Technologies

Borderlands 4: Getting the Perfect Roll On Your Favorite Gun Might Be a Lot Harder

Between the new weapon parts generation system and decreased legendary drop chances, you better strap in for a grind.

The Borderlands State of Play stream made one thing abundantly clear: The next entry in the looter shooter series is redoubling its commitment to having more guns than ever before.

While Borderlands 3 had more than one billion guns for players to tote around the galaxy, Gearbox Software is making a fundamental change to the weapon parts system to allow the generation of even more weapons in Borderlands 4.

In previous games, weapons were only able to be generated with parts from a single fictional weapons manufacturer. This meant players could learn what weapons they enjoyed using based on certain trademark traits from different manufacturers.

For example, Vladof weapons were fully-automatic bullet hoses, Hyperion weapons became more accurate with continued fire and Torgue weapons fired explosive rounds. Each manufacturer had quirks and players knew more-or-less what weapon they were farming for, even if a particular drop didn’t have the perfect parts for the most desirable stats.

The State of Play revealed new weapon manufacturers, including Order weapons that charge up railgun-like shotgun blasts, fully automatic Ripper weapons that fire speedy flak rounds and reliable Daedalus weapons that allow you to swap ammo types on the go.

Now, randomly generated weapons can have parts from multiple different manufacturers. You might loot a weapon that has a Hyperion grip, a Tediore magazine and a Vladof barrel, allowing you to rip through enemies with increasing accuracy until you throw the gun away with an explosive flourish. It sounds very cool on paper, but in practice, it could make Borderlands 4’s endgame much harder.

Taking on Borderlands’ biggest challenges — especially raid bosses — has always been a challenge for the most dedicated players who spent time getting the best possible rolls on their loot. This meant farming the same enemies until they dropped the right weapon with the right weapon parts and perks to get the job done.

In Borderlands 4, a massive pool of weapon parts from other manufacturers is going to make it way harder to generate the drop you’re looking for. Legendary gun drop rates are already getting nerfed from the previous game — which means farming the right parts on a specific legendary weapon necessary for your build will be harder than ever before.

Borderlands 4 could potentially have the most interesting buildcrafting in the series, what with how many moving parts there are in the player arsenal. But it remains to be seen if strong builds will be easily accessible to everyone, or if the new loot mechanics will ensure that the strongest weapons only land in the laps of the most insanely dedicated (or luckiest) Borderlands 4 players.

Looting might be the biggest draw for Borderlands fans, but other big changes are coming in the next game, too.

Borderlands 4 is moving the series toward movement shooter territory, as every playable vault hunter will be able to dash, double jump, glide and grapple across the terrain. Certain areas also have ziplines that will let you shoot into the air to get a better view of the world, before you spawn the new Digirunner vehicle (which looks like a hybrid between Destiny’s Sparrow hoverbikes and Halo’s Ghost) to speed toward your destination.

The game will be fully crossplay-enabled at launch, which pairs well with the new co-op quality of life features. Your campaign difficulty and generated loot will be completely instanced from your friends, which means no one will have to fight over the world settings.

Perhaps most importantly, you’ll no longer have to reload an area to fight a boss again. Borderlands 4 boss arenas will contain a lever that respawns the encounter, so you can leap right back into the action without a mandatory trip to the main menu.

This is the perfect time to implement the feature, because between the weapon parts changes and the legendary loot drop nerfs, it’s safe to assume you’ll be fighting bosses over and over if you’re chasing a specific weapon roll in Gearbox’s next big looter shooter.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Mini Crossword Answers for Wednesday, March 11

Here are the answers for The New York Times Mini Crossword for March 11.

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.

