The world is closer than thought to a “point of no return” after which runaway global heating cannot be stopped, scientists have said. Continued global heating could trigger climate tipping points, leading to a cascade of further tipping points and feedback loops, they said. This would lock the world into a new and hellish “hothouse Earth” climate far worse than the 2-3C temperature rise the world...
The world is closer than thought to a “point of no return” after which runaway global heating cannot be stopped, scientists have said. Continued global heating could trigger climate tipping points, leading to a cascade of further tipping points and feedback loops, they said. This would lock the world into a new and hellish “hothouse Earth” climate far worse than the 2-3C temperature rise the world is on track to reach. The climate would also be very different to the benign conditions of the past 11,000 years, during which the whole of human civilisation developed. At just 1.3C of global heating in recent years, extreme weather is already taking lives and destroying livelihoods across the globe. At 3-4C, “the economy and society will cease to function as we know it”, scientists said last week, but a hothouse Earth would be even more fiery. The public and politicians were largely unaware of the risk of passing the point of no return, the researchers said. The group said they were issuing their warning because while rapid and immediate cuts to fossil fuel burning were challenging, reversing course was likely to be impossible once on the path to a hothouse Earth, even if emissions were eventually slashed. It was difficult to predict when climate tipping points would be triggered, making precaution vital, said Dr Christopher Wolf, a scientist at Terrestrial Ecosystems Research Associates in the US. Wolf is a member of a study team that includes Prof Johan Rockström at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany and Prof Hans Joachim Schellnhuber at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis in Austria. “Crossing even some of the thresholds could commit the planet to a hothouse trajectory,” said Wolf. “Policymakers and the public remain largely unaware of the risks posed by what would effectively be a point-of-no-return transition. “It’s likely that global temperatures are [already] as warm as, or warmer than, at any point in the last 125,00...
Bart Layton is the British film-maker who previously gave us American Animals, a true-crime docudrama about the theft of rare books. That film’s title would also have applied perfectly well to this new one, an LA crime thriller adapted from a novella by Don Winslow. It is a little in the style of Michael Mann, though without the military hardware and the overhead shots of SUVs moving in swift conv...
Bart Layton is the British film-maker who previously gave us American Animals, a true-crime docudrama about the theft of rare books. That film’s title would also have applied perfectly well to this new one, an LA crime thriller adapted from a novella by Don Winslow. It is a little in the style of Michael Mann, though without the military hardware and the overhead shots of SUVs moving in swift convoy that would make it a full Mann homage. Layton does without the distinctive indirect mannerisms and meta-commentaries of his earlier movies, but he applies his pedal to the metal for what is an enjoyable and very stylish high-stakes armed robbery film about a thief who is highly controlled, super-cool, super-groomed, and naturally looking for the “walkaway money” of the time-honoured one last job. This is Mike (played by Chris Hemsworth), who with his sleek black performance cars and Glock handguns, commits jewel robberies with the laudably nonviolent precision of a ballet-dancing brain surgeon. He is controlled by a leathery old tough guy called Money (Nick Nolte), who once upon a time mentored Mike out of foster care and into crime. But Mike’s hits are all along California’s Route 101, a pattern spotted by LAPD’s single honest cop, detective Lou Lubesnick (Mark Ruffalo), as dishevelled and smart as Columbo. When things go horribly wrong, Mike develops qualms about the whole business, and Money looks like replacing him with Ormon (Barry Keoghan): an undisciplined, trigger-happy youngster who rides a flashy, attention-attracting motorbike – uncool – and has dyed blond hair (also uncool). Everything comes to a crisis point when Mike induces troubled insurance agent Sharon (Halle Berry) to give him inside info for a hugely lucrative job that he figures he can set up on his own. Meanwhile, he can’t bring himself to tell his girlfriend Maya (Monica Barbaro) what he does for a living. This is a movie that revs the engine entertainingly and loudly, though it is less convincing ...
