Technologies
God of War Original Trilogy Remakes Are Coming, and a New 2D Platformer Is Out Today
God of War fans received good news: Sons of Sparta is out today, and the Greek Trilogy remaking the PS2 and PS3 games is in development.
Sony’s State of Play on Thursday had some surprises, including the remaster of Metal Gear Solid 4. Finishing up the show were two announcements for the God of War franchise that no one saw coming.
The first reveal was done by TC Carson, the voice actor for Kratos in the original God of War games released on the PS2 and PS3. Carson announced that the first three God of War games will be remade. The God of War Greek trilogy remakes are still in early development by Santa Monica Studio, and more details about the games will come in the future, so it’s safe to say fans still have plenty of time to wait before they’re released.
Following the news of the trilogy remake, the final surprise was the release of a new God of War game, albeit in a game format that’s new to the series. God of War: Sons of Sparta is a 2D action platformer that tells the story of Kratos’ youth as he trains to be a Spartan warrior with his brother Deimos. Developed by Mega Cat Studios (makers of the side-scrolling Five Nights at Freddy’s: Into The Pit) with a story written by Santa Monica Studio, young Kratos will have to learn to use his spear, shield and divine artifacts to defeat his enemies.
Since Kratos doesn’t have his traditional Blades of Chaos or Leviathan Axe in this new game, he’ll rely on a classic Spartan spear that can still do plenty of damage and be customized. Changing out the spear tip will add extra offensive stats or status effects to the weapon, such as poison or burn, while spear grips add a finishing move to his combos. The spear tails add a new special attack that Kratos can unleash.
With his shield, Kratos can deflect or parry attacks from enemies. His shield can also be upgraded to make parrying easier to reduce the damage Kratos receives when evading. The Gifts of Olympus are divine artifacts Kratos can equip that can unleash punishing projectiles or their own melee combo. Kratos can also equip accessories called Gouri to improve his offense, defense or even help find secret treasure.
God of War: Sons of Sparta was made available in the PlayStation Store following the reveal on Thursday. The standard edition costs $30 while the deluxe edition costs $40 and includes multiple in-game items, a PlayStation Network avatar, a digital artbook and soundtrack.
These announcements, along with the news of a God of War TV series coming to Amazon, are all part of the celebration for the God of War 20th anniversary.
Technologies
Google’s New AI Features Are Trying to Make Data Entry a Thing of the Past
More Gemini AI features will come to Google Docs, Sheets and Slides.
The latest batch of Google updates to its workspace tools highlights AI’s promise to automate mundanity in the workplace. Google Docs, Slides, Sheets and Drive all have new AI-powered features, the company announced Tuesday. The one thing all these updates have in common? Gemini is using your files, emails and chats to give you relevant information, not random answers gleaned from the web.
These updates come as AI is playing a bigger role in our work lives, for better or worse. Agentic tools like Claude Cowork and coding assistants like Anthropic’s Claude Code and OpenAI’s Codex are more capable than chatbots and able to handle tasks announced independently. AI tools are also becoming more customized, with Google’s personalized intelligence rolling out across its platforms to help refine AI outputs to things that are relevant and useful for you. Google continues that trend with this new batch of Workspace updates.
New Gemini AI features in Google Workspace apps will cite their sources after each query. For example, if you ask Gemini in Google Docs to fill out an itinerary template, it will pull the information from your email, chats and files. The «sources» tab in the Gemini side panel will show you where it found the information it used, like your flight confirmation email and chats discussing dinner plans. Seeing where Gemini pulled its answers from is also how you’ll double-check Gemini’s work.
The most impressive new features are in Sheets, where AI can fill in the holes in your spreadsheets. You can describe what you want the AI to do with a simple prompt and avoid writing an exact formula. You can click on an empty cell, select the pop-up that says «Drag to fill with Gemini,» then highlight the cells you want Gemini to fill in. That deploys an AI agent to search the web to fill each cell with the necessary information.
For example, if you have a spreadsheet of the contact info for local companies, you can have Gemini search the web to fill in a the location, CEO and other publicly available information of each company. The tool aims to dramatically reduce the time needed for manual data entry. Gemini can also summarize, categorize and create charts with prompts alone.
You can also chat with Gemini in Sheets and have it scour your raw data to make custom reports and charts. No need for pivot tables if they confound you as much as they baffle me. One of the biggest uses of AI at work is helping create presentations.
In Google Slides, you can now tell Gemini in natural language what you want to appear on a slide, and it will create it, matching the style of your existing slides. You can also ask Gemini to edit your slides if you don’t want to waste time painstakingly moving design elements around the slide. The AI should fill the slides with relevant information based on your instructions and the work files it has access to, so you shouldn’t need to replace a bunch of filler text.
If you use Docs, Sheets and Slides through the Workspace account of your company, then you won’t be able to turn off AI features individually. The managing company is in control of AI access for users. Personal users can tweak their settings to limit Gemini. The new features are rolling out in beta now, in English only, to Google AI Ultra and Pro subscribers in the US, as well as some Google Workspace customers who are part of the Gemini Alpha testing program.
For more, check out the new cowork feature in Copilot and how to use Perplexity AI for deep research.
Tariffs implemented by President Donald Trump were struck down by the Supreme Court last month. Companies that were subjected to those fees, such as FedEx and Dollar General, have since sued the federal government, and Nintendo wants a piece of the action.
Nintendo filed a lawsuit against the federal government in the US Court of International Trade on Friday, as first spotted by Aftermath. The complaint seeks refunds of tariffs Nintendo paid, plus interest, and asks the court to declare the tariffs unlawful and stop the government from collecting them going forward.
«Since February 1, 2025, President Trump has executed the unlawful Executive Orders, imposing tariffs on imports from a vast swath of countries,» Nintendo said in the complaint.
When reached for comment, Nintendo of America confirmed the lawsuit.
«We can confirm that we filed a request. We have nothing else to share on this topic,» Nintendo of America said in an emailed statement on Friday, March 6.
It’s unclear how much Nintendo paid in tariffs, and it did not state an amount in the lawsuit. While the Switch 2 was priced at $450 when it launched last year, and has stayed at that amount, Nintendo did increase the price of the original Switch and accessories for both consoles. Microsoft and Sony also increased the prices of their hardware and accessories last year due to tariffs.
The White House didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
On Feb. 20, the Supreme Court ruled by a vote of 6 to 3 that the sweeping tariffs Trump instituted last year exceeded his executive powers. Following the ruling, on the same day, Trump announced a new set of tariffs of 10% on imported goods that would last for 150 days, starting Feb. 24.
The decision on what to do with the collected tariffs — a reported $166 billion — has been left to the US Court of International Trade. Judge Richard Eaton told the US Customs and Border Protection on Wednesday, March 4, to refund the importers that were forced to pay tariffs, which is more than 330,000. On Friday, the CBP said it couldn’t easily issue tariff refunds because its system requires duties to be recalculated and refunds processed entry by entry. This process would involve tens of millions of transactions. The agency said it’s updating its systems and could start providing refunds by late April.
Technologies
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