Need some help with today’s Mini Crossword? I thought it was a bit tricky. 1-Down is one of those old-fashioned comic-book sounds that I had to remember how to spell correctly. 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: Study of the human mind, informally
Answer: PSYCH

6A clue: Common fixture in a gym bathroom
Answer: SCALE

7A clue: Kinda boring
Answer: HOHUM

8A clue: Like a commenter without a username, for short
Answer: ANON

9A clue: «All good between us?»
Answer: WEOK

Mini down clues and answers

1D clue: Old-fashioned «Yeah, right!»
Answer: PSHAW

2D clue: Coffeehouse pastry
Answer: SCONE

3D clue: Google alternative
Answer: YAHOO

4D clue: Sound of a dull thump
Answer: CLUNK

5D clue: Line on the bottom of a pant leg
Answer: HEM

Technologies

OnePlus and Oppo to Raise Smartphone Prices as Memory Costs Climb

Oppo says rising costs for key phone components will trigger price adjustments on some devices starting March 16.

Chinese smartphone-makers OnePlus and Oppo plan to raise prices on some existing models starting next week, according to a 9to5Google report citing GizmoChina and a notice posted on Oppo’s China online store.

In its notice, Oppo said it would adjust pricing after evaluating rising costs for several key components used in its mobile phones. The changes are expected to take effect around March 16 and will affect some of the company’s more affordable smartphones, as well as some OnePlus models.

Flagship devices — like those in the Find and Reno series — are not expected to be affected for now. The reported adjustments currently appear to be limited to China.

The move highlights growing pressure across the smartphone supply chain as component costs climb. Analysts say prices for memory and storage chips used in phones have been rising in recent months as demand surges across the tech industry.

Much of the chip demand is coming from the rapid buildout of AI data centers, which rely on large amounts of high-performance memory.

That pressure isn’t limited to Oppo and OnePlus. Analysts say smartphone brands across the industry are facing rising component costs amid increased demand for memory chips.

As manufacturers shift production toward higher-margin memory used in AI servers, supply for consumer electronics such as smartphones and laptops can tighten.

If component costs continue to rise, manufacturers may face difficult choices later this year, including raising retail prices or adjusting device specifications to offset higher manufacturing costs.

OnePlus and Oppo didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Technologies

Harvard Business Review Study Finds ‘AI Brain Fry’ Is Leaving Workers Mentally Fatigued

Study participants reported increased mental fatigue while using AI tools, but less burnout overall.

Workers who excessively use AI agents and tools at work are at increased risk of mental fatigue, according to a recent Harvard Business Review study. In certain industries, more than 25% of hired professionals report increased mental strain due to their role in AI oversight — though these professionals also generally experienced less burnout than peers who aren’t using AI.

This phenomenon — which the researchers refer to as «AI brain fry» — is described as a «‘buzzing’ feeling or a mental fog» that caused study participants to develop headaches and difficulty focusing and making decisions. Individuals pointed to being overwhelmed by large amounts of information and to frequent task switching as the reasons for these feelings.

Studied individuals experienced more brain fry when they utilized AI agents to manage a workload beyond their own cognitive capacity. When participants used AI to replace mundane, repetitive tasks, managing the growing number of tools led to increased mental fatigue.

Crucially, the study found that fewer individuals who used these AI agents reported workplace burnout.

The researchers predict that this is because burnout testing assesses emotional and physical distress. In contrast, they report, acute mental fatigue «is caused by marshalling attention, working memory and executive control beyond the limited capacity of these systems.»

These are the processes that are taxed when study participants use multiple AI tools in their workflow, according to the researchers.

The Harvard study identifies several business costs incurred by workers suffering from AI brain fry. The foremost consequence is that these individuals may end up making lower-quality decisions. «Workers in [the] study who endorsed AI brain fry experience 33% more decision fatigue than those who did not,» the study reports. Workers who report AI brain fry were also more likely to self-report making both minor and major errors at their jobs.

Another recent Harvard Business Review study similarly found that employees who use AI tools «worked at a faster pace, took on a broader scope of tasks and extended work into more hours of the day,» but warned that «workload creep can in turn lead to cognitive fatigue, burnout and weakened decision-making.»