by the time the PS6 arrives anyone who buys it will just be paying more for worse.