Canadians were in shock on Wednesday after one of the country’s deadliest mass shootings as authorities said seven people were killed at a school in remote northern British Columbia and two others were killed at a nearby home. A woman that police believed was the shooter was found dead, apparently from a self-inflicted wound. Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) said more than 25 people were wound...
Canadians were in shock on Wednesday after one of the country’s deadliest mass shootings as authorities said seven people were killed at a school in remote northern British Columbia and two others were killed at a nearby home. A woman that police believed was the shooter was found dead, apparently from a self-inflicted wound. Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) said more than 25 people were wounded in Tuesday’s shooting, including two who were airlifted for medical care with life-threatening injuries. Tumbler Ridge in the Canadian Rockies is more than 1,000km (600 miles) northeast of Vancouver, near the provincial border with Alberta. The provincial government website lists Tumbler Ridge Secondary School as having 175 students from grades 7 to 12. Advertisement “Parents, grandparents, sisters, brothers in Tumbler Ridge will wake up without someone they love. The nation mourns with you and Canada stands by you,” an emotional Prime Minister Mark Carney said as he arrived in parliament. A visibly upset Carney on Wednesday promised Canadians would get through what he called a “terrible” mass shooting. Advertisement “We will get through this. We will learn from this,” Carney told reporters, at one point looking close to tears.
Maddie Meyer/Getty Images News The director of the FDA’s biologics unit, Vinay Prasad, overruled the agency’s reviewers in refusing to accept Moderna’s ( MRNA ) marketing application for its flu vaccine, mRNA-1010, Stat News reported on Wednesday. The agency officials familiar with the matter said that Prasad, who heads the FDA's Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research division (CBER), signed...
Maddie Meyer/Getty Images News The director of the FDA’s biologics unit, Vinay Prasad, overruled the agency’s reviewers in refusing to accept Moderna’s ( MRNA ) marketing application for its flu vaccine, mRNA-1010, Stat News reported on Wednesday. The agency officials familiar with the matter said that Prasad, who heads the FDA's Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research division (CBER), signed a memo issuing the refusal, even as the team of career scientists at the CBER was ready for the review. Moderna ( MRNA ) shares fell ~10% after the company announced on Tuesday that the FDA issued a Refusal-to-File letter indicating that the CBER, which regulates vaccines and other biologics, will not review its biologics license application for mRNA-1010. In a memo, David Kaslow, the head of the FDA vaccine office, even detailed why the FDA should initiate the review. According to a disclosure by Moderna ( MRNA ) on Tuesday, Prasad’s memo on the refusal was issued on Feb. 3, Stat News said, adding that it was unusual for an FDA center director to sign such a memo. More on Moderna Moderna: Analyzing The January Rally And The Road Ahead (Rating Upgrade) Moderna Vs. Novavax: 2 Pandemic Vaccine Pioneers - Which Offers Better Value Today? Moderna: V940/Keytruda Data And Vaccine Revenues Drive A High-Risk Recovery Story Moderna shares drop after FDA refuses to file for mRNA-1010 influenza vaccine Moderna to supply respiratory vaccines to Mexico as part of five-year deal
PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox, Switch 2; Tarsier Studios Childhood terrors come to wretched life in a grim fairytale of a puzzle-platformer that’s as beautifully macabre as it is hard to put down “I thought you were dead,” are the first words you’ll hear from the child protagonists of this horror puzzle-platformer. It’s your first sign that things were going badly long before you got here. Exploring dar...
PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox, Switch 2; Tarsier Studios Childhood terrors come to wretched life in a grim fairytale of a puzzle-platformer that’s as beautifully macabre as it is hard to put down “I thought you were dead,” are the first words you’ll hear from the child protagonists of this horror puzzle-platformer. It’s your first sign that things were going badly long before you got here. Exploring dark waves and desolated urban environments in a rowboat, they’re on a search for their lost friends across a world of rabid, malformed entities. As the children struggle with their outsize fears, so will you, but you’ve at least got the option to play co-op if you want someone on the couch to brave the horrors with. In the early 2000s, irreverent gaming blog Old Man Murray pioneered the “ crate review system ”. The rubric was simple: the sooner the player encountered their first wooden cube of heinous mediocrity, the more uninspired the game. Updating this method for 2026, we’ve got a few new contenders: how soon before you shimmy slowly through a gap, boost a companion over a high ledge so they can pull you up or tediously rotate some mechanism with the analogue stick? Reanimal pulls out all these hits within the first 20 minutes and, by the time the credits roll, six hours in, it feels as if developer Tarsier has wrung the final drops of interactive novelty from its formula of light exploration puzzles, tense but simple stealth and ghastly chases. And yet this grim fairytale is still difficult to put down. Continue reading...
[The content of this article has been produced by our advertising partner.] DBS Bank (Hong Kong) Limited (“DBS Hong Kong”) is pressing ahead with a three-year plan to recruit 100 wealth managers in Hong Kong, a substantial expansion that bets on the city’s entrenched role as a safe haven for capital during periods of global uncertainty. The move by the Singaporean lender, which holds the title of ...
[The content of this article has been produced by our advertising partner.] DBS Bank (Hong Kong) Limited (“DBS Hong Kong”) is pressing ahead with a three-year plan to recruit 100 wealth managers in Hong Kong, a substantial expansion that bets on the city’s entrenched role as a safe haven for capital during periods of global uncertainty. The move by the Singaporean lender, which holds the title of Asia’s Safest Bank for a 17th consecutive year, is a direct response to strengthening demand from high-net worth clients who now value stability above all else, ensuring their wealth is in secure hands. Advertisement It is a considerable wager on Hong Kong’s position as a premier wealth junction. The city’s asset and wealth management sector held over HK$30.5tn in total assets as of late 2022, according to the Securities and Futures Commission’s Asset and Wealth Management Activities Survey 2023, with private banking assets growing more than 20 per cent from 2019 to 2022. Government initiatives, such as a drive to attract 200 family offices to the city by 2025, are designed to cement this status further. Advertisement For DBS Hong Kong, the calculus is clear. In a fragmented world, the ability to provide a trusted harbour, underpinned by a physical network and expert knowledge of the region, catering to both personal wealth and commercial banking needs, will attract assets.
Two useful bits of ROCm news today for those interested in AMD's open-source GPU compute stack.First up, ROCm's TheRock 7.11 is now available. This is an experimental release in the road to what will presumably be called ROCm 8.0... For those that missed it last October, AMD released ROCm 7.9 as a "technology preview" paired with TheRock build system . ROCm 7.9+ are technology preview releases whi...
Two useful bits of ROCm news today for those interested in AMD's open-source GPU compute stack.First up, ROCm's TheRock 7.11 is now available. This is an experimental release in the road to what will presumably be called ROCm 8.0... For those that missed it last October, AMD released ROCm 7.9 as a "technology preview" paired with TheRock build system . ROCm 7.9+ are technology preview releases while the ROCm 7.0 to less than 7.9 continue to be the stable versions... ROCm 7.10 came in December as a technology preview release while 7.11 is out today for shipping the latest ROCm components paired with TheRock for building out the AMD GPU compute software packages.I haven't found any concise change-log for the ROCm/TheRock 7.11 changes but there is a lot of Git activity going on from improving various hardware support to new optimizations and features. Again, 7.11 being just a technology preview toward the next major feature release presumably during the second half of the year.Those wanting to build this 7.11 release for the leading-edge ROCm/HIP stack can find the new version up on GitHub amdsmi rocm-llvm rocm rocm-cmake rocm-smi-lib pkg-rocm-tools rocr-runtime hipify rocm-core hipblas-common rocalution rocm-hipamd rocminfo rocrand rocdbgapi rccl composable-kernel hiprand rocprim roctracer rocblas rocfft rocsparse rocthrust hipcub hipfft hipsparse rocsolver rocwmma hipblas hipsolver hipblaslt hipsparselt MIOpen The other piece of news today is progress on getting the AMD ROCm packages as part of the Ubuntu package archive for an improved experience of using AMD ROCm on Ubuntu Linux without having to add any extra/third-party repositories. Canonical has been planning to distribute AMD ROCm libraries with Ubuntu 26.04 LTS due out in April.Today a Canonical engineer has applied for Ubuntu Developer Membership so there are upload rights for the new ROCm packages. Talha Can Havadar has been working on these ROCm packages for Ubuntu and is now applying to have upload permis...
