Technologies

Ultron, Jeff-nado and New Tactics Mode: There’s a Lot Riding on Marvel Rivals Season 2.5

The midseason update adds a new strategist to the roster and brings an experimental autobattler mode to Rivals.

Marvel Rivals season 2 is approaching its midseason update next week, and today we got our first glimpse of some of the changes coming to the game.

The Marvel Rivals Season 2.5 update is a much-needed refresh for Rivals, which has struggled with declining Steam player numbers all season (not the full picture, but currently down to about one-third of the average players compared with January) and a player base that’s grown increasingly frustrated with one another.

What’s the cure for all this? Adding one of the most-anticipated new heroes and also leaning full bore into the zaniness by letting Storm and Jeff the Landshark team up to create a Jeff-nado.

Here’s what we learned about the Marvel Rivals season 2.5 update from today’s developer vision video.

Marvel Rivals season 2.5 start date

Season 2.5 kicks off next Friday, May 30, UTC. We don’t have an exact start time, but for these major season updates the game tends to go offline in the middle of the night ET/PT and come back online in the wee hours of the launch date.

New hero: Ultron

Officially announced at the start of season 2, Ultron joining the roster as a strategist might have been the most well-known «secret» that Rivals has been hiding since launch. If you’d asked me last year which role Ultron was most likely to slot into, I would’ve guessed duelist or vanguard, but a free-flying strategist with unique healing mechanics is a welcome change of pace for the role.

Ultron’s video preview shows us a strategist who can leap in the air to escape divers and who has an attack range to take on enemy fliers. This could make him a great counter-pick to certain enemy comps, but we’ll have to wait for his full kit details to know for sure.

I’d love to see more strategists with unique mechanics like Loki’s clones or Invisible Woman’s shields — as much as I enjoy the shoot-to-heal strategist gameplay, I think the game’s in a better place when there’s more variety in the roster. So I’m likewise glad to see that Ultron’s ultimate isn’t another variation of «big heals in a circle» like most strategists’ ultimates — instead Ultron shoots a series of rapid-fire beams that heal allies and damage enemies.

It’s no Loki Doppelganger, but it’s something different.

New map: Arakko

As usual, the midseason update adds a new map alongside the new hero — this time, we’re getting Arakko, the former sister island of Krakoa (season 2.0’s new map), which has been mechanized by X-tron, the version of Ultron that was reborn through Krakoa’s resurrection chamber. The map appears to be a payload map — convoy or possibly convergence — with heroes escorting the objective toward a lore-relevant destination.

A bunch of new team-ups and balance changes

The Rivals midseason patch is surprisingly hefty according to the latest developer vision video. The game is adding six new teamups, including a new one between Iron Man and Ultron, as well as two new team-ups for Jeff — the aforementioned Jeff-nado, plus the ability to use Venom’s symbiote to shoot healing tendrils onto (into?!) allies. Luna Snow can also give Hawkeye a stunning ice arrow, Rocket and Peni power up each other’s deployable abilities, and Punisher gives Black Widow’s rifle a piercing upgrade.

In exchange, season 2.5 will say goodbye to four previous team-ups, including the notorious Symbiote Bond wherein Venom players gave Spider-Man and Peni Parker an extra damage burst to help melt your backline. Also leaving are Luna Snow and Jeff’s ice combo, Hawkeye and Black Widow’s afterimage team-up and Ammo Overload for Rocket and Punisher. In addition, Iron Man will no longer benefit from a team-up with Hulk (though Namor still does).

Rivals devs also addressed the current metagame, framing it as a «rock-paper-scissors dynamic» among mobile dive compositions (Cap, Iron Fist, Human Torch), wall-and-brawl comps (Groot paired with other mid-to-close-range heroes like Thing, Winter Soldier and Mister Fantastic) and triple-strategist compositions. It doesn’t feel like the fairest analogy, as the devs pointed to both of the latter comps as countering the high mobility comps, rather than being a true (theoretical) rock-paper-scissors where each composition is strong against one alternative and weak to another.

