These five board games seem sweet and innocent, but don’t be fooled! They have surprisingly competitive elements that can really test your friendships – even more so than many complex strategy games.
Stardew Valley is a remarkable achievement, created entirely by one person, Eric Barone, who goes by the name ConcernedApe. It’s incredible that a single developer could build such a large and enduring game, especially considering they’ve already reached a point where they could stop working on it. Yet, despite that, Stardew Valley continues to improve and thrive.
The amount of money raised for Star Citizen keeps growing, even though the game isn’t finished. Cloud Imperium Games hasn’t announced a release date yet, despite earning a lot of money during its long early access phase. This makes Star Citizen a significant project, not just in the world of crowdfunding, but in gaming overall. It’s been in development longer than many famously troubled games like Duke Nukem Forever and Beyond Good and Evil 2. However, unlike those games, Star Citizen is actually playable and has a dedicated community of players. So, what’s causing the delay?
You can make the basic V1 Armor after unlocking it in the Technology Tree. You’ll need to be at least Level 32 to unlock it.
Okay, movie poster fans, listen up! Mondo just announced a pre-order for a gorgeous Lord of the Rings trilogy poster set, and it’s seriously impressive. Available now through December 19th, you can snag all three posters – one for each Peter Jackson film – for $270. These aren’t your average prints; artist Riccardo Federici has created these stunning 24×36-inch posters with a really cool, stylized look and a vibrant 10-color palette. Each one captures a key moment from Fellowship, Two Towers, and Return of the King. If you’re a fan of the films, these are definitely worth checking out!
Winter 2026 will bring back popular anime like Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End, Fire Force, Jujutsu Kaisen, Oshi no Ko, and My Hero Academia: Vigilantes. Plus, several promising new series are debuting. The season offers a wide variety of genres – action, comedy, slice of life, sci-fi, fantasy, and isekai are all well-represented. There are a few horror titles, but mecha anime are mostly absent this season.
Apple consistently adds new features and improvements with each new iPhone release. The iPhone 17 models focus on a smaller design, with the iPhone Air featuring incredibly thin bezels (5.6mm) and a titanium frame. These phones are powered by Apple’s new A19 and A19 Pro processors and include updated technology like Bluetooth 6.0, Wi-Fi 7, and Thread networking. Battery life is also improved, offering six to seven hours of use even with heavy demands, and up to eight hours on the iPhone 17 Pro Max. The iPhone 17 starts at $799 for the 256GB version, while the top-of-the-line iPhone 17 Pro Max with 2TB of storage costs a significant $1,999.
Okay, so Embark dropped the Cold Snap update for ARC Raiders on December 16th, and it’s pretty cool! It’s the second big update since the game came out in October. Basically, it throws freezing weather at you with this new Map Modifier, and there are two new events to check out. They also added a new item and a bunch of other stuff. And get this – on December 26th, they’re releasing another Raider Deck, and it’s totally free! Just like the first one, it’s got five pages of unlockable rewards. You earn tokens by playing and doing challenges, and those tokens let you snag some sweet cosmetic items from the Deck. Definitely worth checking out!
Besides Miyabi, a new playable character named Ye Shunguang is coming soon! She’s a student from Yunkui Summit, placing her below Yixuan in the sect’s hierarchy. For all the details on Ye Shunguang, watch the ZZZ 2.5 livestream, and remember to redeem the ZZZ 2.5 livestream code while you’re there.
There are compelling reasons to consider resetting your character. While benefits like passive stat boosts are clear, the reset also enhances replayability and offers new ways to progress. It’s a tough choice, as losing even simple skills – especially those that improve movement and loot collection – can be annoying. But if you’re willing to overcome that initial hurdle, a character reset can significantly improve your overall game experience and give you fresh motivation to keep playing, beyond simply enjoying the core gameplay.