Technologies

FBC Firebreak Hands-On: Saving the Office With Super Soakers and Shotguns

A preview for Remedy Entertainment’s squad shooter showed off its weird and fun co-op action, like Left 4 Dead meets Ghostbusters.

Minutes into my mission, I’m having second thoughts. Gunning down a dozen zombie-like enemies is a lot for a lowly office worker in the Federal Bureau of Control. At first, it’s hard to have faith in my gear — a backpack water jug with a cannon for drenching enemies. But then my fellow FBC squad mate (a secretary or middle manager, I forget which) uses his kit to zap all the soaked foes at once. With our third coworker slamming their wrench into anything that moves, we barely manage to fix up some broken fans before sprinting for the elevator as the doors close on the enemy horde.

Welcome to FBC Firebreak. Media got a chance to play the game for a few hours in an online preview ahead of its release on June 17.

Six in-game years after the events of Remedy Entertainment’s seminal 2019 game Control, the FBC headquarters is still partially occupied by the otherworldly Hiss invaders. But the brave workforce of the FBC has stepped up, and as one of the agency’s rangers or secretaries or middle managers, it’s up to players to drive them out of the offices.

FBC Firebeak is a departure for Remedy as its first game built to be multiplayer rather than its decades of single-player adventures. But the studio’s newest title is a smaller-scope «AA» game, unlike the flagship AAA releases like Alan Wake II, Control and its other prior hits. However, Firebreak’s $40 price tag (or $50 for the deluxe edition) that matches its more modest scope will be welcome to players reeling from the sticker shock of $80 games coming from Nintendo and Microsoft.

In my preview, I could see how Remedy is attempting to blend its signature style of weird, funky gunplay into a multiplayer setting, and mostly succeeds. There’s a lot of character to the world it’s built, and players will likely enjoy taking on the role of supernatural emergency responders as a change of pace from the gunplay-heavy squad shooters they know. But diehard fans of the studio’s storytelling-heavy approach will have to adjust to the new game’s fast co-op pace.

And they’ll have to get used to its difficulty, because FBC Firebreak is hard.

I’ll give you an example: My two squad mates — one of whom was CNET video editor Sean Booker — and I dropped into one of the three missions available to us. We each picked a gun and one of three equipment backpacks, each offering unique tools that work best when combined — a key way the game encourages teamwork. We set the mission to normal difficulty, and out we went.

The mission (or «job» in Firebreak talk) we chose was Paper Chase, wherein our squad is tasked with cleaning up a plague of supernatural Post-it notes. Like other areas of FBC headquarters, the offices we explored — faithfully recreated with ’60s shag rugs and retro decor from 2019’s Control — had been warped by the invading Hiss, making things even stranger. That meant we weren’t just fighting Hiss-possessed FBC workers clawing and shooting at us — we also had to gun down humanoid golems made of Post-its.

Our third squad mate dropped out due to GPU compatibility issues, so our CNET twosome cleared out gobs of Post-its haunting the office floor, all while getting slammed with unending hordes of enemies. We ran out of bullets pretty quickly. My colleague Booker had a mechanic’s kit with a mean wrench he could swing around — it also let him repair gadgets scattered around the level faster. Meanwhile, my backpack water blaster did little more than stagger enemies, relying on a one-two combo with the shock kit carried by our now-dropped-out squad mate.

With my weak melee and frequent deaths, Booker and I barely made it back to the elevator to finish the job. For the rest of our preview, we stuck to the easiest difficulty.

Squad up or die trying

Technically, you can drop into a «job» all by your lonesome, but I wouldn’t recommend it. They’re built to be challenging for three people, and I can attest how it’s a difficult enough experience with two, even on an easier setting. Four-person squads just weren’t balanced, as Remedy developers previously told me, which made sense as I fought tooth-and-nail through narrow hallways, roomy offices and spacious mines that would’ve felt crowded with more than two other teammates.

