Hear ye, hear ye, another extraction shooter is almost upon us, this time the smaller but still quite bold in scope Sand: Raiders of Sophie. Last time I personally heard of this game it was just called Sand, which doesn't sound great for that whole search engine thing, though I'm not entirely convinced by the subtitle. Anyway, this extraction shooter is set in an alternate 1910 where you get to roam the desert in a steampunky fortress with legs, and it's got a release month!

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As UNILAD reported, Vice President JD Vance delivered a pointed warning to European leaders over Greenland, suggesting the United States may act if security concerns are not addressed. The comments were made during a White House briefing.

Vance said European governments should take President Donald Trump’s long-standing interest in Greenland seriously, dismissing claims that the administration’s position has been overstated. His remarks align with broader signals from the White House that traditional diplomatic norms are no longer being treated as fixed, a shift previously highlighted in reporting on how the president has ripped up decades of foreign policy toward China and Taiwan.

The vice president emphasized that the administration expects Europe to increase its focus on the autonomous Danish territory. Further warning that inaction could force the United States to step in.

The warning was direct and left little room for interpretation

Vance said Greenland is strategically critical, describing it as essential to both the US and global missile defense. He added that hostile foreign actors have shown growing interest in the region, increasing the need for heightened security.

He then warned that if European leaders fail to take responsibility for Greenland’s defense, the United States may intervene. Vance did not specify what form that intervention could take, saying any decision would ultimately rest with the president as diplomatic engagement continues.

Greenland’s leadership has pushed back strongly against the rhetoric. Premier Jens Frederik Nielsen said threats or talk of annexation are unacceptable between allies and do not reflect how Greenland expects to be treated.

Public opposition within Greenland has also been clear, with residents reiterating that the territory is not something that can be bought or traded. The comments have reinforced longstanding concerns over sovereignty and self-determination.

The United States has expressed interest in Greenland before. During World War II, US forces occupied the territory after Germany took control of Denmark, and the US later offered to purchase Greenland in 1947.

President Trump has repeatedly raised the idea of acquiring Greenland in recent years, describing it as a strategic priority. Reports have indicated the administration has paired diplomatic discussions with firm pressure.

A shooting involving federal agents in Portland, Oregon, left two people injured, immediately following a similar deadly incident in Minneapolis and prompting local officials to demand a halt to all federal immigration operations, as per ABC News. The chaotic incident involved agents from Customs and Border Protection who were reportedly conducting a targeted stop in the city.

Federal officials were quick to release their version of events. The Department of Homeland Security, or DHS, confirmed the agents were part of an operation dubbed “Operation Oregon.” They were targeting a vehicle carrying two individuals allegedly affiliated with the Tren de Aragua gang, specifically naming the passenger as the primary target. According to the DHS statement, when agents identified themselves, the driver “weaponized his vehicle and attempted to run over the law enforcement agents.”

This is a seriously concerning escalation. The driver, who was not the initial target of the operation, was driving a red Toyota when they allegedly tried to flee the scene. After the shooting occurred, the two people who were shot drove themselves about three miles from the initial location, near Southeast Main Street, to an apartment complex before calling for help.

This Portland shooting comes just after an ICE officer allegedly shot and killed a woman in her car in Minneapolis the previous day

Just like how Minneapolis mayor slammed the official narrative of the fatal shooting, Portland Mayor Keith Wilson did not mince words when addressing the situation, making it crystal clear that local government is highly skeptical of the federal narrative. “We know what the federal government says happened here,” Mayor Wilson told reporters. “There was a time when we could take them at their word. That time is long past.”

He immediately called for a pause on all immigration enforcement operations in the city, stating, “We are calling on ICE to halt all operations in Portland until a full and independent investigation can take place. Our community deserves answers.”

Oregon Governor Tina Kotek echoed that demand for immediate federal cooperation and transparency. She emphasized that the state’s priority is a complete investigation, not more detentions. “My message to the federal government is this: We demand transparency,” Governor Kotek said. “We demand your cooperation with Portland Police and the Multnomah County DA, because we need to investigate this incident efficiently and effectively so we can rebuild trust with our nation’s government.”

Adding to the official pushback, Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield announced that his office was opening an investigation. The Oregon Department of Justice investigation will specifically look at whether any federal officers acted outside the scope of their lawful authority during the encounter, including reviewing video evidence and witness interviews.

Mayor Wilson called the incident “deeply troubling” and urged residents to respond with calm, not violence. “Portland does not respond to violence with violence,” he reminded the community. “We respond with clarity, unity, and a commitment to justice. We must stand together to protect Portland.”