Trump Holds Off On Option To Seize Iranian Tankers, Fearing Sharp Oil Rise Another big piece of leverage that Washington is holding over Tehran is the potential seizure of Iranian oil tankers. The US intercepting and boarding tankers on the high seas has been a trend related to Venezuela of late, as well as Russia's so-called dark fleet, ratcheting tensions with Moscow. But President Trump is said...
Trump Holds Off On Option To Seize Iranian Tankers, Fearing Sharp Oil Rise Another big piece of leverage that Washington is holding over Tehran is the potential seizure of Iranian oil tankers. The US intercepting and boarding tankers on the high seas has been a trend related to Venezuela of late, as well as Russia's so-called dark fleet, ratcheting tensions with Moscow. But President Trump is said to be holding off for now when it comes to the Iranians , as the process of indirect negotiations based in Oman plays out, also as Israel's Netanyahu is received at the White House on Wednesday. Fresh reporting in The Wall Street Journal indicates "Trump administration officials have discussed whether to seize additional tankers involved in transporting Iranian oil but have held off, concerned about Tehran’s near-certain retaliation and the impact on global oil markets, U.S. officials said." File image via Strauss Center But there have been US naval interdictions involving Iranian energy related to the Venezuela blockade: "The U.S. has seized several ships that have carried Iranian oil as part of its two-month-old blockade of sanctioned tankers serving Venezuela ," continues WSJ. "The tankers, which make up the so-called shadow fleet, help transport illicit oil from numerous sanctioned countries to China and other buyers." The report notes that "A move by the U.S. to block other sanctioned ships from loading oil in Iran would squeeze Tehran's main source of revenue , expanding the aggressive strategy the White House put in place in December in the Caribbean." So there remains this big card to play, but Trump is so far hesitant on concerns of rapidly driving up the price of oil . Sanctions have been slapped on Iranian tankers, but action has yet to follow, as WSJ explains further : But the option of stopping tankers, one of several the White House has been debating to coerce Tehran to reach a deal restricting its nuclear program, faces many obstacles, some of the officials ...
When Sam Blond left his job as a VC for Founders Fund a year ago — just 18 months after he started — he told the world that being a VC wasn’t for him and he was “going back to operating.” On Wednesday, he officially brought his new startup, Monaco, out of stealth. It was co-founded with his brother Brian Blond, who is also an ex-sales professional turned VC. (Brian is a partner at Human Capital an...
When Sam Blond left his job as a VC for Founders Fund a year ago — just 18 months after he started — he told the world that being a VC wasn’t for him and he was “going back to operating.” On Wednesday, he officially brought his new startup, Monaco, out of stealth. It was co-founded with his brother Brian Blond, who is also an ex-sales professional turned VC. (Brian is a partner at Human Capital and was formerly at Sutter Hill.) The brothers are joined by two other co-founders, Abishek Viswanathan (previously CPO at Apollo and Qualtrics), and Malay Desai (formerly SVP of engineering at Clari). Monaco has raised a total of $35 million, between a $10 million seed and $25 million Series A round, Sam Blond tells TechCrunch. Both rounds were led by Founders Fund, with participation from Human Capital. The startup has been quietly testing its AI sales platform through a private beta for a while, but on Wednesday opened it up to a public beta. The well-connected Blond brothers (Sam was previously head of sales at Brex), also attracted a bunch of big-name angels as backers: Stripe founders Patrick and John Collison, Y Combinator chief Garry Tan, and Greenoaks Capital founder Neil Mehta. So what attracted such a venerable list of investors? Monaco is entering the crowded field of AI sales tech with a twist. It isn’t just competing with SaaS-era tech via its AI-native alternative; it’s also supplying experienced human salespeople to be experts in the AI loop, monitoring and guiding the AI’s work. The startup is targeting young seed and Series A-level startups with a product suite that includes an AI-native customer relationship management (CRM) system and a built-from-scratch Zoominfo-like database for finding prospects. Its AI agents can create and execute email outreach campaigns and draft follow-up emails all monitored by the human experts. It includes other features, too, like a meeting notetaker. The product is intended to automate much of the sales grunt work. “We can re...
The founders of Upside Robotics met in 2023 because they were both looking to build an impact-driven company that touched climate and agriculture. Less than a year later, they were sleeping in a camper on the side of a Canadian corn field building their robotics startup. Waterloo, Ontario-based Upside Robotics builds lightweight solar-powered autonomous robots that deliver right-sized amounts of f...
The founders of Upside Robotics met in 2023 because they were both looking to build an impact-driven company that touched climate and agriculture. Less than a year later, they were sleeping in a camper on the side of a Canadian corn field building their robotics startup. Waterloo, Ontario-based Upside Robotics builds lightweight solar-powered autonomous robots that deliver right-sized amounts of fertilizer and nutrients to crops when they need it. The company’s software runs on proprietary algorithms to decipher when and how much fertilizer the plants need using weather and soil data. Upside’s robots currently work on corn plants — one of the most fertilizer-intensive crops — which was chosen by Upside for that exact reason, Jana Tian, co-founder and CEO, told TechCrunch. After Tian and Sam Dugan, co-founder and chief technology officer, met at the Entrepreneur First accelerator, they decided to focus on reducing fertilizer waste using robots because it fit squarely into the center of the venn diagram of their interests. It also leaned well toward their backgrounds. Dugan had been building robots since he was ten years old and Tian had years of experience as a chemical engineer in the food division at Unilever. Customer discovery with farmers further confirmed this was an area farmers were willing to pay for a better way. “Traditionally, the way the fertilizer has been applied, only 30% of the total fertilizer gets taken by the crop, so a majority of it gets wasted,” Tian said. “Farmers usually do one application per season, so they have to front load a lot of the fertilizer. But the crops need the fertilizer during the season as well. We knew there was that problem that a lot of our growers really wanted different solutions to.” Techcrunch event TechCrunch Founder Summit 2026: Tickets Live On June 23 in Boston, more than 1,100 founders come together at TechCrunch Founder Summit 2026 for a full day focused on growth, execution, and real-world scaling. Learn from fou...
Investors need to know this key regulatory risk that could determine the stock's fate. Oklo (OKLO 3.93%) is betting everything on nuclear power to fuel AI data centers, and one catalyst could unlock explosive upside. This breakdown explains the opportunity, the risks, and why 2026 may decide everything. Stock prices used were the market prices of Feb. 2, 2026. The video was published on Feb. 5, 20...
Investors need to know this key regulatory risk that could determine the stock's fate. Oklo (OKLO 3.93%) is betting everything on nuclear power to fuel AI data centers, and one catalyst could unlock explosive upside. This breakdown explains the opportunity, the risks, and why 2026 may decide everything. Stock prices used were the market prices of Feb. 2, 2026. The video was published on Feb. 5, 2026.
