Technologies

Marvel Rivals Season 4 Release Time: Angela Abilities and Balance Changes

Thor’s sister Angela joins the roster next season, while overperforming strategists Luna Snow and Loki get nerfs.

Marvel Rivals season 4 is about to begin, bringing a one-winged angel of vengeance to the free-to-play game’s roster of playable heroes. No, we’re not talking about Sephiroth: The next vanguard is Angela, the former Image Comics angelic bounty hunter and current Marvel Comics Asgardian goddess.

While the radiant new tank is the centerpiece of the season 4 update, a new map, hero balance changes, cosmetics and live events will also shake up how the game plays over the next two months.

If you’ve been following the character leaks, you might be bummed out that a certain horned Defender isn’t making his appearance quite yet. Rest assured that the melee fighter Daredevil has been revealed as the next playable character for Marvel Rivals season 4.5, though it’s unclear what his role or abilities will be.

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When does season 4 start?

Marvel Rivals season 4 starts on Friday, Sept. 12. Expect servers to go down for a couple hours around midnight PT before being turned back on in the early morning. When the servers come back online, you can download and play the newest seasonal content.

Angela’s abilities in Marvel Rivals

Angela joins the roster as another vanguard — the first new tank since Emma Frost was added to the game in season 2. The Asgardian angel is the first flying tank, which means the pressure is no longer on Doctor Strange to use his levitation spell to take the fight to the skies. Angela has a strong mix of tools that let her deal damage, block enemy attacks and displace opponents who have wandered too far from their team as a mobile but close-range attacker.

The new tank quickly rotates her arsenal depending on the situation at hand. On the ground, she wields powerful dual axes that hack and slash chunks of enemy health bars away.

When Angela takes to the skies with her third ability, however, she uses a lance that does powerful burst damage — enemies that are struck by this weapon are skewered, and Angela can carry them a short distance before they’re released.

Angela can also summon a 250-health point shield that protects her from attacks — it reminds me of Captain America’s personal shield rather than Doctor Strange’s team-protecting arcane ward.

Once players have dealt enough damage to the enemy team, they can unleash Angela’s ultimate ability. The Hand of Heven throws down a battle banner, damaging enemies and binding them to a single location. The banner can be destroyed, but it won’t be easy to do once Angela swings her blades at her trapped opponents. This ability is a strong crowd control tool, and is fairly reminiscent of Groot’s ultimate, though it seems to be usable from the air, which will grant it more impressive range.

It’s not immediately clear to me if Angela will fit into brawl team compositions, where players smash into one another on the frontline, or dive team compositions, where players try to end the fight before it even starts by removing key enemy heroes from the backline. She seems like a Swiss army knife of a tank, with a kit of abilities that lets her do a little bit of everything. Only time will tell if she excels in any of her niches.

Big balance changes inbound for vanguards and strategists

In the Dev Vision Vol. 9 video, Marvel Rivals developers explained which heroes are receiving changes in season 4 and why. The full numerical breakdown of every hero change is included in NetEase’s detailed patch notes.

Individual hero changes keep different roles feeling impactful

The game balance of Marvel Rivals season 3 turned most vanguard heroes into punching bags. These tanky characters (such as the Thing, Hulk and Thor) are supposed to soak up damage to protect their teammates while creating advantages by pushing further into the battlefield, but strong long-ranged damage dealers such as Hela and Phoenix quickly struck them down.

In season 4, many tanks are getting buffed in order to compensate for their lack of shield. Peni Parker and Thor are getting their ultimate abilities buffed. While ultimates are supposed to be game-changing moments that players activate back and forth to change the flow of battle, Peni and Thor’s ultimates made them sitting ducks, having to expose themselves for very little advantage. The patch makes their ultimates stronger, hopefully making picking these characters feel like a more impactful choice.

Doctor Strange is also receiving a buff to his offensive power, increasing the power of his dark magic, while dominant tanks Emma Frost and Captain America will be nerfed to bring them more in line with the rest of the cast.

Whereas vanguards have been getting bullied, we saw strategists potentially having their most impactful season yet. These healers defined the flow of the game in season 3, with powerful abilities essentially shutting down fights by making players nigh-on invincible for their duration.

The must-pick strategists, Luna Snow and Loki, are also getting nerfs in season 4 — they’ve long outperformed the other heroes in the same role and are getting dialed back. On the other hand, Ultron, Jeff the Shark and Invisible Woman are getting buffs to their ultimate abilities to make them more viable in high-level play.

