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Fallout: New Vegas director Josh Sawyer says Obsidian took a different approach to level scaling than Bethesda did with Fallout 3 to teach players that "things work a little differently" here, and that "you're going to get your ass handed to you if you're not careful."

Speaking to The 41st Precinct in a video interview you can check out below, Sawyer talks about going back to the OG Fallout when designing a new spin of his own on the post-apocalyptic wasteland.

More specifically, Sawyer loved that the critical path of Fallout 1 "is very open." If you really want to and know where to go, you can waltz right to the late game areas and skip a big ol' chunk of the story. Funnily enough, Sawyer also says that one of Fallout's co-creators, Tim Cain, told him that's down to a bug, but hey, everyone enjoys it enough so it's a feature now.

And a good thing it is, as it made quite the impression on Sawyer.

"I loved how open it was, and so, with New Vegas, I was like, 'I want to get that feeling back where we have difficulty gates,' so we took some of the level scaling out," he says. "It's a much more compressed level scaling range. That's why if you go to Quarry Junction, a Death Claw will just chop your head off. It's to teach the player, 'hey, this is not actually Fallout 3. Things work a little differently. You're going to get your ass handed to you if you're not careful.'"

To bring things to their most basic terms, enemies in Fallout 3 will increase in level and use better equipment to match your level. Return to an earlier locale in the late game and it'll be a nastier place than you remember.

Fallout: New Vegas enemies can certainly get meaner themselves, but only to a point. As such, you don't have to worry about Goodsprings turning into an endgame area if you return at a much later point. It does mean, though, that some of Fallout: New Vegas's areas will punch you in the face if you're not equipped. Think of it as a suggestion that you probably shouldn't be here until you level up. Once you do, though, you'll be able to steamroll foes in a way that isn't typically doable in Fallout 3.

Sawyer goes on to say that this approach to game design meant Obsidian could offer the player the chance to follow Fallout: New Vegas's story, as in Fallout, by skipping parts – albeit with the added challenge of surviving nastier areas.

"What that meant is that we could make the story – you can find Benny immediately," he says. "Like, you can go from Goodsprings straight to Benny. And that's the Water Chip. The design of that is you follow an information trail. I'm looking for this guy, I go here, he's not here but he says go here, go here, go here. But at any time, you can shortcut that. You can go through Scorpion Gulch and you can get to Novak and talk to Manny and then go to Boulder City. Or you can go straight to The Tops if you can figure out a way to get there. So, yeah, I was trying to embody that open spirit of Fallout 1."

I'd say Sawyer and Obsidian's approach to Fallout certainly landed, which is why New Vegas is so fondly remembered even today. It makes the future interesting, too, as Microsoft is reportedly kicking around plans to get Sawyer to head up another Fallout game to capitalize on the success of the TV show , especially as Bethesda won't be getting to that for a long time thanks to The Elder Scrolls 6. According to one former Obsidian lead, there was another Sawyer-led Fallout RPG in the works that ultimately got kiboshed , so it might not be the first time such a project nearly came to fruition. Maybe this time such a thing will stick and see the light of day.

Microsoft lays off Bethesda vet behind Todd Howard's "crazy" Fallout 4 idea, "too many Skyrim weapons to count," the Dwemer, and Mudcrabs – and he may leave games altogether.

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By and large, spy thrillers usually fall into one of two camps: They're either globe-trotting, action-packed spectacles à la Mission: Impossible or Bourne , or they’re John le Carré -style slow-burns more interested in the emotional toll of espionage than the missions themselves. Very few titles manage to strike a balance between the two. Turns out, that's exactly what makes The Agency such a pleasant surprise. This under-the-radar drama, somewhat hidden on Paramount+, delivers both the international intrigue and political maneuvering of something like Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan while also exploring the identity crises and personal sacrifices that made The Americans one of television's defining spy dramas. And yet, despite a unique take on the genre — not to mention an impressive cast led by Michael Fassbender , Jeffrey Wright , Jodie Turner-Smith , and Richard Gere — The Agency hasn’t garnered much buzz since premiering in late 2024. That's unfortunate, because it's one of the smartest modern espionage series on television today .

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Archaeologists have discovered 18 ancient tombs in an Egyptian town along the Mediterranean Sea.

The tombs ‪—‬ which were unearthed in Marina el-Alamein (also spelled Alamin), about 60 miles (100 kilometers) west of Alexandria ‪—‬ date to the Ptolemaic (322 to 30 B.C.) or Roman (30 B.C. to A.D. 395) period, the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities said in a translated statement announcing the find.

During the Ptolemaic period, Egypt was ruled by the descendants of one of Alexander the Great's generals, while the Roman period started with the death of Cleopatra VII , when Egypt became incorporated into the Roman Empire as a province.

The team noted that 11 of the tombs had been carved deep into the ground, while the seven others were located closer to the ground's surface. The tombs held many artifacts ‪—‬ most notably, 24 "gold tongues" that were likely put into the mouths of mummies, and an offering altar with a base designed to look like a false door.

An entrance to one of the tombs in Marina el-Alamein (also spelled Alamin). (Image credit: Courtesy of the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities) "The false door is one of the oldest and most recognizable elements of ancient Egyptian funerary architecture. In traditional Egyptian belief, it symbolized the interface between the worlds of the living and the dead, through which the deceased could spiritually receive offerings presented by the living," Hesham Hussein , the undersecretary for Lower Egypt and Sinai archaeology at Egypt's Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, told Live Science in an email.

The fact that the design of a false door was carved into the altar "suggests that the symbolic meaning of the false door remained important even as its architectural function evolved," Hussein added.