Billionaires can collect Social Security, but they receive less than you might expect. Nearly 70 million Americans received Social Security checks in 2025, according to the Social Security Administration, and at least a few of them may have been billionaires. While the wealthiest Americans likely don't need Social Security benefits, they can technically qualify for them. Perhaps the most surprisin...
Billionaires can collect Social Security, but they receive less than you might expect. Nearly 70 million Americans received Social Security checks in 2025, according to the Social Security Administration, and at least a few of them may have been billionaires. While the wealthiest Americans likely don't need Social Security benefits, they can technically qualify for them. Perhaps the most surprising part, though, is that many lower-earning workers collect the same amount from Social Security as billionaires. How much do billionaires receive from Social Security? The higher your income, the more you'll receive in Social Security benefits -- up to a certain point. That cap is the maximum taxable earnings limit, or the highest income subject to Social Security tax. Any earnings above that limit will not contribute to benefit calculations, effectively maxing out Social Security. In 2026, the maximum benefit amount is $5,251 per month. To achieve that, you'll need to consistently reach the maximum taxable earnings limit, which is $184,500 per year in 2026. In other words, workers earning $185,000 per year can earn the same Social Security benefit as those earning $185 million per year. Billionaires' net worth alone doesn't immediately qualify them for Social Security, however. To collect retirement benefits, workers must have worked and paid payroll taxes for at least 10 years. Social Security only counts earned income, though, which doesn't include investment growth or dividend payments -- sources that make up a significant chunk of many billionaires' net worth. What does it take to earn the maximum benefit? Consistently reaching the maximum taxable earnings limit is only one of the three requirements for earning the highest possible Social Security benefit. The second requirement is to work for at least 35 years. The Social Security Administration calculates your benefit by taking an average of your earnings throughout the 35 years you earned the most. That figure is th...
DES MOINES, Iowa, Feb. 11, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Fourth Quarter 2025 Highlights Net income of $223 million Affordable Housing Program (AHP) assessments of $25 million Voluntary community and housing contributions of $10 million Advances totaled $110.2 billion Mortgage loans held for portfolio, net totaled $14.5 billion Letters of credit totaled $18.3 billion Retained earnings totaled $3.8 billi...
DES MOINES, Iowa, Feb. 11, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Fourth Quarter 2025 Highlights Net income of $223 million Affordable Housing Program (AHP) assessments of $25 million Voluntary community and housing contributions of $10 million Advances totaled $110.2 billion Mortgage loans held for portfolio, net totaled $14.5 billion Letters of credit totaled $18.3 billion Retained earnings totaled $3.8 billion Dividend The Board of Directors approved a fourth quarter 2025 dividend to be paid at an annualized rate of 9.75% on average activity-based stock and 6.00% on average membership stock, unchanged from the prior quarter. The Federal Home Loan Bank of Des Moines (the Bank) expects to make dividend payments totaling $147 million on February 17, 2026. Liquidity Mission The Bank provides liquidity to its members to support the housing, business, and economic development needs of their communities. Members pledge mortgage loans and other collateral to access the Bank’s core liquidity products of advances, letters of credit, and mortgage loans held for portfolio under the Mortgage Partnership Finance® Program. During the year ended December 31, 2025, advance balances averaged $108.1 billion, letters of credit averaged $18.4 billion, mortgage loan balances averaged $13.2 billion, and the Bank held an average of $29.9 billion of short-term assets as a ready source of liquidity for its members. Affordable Housing and Community Impact The Bank’s housing and community development programs are central to its mission. The Bank contributes 10% of its net income each year to its AHP, a grant program that supports the creation, preservation, or purchase of affordable housing. This program includes a competitive AHP and two down payment assistance products called Home$tart and the Native American Homeownership Initiative. During the year ended December 31, 2025, the Bank accrued statutory AHP assessments of $98 million and voluntarily accrued $15 million, to be awarded in 2026 through this...
