Good morning! Let's play Connections, the NYT's clever word game that challenges you to group answers in various categories. It can be tough, so read on if you need Connections hints.

What should you do once you've finished? Why, play some more word games of course. I've also got daily Strands hints and answers and Quordle hints and answers articles if you need help for those too, while Marc's Wordle today page covers the original viral word game.

SPOILER WARNING: Information about NYT Connections today is below, so don't read on if you don't want to know the answers.

NYT Connections today (game #1104) - today's words

Today's NYT Connections words are…

• TIME MACHINE
• TEETOTAL
• DIM SUM
• SOY SAUCE
• SPINDERELLA
• FORTUNE COOKIE
• VEGEMITE
• VISCOUNT
• CHOPSTICKS
• MISO PASTE
• PEOPLE PERSON
• HEART AND SOUL
• COINCIDENTALLY
• THE
• ENTERTAINER
• PARMESAN
• FÜR ELISE

NYT Connections today (game #1104) - hint #1 - group hints

What are some clues for today's NYT Connections groups?

• YELLOW: Strong tastes
• GREEN: Key starters
• BLUE: Reading material at the front
• PURPLE: Add it up at the end

Need more clues?

We're firmly in spoiler territory now, but read on if you want to know what the four theme answers are for today's NYT Connections puzzles…

NYT Connections today (game #1104) - hint #2 - group answers

What are the answers for today's NYT Connections groups?

• YELLOW: UMAMI-RICH FOODS
• GREEN: THINGS A BEGINNER MIGHT LEARN ON THE PIANO
• BLUE: STARTING WITH MAGAZINES
• PURPLE: ENDING IN SYNONYMS FOR "AGGREGATE"

Right, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON'T WANT TO SEE THEM.

NYT Connections today (game #1104) - the answers

The answers to today's Connections, game #1104, are…

• YELLOW: UMAMI-RICH FOODS MISO PASTE, PARMESAN, SOY SAUCE, VEGEMITE
• GREEN: THINGS A BEGINNER MIGHT LEARN ON THE PIANO CHOPSTICKS, FÜR ELISE, HEART AND SOUL, THE ENTERTAINER
• BLUE: STARTING WITH MAGAZINES FORTUNE COOKIE, PEOPLE PERSON, SPINDERELLA, TIME MACHINE
• PURPLE: ENDING IN SYNONYMS FOR "AGGREGATE" COINCIDENTALLY, DIM SUM, TEETOTAL, VISCOUNT

• My rating: Easy
• My score: Perfect

I just about managed to avoid threading all the Chinese food items into a group (DIM SUM, FORTUNE COOKIE, CHOPSTICKS, SOY SAUCE) after thinking that MISO PASTE, VEGEMITE and SOY SAUCE must be linked. I was thinking of fermentation rather than unami, which is how I came to add PARMESAN.

My past life working in publishing — including at a subsidiary of Time — helped me to see STARTING WITH MAGAZINES. All four are quite rare in that they are still thriving; most of the titles I worked for no longer exist.

Finally, with eight tiles left I was able to pull off a mistake-free game after spotting tally, sum, total and count at the end of ENDING IN SYNONYMS FOR “AGGREGATE”.

Yesterday's NYT Connections answers (Thursday, June 18, game #1103)

• YELLOW: FITNESS CLASS TYPES AEROBICS, BARRE, BOOTCAMP, PILATES
• GREEN: DEMEANOR ATTITUDE, BEARING, CARRIAGE, PRESENCE
• BLUE: PEACE ACTIVISTS GANDHI, KING, MANDELA, TUTU
• PURPLE: TOOLS MINUS LAST TWO LETTERS HAMM, JIGS, PLIE, WREN

• Valve has pushed out SteamOS 3.8 as a stable release
• It contains "initial support for upcoming Steam Machine hardware"
• This groundwork being laid suggests the Steam Machine is close now, and that's backed up by a bunch of other rumors of late

It seems the Steam Machine really could be on the brink of arriving, as the ground is now officially prepared for the device in SteamOS.

Valve announced the debut of SteamOS 3.8, which has the following line in the release notes: "Initial support for upcoming Steam Machine hardware."

In other words, the foundational support for the Steam Machine is now in the full, stable release of SteamOS, which is obviously one of the final steps toward the device hitting shelves.

And this move comes on top of a bunch of other clues that Valve is about to launch the compact gaming PC. For starters, we know the release is set for the summer, as Valve has told us itself, which means a June launch is possible (it's either that, or July or August).

Furthermore, the Steam Machine has been spotted in various guises online recently, notably a Vulkan conformance test, and there have been Geekbench leaks too (as highlighted by VideoCardz), along with suggestions that reviewers have the PC already.

Elsewhere in SteamOS 3.8, Valve has provided a raft of fixes, including numerous general stability tweaks alongside game performance and stability improvements via an updated GPU driver.

There's also a very welcome upgrade to KDE Plasma version 6.4.3 with Wayland support, which should improve the performance in Desktop Mode considerably on the Steam Deck (as well as bolster support for external displays, including VRR).

Away from the Steam Deck, we have a couple of key changes, with Valve introducing "improved compatibility with recent Intel and AMD platforms", meaning SteamOS will be slicker on rival handhelds, including those with Intel chips.

Valve also promises "greatly improved video memory management" for discrete GPUs, and this will, of course, benefit the Steam Machine (which sports a semi-custom AMD RDNA 3 discrete GPU with 8GB of VRAM).

Analysis: a mainstream machine or niche appeal?

Adding all these clues up, the expectation is that the Steam Machine is planned for a launch very soon – barring any last-minute hiccups. Furthermore, a June launch would be good to hit, as it'd mean that the device would just sneak in for Valve's planned release timeframe of the first half of 2026.

Also, I think the sooner the launch comes, the better, as it doesn't seem like the pressure from the RAM and component crisis on the PC market is going to ease anytime soon. In fact, matters are likely to get worse based on the vibe that's been prevalent this month. That includes Nvidia's CEO dropping one giant pessimistic cloud (no pun intended) in saying that he expects the RAM crisis to last for "quite a few years". There's precious little hope of a recovery from pricing woes anytime soon based on what we've been hearing most recently.

The main worry about the Steam Machine remains its price, of course, and Valve hasn't given us any real indication of where that might fall – save for the fact that the company won't be subsidizing the hardware to drive adoption (which was hardly comforting to learn).

Expectations have been for an MSRP of $1,000 or more for the base model – recently, an analyst floated the idea of a $1,200 launch price in the US. The problem then is that this makes it very challenging to push the Steam Machine as a mainstream device to take over living rooms around the globe, when such pricing will consign the compact PC to a much more niche appeal.

Mind you, we shouldn't jump the pricing gun, so to speak, and maybe the outlay for the Steam Machine won't be quite as painful as the internet is imagining. However, in the current climate of everything getting considerably more expensive – and you can add Apple's Macs to that list as of today – it's difficult to remain positive on potential hardware costs.

• 007 First Light game director Hakan Abrak says the game was always planned as an origin story
• He says the team pitched to MGM and had ideas for a young Bond story that was a "non-negotiable"
• He adds that there were weekly feedback meetings, but IO was always in charge of the story

IO Interactive has confirmed that 007 First Light was always intended to be a young James Bond story, and it collaborated frequently with the franchise owner, Amazon MGM Studios.

In an interview with TechRadar Gaming at an event adjacent to Summer Game Fest 2026, game director Hakan Abrak discussed the conceptual phase of the game and confirmed that First Light was "always supposed to be a young Bond story," and the pitching process to MGM and Bond IP co-owners Barbara Broccolo and Michael G. Wilson was "massively intimidating."

Abrak recalled the pitching process being in a room decked in old books from James Bond novelist Ian Fleming, a grand piano, and "the atmosphere of history was so thick you could just cut through it."

When he and other IO team members went in to pitch, he remembered the MGM heads came into the room and were "completely silent" before telling the developers to go ahead and pitch.

"We pitch the story, we pitch our approach, and why this would be different from other Bond games," Abrak said. "[They were] very silent, and then Barbara just says, after a while, stonefaced just says, 'I quite like it,' and then the room just erupted right after; [they said] 'These guys are so cool, like they didn't really get it, I was like keeping my cool and whatnot, but deep inside I was like 'phew' that was something."

The game director did note that he thought IO's initial pitch was "a bit ballsy" and the team had lots of ideas of introducing aspects from Ian Fleming novels, like James Bond's scar, and create a young coming-of-age story "where it's not like he has figured everything out."

Abrak said the team didn't want to recreate a "perfect digital version of Daniel Craig, I love Daniel Craig, but it just wanted to make something that feels original."

"More importantly, what we also told them was that we want to go for the gamers, we want to create a Bond for the gamers," he said, explaining that some young gamers might not have a familiar attachment to Bond like the older generation.

"We [wanted] to take that risk and introduce a fresh Bond for the gamers," he said, "We want to make a Bond for the gamers, not the gamification of a movie. It's difficult [to go there] with non-negotiables, but this was a non-negotiable for us. If we did this, we needed to get this freedom for this approach. So, this was very, very clear from the get-go."

While IO had creative control over the story, Abrak said there was input from MGM, as well as several sessions of casting before Paddy Gibson was cast as Bond. The team also had weekly meetings with Eon Productions, the British film production company that primarily produced the Bond film series.

"Although the story was written by IO and delivered by us, we got a lot of feedback," he said. "I think we had some affinity, and we had something to start with, like with the Danish dark humor, dry humor, but getting the British humor right, there [was] still some way to go.

"It's been massively helpful, and we're really into it, and I think for the younger generation of Eon creators that we had meetings with, and the artwork from the movies, which [was] attached to it as well, it was very, very exciting for them to get to do, because they were actually making a new one [Bond] from the ground up.

"It was a collaboration; they were very much involved, but it was always IO, doing the story, doing the characters and things, and then getting feedback and working closely."

007 First Light is out now on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and Series S, and PC. A Nintendo Switch 2 version is slated to launch sometime this year.

• Sonic Team head Takashi Iizuka says that working on the franchise is "a lot of pressure"
• He thinks he is "going to continue to enjoy making Sonic games" for the foreseeable future
• The comments come as the franchise celebrates its 35th anniversary

At Summer Game Fest 2026, I had the chance to chat with Sonic Team head Takashi Iizuka in a wide-ranging interview that touches on everything from the newly revealed Sonic Pico Park to his thoughts on the current position of the franchise as a whole.

Right now the blue blur is celebrating its 35th anniversary, which kicked off in January this year, and the series is in a very good spot. The most recent games, racing spinoff Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds and the Sonic X Shadow Generations remake, were very well received, and Iizuka seems driven to keep the quality up for the sake of the series' most devoted fans.

"When I started making Sonic games over 30-plus years ago, I didn't really think about [the community]. We were just making games, but the longer I was working on Sonic, and the more games we made, the more we heard from fans who really appreciated the content, who really wanted to know what's coming next," he said.

"We had games like Sonic Generations, which was a game that parents and children could play together, because we had that early group of Sonic fans who were now grown up, and they had children of their own," he added.

"Even now we have a wide range of not only adults playing Sonic games, but we also have children playing Sonic games. We have a huge audience of people who are enjoying the content, which I really appreciate, but it's also a lot of pressure because I don't want to betray them. I don't want to make something that people are not going to feel is true to Sonic."

A big milestone

Iizuka has been working on Sonic games for decades, so I ask how spending such a long time with one series has shaped him and whether he sees himself moving on to anything else.

"It's strange when you say things like that, because when you think about it, I've been making Sonic games and been with Sonic longer than I've been with my own children," he replies.

"I really enjoy getting to be creative for such a great character, and bringing this content to so many great people. And moving forward, I'm going to continue to enjoy making Sonic games."

He added that he 'of course' sees Sonic almost like his own child as well. "Please imagine your child on the screen," he jokes. "I'm really proud."

For the latest on the 35th anniversary celebrations, you can tune in to a special birthday livestream on June 23, 2026 at 9:30 AM PT via the official Sonic the Hedgehog YouTube channel.

• The last-gen version of Grand Theft Auto 5 can now be upgraded to the current-gen for free
• Players on PS4 and Xbox One can now upgrade their game to the PS5 and Xbox Series X and Series S versions
• The upgrade has been made free ahead of the next GTA Online update

Grand Theft Auto 5 fans still playing the last-gen version can now upgrade to current-gen, free of charge.

Rockstar Games announced the upgrade in a new blog post, confirming that those with a copy of the PlayStation 4 or digital Xbox One version of GTA 5 can upgrade to the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X and Series S versions for free, ahead of the next GTA Online update.

This means players will save roughly $40 compared to if they were to purchase the game for the first time on current-gen.

"Beginning tomorrow, those who own any PS4 version or the digital Xbox One version of Grand Theft Auto 5 will be able to upgrade to the PS5 or Xbox Series X|S versions at no additional cost, and experience the best versions of GTA 5 and GTA Online ahead of the launch of The Kortz Center Heist," the studio said.

"GTA 5 and GTA Online on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S feature vast technical improvements, easy migration of your Story Mode and Online progress, and new features including Hao’s Special Works high-performance vehicles and upgrades, Career Progress rewards, and much more."

These features have already been available for PC for some time, along with additional PC-only features like ambient occlusion, global illumination, ray-traced shadows and reflections, as well as Nvidia DLSS 3, AMD FSR1, and FSR3 support.

In case you missed it, Rockstar has also officially confirmed that pre-orders for Grand Theft Auto 6 will begin later this month on June 25.

The long-awaited announcement comes from a new trailer, where the studio revealed the game's official cover art and shared new artwork fans can use as their desktop wallpaper.

While we finally know when fans can secure their copies ahead of the game's November 19 launch, there's still no word on how much GTA 6 will cost. However, we'll know within the next seven days.

GTA 6 will be available for PS5 and Xbox Series X and Series S at launch, with no PC version announced just yet.

• Grand Theft Auto 6 pre-orders will begin later this month
• Rockstar Games shared the game's cover art and confirmed that preorders begin on June 25
• There are still no price details yet

Rockstar Games has officially confirmed that preorders for Grand Theft Auto 6 will begin later this month.

The long-awaited announcement comes from the official cover art reveal trailer, in which the studio said that GTA 6 preorders will begin on June 25 on digital storefronts and at other select retailers.

"Add Grand Theft Auto 6 to your wishlist today on the PlayStation Store or Microsoft Store to get alerted when pre-orders are live," Rockstar said in a blog post.

This also means Rockstar has confirmed that the game won't be coming to PC at launch, and will only be available for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X and Series S.

While we finally know when fans can secure their copies ahead of the game's November 19 launch, there's still no word on how much GTA 6 will cost.

Prices are sure to be revealed within the next seven days. Many believe the game could cost as much as $100, but analysts have suggested that a $70 price would generate more money for Rockstar.

Following a six-month delay, Take-Two Interactive CEO Strauss Zelnick suggested that GTA 6 is more than a year behind schedule.

He was also recently asked why the game has taken so long to come out, he explained: "The team at Rockstar really does seek to do something that’s never been done before. That’s really hard, and it takes a long time."

• Rockstar Games has released a new Grand Theft Auto 6 trailer
• It reveals the game's cover art
• We also now know the pre-order date

Rockstar Games has released a new Grand Theft Auto 6 trailer, but it's perhaps not the kind that you might have expected.

Rather than showing us new GTA 6 gameplay, the trailer gives us our first look at the game's official cover art and, in my eyes, it's pretty slick. The design follows the same general style as the Grand Theft Auto 5 cover, with lots of little panels containing character vignettes.

It features dual protagonists Jason Duval and Lucia Caminos in a prominent position, surrounded by iconography inspired by the Vice City setting and traditional GTA staples. There are plenty of guns, of course, alongside Florida animals such as a flamingo and an alligator.

You can see the cover art for yourself in the trailer below.

The cover art isn't exactly breaking any series conventions, but in my opinion it looks pretty great. I feel like the pink and purple hues really captures those almost tropical Vice City vibes. It looks pleasantly retro, but also appropriately modern and slick.

Are you a fan of the newly revealed cover? You can share your thoughts in the poll below.

If you're a big fan of the look, Rockstar Games has already posted a high resolution version of the graphic to its website so that you can download it to use as a desktop or phone wallpaper.

The website also offers a square version of the cover art, which might provide our first look at how the game's icon will appear on PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X and Series S menus.

The trailer, which only lasts for just over 30 seconds, ends with an official pre-order date reveal. We now know that they will start on June 25, 2026 "on digital storefronts and at other select retailers."

Unfortunately, there's no sign of a price anywhere, so it looks like we'll only learn that info when pre-orders officially begin next week.

The reveal comes just days after Take-Two Interactive CEO Strauss Zelnick once again confirmed that GTA 6 will release on November 19, 2026. He said that the wait has been so long because the team at Rockstar "seek to do something that’s never been done before."

Speaking with CNBC's Jim Cramer earlier this year, Zelnick confirmed that there are "marketing beats coming this summer" to promote GTA 6. "We don't spend money on marketing until we're pretty close to release," he said at the time.

This cover art reveal presumably signals the start of final marketing efforts as we near release, so I would keep your eyes peeled for further trailers and news soon.

Grand Theft Auto 6 is set to release on November 19, 2026 for PS5 and Xbox Series X and Series S.

• IO Interactive says 007 First Light's upcoming story expansion is "awesome"
• The principal level designer Mattias Engström says fans are "starting to expect" post-launch content from IO Interactive games
• Lead environment artist Hilde Sunde says the positive reception has "been amazing"

IO Interactive has teased 007 First Light's upcoming post-launch content following the game's "unreal" reception.

Speaking with TechRadar Gaming at Summer Game Fest 2026 following the announcement of a brand-new story expansion, principal level designer Mattias Engström and lead environment artist Hilde Sunde discussed working on IO games long after their release, such as Hitman 3 and, in this case, First Light.

According to Engström, getting to create new content for players is "very cool because it's very rewarding for our players," and is something IO is now well known for, unlike other studios that ship their game with no further content updates.

"It doesn't just stop," he said, "it's not the one and done, right? So, adding more content for our fans is very cool. I think it's also something you're starting to expect from IOI, right?"

"It's kind of in our DNA to do that type of stuff and also keeping the players happy," Sunde added. "In Bond, we also have a lot of replayability. So, if you play through it one time, you could do it very differently the next time and try different ways and play it again."

"Also, IO is a pretty big company," continued Engström. "We can have people moving around and going to other projects, and some people who may not have worked on Bond before can get going and bring in fresh new ideas and whatnot."

Engström went on to tease the post-launch content, saying it will be "awesome" and "we want the players to come back, and we want to create more content."

007 First Light was a success with critics and players alike, selling 1.5 million within its first 24 hours before hitting 2.7 million copies worldwide in its first week across all platforms.

Sunde recalled the emotional response she and the team had when the reviews came in, touching on what it was like to hear the reception after working on First Light for six years out of the game's seven-year development cycle.

"A lot of blood, sweat, and tears have gone into this," the developer said. "We really wanted to nail the Bond fantasy and get everything right, and right up until release, when you have worked on a game for that long ride, and you're gonna ship something that is very dear to I think [Bond] fans, you really want to get it right.

"And then when we got the reviews in, there people were crying, we were hugging each other, we were like it was unreal. I was in shock. I'm still in shock. I mean, I knew the game was good, but you're not prepared for it. It just feels so good for everybody who has worked so hard on this at IOI and all the other people we have collaborated with on this.

"It's just been amazing. I still don't believe it. I'm pitching my arm."

007 First Light is out now on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and Series S, and PC. A Nintendo Switch 2 version is slated to launch sometime this year.

• An automotive company will have a company-wide shutdown on November 19, 2026, due to employees taking time off for GTA 6
• Burger Motorsports states its normal services may face delays on GTA 6's launch date
• There are still no signs of a potential delay from Rockstar Games

Rockstar Games has gamers anxiously waiting in anticipation for one of the biggest games of all time, with GTA 6 waiting in the pipeline for a November 19 launch — and one non-gaming company has already made plans ahead of it.

An automotive parts and tuning company, Burger Motorsports, has released an internal notice stating that it will hold a temporary 'company-wide operational pause' on November 19, as several team members won't be available once GTA 6 launches.

It notes that several departments of the company, such as customer support, shipping, social media, and order processing, may experience delays, while all is expected to return to normal seemingly after the launch date, where it has stated 'once employees have completed their initial exploration, finished at least one mission, and returned to reality.'

Frankly, it's difficult to tell whether this is simply a joke with the company playing into the hype of gaming's biggest release in 2026, or if it genuinely intends to effectively push a company-wide shutdown — and if it's the latter, it shouldn't be a big surprise.

It goes without saying that GTA 6's launch is essentially a world-stopping moment, particularly for game enthusiasts, and it's no surprise that plenty of employees have already set their sights on November 19 as an off day. Regardless of whether this is indeed a joke, it wouldn't be a far-fetch to suggest that other companies could follow suit.

Fortunately, as it stands, GTA 6 is still very much locked in for launch on November 19, with Take-Two Interactive's CEO, Strauss Zelnick, recently reaffirming the date, and rumors from a reliable insider, Nate The Hate, stating the game will arrive in November, unless something 'unexpected and catastrophically' goes wrong.

It's certainly been a very long wait for GTA 6 to arrive, not only stemming from a long 13-year wait after GTA 5's release, but also since GTA 6's official 2022 announcement. We can only hope there aren't any more planned delays at this stage.

• Actor Alastair Mackenzie says the scene in which his character, Q, teaches Bond to tie a bow tie was a "key moment"
• He says it was a "very little special relationship moment"
• Mackenzie adds that the stories like that of 007 First Light are all about "humanity"

The actors behind 007 First Light's supporting cast have revealed the most memorable moments between their characters and James Bond.

In an interview with TechRadar Gaming at an event adjacent to Summer Game Fest 2026, the cast of IO Interactive's Bond game, including Alastair Mackenzie, Priyanga Burford, Lennie James, and Noémie Nakai, sat down to discuss the filming process and how they brought their characters to life.

First Light is a cinematic action-adventure game and a prequel origin story for Bond, so there are plenty of moments where he interacts and grows his relationships with the cast.

Mackenzie, who plays Q, recalls the scene in Vietnam where Bond is struggling to tie his own bow tie before heading off on his mission, and Q helps him in an almost paternal way. It's a lovely moment, and one the actor himself found the most memorable.

"I had to teach him how to tie a bow tie, which I mean, I don't know if you ever tried, but it's impossible," Mackenzie said. "It's a really nice moment between Bond and Q, where he presents him with his tie, and he doesn't know what the f*** to do, so he teaches him how to tie [it]. So that was a little key for me; that's very, very little special relationship moment."

Burford, who plays M, also touched on a "beautiful" moment with reluctant allies Bond and John Greenway early on in the story that demonstrated Bond's character development.

"For me, there was one [scene] where Bond is really angry with Greenway, and he wants to kick the whole thing down and finish it," she said. "And there's a beautiful bit where it's sort of teaching someone how to handle their emotions and how to regulate and step out of an emotional state as a young person might do; someone impulsive who gives in to their anger and looks at the situation from a bit of a wider perspective.

"Instead of getting angry, what can this guy teach you? What do you want them to pick and try and think about it that way. And that, for me, was a good clue about what this dynamic was, and [what] M's approach was."

Mackenzie added that these stories are all about "humanity" and something he believes isn't shown very often in gaming.

"These are all human interactions that make this game," he said. "There's a sort of visceral nature to it, where you're connecting on a human level, which I think doesn't happen in every game, does it? I mean, it's not something that is normal in gaming stories."

007 First Light is out now on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and Series S, and PC. A Nintendo Switch 2 version is expected to launch later this year.

• The 007 First Light cast have shared their Bond movie recommendations
• Lennie James picked On Her Majesty's Secret Service, and thinks George Lazenby "nailed Bond"
• Priyanga Burford thinks players should watch Skyfall after finishing the game because "You get the beginning and the beginning of the end"

The cast of 007 First Light has shared their personal picks for which Bond movies players should watch as a companion to the game.

In an interview with TechRadar Gaming at an event adjacent to Summer Game Fest 2026, where actors Alastair Mackenzie, Priyanga Burford, Lennie James, and Noémie Nakai, along with game director Martin Emborg, discussed IO Interactive's newest release, they were asked to recommend what Bond movies they'd recommend to players to watch before, after, or alongside First Light.

"That's kind of like saying, what's your favorite Bond movie, isn't it?" joked Q actor Mackenzie, before James, who plays John Greenway, decided on the 1969 flick starring George Lazenby, On Her Majesty's Secret Service.

"It's old school, but weirdly, even though he only did it once, I think Lazenby nailed Bond in that, until Daniel [Craig], actually, it was a unique telling of a Bond adventure."

Burford, the actress behind M, went with Skyfall, one of the most popular films in Craig's 007 series.

"I'm going to go really obvious and say play the game, and then watch Skyfall. You get the beginning and the beginning of the end," she said.

Emborg agreed with Burford's recommendation, but said, "There's something really interesting in watching No Time to Die, and then playing this game."

"I really like the contrast of [what] he says in Skyfall: 'Well, everyone needs a hobby. Well, what's yours? Resurrection.' And so there's something meeting Bond at the very end, and then seeing him step out of the ocean, a young man. I think there's something quite moving."

Mackenzie added that he "loved every Bond movie" growing up, "even the ones that we look back on now, say they aren't great." However, he loves The Man with the Golden Gun for its locations.

"All of that kind of affected my entire life, really," he said. "I'm thinking, I sort of identify that as being paradise."

Emborg continued, saying it's a difficult question because there are 25 movies and compared it to deciding one's favorite type of music or deciding how you feel depending on the occasion.

"It is really like, what do you feel like today? It's like, what's your favorite type of music? It's like that depends. Did I just break up with someone? That's going to change it."

007 First Light is now available on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and Series S, and PC. A Nintendo Switch 2 version will launch later this year.

Good morning! Let's play Connections, the NYT's clever word game that challenges you to group answers in various categories. It can be tough, so read on if you need Connections hints.

What should you do once you've finished? Why, play some more word games of course. I've also got daily Strands hints and answers and Quordle hints and answers articles if you need help for those too, while Marc's Wordle today page covers the original viral word game.

SPOILER WARNING: Information about NYT Connections today is below, so don't read on if you don't want to know the answers.

NYT Connections today (game #1103) - today's words

Today's NYT Connections words are…

• WREN
• CARRIAGE
• KING
• PLIE
• BARRE
• BEARING
• TUTU
• ATTITUDE
• MANDELA
• PRESENCE
• HAMM
• BOOTCAMP
• PILATES
• JIGS
• GANDHI
• AEROBICS

NYT Connections today (game #1103) - hint #1 - group hints

What are some clues for today's NYT Connections groups?

• YELLOW: Organized exercise
• GREEN: Outward behavior
• BLUE: Famous pacifists
• PURPLE: DIY equipment missing their ends

Need more clues?

We're firmly in spoiler territory now, but read on if you want to know what the four theme answers are for today's NYT Connections puzzles…

NYT Connections today (game #1103) - hint #2 - group answers

What are the answers for today's NYT Connections groups?

• YELLOW: FITNESS CLASS TYPES
• GREEN: DEMEANOR
• BLUE: PEACE ACTIVISTS
• PURPLE: TOOLS MINUS LAST TWO LETTERS

Right, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON'T WANT TO SEE THEM.

NYT Connections today (game #1103) - the answers

The answers to today's Connections, game #1103, are…

• YELLOW: FITNESS CLASS TYPES AEROBICS, BARRE, BOOTCAMP, PILATES
• GREEN: DEMEANOR ATTITUDE, BEARING, CARRIAGE, PRESENCE
• BLUE: PEACE ACTIVISTS GANDHI, KING, MANDELA, TUTU
• PURPLE: TOOLS MINUS LAST TWO LETTERS HAMM, JIGS, PLIE, WREN

• My rating: Hard
• My score: 1 mistake

I convinced myself that there was a group about ballet here and linked BARRE, PLIE, TUTU and JIGS without pausing to think properly. 

Next, thinking properly I connected MANDELA with the other PEACE ACTIVISTS including, of course, Desmond Tutu.

Congratulations if you managed to spot TOOLS MINUS LAST TWO LETTERS — HAMM really should have been the giveaway, but this quartet went over my head.

Yesterday's NYT Connections answers (Wednesday, June 17, game #1102)

• YELLOW: ALCOVE CAVITY, NICHE, NOOK, RECESS
• GREEN: BODILY WORDS FOR ATTITUDE CHEEK, LIP, MOUTH, NERVE
• BLUE: FIGURES IN GREEK MYTH CALLIOPE, ECHO, IRIS, NEMESIS
• PURPLE: STARTING WITH SYNONYMS FOR "ILK" CLASSIC, KINDLE, SORTIE, TYPEFACE

• PUBG's Ally Duo mode is now in testing on Steam
• Nvidia's ACE tech is powering the AI teammates in this mode
• You can play with an AI teammate against other human + AI duos until the end of June

PUBG Battlegrounds now offers the option to play with an AI teammate — powered by Nvidia — in a new mode which is available to try in beta for the next two weeks.

As VideoCardz noticed, the Ally Duo Mode is now available through PUBG Arcade, and represents Krafton and Nvidia teaming up to use Team Green's ACE technology — as aired back at the start of the year — to create an AI teammate called Ella.

PUBG Ally was in testing early in 2026 and has now reached the point where it's ready for public consumption — at least as a beta, where the mode will be playable through to the end of June on Steam.

This is an opportunity to "collect invaluable real-world player feedback, to guide the future of AI agents in games," Nvidia tells us.

How does Ella work exactly? The best way to find out is to watch the demo in the YouTube video below.

As you can see, the idea is that you have an AI teammate you can talk to, and more to the point, give orders, or ask for help, using natural spoken language (or typed text if you prefer), with responses from the AI designed to be suitably 'human' in feeling and tone.

At least that's the idea here, but watching the brief demo leaves me with a lot of doubts about what "represents a new generation of AI game characters designed for deeper immersion" according to Nvidia.

Analysis: reaping what was sown a long time ago

It should be no surprise that Nvidia is dressing this up in a lot of fancy talk. Last year when it introduced the concept, Team Green talked about revolutionary Co-Playable Characters or CPCs, as opposed to boring old NPCs. Of course, as my colleague on TechRadar Christian Guyton noted at the time, these are just glorified bots – and we've had bots for ages (PUBG has, too).

In fact, I was deathmatching bots some 30 years ago in Quake, when the Reaper Bot mod arrived. (The Reaper was a horrifically accurate CPU-controlled creation — positively lethal if it got hold of the lightning gun – but overall it had the strategic skills and gaming savvy of a house brick, and was easily trounced by a reasonably good player, but hey, these were very early days here.)

So, this isn't a revolutionary idea, or the next step on from NPCs, or whatever accolades relating to gaming greatness that Nvidia might want to heap on PUBG Ally. However, there is more to Ella than this, in fairness to Team Green. One half of Ella is the bot intelligence to actually play the shooter well enough (hopefully), but the other side is the AI models — the Nvidia ACE trimmings.

These are small language models (SLMs requiring an Nvidia GPU with at least 8GB of video RAM) driving the AI companion's "realistic" decision-making processes, and facilitating communication via speech models. Ella is "equipped with the ability to understand and respond to game situations in a human-like manner" over and above your typical game bot, but I'm not convinced from the demo.

Ella feels painfully artificial — not human — and borderline sycophantic in the game footage shared by Nvidia. OK, so this is still early testing, but I'm not getting any real 'revolutionary' vibes about the gaming skills or chat on show here.

Maybe we'll get selectable personalities eventually — and even true-to-life gaming types. For realism there definitely needs to be an occasional AI teammate who throws a massive hissy fit about how rubbish you are before abruptly quitting, surely?

The general reaction to the emergence of PUBG Ally has been as you might expect: some gamers are curious, while others are mystified or even scathing, and there are more in the latter camp. Some are convinced this will be highly amusing: "I look forward to the comedy that this feature will produce." While others on the same Reddit thread are already trash-talking the AI's ability to play.

I'm not surprised at the feedback thus far given the way Ella has been realized by Nvidia, and the AI being overly chatty hasn't gone down well either. Players engaged in a competitive game don't want flowery chat putting them off their flow, and maybe obscuring important sound effects that are clues as to where the enemy might be and so forth.

The whole thing leaves me rather cold at this stage, frankly, but among more casual gamers — or those who don't have friends to play with at the time, and don't want to hang around in lobbies, or be exposed to toxicity in pick-ups — Nvidia's AI teammate may yet find a place.

As long as the gamer in question owns a decently beefy Nvidia graphics card, that is, and another concern of mine is how much of the GPU's resources are these AI models demanding? Presumably not a lot —they are 'small' by nature — but gamers are notoriously unhappy about anything running interference with their FPS, no matter how slight.

• Roblox has introduced age-based Roblox Kids and Roblox Select accounts
• The new accounts seek to limit communication features for specific age groups
• They also include improved parental controls and other measures

Recent cases of new age verification and online age checks have stirred controversy over the last few months, with concerns about privacy and potential data breaches — but a new development with Roblox is one that many people will likely get behind.

Roblox has announced a global rollout of its new age-based Roblox Kids and Roblox Select accounts, restricting certain functions for children. This also comes with improved parental controls, allowing parents to block or allow their child's access to games.

