Technologies

The First Berserker’s Ben Starr and Studio CEO Speak: Tough Games, AI and More

I sat down with Khazan’s voice actor Ben Starr and Neople CEO Myeongjin Yun to chat about their new game in the Dungeon & Fighter universe.

I’ve been enjoying The First Berserker: Khazan, the Souls-like dark fantasy action game that was released on March 27. During this year’s Game Developers Conference, I sat down with some of the development team to chat about the latest game in the Dungeon & Fighter series — and much more, from difficulty in Souls-like games to AI in the industry.

I spoke to Myeongjin Yun, CEO of developer Neople, and Ben Starr, the voice of the titular character Khazan and many other iconic gaming roles including Clive, the protagonist of Final Fantasy XVI.

We talked about where the game fits in the larger Dungeon & Fighter universe, how they tackled making a new entry in the crowded souls-like genre and where AI fits within their respective fields. This interview has been lightly edited for clarity.

Sean Booker: What is Dungeon & Fighter and how does it relate to The First Berserker Khazan?

Myeongjin Yun: So basically Dungeon & Fighter is an action RPG, it’s been in service for 20 years as of this year in Korea. And Khazan actually plays a very core part of the story. So there is this iconic class in Dungeon & Fighter called the Demon Slayer, and they have a cursed red arm. It’s part of the lore, and basically Khazan is at the core of like, how that came to be, why all Demon Slayers have that red arm.

Then with The First Berserker: Khazan, we wanted to go a little bit deeper into the story and into the universe about, like, you know, what role does Khazan play in setting up the Dungeon & Fighter universe. How does his story expand?

SB: Ben, what drew you to this project?

Ben Starr: Cool, cool project. I remember seeing the first ever glimpse of it, I think in The Game Awards a couple of years ago, and I just thought it was the coolest looking game and I’m such a huge fan of this genre of games, like hardcore action RPGs is something that I have a deep, deep love on. After I did a blind audition for this game, but I knew exactly what it was because I’d already kind of been keeping tabs on it as a fan. And then I just saw what they were doing with story — I think with most actors, all they want to do is tell good stories and be good characters and it was just really, really fun. And I love, you know, a brooding protagonist who’s on a path for revenge, but this just felt really different and cool and I adore the art style.

And I really love that the key of this story is the dynamic with Blade Phantom, and I’m really great friends with Anthony Howell who plays Blade Phantom, and I think he’s such an amazing, amazing actor. To get to work alongside him is just this incredible gift.

SB: Would you say people need to be familiar with Dungeon & Fighter in order to play The First Berserker, and if not, and they wanted to, where in the IP would you point them?

MY: You could definitely play and enjoy Khazan, even if you did not know the Dungeon & Fighter IP at all. The setting, the learning curve, and even the story was all made with people who are new to the Dungeon & Fighter IP in mind. Of course, if you know the original story, you would have a lot more fun like, oh, here’s an Easter egg here and there. For example, in the original Dungeon & Fighter, when Khazan gets exiled to the mountains, the story kind of ends there, and we don’t really go that much into detail about what happened to Khazan after that. But here it kind of expands on the what if setting, so what if Khazan didn’t die in that exile snowy mountain? What if he stayed alive? What if he just continued his revenge?

SB: Dungeon & Fighter games are typically beat ’em ups, and there’s also a fighting game. Now with Khazan we’re going into a Souls-like action game. Why the transition to this new genre?

MY: We wanted to find a way for everyone to get immersed in the story, for them to really experience what it means to play Dungeon & Fighter. But then if you look at the original game, it’s a pixel game. It’s also side scrolling and that’s not the most popular genre as of right now. And so we were thinking, if we think about genre, what would be the best way to reach these players?

And of course, you know, we want 3D and we have this specific art style. We did take inspiration from games like Dark Souls, Sekiro, and Nioh because I actually personally love those games as well, but then, it does play a lot closer to the original Dungeon & Fighter, which is a hardcore action RPG at its core. So we really just wanted to emphasize, you know, that feeling of playing the original and being true to that, and so that’s what kind of ended up being Khazan.

SB: There’s an ongoing discussion about difficulty settings in these more hardcore action games. Not only does Khazan have an easy mode option, but it also has this lacrima system, where you can keep going against a boss and still progress. What were your thoughts on difficulty?