Some of the gold tongues discovered inside the tombs. The ancient Egyptians believed these tongues could help the deceased communicate in the afterlife. (Image credit: Courtesy of the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities) Gold tongues from ancient Egypt

Gold tongues have been found in mummies at a number of ancient Egyptian sites. The ancient Egyptians considered gold to be the flesh of the gods , and they believed gold tongues could help the deceased communicate with them in the afterlife.

"Gold tongues are a well-documented feature of some burials dating to the Ptolemaic and Roman periods in Egypt," Hussein said. "They are generally interpreted as symbolic funerary amulets intended to enable the deceased to speak in the afterlife, particularly during the judgment before Osiris , or more broadly to communicate and recite sacred formulas in the next world."

Interestingly, one of the newly found gold tongues is shaped like the " Eye of Horus ." Horus was a falcon-headed god associated with the sky and warfare. Artifacts shaped like his eye are often found in Egypt and were used to ward off evil, according to the statement.

However, it's unclear if some of these artifacts are actually gold tongues, Attilio Mastrocinque , a retired archaeology professor formerly at the University of Verona in Italy, told Live Science. Mastrocinque has written extensively about Greek and Roman religion but was not involved in this excavation.

After looking at the photos posted by the ministry, he noted that one appears to show a wheat ear. Wheat ears were associated with fertility and images of them were popular in the ancient world. The newfound artifact looks similar to silver wheat ears that have been found in Roman sanctuaries in Europe, Mastrocinque added.

An offering altar with a base that resembles a false door. (Image credit: Courtesy of the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities) Altar with a false door?

False doors are commonly found in ancient Egyptian tombs and offering altars are often near these doors. In this case, the base of an offering altar resembles a false door.

Krzysztof Jakubiak , an archaeology professor at the University of Warsaw who has excavated at Marina el-Alamein in the past but was not involved in the recent excavation, noted that this find likely needs additional analysis.

"I would exercise caution in asserting a direct comparison between the iconographic motifs visible on the discovered altar and those of the false door iconography," Jakubiak told Live Science in an email. He said it's possible that the altar was not finished and its existing appearance simply resembles a false door.

Hala Mostafa , an archaeology professor at Ain Shams University said in an email that he thought the altar may depict the hieroglyphic sign for "offering" rather than a false door.

An unfinished statue of the goddess Aphrodite, who was associated with love and beauty. (Image credit: Courtesy of the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities) Goddess statue and other finds

One of the tombs contained an 8.2-foot-long (2.5 meters) granite coffin whose lid was still on when the tomb was discovered. The team is currently examining the skeletal remains found inside.

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Other finds included an incomplete statue of Aphrodite, a Greek goddess associated with love and beauty. During ancient Egypt 's Ptolemaic dynasty, Greek culture and religion became increasingly popular in Egypt. Mastrocinque said it will be interesting to see if there is a structure for Aphrodite near the statue

"It is important to know where this statue has been found," Mastrocinque told Live Science in an email. "Was there a little cultic place of Aphrodite within this funerary complex?"

Dorota Dzierzbicka , director of the Polish-Egyptian Archaeological Mission to Marina el-Alamein, said that the new finds, along with finds made at the site in the past, reveal that the town was "a culturally diverse community in which Egyptian and Graeco-Roman traditions coexisted and blended in everyday life and funerary practices." She noted that the new discoveries were made by Egyptian archaeologists who work at the site.

See how much you know about mummies with our mummy quiz!

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What's old is new in League of Legends Classic, which was teased a couple of weeks ago in the wake of leak after leak. The full reveal came during yesterday's MSI Finals, where the mode debuted in a showmatch starring pros like Doublelift and Cpt Jack. It's a Frankenstein's monster of different eras with a huge emphasis on season three: a bunch of old kits are back, but some of the art has been modernized and various late additions like ward trinkets have made it in.

More details can be found on the Riot Games website , which reveals that the mode will release later this month on July 29. It names a bunch of old, busted builds poised to make their triumphant return: ability power Master Yi ( God help us ), pre-rework Sion ( God help us ), any mage with Deathfire Grasp, and so on.

But unlike, say, World of Warcraft Classic, it won't split itself up into era-locked versions—the mode will change with the times as voted by the community, similar to Old School RuneScape. If we, the common MOBA proletariat, can vote the 3v3 map Twisted Treeline back into League of Legends, it might just restore my faith in democracy.

And yes, the old upgrade systems are back. Runes and quintessences will let you pile on incremental stat upgrades, and the old mastery pages will simplify the system back down to three talent trees. Old summoner spells are back too, so if you've been missing the likes of rally and revive, you're in luck.

If you're hungry for more details, RiotMeddler has been on Reddit confirming various factoids. For instance, more old-school champions will be added over time—Graves and Urgot were examples he gave of characters he was particularly excited for, and others like Sion will be there day one . And if you're hoping to hear that sweet champion select song of auld , it's coming back .

Player reaction online seems mixed, especially with regard to the mode's 'era mashup' approach. "They really should remove the modern mechanics (trinket, base gates) and the modern models should AT THE VERY LEAST be toggleable into the old base skins," commented Reddit user WitchySofia.

The art style seems a prominent point of contention: "I want Meddler to tell me why they had an artist spend time making a brand new, never before seen health bar graphic that's uglier than the old health bar," said Reddit user TheScyphozoa on the same thread.

Comparisons, like this one from Reddit user JaxIsBadDontPick_ indeed suggest that the game version used in the showmatch has more muted colors and newer character models than League actually had a decade and a half ago.RiotMeddler confirmed in a different thread on Reddit that a dev blog with "a range of details" will go up Tuesday.

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