There are other tools at your disposal to take into jobs, like grenades, deployable equipment to use with your backpack kit and a rechargeable super ability (which we didn’t get far enough along to tinker with) — all gradually unlocked as you level up. Decked out in more gear, we stood a better chance of withstanding hordes of enemies. When I slammed down a jug filled by my water backpack that sprayed healing in a radius around it, we withstood waves of foes that had previously wiped us out.

But we still weren’t eager to tip the difficulty back up to normal, and how much players struggle may be a make-or-break point for Firebreak’s player experience. It’s a balance that could be tweaked in many ways before the game comes out in June, from enemy health and behavior to kit effectiveness and ammo availability. Remedy reinforced that the preview we saw was a work in progress, so I’d expect some tinkering to come, but the game walks a tricky line in encouraging (and borderline requiring) cooperation through its unique mechanics and tasks while allowing player flexibility — after all, the strangers filling your online co-op squad will come in a variety of skill levels and attitudes.

In its current state, getting swamped by wave after wave of Hiss while feeling my kit’s inadequacy is a bit worrisome. The game shows promise with its unique setting, gameplay and niche in the multiplayer shooter space — one that favors weirdness and intriguing mechanics over sweaty gunplay.

Co-op in the Alan Wake universe

As the FBC Firebreak developers explained in our briefing before the preview, the game was designed with three core pillars. The most obvious of those was on display when we booted up the game: there should be as little standing between players booting up the game and getting to the action. No cutscenes, plot diversions or dense dialogue to get in the way of jumping into a job.

That leads to the game’s second pillar: every player gets the same content — no progression roadblocks or paid DLC to split up a squad. For the $40 entry fee, players will get whatever the Firebreak developers introduce to the game — which at the moment are two additional jobs coming sometime after the game’s launch.

This ties into one of my main annoyances during the preview: progression felt too slow to unlock enough items that made me feel effective in the field. It makes sense if Remedy wants a longer progression runway to keep players coming back — for new equipment, better weapons and more cosmetics to outfit their Firebreak workers.

The last pillar was the one I saw the least of — mainly because we didn’t see much of the game: that FBC Firebreak delivers action and moments found «only in Control.» From the preview, this bore out in the reliance on kit equipment over guns — even without my third squad mate following up with an electricity blast, I discovered my water gun could stagger enemies when charged up, leaving my other squad mate to batter them with his wrench. This mixes in a dose of absurdity with the frenetic terror of Hiss hordes.

In practice, FBC Firebreak feels like a mixture of Left 4 Dead and Ghostbusters, which is a fun and funky blend that shakes up the tired squad shooter genre. But its focus on quickly moving players in and out of jobs leaves little room for the kind of secret-hunting and lore-digging that defined past Remedy games. To that end, it’s tough to imagine whether the studio’s diehard fans will embrace Firebreak’s loops running the same missions without heavy storytelling, let alone standout moments like Control’s Ashtray Maze or Alan Wake II’s We Sing musical sequence.

Firebreak’s developers previously told me they don’t believe those memorable moments really fit in a multiplayer game, especially if it means forcing players to relive them repeatedly. They’re probably right, but it means the new game will need to rely on emergent moments born from unpredictable, often ridiculous situations — the kind of had-to-be-there memories that help a game stand out.

With no more of FBC director Jesse Faden’s story until Control 2, and no required story content in Firebreak, the new game seems poised to truly stand on its own. And without any detail on how Firebreak ties into the greater Remedyverse storyline shared across the studio’s games, or how much lore it has tucked away waiting for players to discover, Firebreak will sink or swim based on how fun it is to run around as an office drone saving your workplace with wild gadgets and guns. A lot of that remains to be seen.

Technologies

Apple CarPlay Ultra vs. Google Built-In: How the Next-Gen Auto Software Rivals Compare

Apple and Google are supercharging their car software experiences. Here’s how they differ.

I’d spent an hour driving a $250,000-plus Aston Martin up the Los Angeles coast when my hunger pangs became impossible to ignore, and as I’ve done many times before, I asked Siri (through Apple CarPlay) to find me a taco place. But then I did something no other car on the planet allows: I asked Siri to blast the AC and make the air colder. That’s because the 2025 Aston Martin DBX I drove was the first vehicle to come with Apple CarPlay Ultra, the upgraded version of the company’s car software.

