Technologies

Before Fallout Season 2, Explore and Learn About New Vegas on Xbox Game Pass Now

Explore the in-game desert for the first — or third — time and get the lowdown on the area and characters before the show airs.

Amazon is gearing up to deliver the second season of the award-winning series Fallout on Dec. 17 on Prime Video. The new season takes us to a place called New Vegas, which makes it a great time to explore — or revisit — that area in the game Fallout: New Vegas on Xbox Game Pass now.

In the trailer for Fallout’s upcoming season, we see Lucy (Ella Purnell), the Ghoul (Walton Goggins) and the trusty Dogmeat traversing the irradiated desert to reach the glitzy town of New Vegas. Lucy continues to search for her father while the Ghoul is likely looking for the cause of the apocalypse, and all roads lead to the roulette wheel in the desert formerly known as Las Vegas. The trailer is filled with characters and set pieces that anyone familiar with the New Vegas game will recognize, and the game can give you some insights into what to expect when the second season airs.

According to CNET’s sister site HowLongtoBeat, you can play the game’s main story and side quests in about 60 hours. So you have plenty of time to play the game on either Xbox Game Pass Premium or Ultimate ($15 and $30 a month, respectively) before the show’s Dec. 17 premiere.

Here’s what to know about Fallout: New Vegas, and some of the lore behind characters and places we’ll see in the show.

Warning: Fallout: New Vegas spoilers ahead.

What happens in Fallout: New Vegas?

In this RPG, you play as a character named the Courier. At the beginning of the game, you’re kidnapped while making a delivery, shot by a man named Benny and left for dead. You survive, and with nothing but a thirst for vengeance, you set out across the desert to find Benny and give him a taste of his own medicine.

Along the way, you will explore different towns, learn about the different desert factions and interact with con artists, like a character named Fantastic who tells you he has a theoretical degree in physics. It’s a wild game, filled with excellent writing and superb set pieces.

Bethesda published the game about 15 years ago, in 2010, so the controls might feel a bit clunky. Character movements might appear robotic, and in some cases, that’s because the character is a robot. But overall, this is still a fun game that gives you a taste of the desert and shows you plenty of places and people you’ll see in the show, like the Lucky 38 and Mr. House.

The Lucky 38 and Mr. House

The Lucky 38 is a casino in New Vegas and the seat of power of Mr. House, who runs the New Vegas Strip. In the game, no one has set foot inside the Lucky 38 in over 200 years, nor have they seen House.

House controls New Vegas and the robots, called securitrons, who enforce order around the area. In the game, you mostly interact with House via a computer screen, but as we see in the trailer, he was a person before the bombs fell.

We see the casino and House (Justin Theroux) in the trailer for the second season during flashbacks, and both seem to be just as important to the upcoming season as they were in the game.

Victor

One of House’s securitrons is named Victor. In the game, he rescues the Courier just outside the community of Good Springs. House sent him to the community, and he reappears later in the game. He is recognizable because he is the only securitron robot with a cowboy face and the only one that speaks with a twang.

We see Victor briefly in the trailer in what appears to be a rundown shack, likely in Good Springs. Because he knows about House, we might see the Ghoul or someone else try to get information about House’s location out of him.

Caesar’s Legion

The Legion is a pretty bad faction in the Wasteland, fashioned after the Roman Empire. It’s a militaristic authoritarian dictatorship whose members are fanatical in their devotion to their leader, Caesar. Legion members wear old sports equipment and carry out brutal attacks on civilians and other factions.

In the game, Caesar’s Legion either enslaves or kills anyone who doesn’t join it, and one in-game community is razed while some of its inhabitants are crucified. If you run into members of Caesar’s Legion in the game, especially early on, you should run the other way.

The trailer shows Lucy being led by a member of the Legion through a Legion camp. It’s not clear if she’s been taken prisoner or if she is making a deal with them, but you can’t really make a deal with the Legion. You just kind of have to accept their terms.

Dinky the T. rex and Novac

Dinky! This giant dino is the mascot for the town of Novac, formerly the Dino-Dee Lite Motel outside of the New Vegas strip. Novac is a small settlement where traders can usually be found, and in the trailer for Fallout’s second season, it looks like a gunfight or ambush happens in this small community. We also see Lucy perched in the sniper’s nest that is Dinky’s mouth. And in the game, you can go up there yourself to meet a possible companion. You can also buy Dinky toys in the game at the gift shop within Dinky, and I hope we see these little guys appear in the show.

Atomic Wrangler Casino

This bar is in a part of New Vegas called Freeside, which is just outside the New Vegas strip. It’s also based on a real liquor store on Las Vegas’s Fremont Street called Atomic Liquors. You can gamble and eventually buy a prostitute here if you complete the right quests, but just like any good Vegas casino, if you win too much money, the establishment will throw you out. And it appears that the Ghoul does indeed get himself thrown out of this establishment by way of a second- or third-story window in the trailer for Fallout’s upcoming season.

Gomorrah

Gomorrah is a casino and brothel in New Vegas run by the Omertas, one of the Three Families — gangs — in the New Vegas strip. The Omertas are very secretive and don’t freely give out information. Their gang also has only one rule — don’t betray the family — so they can be pretty ruthless.

The in-game Gomorrah is also notable for being one of the few ghoul-friendly establishments, but in the trailer, we see the Ghoul getting into some kind of firefight outside of the place. Maybe it’s not as ghoul-friendly as one would hope.

The Tops

This is another casino in New Vegas run by the Chairmen, another one of the Three Families. In the game, their leader is Benny, that rascal who shot the Courier and set the whole game in motion. The casino and Chairmen try to offer an old Hollywood style of luxury to their patrons, but they’re still brutal. And what’s that in the trailer? Another gunfight outside of a gang headquarters? Well, I’ll be.

Deathclaws

We saw a deathclaw skull near the end of the first season of Fallout, and the second season’s trailer brings our characters face-to-face with a living one. These creatures are hulking, bipedal lizards that are one of the most formidable enemies you encounter in the game. They’re fast and can deal and absorb a lot of damage. I highly advise anyone to avoid interacting with these creatures, and it appears Lucy and the Ghoul have a close encounter with one in the upcoming season.

Again, you can explore all these areas and more of New Vegas now on Game Pass Premium and Ultimate before Fallout’s second season premieres on Dec. 17.

For more streaming news, here are the best streaming services and what to know about Prime Video.

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.