Still, the developers are shaking things up in season 2.5 with balance changes, and the result is that Strange and Magneto are getting buffed while Groot, Cap and Emma Frost get hit with nerfs. Mobility-focused duelists Iron Fist, Human Torch and Psylocke are getting nerfs while Punisher, Storm and Squirrel Girl will receive «modest» buffs. The only strategist mentioned in the dev vision video’s upcoming balance tweaks was Luna Snow, whose ult charge gets another nerf, offset by a «mild boost» to her other abilities.

I’m a little worried about some of these changes on paper. Targeting overperforming heroes is fine, but buffs to heroes like Punisher and Squirrel girl feel risky. I’m not a fan of buffing «noobstomper» heroes into relevance, but I’ll wait until I see the details and how things feel in the game before I actually panic. It’s also a bit perplexing that Rivals devs seem focused on increasing ult charge requirements for Luna Snow instead of just making it last less than an eternity.

Other changes: New tactics mode, emoji

Perhaps the biggest surprise in the season 2.5 announcement was the addition of a new experimental mode called Ultron’s Battle Matrix Protocol. It’s an autobattler that lets you choose a team of six heroes, enhance their abilities, and unleash them against opposing teams. I have zero experience with autobattlers like Teamfight Tactics of Hearthstone Battlegrounds, but it was as fun watching a massive Venom looming over the battlefield as it was seeing a Namor with six (I counted) active turrets.

The game is also introducing emoji, finally allowing you to nonverbally express your disdain for the teammates begging for healing while Spider-Man and Iron Fist treat you like a punching bag.

Technologies

Google Discover Gains Follow Button and Expands Content Sources

Google’s personalized news feed will feature a wider variety of content in the coming weeks.

Google Discover, Google’s personalized news feed, has largely remained the same since its introduction in 2018, but it’s now receiving some new and helpful features.

On Wednesday, Google announced that Discover will soon expand the type of content found within the feed and allow you to follow publications and creators. You can find Google Discover in the Google app, and it will be built into the home screens of some Android phones.

Don’t miss any of our unbiased tech content and lab-based reviews. Add CNET as a preferred Google source.

Instead of just seeing a list of web pages to visit on your feed, you’ll soon see a mix of web articles, YouTube videos and social media posts from X and Instagram, effectively widening the net of content shown in Discover.

Along with expanding content from more sources, Google Discover is allowing users to follow specific publishers and content creators using a «follow» button at the top right of each content card.

Google says that tapping the publication’s or creator’s name will open a new page previewing the content that’s typically shared before you choose to follow the outlet. From our testing across multiple phones so far, it appears the feature is still rolling out.

Your Google Discover feed should now allow you to follow content creators. A more diversified mix of content will roll out over the coming weeks.

Technologies

New Bill Aims to Block Both Online Adult Content and VPNs: How Your VPN Could Be Affected

A proposed bill in Michigan has a broad reach that covers everything from adult AI content to manga and even depictions of transgender people. It includes a VPN ban to avoid workarounds.

If you live in Michigan, you might not be able to legally use a VPN soon if a new bill is passed into law. On Sept. 11, Michigan Republican representatives proposed far-reaching legislation banning adult internet content.

The bill, called the Anticorruption of Public Morals Act and advanced by six Republican representatives, would ban a wide variety of adult content online, ranging from ASMR and adult manga to AI content and any depiction of transgender people. It also seeks to ban all use of VPNs, foreign or US-produced.

Don’t miss any of our unbiased tech content and lab-based reviews. Add CNET as a preferred Google source.

VPNs, or virtual private networks, are software suites often used as workarounds to avoid similar content bans that have passed in states like Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi and the UK. VPNs can be purchased with subscriptions or downloaded and are also built into some browsers and Wi-Fi routers.

But Michigan’s bill would charge internet service providers with detecting and blocking VPN use, as well as banning the sale of VPNs in the state. Associated fines would be up to $500,000.

