Sons of the Forest finally gets new features and a v1 patch

Sons of the Forest, the highly-anticipated follow-up to The Forest has finally come out of Early Access after a year or so and hands with a massive V1 patch and a host of great new content. 
I played a lot of Sons when it first came out, it was a bit janky as you would expect but there were standout moments that took this survival game above the majority of clones. And injured sidekick Kelvin became a huge internet meme as well which was funny.
Now, even though every game these days seems to be a survival game, Sons of the Forest is muscling in to show that it has been here and done that before when it comes to crafting a great experience.
The team at Endnight Games posted on Steam, “We are super excited for you guys to play all the new additions, changes and fixes. If you have an older save game it will still work, but we recommend starting a fresh save if you want to experience the story and all the new features fully.
The biggest features, improvements, and balance changes are listed below, but beyond this list there are many more small fixes and improvements.”
While considerably shorter than the recent BG3 patch notes, there is still a huge list to get through so we have pulled out some of the more notable changes in Sons of the Forest V1 for a quick browse below.
20 notable features from Sons of the Forest v1.0 Patch Notes:
– New title scene and end credits with enhanced visuals and music.

– Introduction of a new choice for an alternate ending.
– Addition of 5 new cutscenes.
– Updated voice acting and added details to several cutscenes.
– Implementation of proximity voice chat with environment-specific filters.
– Creative mode unlocked upon completing the game story, featuring an alternate inventory and the ability to skip build animations.
– Addition of Raccoons and enhanced climbing abilities for squirrels and raccoons.
– Introduction of 2 new mutants: Legsy and Holey.
– New mutant variation ‘Spotty’ added.
– Implementation of a new sickness system based on consumption of unclean water or bad food.
– Significant additions and reworks to story item pickups and world details.
– Renaming of glider to Foldable glider with improved functionality.
– Golf Carts now feature radio decks and a GPS screen.
– Enhanced world details including new Jianyu camps and environment tweaks.
– Addition of NPC Timmy to hell cave.
– Introduction of 2 final artifact pieces enabling new crafting capabilities.
– Jianyu helicopters interact with the player by taking off and hovering over structures.
– Introduction of dying tactical soldiers with red flares to guide players.
– New campfire smoke signals from cannibal villages visible from a distance.
– Addition of a new cave accessible after completing the end game sequence.

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Google strikes a deal with Reddit to boost AI possibilities, reportedly for $60M/year

The partnership between the multinational technology company and social news aggregation is set to strengthen as an ‘expanded partnership’ has been announced.
This pairing will work together to create more content-forward displays of Reddit information, in the hope this will make Google products more helpful for users and easier to participate in the forum’s conversations and communities.
One of the most notable changes is that the multinational technology company now has access to the Reddit Data API which delivers real-time content from the dynamic site. 
In a press release, Google’s vice president Rajan Patel explains more: “…[Google] will now have efficient and structured access to fresher information, as well as enhanced signals that will help us better understand Reddit content and display, train on, and otherwise use it in the most accurate and relevant ways.”
It’s not just data that the duo are uniting on. The news of a Cloud partnership has also been released, helping the message board site to integrate new AI-powered capabilities using Vertex AI. The intention is for this to be used to boost search and other possibilities on the platform. 
Signing off in the press release, the vice president reiterates the aim: “We look forward to what’s to come with this partnership, and to make it easier for people to access and benefit from Reddit’s uniquely helpful content across their product and our own.
While the partnership figure isn’t yet known, it’s reportedly to be in the region of $60m a year.
Major changes for social media company
This bolstered partnership comes at the same time as Reddit filing to go public. On Thursday 22 February, the company disclosed its financial performance to prepare for the selling of shares to investors.
This major move could see one of the first significant media companies to debut on the stock market in years.
Featured image: Photo by Brett Jordan 
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Boost Your Content With a Lifetime of Exciting Visuals for Only $100

This AI-powered stock photo platform can improve your business with a never-ending pool of original visual content. Don’t miss this limited-time deal.

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Hackers are exploiting ConnectWise flaws to deploy LockBit ransomware, security experts warn

Security experts are warning that a pair of high-risk flaws in a popular remote access tool are being exploited by hackers to deploy LockBit ransomware — days after authorities announced that they had disrupted the notorious Russia-linked cybercrime gang. Researchers at cybersecurity companies Huntress and Sophos told TechCrunch on Thursday that both had observed LockBit […]
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Apple’s India iPhone business outpaces individual EU countries, Morgan Stanley says

Apple’s long-term bet on India is beginning to pay dividends. The company’s iPhone revenue in India jumped 42% year-on-year in 2023 to $8.7 billion, Morgan Stanley wrote in a note on Friday. The iPhone shipments in India grew 39% year-on-year in 2023 to 9.2 million units, making it iPhone’s fifth largest smartphone market. India’s iPhone […]
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Google Tweaked Search to Comply With EU Rules. Yelp Says It Makes Results Even More Unfair

Google says its new designs comply with the Digital Markets Act, which bars platforms from favoring their own tools. Yelp says tests show one tweak made people even more likely to stick with Google.

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AI can ‘disproportionately’ help defend against cybersecurity threats, Google CEO Sundar Pichai says

Rapid developments in artificial intelligence could help strengthen defenses against security threats in cyber space, according to Google CEO Sundar Pichai.

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Armenia’s 10web brings AI website-building to WordPress

Generative AI has done an impressive job in improving productivity in a wide range of areas, including website building. There’s no lack of tools that now allow one to generate web designs by simply describing what they want in prompts, including established player Wix and bootstrapped startups like Relume. 10web, a company based out of […]
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Threads starts testing in-app camera shortcut and drafts

Meta said Thursday that it has started to test two “most requested” features: drafts and in-app camera. Instagram head Adam Mosseri said that both features are available to only a small number of people. Users who have access to the draft can save only one post (bummer). You can write the post you might want […]
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Ride-hailing giant Grab posts first profitable quarter, announces $500 million share buyback

On Thursday, Grab posted its first-ever profitable quarter, raking in $11 million in profit.

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