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AppWizard
July 17, 2026
This week, Xbox Game Pass has seen the release of new titles, including two "day one" releases on Friday: FixForce and Fogpiercer. FixForce is a co-op extraction platformer for Xbox Series X|S, PC, and Cloud, allowing up to six players to navigate a post-apocalyptic world using a drill-wrench to overcome challenges. Fogpiercer is a PC-exclusive turn-based deckbuilder roguelite where players construct a train and engage in tactical battles in a foggy environment. It is set to launch around 11 AM EDT / 2 PM EDT / 7 PM BST and has received positive reviews averaging around 7/10. Additionally, MAVRIX, a downhill biking game, launched on Thursday and has a score of 7.8/10 from Xbox Tavern.
Winsage
July 17, 2026
Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2019 and Windows 11 Pro are available for a one-time fee of .99, regularly priced at 9. This bundle includes a lifetime license for both products without any recurring fees. Microsoft 365 Personal costs .99 annually for only the Office suite, totaling nearly 0 over five years without an OS license. The Office 2019 suite includes core apps like Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneNote, Publisher, and Access, featuring enhanced tools and capabilities. Windows 11 Pro offers a sleek interface, robust security features, and productivity tools. Both licenses are perpetual, eliminating subscription management.
AppWizard
July 16, 2026
Cognition Method is a first-person, atmospheric sci-fi puzzle game inspired by Stanley Kubrick's film, 2001: A Space Odyssey. It features a narrative centered around a mysterious artifact called The Cube and includes innovative gravity-changing puzzle mechanics. The game is developed by a three-person team led by Timur Ozdoev, a former environment artist from CD Projekt Red, and is set to launch on PC on September 1. The game draws visual inspiration from both 2001: A Space Odyssey and the minimalist architectural style of Tadao Ando. A trailer and screenshots are available, and players can add the game to their wishlist on Steam.
Winsage
July 16, 2026
Microsoft's Focus Mode, integrated into Windows 11, includes features like Do Not Disturb and Focus Sessions, which help users maintain concentration by silencing notifications and providing a countdown timer for focused work periods. The Focus Sessions feature is located in the Clock app and allows users to customize session durations and breaks, effectively replacing traditional productivity tools like Pomodoro timers and sticky notes. It integrates with Microsoft To Do and can automatically launch Spotify during focus sessions. The app tracks daily progress and stores data locally for privacy, deleting it every 90 days. Customization options are available for alert tones and app theming, though some settings are located in separate menus. The app operates without elevated permissions and does not include distraction-blocking features.
Tech Optimizer
July 16, 2026
Google Cloud has enhanced AlloyDB by integrating AlloyDB AI Functions with Gemini models to improve search indexing for logographic languages like Chinese, Japanese, and Korean. This update addresses challenges in database search functionality, particularly for languages written in continuous scripts, where traditional PostgreSQL text parsing struggles. Developers can now invoke Gemini models directly from SQL to facilitate word segmentation and stop-word removal before creating full-text indexes, offering a more efficient alternative to traditional methods. The architecture maintains raw text, segmented text, search vectors, and embeddings in a single table, with generated columns ensuring automatic updates to search vectors and embeddings. A batching process using a PL/pgSQL stored procedure allows for efficient processing of extensive document collections by aggregating rows into arrays for model requests, thus reducing row-locking issues. Google Cloud provides tailored text search configurations for different datasets, suggesting a simple configuration for solely Chinese text and an English configuration for bilingual datasets. This preprocessing logic can also be applied during query execution, allowing user searches to be directed to Gemini for text segmentation and stop-word elimination. AlloyDB supports RUM indexes on search vectors, which store lexeme positions for computing relevance and word distance, enabling rapid query responses. Additionally, a hybrid search methodology combines full-text and vector search using a ScaNN index on embeddings, merging results through Reciprocal Rank Fusion. This development allows for robust multilingual search and vector retrieval solutions within the database environment, eliminating the need for external microservices.
AppWizard
July 16, 2026
Ustwo Games, known for Monument Valley, is transitioning from mobile to PC gaming due to challenges in profitability and creative limitations imposed by mobile platforms. CEO Maria Sayans acknowledged that the studio's reliance on mobile subscriptions, which she termed a “honeypot trap,” hindered their ability to create desired games without the support of larger companies like Apple and Netflix. The studio faces issues with discoverability in the gaming industry, criticizing platform holders for inadequate audience engagement. In response, Ustwo is launching the ‘Beautiful Games Club,’ a community initiative aimed at fostering direct relationships with players and enhancing engagement.
AppWizard
July 16, 2026
Riot Games has introduced optional parental controls in League of Legends as part of patch 26.14 to enhance the safety of young players. The features include the ability for parents to view and edit their child's friend lists, enable or disable communication channels (text and voice chat), access messages from adult accounts that have interacted with their child in the past 30 days, and control incoming friend requests. Additionally, the parental controls include purchase and playtime limits, applicable only to purchases made through Riot's platforms and for PC users.
AppWizard
July 16, 2026
The Witcher remake, currently in development at Fool's Theory, aims to transform the original 2007 game into an open-world RPG, a significant shift from its linear gameplay. Designer Artur Ganszyniec noted that this transition requires expanding the game environment and integrating new content with existing elements. The open-world format allows players to approach quests and challenges non-linearly, which complicates design considerations. Ganszyniec expressed both excitement and concern about balancing player freedom with narrative coherence. The development process is complex, reflecting the challenges of reworking the game's fundamental nature.
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