What the ban could mean for VPNs

Unlike some laws banning access to adult content, this Michigan bill is comprehensive. It applies to all residents of Michigan, adults or children, targets an extensive range of content and includes language that could ban not only VPNs but any method of bypassing internet filters or restrictions.

That could spell trouble for VPN owners and other internet users who leverage these tools to improve their privacy, protect their identities online, prevent ISPs from gathering data about them or increase their device safety when browsing on public Wi-Fi.

Read more: CNET Survey: 47% of Americans Use VPNs for Privacy. That Number Could Rise. Here’s Why

Bills like these could have unintended side effects. John Perrino, Senior Policy and Advocacy Expert for the nonprofit Internet Society, mentioned to CNET that adult content laws like this could interfere with what kind of music people can stream, the sexual health forums and articles they can access and even important news involving sexual topics that they may want to read.

«Additionally, state age verification laws are difficult for smaller services to comply with, hurting competition and an open internet,» Perrino said.

The Anticorruption of Public Morals Act has not passed the Michigan House of Representatives committee or been voted on by the Michigan Senate, and it’s not clear how much support the bill has beyond the six Republican representatives who have proposed it. As we’ve seen with state legislation in the past, sometimes bills like these can serve as templates for other representatives who may want to propose similar laws in their own states.

Could VPNs still get around bans like these?

Could VPNs still get around this type of ban? That’s a complex question that this bill doesn’t really address.

«From a technical standpoint, ISPs can attempt to distinguish VPN traffic using deep packet inspection, or they can block known VPN IP addresses,» said NordVPN privacy advocate Laura Tyrylyte. «However, deploying them effectively requires big investments and ongoing maintenance, making large-scale VPN blocking both costly and complex.»

Also, VPNs have ways around deep packet inspection and other methods.

«Some VPNs offer obfuscation — which tries to disguise VPN traffic as standard web traffic — using dedicated servers or custom VPN protocols, like NordVPN’s NordWhisper or Proton VPN’s Stealth,» said CNET senior editor Moe Long. «But note that obfuscation isn’t foolproof.»

There are also no-log features offered by many VPNs to guarantee they don’t keep a record of your activity, and no-log audits from third parties like Deloitte that — well, try to guarantee the guarantee. VPNs can even use server tricks, such as RAM-only servers that automatically reboot to erase data after every browsing session.

If you’re seriously concerned about your data privacy, you can look for features like these in a VPN and see if they are right for you. Changes like these, even on the state level, are one reason we pay close attention to how specific VPNs work during our testing, and recommend the right VPNs for the job, from speedy browsing to privacy while traveling.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Strands Hints, Answers and Help for Sept. 19 #565

Here are hints and answers for the NYT Strands puzzle for Sept. 19, No. 565.

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

Do you drink your coffee black? If so, today’s NYT Strands puzzle might be a puzzler. If you need hints and answers, read on.

I go into depth about the rules for Strands in this story.

If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections and Mini Crossword answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: NYT Connections Turns 1: These Are the 5 Toughest Puzzles So Far

Hint for today’s Strands puzzle

Today’s Strands theme is: Pour it on.

If that doesn’t help you, here’s a clue: Wow, no cow.

Clue words to unlock in-game hints

Your goal is to find hidden words that fit the puzzle’s theme. If you’re stuck, find any words you can. Every time you find three words of four letters or more, Strands will reveal one of the theme words. These are the words I used to get those hints but any words of four or more letters that you find will work:

NONE, CONE, RICER, SHEW, FAIR, FAIRY, DRAY, YARD, MILK, CASH, DONE, DRAM, MADAM

Answers for today’s Strands puzzle

These are the answers that tie into the theme. The goal of the puzzle is to find them all, including the spangram, a theme word that reaches from one side of the puzzle to the other. When you have all of them (I originally thought there were always eight but learned that the number can vary), every letter on the board will be used. Here are the nonspangram answers: