Technologies

Pragmata Is One of the Most Exciting Games at Summer Game Fest

Capcom had a short but sweet demo of its upcoming sci-fi shooter.

Capcom had one of the best showings at this year’s Summer Game Fest. Despite Resident Evil 9 Requiem’s very exclusive demo, the publisher’s other hands-on preview, Pragmata, was much more open. This is an upcoming action shooter that impressed me with its unique gun-hacking mechanic.

My hands-on demo started with the game’s protagonist, Hugh Williams, regaining consciousness on a space station with the help of Diana, an android companion that looks like a young girl with long blonde hair and, for some reason, no shoes. We’re quickly attacked by a robot that is slowly walking toward us ,and our pistol is doing little to no damage. This is when Pragmata introduces the hacking element to its combat, a unique mechanic you perform while fighting. This was a lot to juggle at first, but it becomes easy and fun pretty quickly.

While you can aim with L2 and shoot with R2, like a typical shooter, you must utilize Diana’s hacking ability to open up weak points on each enemy. When targeting an enemy, a grid appears, called the Hacking Matrix, on the right side of the screen. From there, you must use the face buttons to move an icon through the grid in order to reach a specific point.

The face buttons work like a D-pad: triangle goes up, square moves left, and so on. There are also unique points within the grid that must be avoided or optionally passed through for additional benefits. Reaching the end of the grid will open up an enemy’s armor, allowing you to do much more damage with your weapons. It’s a unique combat mechanic I hadn’t seen before in a shooter and was quite easy to wrap my head around, making for a very fun gunplay loop.

After fighting the first enemy, I was able to proceed to the adjacent hallway with more obstacles and enemies. Hugh can jump with X and also hover if the button is held down. This was useful for crossing over large gaps or to evade damaging lasers. This came into play when I encountered a door that required me to search and hover around to find five locks to hack open and proceed. Several new enemy types appeared, including flying drones. The drones would easily dodge my fire, but a quick hack stunned them in place while making them susceptible to attacks. A walking tank-like enemy also appeared just as I unlocked a new weapon: the shockwave gun.

The shockwave gun functions like a shotgun, allowing me to deal much more damage to one or more enemies once hacked. In addition to this, I also unlocked the final weapon for the demo, the stasis gun. This fired similarly to a grenade launcher, with an arched shot, but would put down a bubble that would trap enemies inside and stun them. It’s super useful when dealing with more than one opponent at a time, especially since each enemy requires careful hacking to be done — sometimes more than once.

As we approached the final room of the demo, we were able to pick up a hacking node. This is a limited-use item that would slot itself into a random space within the hacking grid that appears when targeting an opponent. Moving my cursor over these nodes and then reaching the finish line in the hacking mechanic would cause a buff to deploy. This node lowers an enemy’s shields further, allowing our shots to do more damage once vulnerable.

To make things more interesting, the game mentioned you could stack these nodes and pass through more than one before finishing to get more and more benefits. Keep in mind, however, that you can’t move your cursor over a square you’ve already passed, so don’t get yourself cornered hacking while in the middle of a gun fight, which could result in having to restart the hacking matrix.

In a surprising decision, just as the final boss of the demo appeared, our hands-on preview ended. For whatever reason, Capcom didn’t allow anyone to fight the big baddie. This is especially odd, since the vast majority of demos and previews usually end after an exciting climax, like a boss battle. It was also a real shame since I had had a good amount of practice navigating the Hacking Matrix while dodging and shooting opponents, and I wanted to put my new skills to the test. If anything, it got me even more excited to get my hands on Pragmata again to play more and see what Capcom has come up with for its unique combat.

Pragmata is coming in 2026 to Xbox Series, PlayStation 5 and PC.

Technologies

Facebook Brings Back Local Job Listings: How to Apply

One of Facebook’s most practical features from 2022 is being revived by Meta.

On the hunt for work? A Local Jobs search is being rolled out by Meta to make it easier for people in the US to discover and apply for nearby work directly on Facebook. The feature is inside Facebook Marketplace, Groups and Pages, Meta said last week, letting employers post openings and job seekers filter roles by distance, category or employment type.

You can apply or message employers directly through Facebook Messenger, while employers can publish job listings with just a few taps — similar to how you would post items for sale on Marketplace.

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Facebook offered a Jobs feature before discontinuing it in 2022, pushing business hiring toward its other platforms. Its return suggests Meta is attempting to expand Facebook’s usefulness beyond social networking and to position it once again as a hub for community-driven opportunities.

«We’ve always been about connecting with people, whether through shared interests or key life events,» the press release states. «Now, if you’re looking for entry-level, trade and service industry employment in your community, Facebook can help you connect with local people and small businesses who are hiring.»

How to get started with Local Jobs on Facebook

According to Meta, Local Jobs will appear as a dedicated section in Facebook Marketplace starting this week. If you’re 18 or older, you can:

Tap the Marketplace tab on the Facebook app or website.
Select Jobs to browse available positions nearby.
Use filters for job type, category and distance.
Tap Apply or message the employer directly via Messenger.

Businesses and page admins can post jobs by creating a new listing in Marketplace or from their Facebook Page. Listings can include job details, pay range, and scheduling information and will appear in local searches automatically.

The Local Jobs feature is rolling out across the US now, with Meta saying it plans to expand it in the months ahead.

Technologies

Tesla Has a New Range of Affordable Electric Cars: How Much They Cost

The new, stripped-back versions of the Model Y and Model 3 have a more affordable starting price.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Strands Hints, Answers and Help for Oct. 22 #598

Here are hints and answers for the NYT Strands puzzle for Oct. 22, No. 598.

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.

Today’s NYT Strands puzzle is a fun one — I definitely have at least two of these in my house. Some of the answers are a bit tough to unscramble, so 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: Catch all.

If that doesn’t help you, here’s a clue: A mess of items.

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:

BATE, LICE, SLUM, CAPE, HOLE, CARE, BARE, THEN, SLAM, SAMBA, BACK

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:

TAPE, COIN, PENCIL, BATTERY, SHOELACE, THUMBTACK

Today’s Strands spangram

Today’s Strands spangram is JUNKDRAWER. To find it, look for the J that’s five letters down on the far-left row, and wind down, over and then up.

Quick tips for Strands

#1: To get more clue words, see if you can tweak the words you’ve already found, by adding an «S» or other variants. And if you find a word like WILL, see if other letters are close enough to help you make SILL, or BILL.

#2: Once you get one theme word, look at the puzzle to see if you can spot other related words.

#3: If you’ve been given the letters for a theme word, but can’t figure it out, guess three more clue words, and the puzzle will light up each letter in order, revealing the word.