MY: That’s a funny story because last year at Gamescom I was asked if we planned to add difficulty settings, back then I said no, we’re not gonna do that. But then winter, like in December last year, we actually did add an easy mode, right? And when we first thought about the difficulty settings and keeping it hard, we wanted players to really just feel the hardships that Khazan was going through, all the difficulty that he was going up against, but then we really thought to ourselves, like, what do we want from this? Like, what do we want the players to feel at the end of all this?

Of course, there’s a sense of achievement from going through all these challenges and just getting better, but then we also wanted to make this experience a lot more accessible to players and for more people to know what it feels like to be immersed in Dungeon & Fighter.

There was a lot of internal discussion on whether we should be adding the difficulty settings or not, but then in the end, we decided to do so. Personally, I like Souls games, but I wouldn’t say I’m an expert master player in Souls games. Keeping that in mind, we wanted players who may not be that good at controlling or dodging to also be able to progress through repetition, and for them to really feel a sense of progression so that they can enjoy the game also.

BS: I’ve just been massively impressed with the way the team has constantly engaged with players and interfaced with the team. Considering this is a single player hardcore action RPG, the fact that you as a team have constantly gone, here is a version of the game to play, please go and play it, give us feedback — that kind of really great conversation you’ve had with the public and how you’ve listened to people and what they want and what they don’t want, is really interesting.

When you think about how we use the word hardcore, instantly what you think is «this game isn’t for me.» But actually going, «it can be, and actually you can choose to play the game however you want» [has] been really lovely.

SB: As someone behind the scenes, what are your thoughts on AI growing in the games industry?

MY: Definitely we’re aware of what AI can do and also the ethical arguments that we’re having around it, and definitely around voice acting and all that as well. Personally, I feel that in the space of game making, in the space of developing games, AI definitely increases accessibility and allows smaller teams to come up with great ideas and develop new games in many different genres and just really bring their ideas to life.

But then we also need to be very aware of the fact that we’re in this very chaotic middle ground here. There are a lot of arguments about whether this is ethical. We see a lot of cases of copyright infringement, so we really need to learn where to draw the line and how we need to operate within a safe boundary. So definitely it has a lot of potential, but then it also involves a lot more discussion as well.

BS: Yeah, it’s kind of the same thing, which is that AI isn’t inherently bad, it’s what the human fingerprint that holds it does with it. AI is also a very toxic word to use because it’s almost like it is no longer about AI, it’s about all of the things around it. You walk around GDC right now and you will hear many conversations about the importance of machine learning and how valuable that is.

I’m an actor and obviously it’s a very hot topic right now for what we are doing. I think what SAG-AFTRA are doing right now, what the actors are fighting for is incredibly important, and it’s very good that they are elevating the importance in the public sphere. Ultimately AI isn’t the problem. AI can be a wonderful, wonderful tool for people to use in the right hands, but it’s like every single dystopian apocalyptic movie from the 90s. It’s like Skynet, man, is it coming? And it needs to be in the right hands. In the right way it can be used and useful and wonderful, but as you said, there has to be regulation.

Technology is moving so fast that regulations cannot keep up and we need to make sure that we are putting things in place so when this technology does advance to a level where it’s doing some kind of crazy things, we already have those regulations in place and we are not reacting [by] preventing those things happening in the first place.

SB: When you’re not working on Khazan, what are you playing right now?

MY: As a developer, I first came into the industry because I love games and I love playing games, but then it’s been ironic because I haven’t been able to play much. You hear a lot of other developers say «oh, I love to play games,» but then nowadays like gaming is actually more research, and so you would hear a lot of developers saying that. I don’t want this comment to sound too businessy, but I actually have been playing Khazan, and it’s wonderful.

BS: I recently bought myself a Steam Deck. I have been a PlayStation kid since I was very, very young and that was my primary and still is my primary gaming machine. But I found myself traveling so much that I was like «I need to get a Steam Deck.»

On the way here I did 4 hours of Vampire Survivors. I did about 3 hours of Half-Life 2, which still holds up. My word, does that game hold up. And I think they’ve got like RTX there that just came out. The game series that really caught me in the past couple of months are The Case of the Golden Idol and The Rise of the Golden Idol.

I just think they are wonderful, and even in those three games that I’ve listed they are in the same idea of video games, but they tell stories in completely different ways. Vampire Survivors doesn’t really tell a story at all, but it’s just wonderful how we can interface with that and stories can be revealed to us in all of these ways, and I think the Golden Idol series is really, really, really special.

Technologies

The Future’s Here: Testing Out Gemini’s Live Camera Mode

Gemini Live’s new camera mode feels like the future when it works. I put it through a stress test with my offbeat collectibles.

«I just spotted your scissors on the table, right next to the green package of pistachios. Do you see them?»

Gemini Live’s chatty new camera feature was right. My scissors were exactly where it said they were, and all I did was pass my camera in front of them at some point during a 15-minute live session of me giving the AI chatbot a tour of my apartment. Google’s been rolling out the new camera mode to all Android phones using the Gemini app for free after a two-week exclusive to Pixel 9 (including the new Pixel 9A) and Galaxy S5 smartphones. So, what exactly is this camera mode and how does it work?

When you start a live session with Gemini, you now how have the option to enable a live camera view, where you can talk to the chatbot and ask it about anything the camera sees. Not only can it identify objects, but you can also ask questions about them — and it works pretty well for the most part. In addition, you can share your screen with Gemini so it can identify things you surface on your phone’s display.

When the new camera feature popped up on my phone, I didn’t hesitate to try it out. In one of my longer tests, I turned it on and started walking through my apartment, asking Gemini what it saw. It identified some fruit, ChapStick and a few other everyday items with no problem. I was wowed when it found my scissors.

That’s because I hadn’t mentioned the scissors at all. Gemini had silently identified them somewhere along the way and then recalled the location with precision. It felt so much like the future, I had to do further testing.

My experiment with Gemini Live’s camera feature was following the lead of the demo that Google did last summer when it first showed off these live video AI capabilities. Gemini reminded the person giving the demo where they’d left their glasses, and it seemed too good to be true. But as I discovered, it was very true indeed.

Gemini Live will recognize a whole lot more than household odds and ends. Google says it’ll help you navigate a crowded train station or figure out the filling of a pastry. It can give you deeper information about artwork, like where an object originated and whether it was a limited edition piece.

It’s more than just a souped-up Google Lens. You talk with it, and it talks to you. I didn’t need to speak to Gemini in any particular way — it was as casual as any conversation. Way better than talking with the old Google Assistant that the company is quickly phasing out.

Google also released a new YouTube video for the April 2025 Pixel Drop showcasing the feature, and there’s now a dedicated page on the Google Store for it.

To get started, you can go live with Gemini, enable the camera and start talking. That’s it.

Gemini Live follows on from Google’s Project Astra, first revealed last year as possibly the company’s biggest «we’re in the future» feature, an experimental next step for generative AI capabilities, beyond your simply typing or even speaking prompts into a chatbot like ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini. It comes as AI companies continue to dramatically increase the skills of AI tools, from video generation to raw processing power. Similar to Gemini Live, there’s Apple’s Visual Intelligence, which the iPhone maker released in a beta form late last year.

My big takeaway is that a feature like Gemini Live has the potential to change how we interact with the world around us, melding our digital and physical worlds together just by holding your camera in front of almost anything.

I put Gemini Live to a real test

The first time I tried it, Gemini was shockingly accurate when I placed a very specific gaming collectible of a stuffed rabbit in my camera’s view. The second time, I showed it to a friend in an art gallery. It identified the tortoise on a cross (don’t ask me) and immediately identified and translated the kanji right next to the tortoise, giving both of us chills and leaving us more than a little creeped out. In a good way, I think.

I got to thinking about how I could stress-test the feature. I tried to screen-record it in action, but it consistently fell apart at that task. And what if I went off the beaten path with it? I’m a huge fan of the horror genre — movies, TV shows, video games — and have countless collectibles, trinkets and what have you. How well would it do with more obscure stuff — like my horror-themed collectibles?

First, let me say that Gemini can be both absolutely incredible and ridiculously frustrating in the same round of questions. I had roughly 11 objects that I was asking Gemini to identify, and it would sometimes get worse the longer the live session ran, so I had to limit sessions to only one or two objects. My guess is that Gemini attempted to use contextual information from previously identified objects to guess new objects put in front of it, which sort of makes sense, but ultimately, neither I nor it benefited from this.

Sometimes, Gemini was just on point, easily landing the correct answers with no fuss or confusion, but this tended to happen with more recent or popular objects. For example, I was surprised when it immediately guessed one of my test objects was not only from Destiny 2, but was a limited edition from a seasonal event from last year.

At other times, Gemini would be way off the mark, and I would need to give it more hints to get into the ballpark of the right answer. And sometimes, it seemed as though Gemini was taking context from my previous live sessions to come up with answers, identifying multiple objects as coming from Silent Hill when they were not. I have a display case dedicated to the game series, so I could see why it would want to dip into that territory quickly.