Damage-dealing duelists also received key balance changes in this patch, though I suspect they won’t impact the meta as much as the vanguard and strategist tweaks. Moon Knight, Scarlet Witch and Blade will be on the receiving end of buffs this season.

Squirrel Girl’s long range damage is getting nerfed, since she had too much potential to control low-rank matches. Black Panther is losing some health points and Psylocke is losing burst damage, which means players will have more time to react to and defeat these backline threats in high-rank matches.

Team ups shake up as Angela joins the roster

In addition to balance changes for individual heroes, Marvel Rivals is balanced around powerful synergetic «team up» abilities that can only be activated when specific groups of heroes are on the same team. These offer a range of perks, from extra abilities that can be activated in a fight to passive improvements that make heroes even deadlier if they have the right teammates.

In season 4, certain existing team ups are being removed or tweaked, while a new team up is being added for Angela. Here are all of the changes.

New — Divine Armory: Angela anchors a new team up for Thor, allowing him to throw thunderous spears at his opponents, restoring ability-generating Thorforce charges on hit. Thor is able to jump to the location where the spear landed, which will enable him to become an integral part of dive team compositions.
Updated — Gamma Charge: Black Panther joins the existing Hulk and Namor team up. If Hulk is on the team, Black Panther gains a gamma shield that protects him from damage after dropping below the threshold of 100 health points.
Updated — Arcane Order: Magik joins the existing Doctor Strange and Scarlet Witch team up. If Doctor Strange is on the team, Magik gains the ability to throw a magical chain that binds two enemies together, slowing their movement if they try to split up.
Removed — Dimensional Shortcut: Black Panther can no longer use Magik’s Limbo dimension to rewind his position and gain temporary health.

What else does NetEase have in store for Marvel Rivals players in season 4?

Season 4 is shifting the fight away from the planet Klyntar and back to Earth. That means there will be a new map for players to fight across. Players will be able to dive into the Eighth City of K’un-Lun as Daredevil and Angela fight over the fate of the city’s newest prisoner.

More casual players will likely be happier about the new Arcade Hub. Previously limited-time game modes like Giant-Size Brain Blast and Clone Rumble will become permanent fixtures in this menu, alongside Conquest, Doom Match and Free Fight game modes.

Free-to-earn accessory cosmetics, which were introduced in season 3, are getting expanded upon in season 4. Magneto, Scarlet Witch, Luna Snow and Cloak and Dagger players will all be able to earn new wearable accessories for their favorite hero.

Another cosmetic change applies to legendary costumes. If a player is using a skin that changes the visual effects of an ultimate ability, other people are now able to see those effects as well (with the option to toggle the visual effects off in the settings menu).

A long-awaited competitive change isn’t arriving in season 4, but we finally got an update on it alongside the new info. Placement matches are being worked on and will come to Marvel Rivals’ ranked mode at a later date.

When placement matches are implemented, new accounts will need to play a series of games to decide their true rank — players won’t have to fight their way up from bronze if their true skill lies much higher on the ranked ladder. It’s promising to hear that this is being worked on, and it gives me some hope that Marvel Rivals’ matchmaking — one of the weakest aspects of the game — will hopefully be improved in the near future.

Technologies

Google races to put Gemini at the center of Android before Apple’s AI reboot

Google is using its latest Android rollout to position Gemini as the AI layer across phones, Chrome, laptops and cars.