Apple debuted CarPlay Ultra at WWDC 2025 last month, and this year’s version of the Aston Martin DBX is the first vehicle to launch with it (pairing with an iPhone running iOS 18.5 or later). As I drove the luxury crossover around, I fiddled with other features that aren’t available in regular CarPlay, from climate control to radio to checking the pressure on the car’s tires. Ultimately, Ultra gives deeper access to more car systems, which is a good thing.

That reminded me a lot of a new feature announced at Google I/O back in May: Google Built-In, which similarly lets users control more of a car’s systems straight from the software interface (in that case, Android Auto). When I got a demonstration of Google Built-In, sitting in a new Volvo EX90 electric SUV, I saw what this new integration of Google software offered: climate controls, Gemini AI assistance and even warnings about car maintenance issues.

But the name is telling: Google Built-In requires automakers to incorporate Android deeper into their cars’ inner workings. Comparatively, Apple CarPlay Ultra support seems like it won’t require car manufacturers to do nearly as much work to prepare their vehicles, just adding a reasonably advanced multicore processor onboard that can handle an increased task load. (Aston Martin will be able to add CarPlay Ultra support to its 2023 and 2024 lineups through firmware updates because they already contain sufficiently advanced CPUs.)

Both solutions reflect Apple’s and Google’s different approaches to their next versions of car software. Apple’s is lighter weight, seemingly requiring less commitment from the automaker to integrate CarPlay Ultra into their vehicles (so long as it has adequate processing power onboard), which will run through a paired iPhone. Google Built-In does require much more integration, but it’s so self-sufficient that you can leave your Android phone at home and still get much of its functionality (aside from getting and sending messages and calls).

Driving with Apple CarPlay Ultra: Controlling climate, radio and more

As I drove around Los Angeles in the Aston Martin with Apple CarPlay Ultra, I could tell what new features I would be missing once I stepped back into my far more humble daily driver.

At long last, I could summon Siri and ask it to play a specific song (or just a band) and have it pulled up on Spotify. Since Apple’s assistant now has access to climate controls, I asked to turn up the AC, and it went full blast. I asked to find tacos and it suggested several fast food restaurants — well, it’s not perfect, but at least it’s listening.

To my relief, Aston Martin retained the physical knobs by the gearshift to control fan speed, temperature, stereo volume and the car’s myriad roadway options (like driving assistance) in case the driver likes traditional controls, but almost all of them could also be altered in the interface. Now, things like radio controls (AM/FM and satellite) and car settings are nestled in their own recognizable apps in CarPlay’s interface.

Ultimately, that’ll be one of CarPlay Ultra’s greatest advantages: If you enter an unfamiliar vehicle (like a rental), you still know exactly where everything is. No wrestling with a carmaker’s proprietary software or trying to figure out where some setting or other is located. It’s not a complete replacement — in the Aston Martin’s case, there were still a handful of settings (like for ambient light projected when the doors open) that the luxury automaker controlled, but they were weaved into CarPlay so you could pop open those windows and go back to Apple’s interface without visibly changing apps.

The dependable ubiquity of Apple’s CarPlay software will likely become even more essential as cars swap out their analog instrument clusters for screens, as Aston Martin did. There’s still a touch of the high-end automaker’s signature style as the default screen behind the wheel shows two traditional dials (one for the speedometer, one for RPMs) with Aston Martin’s livery. But that can be swapped out for other styles, from other dials with customizable colors to a full-screen Maps option.

Each of the half-dozen or so dashboard options was swapped out via square touchpads smaller than a dime on the wheel next to the other touch controls. On the dual-dial display types, I swiped vertically to rotate between a central square (with Maps directions, current music or other app information) or swiped horizontally to switch to another dashboard option. No matter which one you choose, the bottom bar contains all the warning lights drivers will recognize from analog cars — even with digital displays, you’re not safe from the check engine light (which is a good thing).