Around May last year, the one and only Ron Gilbert of Monkey Island fame announced an RPG that was meant to be some kind of mix between classic Zelda, and Diablo, and Thimbleweed Park, that last one being another of the game designer's notable works. It never got a full reveal, or even a name, and unfortunately it seems it never will, as it's essentially been canned.

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Crikey, it's been a long time coming, but it looks like The Long Dark is finally coming to a close… next year. Up until earlier this week, the fifth and final episode of The Long Dark's Wintermute DLC was due to be released by the end of the year. As you've probably gathered, the end of the year is very close now, so as a result, episode five has been delayed, but it is a delay that at least comes with a concrete release date.

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Sanrio and Thirdverse are preparing a Hello Kitty Skyland VR game for Meta Quest 2, 3, and 3S headsets. Rather than a 1.0 launch on December 22, 2025, it will debut in early access. Additional elements will be added to it as time go by. The product page isn’t live as of time of writing, but will be available to wishlist. It will be free-to-play.

At launch, only a handful of elements from the full Hello Kitty VR game will be present. There will be one minigame to play, which is called Sky Dash. That will feature picking Sanrio mascots and running through what looks like an obstacle course in the sky. A lobby will also be available to explore. Players will get to make avatars and customize them, with costumes based on the company’s icons available. This will be a game with in-app purchases, but Sanrio and Thirdverse didn’t note if costumes and other elements will be among the add-ons we can buy. 

Here’s the first Hello Kitty Skyland trailer, which focuses on the hub area, Sky Dash, and avatar customization on a Meta Quest 2 or 3.

There are also a handful of initial screenshots, which show avatars interacting and the Sky Dash course. 

Hello Kitt Sky Dash will be available in early access on the Meta Quest 2 and 3 starting on December 22, 2025. 

The post Hello Kitty Skyland VR Game Heading to Meta Quest Headsets appeared first on Siliconera.

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Kiwi developers are punching well above their weight thanks to a unique government support program that offers more than just grants

Those not immersed in the world of gaming might not be familiar with Pax Australia: the enormous gaming conference and exhibition that takes over the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre every October. My favourite section is always Pax Rising, a showcase of indie video games and tabletop, the majority Australian – but there has been a recent shift that was particularly notable this year: many of the standout titles had crossed the Tasman, arriving from New Zealand.

At the booth run by Code – New Zealand’s government-funded Centre of Digital Excellence – 18 Kiwi developers demoed their forthcoming games in a showcase of the vibrant local scene that was buzzing with crowds. In the comedic Headlice, I controlled a parasitic headcrab monster which could latch on to people’s brains and puppet them. How Was Your Day?, a cozy time-loop game set in New Zealand, warmed my heart with its story about a young girl searching for her missing dog. And Killing Things With Your Friends, a co-operative multiplayer action game about surviving bizarre medical trials, had me pulling off my own arm to use as a weapon against enemy hordes.

The baffling trailer for There Are No Ghosts At The Grand, some kind of supernatural mystery/ home renovation/ musical game, has stuck with me since I saw it back in June. The game has a Steam demo out now, and though it’s just a brief look, I was pleasantly surprised by how well all those disparate genres fit together.  

You play as a man named Chris David, who inherits a hotel called The Grand from his missing father. During the day you renovate the hotel, and at night you investigate a mystery involving monsters, a talking cat, and different characters with connections to different rooms of the hotel. In addition to all that, characters sometimes break into song, with your dialogue choices becoming part of the lyrics. 

I did not, alas, see the hot priest from the trailer above in the demo, but I did get a sense of how all the game’s different bits play. When the demo opens, you use a gun-like tool to fix up a room of the hotel: vacuuming debris, righting furniture, and blasting off wallpaper and replacing it with paint. The renovation mechanic isn’t super-detailed–you only have to paint a bit of a wall before it gets fully coated, for instance–but it felt nicely forgiving after how much time I’ve spent painstakingly blasting nooks and crannies in Power Wash Simulator 2 lately.

Your renovations get interrupted by a woman named Maddie, who wants your help investigating some black slime that’s washed up on the town’s beach. Here your renovation tool serves a different function, letting you move pieces around to repair a boat. Once we set sail, as I followed waypoints toward an abandoned island, I noticed the soundtrack had gotten unusually loud. When I turned my head, I realized the music was coming from Maddie, who was singing an upbeat pop number about the situation in town.