Gemini can get full-on bugged out at times. On more than one occasion, Gemini misidentified one of the items as a made-up character from the unreleased Silent Hill: f game, clearly merging pieces of different titles into something that never was. The other consistent bug I experienced was when Gemini would produce an incorrect answer, and I would correct it and hint closer at the answer — or straight up give it the answer, only to have it repeat the incorrect answer as if it was a new guess. When that happened, I would close the session and start a new one, which wasn’t always helpful.

One trick I found was that some conversations did better than others. If I scrolled through my Gemini conversation list, tapped an old chat that had gotten a specific item correct, and then went live again from that chat, it would be able to identify the items without issue. While that’s not necessarily surprising, it was interesting to see that some conversations worked better than others, even if you used the same language.

Google didn’t respond to my requests for more information on how Gemini Live works.

I wanted Gemini to successfully answer my sometimes highly specific questions, so I provided plenty of hints to get there. The nudges were often helpful, but not always. Below are a series of objects I tried to get Gemini to identify and provide information about.

Technologies

Today’s Wordle Hints, Answer and Help for April 26, #1407

Here are hints and the answer for today’s Wordle No. 1,407 for April 26. Hint: Fans of a certain musical group will rock out with this puzzle.

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

Today’s Wordle puzzle isn’t too tough. The letters are fairly common, and fans of a certain rock band might get a kick out of the answer. If you need a new starter word, check out our list of which letters show up the most in English words. If you need hints and the answer, read on.

Today’s Wordle hints

Before we show you today’s Wordle answer, we’ll give you some hints. If you don’t want a spoiler, look away now.

Wordle hint No. 1: Repeats

Today’s Wordle answer has no repeated letters.

Wordle hint No. 2: Vowels

There is one vowel in today’s Wordle answer.

Wordle hint No. 3: Start letter

Today’s Wordle answer begins with the letter C.

Wordle hint No. 4: Rock out

Today’s Wordle answer is the name of a legendary English rock band.

Wordle hint No. 5: Meaning

Today’s Wordle answer can refer to a violent confrontation.

TODAY’S WORDLE ANSWER

Today’s Wordle answer is CLASH.

Yesterday’s Wordle answer

Yesterday’s Wordle answer, April 25, No. 1406 was KNOWN.

Recent Wordle answers

April 21, No. 1402: SPATE

April 22, No. 1403: ARTSY

April 23, No. 1404: OZONE.

April 24, No. 1405: GENIE

What’s the best Wordle starting word?

Don’t be afraid to use our tip sheet ranking all the letters in the alphabet by frequency of uses. In short, you want starter words that lean heavy on E, A and R, and don’t contain Z, J and Q.

Some solid starter words to try:

ADIEU

TRAIN

STARE

NOISE

Technologies

T-Mobile Adds New Top 5G Plans, T-Satellite and New 5-Year Price Locks

The new top unlimited plans, Experience More and Experience Beyond, shave some costs and add data and satellite options.

Just two years after expanding its lineup of cellular plans, T-Mobile this week announced two new plans that replace its Go5G Plus and Go5G Next offerings, refreshed its prepaid Metro line and wrapped them all in a promised five-year pricing guarantee.

To convert more subscribers, the carrier is also offering up to $800 to help customers pay off phone balances when switching from another carrier.

In a briefing with CNET, Jon Friar, president of T-Mobile’s consumer group, explained why the company is revamping and simplifying its array of mobile plans. «The pain point that’s out there over the last couple of years is rising costs all around consumers,» Friar said. «For us to be able to bring more value and even lower prices on [plans like] Experience More versus our former Go5G Plus is a huge win for consumers.»

The new plans went into effect April 23.

With these changes, CNET is already hard at work updating our picks for Best T-Mobile Plans, so check back soon for our recommendations.

More Experiences to define the T-Mobile experience

The top of the new T-Mobile postpaid lineup is two new plans: Experience More and Experience Beyond.

Experience More is the next generation of the Go5G Plus plan, which has unlimited 5G and 4G LTE access and unlimited Premium Data (download speeds up to 418Mbps and upload speeds up to 31Mbps). High-speed hotspot data is bumped up to 60GB from 50GB per month. The monthly price is now $5 lower per line than Go5G Plus.

The Experience More plan also gets free T-Satellite with Starlink service (the new name for T-Mobile’s satellite feature that uses Starlink’s constellation of satellites) through the end of 2025. Although T-Satellite is still officially in beta until July, customers can continue to get free access to the beta starting now. At the start of the new year, the service will cost $10 per month, a $5 drop from T-Mobile’s originally announced pricing. T-Satellite will be open to customers of other carriers for the same pricing beginning in July.

The new top-tier plan, Experience Beyond, also comes in $5 per line cheaper than its predecessor, Go5G Next. It has 250GB of high-speed hotspot data per month, up from 50GB, and more data when you’re traveling outside the US: 30GB in Canada and Mexico (versus 15GB) and 15GB in 215 countries (up from 5GB). T-Satellite service is included in the Experience Beyond plan.

However, one small change to the Experience plans affects that pricing: Taxes and fees, previously included in the Go5G Plus and Go5G Next prices, are now broken out separately. T-Mobile recently announced that one such fee, the Regulatory Programs and Telco Recovery Fee, would increase up to 50 cents per month.

According to T-Mobile, the Experience Beyond rates and features will be «rolling out soon» for customers currently on the Go5G Next plan.

The Essentials plan is staying in the lineup at the same cost of $60 per month for a single line, the same 50GB of Premium Data and unlimited 5G and 4G LTE data. High-speed hotspot data is an optional $10 add-on, as is T-Satellite access, for $15 (both per month).

Also still in the mix is the Essentials Saver plan, an affordable option that has ranked high in CNET’s Best Cellphone Plans recommendations.

Corresponding T-Mobile plans, such as those for military, first responders and people age 55 and older are also getting refreshed with the new lineup.

T-Mobile’s plan shakeup is being driven in part by the current economic climate. Explaining the rationale behind the price reductions and the streamlined number of plans, Mike Katz, president of marketing, innovation and experience at T-Mobile told CNET, «We’re in a weird time right now where prices everywhere are going up and they’ve happened over the last several years. We felt like there was an opportunity to compete with some simplicity, but more importantly, some peace of mind for customers.»

Existing customers who want to switch to one of the new plans can do so at the same rates offered to new customers. Or, if a current plan still works for them, they can continue without changes (although keep in mind that T-Mobile earlier this year increased prices for some legacy plans).

Five years of price stability

It’s nearly impossible to think about prices these days without warily eyeing how tariffs and US economic policy will affect what we pay for things. So it’s not surprising to see carriers implement some cost stability into their plans. For instance, Verizon recently locked prices for three years on their plans.

Now, T-Mobile is building a five-year price guarantee for its T-Mobile and Metro plans. That pricing applies to talk, text and data amounts — not necessarily taxes and other fees that can fluctuate.

Given the uncertain outlook, it seems counterintuitive to lock in a longer rate. When asked about this, Katz said, «We feel like our job is to solve pain points for customers and we feel like this helps with this exact sentiment. It shifts the risk from customers to us. We’ll take the risk so they don’t have to.»

The price hold applies to new customers signing up for the plans as well as current customers switching to one. T-Mobile is offering the same deals and pricing to new and existing subscribers. Also, the five-year deal applies to pricing; it’s not a five-year plan commitment.

More money and options to encourage switchers

The promise of a five-year price guarantee is also intended to lure people from other carriers, particularly AT&T and Verizon. As further incentive, T-Mobile is offering up to $800 per line (distributed via a virtual prepaid Mastercard) to help pay off other carriers’ device contracts. This is a limited-time offer. There are also options to trade in old devices, including locked phones, to get up to four new flagship phones.

Or, if getting out of a contract isn’t an issue, T-Mobile can offer $200 in credit (up to $800 for four lines) to bring an existing number to the network.

Four new Metro prepaid plans

On the prepaid side, T-Mobile is rolling out four new Metro plans, which are also covered by the new five-year price guarantee:

• Metro Starter costs $25 per line per month for a family of four and there is no need to bring an existing number. (The cost is $105 the first month.)

• Metro Starter Plus runs $40 per month for a new phone, unlimited talk, text and 5G data when bringing an existing number. For $65 per month, new customers can get two lines and two new Samsung A15 phones. No autopay is required.

• Metro Flex Unlimited is $30 per line per month with autopay for four lines ($125 the first month) with unlimited talk, text and 5G data.

• Metro Flex Unlimited Plus costs $60 per line per month, then $35 for lines two and three and then lowers the price of the fourth line to $10 per month as more family members are added. Adding a tablet or smartwatch to an existing line costs $5. And streaming video, such as from the included Amazon Prime membership, comes through at HD quality.

See more: If you’re looking for phone plans, you may also be looking for a new cell phone. Here are CNET’s picks.