Technologies

You Should Try These 10 Word Games If You Like Wordle

There are spin-offs to the popular game, like Quordle, and more puzzles that everyone can try now.

Josh Wardle launched the enthralling puzzle game Wordle more than four years ago in 2021. Since then, Wordle’s popularity has made it one of the biggest word games in recent memory. Wardle initially created the game for his partner before releasing it to the public, and then The New York Times bought it in 2022. CNET’s Gael Cooper has loads of tips and tricks to tackle each Wordle puzzle, but if you’ve completed today’s game — or just love puzzle games — these alternatives are well worth your time.

Wordle asks players to figure out a five-letter word in six or fewer guesses (we have a two-step strategy to help you solve the puzzle every time). After each guess, the game shows gray blocks for the wrong letters, yellow blocks for the right letters in the wrong spot and green blocks for the right letters in the correct spot. It’s addictive, but after you solve the daily puzzle or use up all your guesses, you have to wait until the next day to play again.

You’ve likely already learned some tips, tricks and lessons from the popular word game, so why not apply your newly honed problem-solving skills to other puzzles, too? After all, Wordle isn’t the only game in town. Here are 10 other puzzle games like Wordle you’ll likely enjoy.

Connections

Another New York Times-owned puzzle, Connections is a tricky word game. «Players must select four groups of four words without making more than four mistakes,» the New York Times wrote on X, formerly Twitter. There are also four color-coded difficulty levels for each game; yellow is the easiest, then green, the blue and finally purple. The game is also similar to the BBC quiz show Only Connect, and the show’s host took to X to point out the connection. See what I did there?

You can play Connections on any web browser, but you need a New York Times subscription (which starts at $1 a week) to play.

Strands

Strands is another New York Times-owned puzzle, but this game resembles a word search more so than Wordle and Connections. This game presents a theme every day to help you find words in a grid. In Strands words can appear forwards, backward, top-to-bottom or any number of ways in a traditional word search, and words can also form in the shape of an «L» or have a zigzag in them. When you find a word, tap the first letter and drag your finger to the other letters. Every letter in the puzzle is used, so if you still have letters that aren’t connected to words, you aren’t finished yet.

You can play Strands on any web browser, but you need a New York Times subscription (again, $1 a week) to play.

Quartiles

Quartiles is a new word game Apple News Plus subscribers can access on their iPhone or iPad that’s running iOS 17.5 or later. In this word game, you’re given 20 tiles with letters on them, and you’re trying to put them together to form different words. The longest words are four-tiles long, and these are called Quartiles. The game can be tough, but finding just one of the Quartiles is as satisfying as remembering something that was just on the tip of your tongue.

You can play Quartiles on an iPhone or iPad, but you need an Apple News subscription (which starts at $13 a month) to play.

Multiple Wordle spinoffs: Dordle, Quordle, Octordle and Sedecordle

Are you up for a challenge? If you love Wordle and want puzzle games that take more brain power, you’ll want to check out either Dordle, Quordle, Octordle or Sedecordle. Each of these word games resembles Wordle, but they add more rows, columns and words to solve. Each game requires you to simultaneously solve a different number of words at once: Dordle has you solving two words, Quordle four at once, Octordle eight at once, and Sedecordle a whopping 16. Good luck.

You can play Dordle, Quordle, Octordle or Sedecordle on any web browser.

Lewdle

«Lewdle is a game about rude words,» this game’s content advisory reads. «If you’re likely to be offended by the use of profanity, vulgarity or obscenity, it likely isn’t for you.» Translation: It’s Wordle, but with bad words. The words range from mild — like poopy — to words that would make a sailor blush. Thankfully, despite this game’s content warning, slurs are not included. Like Wordle, gray, yellow and green blocks are used in the same way and there’s only one puzzle per day. So go forth and let the bad words flow!

You can play Lewdle on any web browser. You can also download this game from Apple’s App Store or the Google Play store.

Antiwordle

Tired of seeing those grey, yellow and green blocks plastered all over your social media feed? Give Antiwordle a try. While Wordle wants you to guess a word in as few tries as possible, Antiwordle wants you to avoid the word by guessing as many times as possible. When you guess, letters will turn gray, yellow or red. Gray means the letter isn’t in the word and can’t be used again, yellow means the letter is in the word and must be included in each subsequent guess and red means the letter is in the exact position within the word and is locked in place. If you can use every letter on the keyboard without getting the word correct, you win. Honestly, I’ve found this version of Wordle to be much harder than the original.

You can play Antiwordle on any web browser.