I don’t know if there’s some moment in the full game that explains why characters spontaneously burst into song, but the whole thing was so disarmingly weird that I forgot all about steering the boat while I gaped. Like the trailer song, Maddie’s song was super-catchy; at the end of it, I chose between dialogue options to add a funk-inflected verse sung by Chris that included the lyric “I’m not some venture capitalist.” Creative director Anil Glendinning told Polygon There Are No Ghosts At The Grand becoming a musical was “a little bit unexpected…  as it was just because of the music we were listening to at the time,” which included “[a] lot of music from the British scene around the late ‘80s, early ‘90s.” As a musical theater nerd, the idea that the game is a musical just because sounds great to me, and while what I experienced of it was definitely jarring, I was totally delighted by it.

On the island, the supernatural stuff kicks in, and while I won’t spoil it, it was both an interesting mystery and mechanically appropriate to the idea of home renovation. Your renovation tool has different functions, such as switching the mode on the vacuum to fire stuff back out in order to repair things or place objects. Everything being done through your tool helps the game’s different pieces feel connected and keeps the demo from feeling too busy. The challenges and puzzles I faced on the island were pretty basic, and at times things even felt a little too hand-holdy, but I appreciated the guidance when being dropped in the middle of the game. 

The demo lasts about 40 minutes, and it basically feels like that reveal trailer: an interesting kind of weird, but one that hasn’t come down on the side of good weird or bad weird yet. I wasn’t completely sold on the demo’s humor, which could feel a little try-hard, but the whole thing felt surprisingly cohesive and very charming. I’m psyched that it’s a musical because everything should be musicals, and I’m really curious to see if that part holds up. There Are No Ghosts At The Grand is set to release for PC and Xbox in 2026.

Monkey Island creator Ron Gilbert has called time on his previously teased but largely under the radar RPG.

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Finland’s former Prime Minister Sanna Marin is really frustrated that her great four years in office are being overshadowed by a viral dance video. Two years after she left her position, Marin, who is 40 years old, says she’s still better known around the world for her “shimmy” than for her actual work in politics. You have to admit, that’s pretty annoying when you’ve guided a country through a global pandemic and a huge geopolitical change.

According to The Sun, Marin confirmed that even today, the dance moves are still what people remember her for. She told the media just how small that moment was compared to everything else, saying: “That night was, maybe, six hours of my life.”

It’s easy to forget just how much Marin accomplished while she was in charge, especially since the focus has been on her personal life. When she took the top job in 2019, she was only 34, making her the youngest sitting Prime Minister in the world. She successfully led Finland through the COVID-19 pandemic, keeping the death toll very low compared to many other countries. Even more importantly, she brought the country into NATO, securing a massive win for national security.

A viral moment shouldn’t define leadership

The media storm started just months after Finland announced its NATO membership bid. Videos of Marin dancing, singing, and drinking with friends in what looked like an apartment were posted online. The video featured several public figures, including Finnish singer Alma, rapper Petri Nygard, and TV host Tinni Wikstrom, along with members of Marin’s own Social Democratic party.

The clips spread like wildfire and caused global speculation, especially after someone off-camera mentioned a “powder gang.” This was seen by some as hinting at cocaine, although other social media users suggested the term was more likely a reference to a popular Finnish alcoholic drink that sounds similar in the native language.

Regardless, the rumors continued and caused global concern over whether or not she had taken drugs. To shut down the gossip and protect her reputation, Marin paid for a drug test, which thankfully came back negative. She consistently denied seeing any drugs at the party.

Marin is still angry about the uproar, arguing that the attention was driven by a “layer of misogyny.” She insists a male leader would never have faced the same level of scrutiny. That’s a powerful point, and I think she’s right about the double standard. Political figures across the spectrum have faced similar controversies, including Hunter Biden’s recent comments about Democrats.

She asked a key question that truly highlights the issue: “Nobody ever asked a male leader: ‘How can you come to work today and be that professional you, when you yesterday went to a pub with your guy friends?'” Now, Marin is trying to take back her public image by releasing a memoir. In the book, she argues that she fought to create a “world where you can, yes, dance freely when the day’s work is done.”

Marin has always been open about her love for going out with friends and has often been photographed at music festivals. The conversation around female political leaders continues to evolve, with figures like Marjorie Taylor Greene speaking about leadership challenges.

At the tail end of 2024 the original PlayStation turned 30 years old. While the Xbox 360 is only hitting 20 and it's not an industry shaker to the degree the PS1 was, there's no doubt it earned its place as one of the most important consoles of all time. Xbox managed to challenge Sony in the traditional home console space the PlayStation had dominated with PS1 and PS2, and the console's brilliant line-up of games played a major role in that.

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