Technologies

Crisol is a BioShock-Like Cult Horror Shooter Using Your Blood For Bullets

At Summer Game Fest, I got to try out Blumhouse’s next game, a sanguiphilic first-person shooter set on a cursed island coming later this year.

One of the best things about Summer Game Fest is discovering games that blend some of your favorite classics into something wholly new. Crisol: Theater of Idols is a game with clear BioShock influence in its first-person shooter exploration, but melds some cult horror from games like Resident Evil 4 into the mix. On top of it all, to reload your gun, you’ve gotta sacrifice your own blood — and take a chunk from your own health bar.

It’s a novel mechanic that combines with the gothic, nautical setting for a promising approach to horror action games. Crisol is being developed by Vermila Studios, which was acquired by Embracer Group in 2020, but the game is being published by Blumhouse Games. After playing through a 20-minute demo of his new game, the studio’s CEO David Carrasco explained how its game is a course correction for horror games.

«We’ve thought for a long time that survival horror was getting to where you didn’t have that survival element so much,» Carrasco said. «We wanted to give it an extra layer of tension by using your blood, your holy blood, to defeat these unholy monsters.»

I certainly felt it in the demo. As I stalked the moonlit cobblestone streets of an island teeming with unholy, creepy marionette creatures, knowing every missed shot was a bit of lost life. Survival horror games give players weapons to quench fear (or in their absence, amplify it, as with the Amnesia series), but tying my guns’ efficacy to my health made me slow down and pick my shots, amping up the fear as enemies closed in — «keeping that tension constantly in the back of your head,» as Carrasco put it.

While I felt the slightest concern for players with poor aim, there are health-restoring syringes sitting in the corners of abandoned shops and buildings. Crisol also has a mechanic where players can harvest blood (and thus, chunks of life) from dead animals lying around. Tying weapons to health is a twist on another survival horror game trope of saving heavy weapons ammo for dangerous bosses later on, Carrasco noted — in Crisol, you’ll always be able to use your big guns…for a price.

In Crisol, players take on the role of Gabriel, captain of the Tercios Del Sol, a command of soldiers under a sun-worshiping religion that takes on holy missions. He receives a divine order to go to an old island that’s spun off into its own sea religion, Tormentosa, and deal with idol statues that have come alive and begun rampaging around.

When I asked what inspired Crisol, Carrasco was up-front that Bioshock and a number of Resident Evil games (4, 7 and 8 specifically) had the right mix of artistic design and gameplay Vermila Studios was looking for. Dishonored was another source for its heavy emphasis on art.

«Sprinkle in Spanish folklore, religious undertones, and in the end, with all of those fantastic and crazy and brutal inspirations make something that will be unique and memorable,» Carrasco said.

Spanish folklore is underutilized compared to the Japanese, Nordic and American mythology that appears in many games, Carrasco said. Vermila Studios, based in the Spanish city of Madrid, drew on its home country’s history and culture — and though the island players visit in Crisol doesn’t explicitly take place in Spain, players will be able to connect the dots with the cathedrals, old architecture, polychromatic statues and stained-glass windows that make up the game’s visual language.

That blend applies to religion, too: players will run into a faith following on Crisol’s island that follows religions of the sea and sun, which I saw a bit of in the demo, with deification of mermaids and other pseudo-pagan effects. But Carrasco acknowledges the Catholic influence in the game, too.

«We’ve taken a lot of religious inspiration from different religious, like the Catholic Church, which has a lot of deeply rooted components in the Spanish culture, but [also] some other, older religions, even cults from very old history,» Carrasco said, affirming that there’s no explicit connection to the Catholic church or Christianity. «We do have holy blood, but it’s not like a Christ or any connection to the reality of religions nowadays.»

As I wander the cobbled streets of the demo, I see how all these elements blend into Crisol’s visual language. Vermila Studio has a larger-than-usual art department, Carrasco noted, with around 20 people working for five years scribbling out drafts of enemies and locations to give the game a look and feel that felt familiar, fantastical and plausible at the same time — that it really could be on an island out to sea.

As players explore the 10- to 14-hour game, they’ll experience the creeping horror of the cult’s presence, but Vermila isn’t relying on a lot of jump scares, Carrasco said, which can lose their impact if overused. Rather, the game will rely on the tension of enemies behind and pursuing you, from those you run out of blood bullets (and health) to defeat, to those unaffected by your weapons.

In the second half of the demo, I ran into what Carrasco was talking about: a tall, hulking marionette monster with an impossibly wide smile that called out to me, shrugging off my bullets as I darted into buildings to evade its pursuit. Like other invulnerable pursuit bosses (Mr. X in Resident Evil 2, Jack Baker in Resident Evil 7), I had to sneak around while finding bolt cutters to clip chained-off doors. I also had to roll up a gate agonizingly slowly, expecting my stalker to close in on me at any second.

I escaped into a mermaid-themed restaurant and the demo ended, but the vibes of the game stuck with me. They clearly appealed to Blumhouse, too, who were interested in Crisol’s dramatic art style and its blood mechanics. For Vermila Studios, Blumhouse was a good fit for its track record of bringing in new artists and projects that may be smaller but bring something new to the table.

«For us, being a part of this Blumhouse lineup is just like a partnership made in heaven — or hell, maybe — where they understand horror and what tickles that,» Carrasco said.

Crisol: Theater of Idols is coming to PC, PS5 and Xbox later in 2025.

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: