When Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess debuted during Capcom’s digital summer showcase last year, I didn’t pay much attention. It looked like a high-concept action RPG based in Japanese mythology that took some of its artistic cues from another one of Capcom’s highly stylized games, Okami. And while I have nothing but love for action RPGs and Japanese folklore, nothing in that initial trailer, nor the ones that followed, showed me enough of what the game was about to be interesting.
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Capcom’s Kunitsu-Gami combines tower defense strategy with the heart of community organizing
/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25538593/Kunitsu_Gami_Gameplay_Screenshot___5_.png "Capcom’s Kunitsu-Gami combines tower defense strategy with the heart of community organizing")
It was only after trying the game’s demo at this year’s Summer Game Fest, and later getting my hands on a copy, that I finally got it. And damn is this game worth getting into.
In Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess, you play as Soh, the guardian of the priestess Yoshiro who you must protect and guide through the land helping her purge it of evil demons. In an email to The Verge, art and game director Shuichi Kawata wrote that it wasn’t intentional that the marketing surrounding Kunitsu-Gami made it unclear what kind of game it was.
“This title is a mix of several genres,” Kawata wrote. “And we imagined the possibility that there would be a range of impressions people would have.”
I defy you to guess what kind of game this is based on this launch trailer.
Kawata described Kunitsu-Gami as a “maiden” defense game. Gameplay is divided into three parts: day, night, and a base-building cycle. During the day, Soh goes about mountain villages blighted by demonic corruption. He cleanses the corruption and rescues villagers who will help him in the night cycle to come. At night, demons attack, hoping to make their way to Yoshiro to kill her. To stop them, Soh assigns villagers different jobs, each with their own abilities, strengths, and weaknesses, and positions them throughout the village to prevent the demons from reaching Yoshiro. Once Yoshiro gets to the end of a village, it is permanently cleansed, making it a new base Soh and the villagers must repair before moving on to the next location.
I love how Kunitsu-Gami cleverly iterates on tower defense games. You assign roles to villagers with crystals, a resource gained through defeating demons at night and cleansing a village in the day. Not every villager can perform every role, and some roles aren’t combat viable, though they have other benefits. During a day cycle, I might assign a couple of my people to the thief role, sending them out to dig up more crystals or rations that act as health potions for Soh and the villagers. But thieves are useless at night, requiring me to burn up precious time and crystals to reassign and redeploy them. Sometimes, I might not have enough crystals, having used them all to buy the expensive sumo wrestler role — who draws demons’ attention to themselves and away from Yoshiro — or the acetic who uses their power to freeze demons in their place, making them easy pickings for the archer’s bow or the woodcutter’s axe.
Kunitsu-Gami offered the kind of challenge that makes my puzzle and strategy-obsessed brain sizzle with excitement
In addition to simply completing a stage, each village battle also comes with a set of special parameters that, if met, will get you extra goodies. One parameter required that I use no more than 1,900 crystals. While that initially seemed trivial, that goal got a lot harder to meet because that stage also required that I give 1,500 crystals to Yoshiro to complete it. I was then left with only 400 crystals for my villagers — an extremely tight budget when the basic roles like the archer and the woodcutter are 50 crystals a pop, while the more powerful roles cost between 150 to 300.
1/3
I really enjoyed that tension between strategic assignment and deployment. Do I spend the crystals to get the powerful roles, leaving me with fewer defenders? Or do I risk my larger but weaker army getting overrun? Kunitsu-Gami is also special in that it never fell into the trap of being too trivial. In other tower defense games, it’s possible to set your defenses so well that you can sit back and watch the game play itself. That never happened for me. No matter if I had a glut of resources and well-placed villagers, I always had to stay on high alert, often coming to Yoshiro’s rescue with one of Soh’s ultimate attacks. At every level, Kunitsu-Gami offered the kind of challenge that makes my puzzle and strategy-obsessed brain sizzle with excitement.
While it’s not a prominent feature, there’s also an interesting bit of narrative to the game. Each villager you rescue has a name and a bio, and I enjoyed reading their stories and how they all intertwined. These people became more than nameless units to throw at a demonic horde, but members of a living, breathing community made up of married couples, family, and friends. It made for a beautiful message that reminded me of the aphorism “we all we got.”
In Kunitsu-Gami, Soh is the only one with martial training while everyone else is farmers, fishermen, and housewives. Instead of waiting for outside help or succumbing to the relentless demons, those ordinary people took up what little arms they had to defend their homes and families. In a political climate that seems determined to roll back protections for women, queer people, and people of color, it’s nice to see that message. Help isn’t coming — we are the help. It’s a sentiment supported by what Kawata shared as Kunitsu-Gami’s main theme.
“Challenge is the driving ethos for this game,” he wrote. “We face various conditions seriously and push forward without fear.”
Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess is out now on PlayStation, PC, Xbox, and Xbox Game Pass.
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TikTok is having a tough time, and hackers are working hard to add to its misery. A malicious code took over accounts on TikTok and compromised the official presence of celebrities and brands, including Paris Hilton and CNN.
The hackers behind this sent malware via direct messages (DMs) on the platform.
Users didn’t have to click any links or download any files to get hacked. Just opening the message was enough for a device to be infected.
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A person on TikTok (Kurt “CyberGuy” Knutsson)
What you need to know about TikTok DMs exploit
Hackers are apparently targeting high-profile TikTok accounts. So far, accounts from CNN, Sony and Paris Hilton have been targeted. CNN was the first account that got hacked, and it was reportedly down for several days after the incident.
The attack reportedly happens without the account owner needing to click on or open anything, known as a zero-click attack. All they need to do is open a DM, and the account can be taken over, leaving the rightful owner locked out. The vulnerability might lie in how content is processed when a DM is opened. Similar weaknesses have been identified before, such as vulnerabilities in the Chromium browser triggered by fabricated images.
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We reached out to TikTok, and a spokesperson told CyberGuy, “Our security team is aware of a potential exploit targeting a number of high-profile accounts. We have taken measures to stop this attack and prevent it from happening in the future. We’re working directly with affected account owners to restore access, if needed.”
The hack appears to be a “zero-day” attack, which means the bad actors discovered the vulnerability in TikTok’s code before the developers did. TikTok had zero days to prevent it.
TikTok logo on a smartphone (Kurt “CyberGuy” Knutsson)
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TikTok has a history of getting hacked
This is not TikTok’s first hacking incident. In 2023, over 700,000 accounts in Turkey were hacked because TikTok’s two-factor authentication system wasn’t secure enough. This all happened right before an important presidential election in Turkey, which made things even messier.
In 2022, security experts at Microsoft found a major flaw in the TikTok app. All it took was clicking a bad link and hackers could hijack your account.
Concerns about TikTok’s data security and its connection to ByteDance, its Chinese parent company, have also captured the attention of lawmakers. The U.S. government fears China uses the app to spy on Americans or to influence the messages they see. President Biden has even signed a bill forcing ByteDance to either sell its U.S. TikTok operations or face a ban in the country.
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A TikTok account on a laptop (Kurt “CyberGuy” Knutsson)
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6 ways to protect yourself from TikTok DM danger
To make sure your TikTok account doesn’t get hacked by malicious DMs, follow these steps.
1. Use strong antivirus software to protect against phishing attempts: Stay vigilant when it comes to emails, phone calls or messages from unknown sources asking for personal information. Avoid clicking on suspicious links or providing sensitive details unless you can verify the legitimacy of the request.
The best way to protect yourself from clicking malicious links that install malware that may get access to your private information is to have antivirus protection installed on all your devices. This can also alert you of any phishing emails or ransomware scams. Get my picks for the best 2024 antivirus protection winners for your Windows, Mac, Android & iOS devices.
2. Use strong and unique passwords: Create strong passwords for your accounts and devices and avoid using the same password for multiple online accounts. Consider using a password manager to securely store and generate complex passwords. It will help you to create unique and difficult-to-crack passwords that a hacker could never guess. Second, it also keeps track of all your passwords in one place and fills passwords in for you when you’re logging into an account so that you never have to remember them yourself. The fewer passwords you remember, the less likely you will be to reuse them for your accounts. Get more details about my best expert-reviewed password managers of 2024 here.
3. Enable two-factor authentication: Enable two-factor authentication whenever possible. This adds an extra layer of security by requiring a second form of verification, such as a code sent to your phone, in addition to your password.
4. Keep your TikTok app up to date. Regularly update your TikTok app to avoid getting hacked. While you’re at it, update your antivirus software, web browsers and other applications to ensure you have the latest security patches and protections.
5. Review and adjust privacy settings: Ensure that your TikTok privacy settings are appropriately configured. Limit who can send you direct messages, comment on your videos and view your profile. This reduces the risk of unwanted interactions with potential hackers.
6. Monitor account activity: Regularly check your account activity for any unusual behavior or unauthorized access. TikTok provides a log of devices that have accessed your account. If you notice any unfamiliar devices, immediately change your password and log out of all devices. Also, to report suspicious activity on your account, TikTok provides channels to report a problem in its app.
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Kurt’s key takeaways
TikTok needs to strengthen its system to ensure hackers don’t access users’ accounts. While the latest incident seems to be affecting celebrities and high-profile accounts, bad actors may also start targeting common users. Given these security concerns, it should come as no surprise that I advise against using TikTok, or at the very least, to use it with extreme caution. Meanwhile, be cautious. If someone messages you asking you to click on something or send them something, don’t just do it. Scammers love pressuring people to act fast. So, take a breath and think twice before you click.
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/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25534501/IMG_5179.jpeg "A drone powerhouse.")
DJI isn’t the first name you think of when it comes to big-ass batteries — quite the opposite since the batteries that fit inside the company’s drones have to be as small and light as possible. But all that time spent finding the right balance between weight, size, flight time, and charging speeds has prepared the company to enter the power station market with the $599 Power 1000 and smaller $379 Power 500.
DJI’s approach to portable power stations is unique, I’ve learned while testing its flagship Power 1000. It features a powerful 2200W AC inverter that’s unheard of in such a small package that also hosts a modest 1024Wh battery made from safe and long-lasting LFP cells. It’s also one of the first power stations to ship with a pair of USB-C PD 3.1 outputs capable of 140W.
And to keep things as small and portable as possible, it eschews other inputs and outputs you’ll find standard on most power stations. Instead, DJI developed a versatile “Smart DC,” or SDC, port that allows you to add more I/O via proprietary adapters. But those SDC ports can also charge a selection of DJI’s own drones faster than anything else currently on the market.
The big question I have, then, is who is this for? Just owners of compatible DJI drones or anyone looking to buy a general-purpose power station?
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If you want to turn the Power 1000 into a full-featured solar generator, then you’ll need to buy lots of proprietary DJI cables. You’ll need a $59 cable attached to a chunky MPPT solar controller if you want to charge the Power 1000 from the sun or a $49 cable to charge it from your car’s 12V cigarette output when driving. You’ll also need to buy $22 cables if you want to add 12V DC outputs to the power station. These include a car charger port to power things like a portable fridge, an XT60 connector to power an RV’s lights, or a charger for RC aircraft.
You’ll then need to buy a $19 cable to fast-charge the Intelligent Flight Batteries from DJI’s compatible Matrice 30 series, Air 3, Mavic 3 series, or Inspire 3 drones. I tested my Power 1000 review unit with a DJI Air 3 because the batteries used on the other drone DJI sent me to test — a Mini 3 Pro — aren’t compatible with DJI’s SDC ports.
Charging the Air 3’s battery with the Power 1000 has one main advantage over other DJI charging solutions: speed. Unfortunately, charging with the SDC cable is limited to just one battery at a time since DJI doesn’t yet offer a multi-battery charging hub compatible with DJI’s own SDC port. You can, of course, buy a second $19 SDC cable.
In my testing, both SDC ports charge the Air 3’s battery at up to 124W, according to the display on the Power 1000, just shy of the 125W DJI quotes. However, it only hits this max charge rate briefly, which is to be expected. Charging from 0 to 90 percent took 34 minutes, but the next 10 percent took another 19 minutes, or 53 minutes to charge from 0 to full — nine minutes longer than the 44 minutes DJI promotes. That’s still better than the 70 minutes it’ll take using DJI’s 100W USB-C charger.
I do like that the Power 1000 shows the real-time charging percentage of the drone battery with a precision of two decimal points!
DJI says its other compatible drones can take better advantage of Power 1000’s SDC ports. The Mavic 3 can pull up to 150W, for example, while the Inspire 3 can draw up to 200W and the Matrice 30 series up to 230W to easily trounce the DJI’s own USB-C fast chargers. The SDC ports can handle up to 400W of input and 240W of output.
Speaking of USB-C, DJI’s Power 1000 is one of the first power stations to ship with dual USB-C PD 3.1 ports supporting a max output of 140W per port when using compatible PD 3.1 devices and cables that meet the Extended Power Range (EPR) specification. I was able to confirm with a random white-label power bank purchased from Amazon, as you can see in the image above. Unfortunately, those USB-C ports are outputs only, so they can’t be used to charge the power station.
The AC inverter is impressive and specced to power most household appliances, including microwaves, space heaters, and window air conditioners — albeit briefly. It’s rated at 2200W of “stable output” or 2,600W for “thirty seconds.” In my testing, I managed to pull a steady 2400W (using two hair dryers) for about one to two minutes before the unit shut off gracefully with a warning message on the display. I was able to then power the hair dryers at 2000W uninterrupted for a full five minutes before I switched them off.
Charging the Power 1000 from an AC wall jack has its own quirks. A switch on the front lets you set the charging speed at either 1200W or 600W. The fan is whisper quiet even at that max charge rate — I was measuring just 26dB from a meter away, slightly more than the 23dB quoted on marketing materials. DJI says it’ll charge to 80 percent in about 50 minutes, or 70 minutes to reach 100 percent — and that’s almost exactly what I saw, plus or minus two minutes.
I should note, however, that the Power 1000 seems to have a narrow temperature band for that 1200W max charge rate. I saw it regularly throttle charging to 900W after a heavy test session, which makes sense, but also after it had been just sitting idle for several hours in a room measuring just 63 degrees Fahrenheit (17 degrees Celsius).
- DJI’s SDC-to-MPPT solar adapter has a theoretical input of 400W. However, the controller’s input range is just 12–30V, too low to attach a single portable 400W panel that typically produces at least 40V and could damage the power station. DJI’s own Power 1000 solar bundles ship with 100W panels to reduce the “overvolting” risk.
- Leaving the AC inverter turned on will drain the fully charged battery in about two days, based on my testing. By default, it turns off in 30 minutes when no load is detected.
- You can combine SDC charging inputs for faster charging. For example, it can be charged over solar and your car’s cigarette lighter socket simultaneously.
- You cannot, however, charge from both AC inputs and SDC inputs simultaneously.
- The Power 1000 can function as a UPS for places susceptible to blackouts.
- There’s no iOS or Android app to remotely control or monitor the ports on the Power 1000, but there is a Mac or Windows app to manage firmware updates — a procedure I found to be laborious when performed the first time on my MacBook.
- While being generally very quiet, its fans will produce a loud 46dB when under heavy load, but they quickly spin down once the load is removed.
- The display is informative and generally readable both indoors and out.
1/18
If you’re a professional content creator who already owns one of the DJI drones that can take advantage of the Power 1000’s (or Power 500) fast charging, then there’s little reason to look elsewhere for a new power station, especially if you’re only looking to keep a simple mobile studio charged.
But if you’re looking for an all-purpose power station with gobs of solar input that’s ready for anything, then you should probably look elsewhere. While the Power 1000 can certainly expand its selection of inputs and outputs thanks to those versatile SDC ports, nobody wants to manage all those dongles and risk getting caught out in the outback after losing a cable that’s only sold by a single company.
The Power 1000 costs $599 before adding any SDC adapters. That’s more expensive than the $499 EcoFlow Delta 2 and a little cheaper than the $650 Bluetti AC180, both of which include all the inputs and outputs you’ll need from similarly sized batteries but fall short of DJI’s freakish ability to provide 2200W of sustained AC output.
All photography by Thomas Ricker / The Verge
/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25538650/ss_68f15d580bf91971f637be5e464bc803482d78f7.jpg "Bethesda Game Studios workers have unionized")
More than 200 developers at Bethesda Game Studios, the studio behind hit franchises like The Elder Scrolls and Fallout, have unionized with the Communications Workers of America (CWA). 241 workers, including “artists, engineers, programmers and designers,” have signed union authorization cards or “indicated that they wanted union representation via an online portal,” according to a CWA press release.
Microsoft has recognized the union, the CWA says; the company has already recognized unions formed by Activision QA workers and ZeniMax Studios QA workers. The CWA describes this as “the first wall-to-wall union at a Microsoft video game studio,” meaning that all eligible job titles will be represented by the CWA instead of just one type of worker, according to the CWA’s Catalina Brennan-Gatica. (Until now, all of the unions at Microsoft-owned studios have only been formed by QA workers.)
The Bethesda workers will be members of CWA Local 2108 in Maryland and CWA Local 6215 in Texas.
Microsoft didn’t immediately reply to a request for comment.
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