Google is adding a way for consumers to buy things while seeking artificial intelligence-powered answers on search and in its Gemini chatbot — part of a plan to make money more directly from consumers’ AI use. The Alphabet Inc. company has been testing new ad formats on Google Search’s AI Mode that will allow retailers and other advertisers to offer products there, the company said in a letter to ...
Google is adding a way for consumers to buy things while seeking artificial intelligence-powered answers on search and in its Gemini chatbot — part of a plan to make money more directly from consumers’ AI use. The Alphabet Inc. company has been testing new ad formats on Google Search’s AI Mode that will allow retailers and other advertisers to offer products there, the company said in a letter to the advertising community on Wednesday. Users can also now buy items from Etsy and Wayfair within Gemini, the company said. A new feature called Direct Offers within AI Mode will allow brands to offer discounts to potential shoppers. “We aren’t just bringing ads to AI experiences in Search; we are reinventing what an ad is,” said Vidhya Srinivasan, the Google vice president overseeing ads and commerce. Now that consumers have gotten in the habit of using AI, tech companies are working to make money from the chats, beyond selling subscriptions. Ads and commerce will help fund the billions in capital AI companies plan to spend on infrastructure. Spending by Google, Amazon.com Inc. , Meta Platforms Inc. and Microsoft Corp. is slated to reach a record $650 billion in 2026. OpenAI recently started testing ads in its ChatGPT chatbot in the US, betting that advertising is the fastest way to make money off users that won’t buy premium subscriptions. The ChatGPT maker and rival Perplexity AI Inc. have also introduced AI features designed to change how people shop online. At the start of this year, Google began to integrate AI agents into its shopping experience, with a new method that standardizes payments and digital identity, Srinivasan said. The company partnered with business including Shopify Inc., Target Corp. and Walmart Inc. for this protocol that helps consumers do checkout directly in Google’s AI products. This “is helping to lay the foundation for a future where all commercial experiences can be seamless and agentic,” Srinivasan said, referring to the potential for an AI ...
The woods in Reanimal are full of surprises. You will encounter human cadavers that slither like snakes, gigantic talking pigs, and, at one point, a forlorn, supersized whale who seems resigned to an agonizingly slow death. These variously monstrous beings inhabit a realm that, though it looks like our own, seems to defy spatial logic: the forest leads to an oceanic expanse, which segues into a de...
The woods in Reanimal are full of surprises. You will encounter human cadavers that slither like snakes, gigantic talking pigs, and, at one point, a forlorn, supersized whale who seems resigned to an agonizingly slow death. These variously monstrous beings inhabit a realm that, though it looks like our own, seems to defy spatial logic: the forest leads to an oceanic expanse, which segues into a decrepit, towering city. It’s like Aesop’s Fables meets the nightmare visions of both Lars von Trier and J.G. Ballard. Playing as a boy and girl (either solo or via local / online co-op), Reanimal evolves the premise Tarsier Studios explored with its first two Little Nightmares games: the timeless terror of children being pursued by larger, looming monsters. But the camera in this action-platformer is more fluid and dynamic. It feels less like you are peering inside a doll’s house and more like you are seamlessly directing these characters through a miniature film set. Another notable departure: For all its unsettling darkness, Little Nightmares always carried a little storybook charm. That quality is largely absent here. Reanimal is darker, nastier — and stronger for it. The game begins on water, with you following dimly lit buoys; you reach a beach and open washed-up suitcases to find a key. From there, you venture into what seems like a hydroelectric facility. Inside, there are light puzzles to solve as you move forward, though nothing so taxing as to impede your progress for very long. The pair you’re controlling (referred to simply as “Boy” and “Girl”) can jump and grab objects; later, they wield a crowbar, useful for prying open doors or whacking smaller enemies. If you have played either a Little Nightmares game or a title by Playdead (the Danish studio’s landmark first game Limbo or 2016 classic Inside), then the action will feel instantly familiar. The revelatory moments arrive via finely crafted details: These child protagonists carefully and reassuringly usher one ...