Google is using its latest Android rollout to make Gemini less of a chatbot and more of an operating layer across the phone, browser, car and laptop, just weeks before Apple is expected to show its own Gemini-powered Apple Intelligence reboot at WWDC.
Ahead of its Google I/O developer conference next week, the company previewed a number of Android updates, including AI-powered app automation, a smarter version of Chrome on Android, new tools for creators, a redesigned Android Auto experience, and a sweeping set of new security features.
Alphabet is counting on Gemini to help Google compete directly with OpenAI and Anthropic in the market for artificial intelligence models and services, while also serving as the AI backbone across its expansive portfolio of products, including Android. Meanwhile, Gemini is powering part of Apple’s new AI strategy, giving Google a role in the iPhone maker’s reset even as it races to prove its own version of personal AI on the phone is further along.
Sameer Samat, who oversees Google’s Android ecosystem, told CNBC that Google is rebuilding parts of Android around Gemini Intelligence to help users complete everyday tasks more easily.
“We’re transitioning from an operating system to an intelligence system,” he said.
As part of Tuesday’s announcements. Google said Gemini Intelligence will be able to move across apps, understand what’s on the screen and complete tasks that would normally require a user to jump between multiple services. That means Android is moving beyond the traditional assistant model, where users ask a question and get an answer, and acting more like an agent.
For instance, Google says Gemini can pull relevant information from Gmail, build shopping carts and book reservations. Samat gave the example of asking Gemini to look at the guest list for a barbecue, build a menu, add ingredients to an Instacart list and return for approval before checkout.
A big concern surrounding agentic AI involves software taking action on a user’s behalf without permissions. Samat said Gemini will come back to the user before completing a transaction, adding, “the human is always in the loop.”
Four months after announcing its Gemini deal with Google, Apple is under pressure to show a more capable version of Apple Intelligence, which has been a relative laggard on the market. Apple has long framed privacy, hardware integration and control of the user experience as its advantages.
Google’s Android push is designed to show it can bring AI deeper into the device experience while still giving users control over what Gemini can see, where it can act and when it needs confirmation.
The app automation features will roll out in waves, starting with the latest Samsung Galaxy and Google Pixel phones this summer, before expanding across more Android devices, including watches, cars, glasses and laptops later this year.
The company is also redesigning Android Auto around Gemini, turning the car into another major surface for its assistant. Android Auto is in more than 250 million cars, and Google says the new release includes its biggest maps update in a decade and Gemini-powered help with tasks like ordering dinner while driving.
Alphabet’s AI strategy has been embraced by Wall Street, which has pushed the company’s stock price up more than 140% in the past year, compared to Apple’s roughly 40% gain. Investors now want to see how Gemini can become more central to the products people use every day.
WATCH: Alphabet briefly tops Nvidia after report of $200 billion Anthropic cloud deal

Technologies

Waymo recalls 3,800 robotaxis after glitch allowed some vehicles to ‘drive into standing water’

Waymo issued a voluntary recall of about 3,800 of its robotaxis to fix software issues that could allow them to drive into flooded roadways.

Waymo is recalling about 3,800 robotaxis in the U.S. to fix software issues that could allow them to “drive onto a flooded roadway,” according to a letter on the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s website.
The voluntary recall is for Waymo vehicles that use the company’s fifth and sixth generation automated driving systems (or ADS), the U.S. auto safety regulator said in the letter posted Tuesday.
Waymo autonomous vehicles in Austin, Texas, were seen on camera driving onto a flooded street and stalling, requiring other drivers to navigate around them. It’s the latest example of a safety-related issue for the Alphabet-owned AV unit that’s rapidly bolstering its fleet of vehicles and entering new U.S. markets.
Waymo has drawn criticism for its vehicles failing to yield to school buses in Austin, and for the performance of its vehicles during widespread power outages in San Francisco in December, when robotaxis halted in traffic, causing gridlock.
The company said in a statement on Tuesday that it’s “identified an area of improvement regarding untraversable flooded lanes specific to higher-speed roadways,” and opted to file a “voluntary software recall” with the NHTSA.
“Waymo provides over half a million trips every week in some of the most challenging driving environments across the U.S., and safety is our primary priority,” the company said.
Waymo added that it’s working on “additional software safeguards” and has put “mitigations” in place, limiting where its robotaxis operate during extreme weather, so that they avoid “areas where flash flooding might occur” in periods of intense rain.
WATCH: Waymo launches new autonomous system in Chinese-made vehicle

Technologies

Qualcomm tumbles 13% as semiconductor stocks retreat from historic AI-fueled surge

Semiconductor equities reversed sharply after a broad AI-driven advance, with Qualcomm suffering its worst day since 2020 amid inflation concerns and rising oil prices.

Semiconductor stocks fell sharply on Tuesday, reversing course after an extensive rally that had expanded the artificial intelligence investment theme well past Nvidia and driven the industry to unprecedented levels.

Qualcomm plunged 13% and was on track for its steepest single-day decline since 2020. Intel shed 8%, while On Semiconductor and Skyworks Solutions each lost more than 6%. The iShares Semiconductor ETF, which benchmarks the overall sector, fell 5%.

The sell-off came after a key gauge of consumer prices came in above forecasts, and as conflict in Iran pushed crude oil higher—prompting investors to shift away from riskier assets.

The preceding advance had widened the AI opportunity set beyond longtime industry leader Nvidia, which for much of the past several years had largely carried the market to new peaks on its own.

Explosive appetite for central processing units, along with the graphics processing units that power large language models, has sent chipmakers to all-time highs.

Market participants are wagering that the shift from AI model training to autonomous agents will lift demand for additional AI hardware. Among the beneficiaries are memory chip producers, which are raising prices as supply remains tight.

Micron Technology slid 6%, and Sandisk cratered 8%. Sandisk’s stock has surged more than six times over since January.