Absurdle

Absurdle bills itself as the «adversarial version» of Wordle. While Wordle nudges you in the right direction with each guess, Absurdle is trying to avoid giving you the correct answer. According to the game’s website, «With each guess, Absurdle reveals as little information as possible, changing the secret word if need be.» Absurdle doesn’t pick a word at the beginning of the game for the player to guess. Instead, it uses the player’s guesses to narrow its list of words down in an effort to make the game go as long as possible. The final word might not even include a yellow letter from one of your earlier guesses either. You can guess as many times as you want, which is helpful, and the best score you can get is four. Have fun!

You can play Absurdle on any web browser.

For more word game fun, check out CNET’s Wordle tips, the best Wordle jokes and everything you need to know about the word game. You can also cehck out what to know about the other New York Times-owned games, Connections and Strands.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Mini Crossword Answers for Friday, Feb. 20

Here are the answers for The New York Times Mini Crossword for Feb. 20.

Looking for the most recent Mini Crossword answer? Click here for today’s Mini Crossword hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Wordle, Strands, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles.

Today’s Mini Crossword expects you to know a little bit about everything — from old political parties to architecture to video games. Read on for all the answers. And if you could use some hints and guidance for daily solving, check out our Mini Crossword tips.

If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: Tips and Tricks for Solving The New York Times Mini Crossword

Let’s get to those Mini Crossword clues and answers.

Mini across clues and answers

1A clue: Political party that competed with Democrats during the 1830s-’50s
Answer: WHIGS

6A clue: Four Seasons, e.g.
Answer: HOTEL

7A clue: Dinosaur in the Mario games
Answer: YOSHI

8A clue: Blizzard or hurricane
Answer: STORM

9A clue: We all look up to it
Answer: SKY

Mini down clues and answers

1D clue: «Oh yeah, ___ that?»
Answer: WHYS

2D clue: Says «who»?
Answer: HOOTS

3D clue: «No worries»
Answer: ITSOK

4D clue: Postmodern architect Frank
Answer: GEHRY

5D clue: Narrow
Answer: SLIM

Technologies

PlayStation 6 Rumors: Potential 2029 Release, Specs, Pricing and More

While the PS6’s release is still years away, here’s what we know so far about the next-gen console from Sony.

The PlayStation 5 will turn six years old this year. For a game console, that means it’s coming into its twilight years. So, it’s understandable that gamers are starting to wonder what’s next. There’s is nothing official so far from Sony on when the PlayStation 6 might arrive, though.

Still, reports and rumors are circulating about Sony’s next-gen game console. While Sony has a sizable market lead over Microsoft’s Xbox, it now has different competition coming from the new powered-up Nintendo Switch 2 and the upcoming Steam Machine home console from Valve. Both devices offer different challenges for Sony in terms of portability, library of games and pricing.

Here’s what we know about the PS6 so far.

When will the PS6 come out?

Sony, for obvious reasons, hasn’t provided a window for when the PS6 will come out. Speculation puts the console’s release in 2027, which would be seven years after the release of the PS5, and consoles have generally been on a seven-year cycle.

Sony could push the release to 2028, according to a report from David Gibson, senior analyst at MST Financial. He believes the new PlayStation will likely be delayed as the company is expanding the lifecycle of the PS5, according to VideoGame Chronicles. However, a new report from Bloomberg says the release date could be pushed back to 2029, thanks to the current RAM shortage.

Will the PS6 be a handheld?

It does appear that Sony might be developing both a console and a handheld. Rumors were circulating that Sony was creating a handheld on par with the Nintendo Switch to complement the console.

The speculation is that this handheld will be able to play new PS6 games, as well as PS5 and PS4 games. While this seems unlikely from a handheld, it’s possible the device would have enough power to run PS5 games and, in turn, PS4 titles, while PS6 games would be playable at a lower visual quality.

The YouTube channel Moore’s Law Is Dead reported in December that this PS6 handheld is already being tested by developers but that its lower-power mode reportedly doesn’t play PS5 games well, as it lowers the frames of the game when in use.

Sony’s strategy for this generation could be about keeping players in the PlayStation ecosystem at home and on the go, so they won’t be tempted by competitor handhelds such as the Xbox ROG Ally or Steam Deck.

How much will the PS6 cost?

Figuring out the potential pricing for this upcoming generation of consoles is tricky. There are so many unknown factors that complicate the answer.

Current tariffs, for example, have caused Sony, like Microsoft and Nintendo, to raise console prices, making it hard to predict what will happen in the coming years. The tariffs could go away, but if they continue, Sony may have to move its console production to another country that has a minimal tariff or hope that the countries that manufacture its hardware — Vietnam and China — strike a deal with the US.

Another issue is the RAM shortage and the resulting skyrocketing prices. Brought on by the demands of data centers across the globe being built out to handle the growth in AI usage, memory prices have already jumped. Those increases are leading to more expensive desktops, laptops and, really, anything that uses RAM, like tablets, phones and gaming devices.

The sweet spot for any console release would be $500, but that seems more like a pipe dream at this point. What could be used as a marker for hardware prices is Valve’s upcoming Steam Machine later this year, which is speculated to stay in the $600 to $700 range.

As for the handheld portion, the pricing could be more aggressive than the offering of the current handheld market. A video from August, from the YouTube channel Moore’s Law Is Dead, says the pricing for the PS6 portable could be in the range of $400 to $500. This could mean that to get the full PS6 experience, gamers will have to drop at least $1,000.

What are the PS6 specs?

Like other gaming hardware makers, Sony is working closely with AMD for its components. Back in October, the lead architect for the PS5, Mark Cerny, hosted a video with Jack Huynh, SVP and GM of AMD’s computing and graphics group. The video was uploaded to the PlayStation YouTube channel.

While the talk between the two didn’t confirm what technology will power the PS6, they hinted a bit about what’s next with a collaboration between the two companies, called Project Amethyst.

Huynh introduced Radiance Cores, which are AMD’s new technology for ray tracing and path tracing. Another technology, introduced to handle the GPU demands of AMD’s Fidelity Super Resolution and PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution upscaling, is Neural Arrays. And AMD’s Universal Compression can help relieve bottlenecks with the GPU memory bandwidth limitations.

While there are few verifiable details about the chips powering the PS6, Sony will work with AMD to create customized hardware for its PS6, just like Nintendo did with the Switch 2 and Microsoft is doing with the next Xbox.

The PS6 is likely to have at least 16GB of RAM and a 1TB solid-state drive for storage. It will also likely have the latest standards for wireless technology, such as Wi-Fi 7, and the newest media interface, HDMI 2.2.

Sony will also develop some other PlayStation-focused features in the same fashion as the adaptive triggers on the DualSense PS5 controller and more functionality with cloud gaming for PS Plus subscribers.

Many questions are still left to be answered about the PS6, with the ultimate question on whether the 10th generation of game consoles will, in fact, be the last.

Technologies

Google Rolls Out Latest AI Model, Gemini 3.1 Pro

Starting Thursday, Gemini 3.1 Pro can be accessed via the AI app, NotebookLM and more.

Google took the wraps off its latest AI model, Gemini 3.1 Pro, on Thursday, calling it a «step forward in core reasoning.» The software giant says its latest model is smarter and more capable for complex problem-solving.

Google shared a series of bookmarks and examples of the latest model’s capabilities, and is rolling out Gemini 3.1 to a series of products for consumers, enterprise and developers.

The overall AI model landscape seems to change weekly. Google’s release comes just a few days after Anthropic dropped the latest version of Claude, Sonnet 4.6, which can operate a computer at a human baseline level.

Benchmarks of Gemini 3.1

Google shared some details about AI model benchmarks for Gemini 3.1 Pro.

The announcement blog post highlights that the Gemini 3.1 Pro benchmark for the ARC-AGI-2 test for solving abstract reasoning puzzles sits at 77.1%. This is noticeably higher than Gemini 3 Pro’s 31.1% score for the same test.

The ARC-AGI-2 benchmark is one of multiple improvements coming from Gemini 3.1 Pro, Google says.

3.1 Pro enhancements

With better benchmarks nearly across the board, Google highlighted some of the ways that translate in general use:

Code-based animations: The latest Gemini model can easily create animated SVG images that are scalable without quality loss and ready to be added to websites with a text prompt.

Creative coding: Gemini 3.1 Pro generated an entire website based on a character from Emily Brontë’s novel Wuthering Heights, if she were a landscape photographer showing off her portfolio.

Interactive design: 3.1 Pro was used to create a 3D interactive starling murmuration that allows the flock to be controlled in an assortment of ways, all while a soundscape is generated that changes with the movement of the birds.

Availability

As of Thursday, Gemini 3.1 Pro is rolling out in the Gemini app for those with the AI Pro or Ultra plans. NotebookLM users subscribed to one of those plans will also be able to take advantage of the new model.

Both developers and enterprises can also access the new model via the Gemini API through a range of products, including AI Studio, Gemini Enterprise, Antigravity and Android Studio.