Apple CarPlay Ultra doesn’t yet do everything I want. I wish I could also ask Siri to roll down the windows (as Google Built-In can — more on that later) and lock or unlock specific doors. If Apple is connected to the car enough to be able to read the pressure in each tire, I wish it could link up with the engine readout and be able to tell me in plain language what kind of maintenance issue has sprung up. Heck, I wish it could connect to the car remotely and blast the AC before I get in (or fire up the seat warmer), as some proprietary car apps can do. And while Apple Maps and Waze will be included at launch, Google Maps support is not, but it’s coming later.

These aren’t huge deficiencies, and they do show where CarPlay Ultra could better meet driver needs in future updates, notwithstanding the potentially dicey security concerns for using CarPlay Ultra for remote climate or unlocking capabilities. But it shows where the limits are today compared to Google’s more in-depth approach.

Google Built-In: Deeper car integrations — and, of course, Gemini AI

The day after Google I/O’s keynote was quieter back in May, as attendees flitted between focused sessions and demos of upcoming software. It was the ideal time to check out Google Built-In, which was appropriately shown off in a higher-end Volvo EX90 electric SUV (though not nearly as pricey as an Aston Martin).

As mentioned above, Google Built-In has deeper integrations with vehicles than what I saw in Apple CarPlay Ultra, allowing users to change the climate through its interface or access other systems, including through voice requests. For instance, it can go beyond AC control to switch on the defroster, and even raise and lower specific windows relative to the speaker’s position: cameras within the car (in the rearview mirror, if I remember right) meant that when my demonstrator asked to «roll down this window» pointing over his left shoulder, the correct window rolled down.

Google Built-In is also connected to Gemini, Google’s AI assistant, for what the company is calling «Google Live,» a separate and more capable version of the Android Auto assistant experience in cars right now. With a Live session, I could request music or directions much like I could with Siri — but my demo went further, as the demonstrator tasked Gemini with requests better suited for generative AI, such as asking, «Give me suggestions for a family outing» and telling it to send a specific text to a contact.

The demonstrator then asked Gemini for recipe advice — «I have chicken, rice and broccoli in the fridge, what can I make?» — as an example of a query someone might ask on the drive home.

Since you’re signed into your Google account, Gemini can consult anything connected to it, like emails and messages. It’s also trained on the user manuals from each car-maker, so if a warning light comes on, the driver can ask the voice assistant what it means — no more flipping through a dense manual trying to figure out what each alert means.

There are other benefits to Google Built-In, like not needing your phone for some features. But there are also drawbacks, like the need to keep car software updated, requiring more work on Google’s end to make sure cars are protected from issues or exploits. They can’t just fix it in the most current version of Android — they’ll need to backport that fix to older versions that vehicles might still be on.

This deeper integration with Google Built-In has a lot of the benefits of Apple CarPlay Ultra (a familiar interface, easier to access features), just cranked up to a greater degree. It surely benefits fans of hands-off controls, and interweaving Gemini naturally dovetails with Google’s investments, so it’s easy to see that functionality improving. But a greater reliance on Android within the car’s systems could be concerning as the vehicle ages: Will the software stop being supported? Will it slow down or be exposed to security exploits? A lot of questions remain regarding making cars open to phone software interfaces.

Technologies

A Samsung Tri-Fold Phone Could Be in Your Future, if This Leak Is to Be Believed

UI animations might have revealed the imminent release of a so-called «Galaxy G Fold» device with three screens.

Samsung has been showing off mobile display concepts with three screens at trade events such as CES for several years, but it might finally bring one to market soon if a leaked UI animation is any indicator.

As reported by Android Authority, an animated image from a software build of One UI 8 appears to show what some are dubbing a «Galaxy G Fold» device with three display panels. The screens would be capable of displaying different information or working in unison as one large display. The new phone model could debut as early as next week at Samsung’s Unpacked event on July 9 in Brooklyn.

Huawei released a tri-folding phone in February, the Mate XT Ultimate Design.

Some websites have gone into overdrive trying to uncover details on what Samsung’s new device might include and how much it may cost, with Phone Arena reporting that according to a Korean media report, it could be priced at about $3,000.

Samsung didn’t immediately respond to request for comment.