Roblox Kids accounts (for those aged between 5 and 8) will feature the platform's strongest default protections, with chat disabled and access to a catalog of games that have been passed by Roblox's 'continual selection process'.

As for Roblox Select accounts (for ages between 9 and 15), chat settings will vary based on age and region, with additional safeguards in place to protect users under 16. Also, Roblox highlights that these Kids and Select accounts will evolve as users age, with the account type changing to a standard one at age 16.

These are careful steps Roblox has taken to ensure child safety when playing games or connecting with other users on the platform, specifically stating: "The rollout builds on Roblox’s broader effort to create age-appropriate experiences for younger users."

Notably, the move to force age verification globally for access to communication features has been controversial, particularly as the third-party vendor used for face capture, Persona, was involved in a notable security incident earlier this year.

However, it can be argued that in this case, the controversy differs from the likes of Discord or other platforms, as Roblox is effectively a service that targets children for fun and engaging online game experiences — whereas Discord acts as a platform for communication, mostly used by teens and adults.

As for Roblox's user base, 46% of its users are 17 or older, with the majority of 56% being younger than 17, according to research by Takeaway Reality. If that's anything to go by, then the push for age checks on the platform is arguably justified.

Good morning! Let's play Connections, the NYT's clever word game that challenges you to group answers in various categories. It can be tough, so read on if you need Connections hints.

What should you do once you've finished? Why, play some more word games of course. I've also got daily Strands hints and answers and Quordle hints and answers articles if you need help for those too, while Marc's Wordle today page covers the original viral word game.

SPOILER WARNING: Information about NYT Connections today is below, so don't read on if you don't want to know the answers.

NYT Connections today (game #1102) - today's words

Today's NYT Connections words are…

• MOUTH
• CAVITY
• CLASSIC
• CALLIOPE
• IRIS
• KINDLE
• CHEEK
• ECHO
• NOOK
• LIP
• NEMESIS
• TYPEFACE
• SORTIE
• RECESS
• NERVE
• NICHE

NYT Connections today (game #1102) - hint #1 - group hints

What are some clues for today's NYT Connections groups?

• YELLOW: Crannies
• GREEN: You’ve got some nerve
• BLUE: Ancient characters
• PURPLE: Beginning with a variety of people

Need more clues?

We're firmly in spoiler territory now, but read on if you want to know what the four theme answers are for today's NYT Connections puzzles…

NYT Connections today (game #1102) - hint #2 - group answers

What are the answers for today's NYT Connections groups?

• YELLOW: ALCOVE
• GREEN: BODILY WORDS FOR ATTITUDE
• BLUE: FIGURES IN GREEK MYTH
• PURPLE: STARTING WITH SYNONYMS FOR "ILK"

Right, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON'T WANT TO SEE THEM.

NYT Connections today (game #1102) - the answers

The answers to today's Connections, game #1102, are…

• YELLOW: ALCOVE CAVITY, NICHE, NOOK, RECESS
• GREEN: BODILY WORDS FOR ATTITUDE CHEEK, LIP, MOUTH, NERVE
• BLUE: FIGURES IN GREEK MYTH CALLIOPE, ECHO, IRIS, NEMESIS
• PURPLE: STARTING WITH SYNONYMS FOR "ILK" CLASSIC, KINDLE, SORTIE, TYPEFACE

• My rating: Hard
• My score: 1 mistake

Of course my first thought was to pair KINDLE and NOOK and then go in search of other E-book products. Alas, I couldn't see any.

My failure to find any other reading tech ended up being the key to my success, as I saw a link with the starts of KINDLE and CLASSIC and put together a purple group about sorting — or as Connections put it, STARTING WITH SYNONYMS FOR "ILK". 

My mistake came in attempting to collect ALCOVE, where I included MOUTH instead of NOOK; my thinking was that NOOK was something you leaned on, rather than something indented, something the old phrase “nooks and crannies” might have helped me get right.

Yesterday's NYT Connections answers (Tuesday, June 16, game #1101)

• YELLOW: CREAMY SALAD DRESSINGS BLUE CHEESE, CAESAR, GREEN GODDESS, RANCH
• GREEN: ATTENDANTS COURT, ENTOURAGE, RETINUE, SUITE
• BLUE: RARE THINGS, IDIOMATICALLY BLACK SWAN, BLUE MOON, PERFECT STORM, UNICORN
• PURPLE: WHAT "HOOPS" MIGHT REFER TO BASKETBALL, EARRINGS, RED TAPE, RHYTHMIC GYMNASTICS GEAR

• Xbox Game Studios CEO Craig Duncan and chief of staff Louise O'Connor are stepping down from their roles
• Their departures come amid reports of mass job cuts at Xbox
• The news also follows reports of several studio closures, including Ninja Theory, Compulsion Games, and Double Fine

Xbox Game Studios CEO Craig Duncan is reportedly stepping down from his position this week after less than two years in the role.

That's according to The Game Business, which claims that Duncan's chief of staff, Louise O'Connor, is also leaving the company, less than a year after joining.

Duncan accepted the role in 2024 after the previous boss, Alan Hartman, retired, but has been part of Xbox since 2011 and was the head of Microsoft's Sea of Thieves studio, Rare, for 14 years.

His role as CEO meant he oversaw many Xbox-owned studios, such as Rare, as well as Halo Studios, The Coalition, Flight Sim, Turn 10, Playground Games, Obsidian, Ninja Theory, Compulsion Games, The Initiative, Double Fine, InXile, Undead Labs, and more.

Meanwhile, O'Connor joined Rare in 1999 as an animator of the Nintendo 64 game Conker’s Bad Fur Day, but left the studio in 2025 after the cancellation of Everwild, before becoming the chief of staff in September last year.

The pair's departure from Xbox comes after Bloomberg reported that CEO Asha Sharma is considering mass job cuts after she and chief content officer Matt Booty outline a new "Xbox reset."

The news also follows new reports that Microsoft is shuttering several award-winning studios, including Hellblade developer Ninja Theory, Compulsion Games, the maker of South of Midnight, and Psychonauts studio, Double Fine.

Employees at Ninja Theory, which just announced its new game Senua at the Xbox Games Showcase 2026, were reportedly told about the closure on June 15 and told The Verge that they're hoping to find a new buyer.

Bloomberg and Kotaku first reported the closures of Compulsion Games and Double Fine, which are in "active negotiations" about spinning off.

Sharma has been CEO for just over 100 days, and in that time has reformed "Microsoft Gaming" back into "Xbox" and reiterated her plan to "return to Xbox" by taking the brand back to its roots.

At the Xbox Games Showcase, Sharma announced that Gears of War: E-Day will be an Xbox console exclusive, along with Clockwork Revolution.

• Lara Croft's new actress, Alix Wilton Regan, says her version of the character isn't "overtly sexualized"
• Wilton Regan says Lara is "objectively gorgeous" without it being "dependent on a man's gaze"
• She says modernized Lara Croft "unapologetic" and "completely self-possessed"

Alix Wilton Regan, the actress behind the new Lara Croft in Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis, has explained how her "modernized" version of the beloved character differs from iterations that have come before.

Speaking in an interview with TechRadar Gaming at Summer Game Fest 2026, Wilton Regan talked at length about her portrayal of the beloved character in Crystal Dynamics' upcoming title, calling her version of Lara someone who is not "overtly sexualized" for the sake of the male gaze, but beautiful because that's who she is.

"Our version of Lara, what I love about this version of Lara, is she is sassy, charismatic, stunning, objectively gorgeous, and completely self-possessed as a woman without being overtly sexualized, and that's something that myself and a lot of the animation team have talked about at length," she began.

"She is attractive simply because that is who she is as a woman, without apology, without it being dependent on a man's gaze, and I actually think that's a really attractive thing to play as a male player and a female player, and everyone else in between.

"That's the feedback that we have gotten from people on the animation team, and so on and so forth. And, you know, her proportions are still remarkable. They just look more realistic now."

Wilton Regan touched on what her version of a "modernized" Lara Croft looks like in Legacy Atlantis, likening her to an evolved version of the character that has existed previously.

"Modernized Lara Croft is cool, charismatic, confident, unapologetic, completely self-possessed, rises to a challenge without her emotions rising at the same time, which is quite an interesting differentiation, I would say," she said.

"Supremely physically capable, of course, that has to be stated," the actress added. "She is supremely physically capable and highly intelligent."

In the same interview, Wilton Regan revealed that her favorite "favorite" movie in the franchise is the original 2001 Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, starring Angelina Jolie, and that Crystal Dynamics used a lot of Jolie's scenes for her auditions.

"They used a lot of those scenes for my callbacks when I was auditioning, because Angelina Jolie encapsulates Lara's charisma, confidence, sassiness, and that was something that the creators at Crystal Dynamics really wanted to capture as we move forward into a new era of Tomb Raider," Wilton Regan said.

You'll be able to play Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis when it launches on February 27, 2027, for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and Series S, Nintendo Switch 2, and PC.

• Take-Two Interactive CEO Strauss Zelnick has reaffirmed Grand Theft Auto 6's release date
• He says the game will launch on November 19
• He adds that Rockstar is seeking to "do something that’s never been done before,"

Take-Two Interactive CEO Strauss Zelnick has once again confirmed Grand Theft Auto 6's release date, so it seems like fans shouldn't worry about further delays.

Speaking in a street interview with the popular TikTok account The School of Hard Knocks (via GameSpot), Zelnick was asked about his business before touching on GTA 6.

When asked when the highly anticipated game will come out, the CEO reaffirmed that GTA 6 will launch on November 19 this year. But why is it taking so long to come out, 13 years after GTA 5 to be exact?

According to Zelnick, "The team at Rockstar really does seek to do something that’s never been done before. That’s really hard, and it takes a long time."

The CEO added that Take-Two earned $6.7 billion in revenue last year alone, and this year it's expected to hit $8 billion, likely due to GTA 6's upcoming release and its estimated sales of 25 million copies on day one.

He then offered some business advice, saying that people should "never compromise your integrity. It's the only thing you have," and they have to stick to their word "unquestionably."

"I have flaws. There was a time I acted in a way that wasn’t consistent with my views about integrity in business. It hurt me really badly, and I learned a powerful lesson. Never do that," Zelnick said.

He added, "I think everyone is looking for an overnight success. My experience is that the only overnight successes are someone else’s. Everything worth doing is hard and takes a long time," before offering some career advice.

"People should chase the intersection of what they’re good at and what they like to do with emphasis on what you’re good at," he said. "Do that thing and the world will probably open up to you."

Despite holding firm to the game's new release date following a six-month delay, Zelnick recently suggested that GTA 6 is more than a year behind schedule.

He also said marketing for the game will kick off soon, which could mean the long-awaited third trailer could finally drop sometime this summer.

• Lara Croft's new actress, Alix Wilton Regan, says the first Tomb Raider movie starring Angelina Jolie is her "favorite"
• She reveals that "a lot of those scenes" from the movie were used for her Legacy of Atlantis auditions
• The actress says Crystal Dynamics wanted to capture Angelina Jolie's "charisma, confidence, and sassiness"

The actress behind Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis's new Lara Croft, Alix Wilton Regan, has revealed that her auditions were based on scenes from the first Tomb Raider movie.

In an interview with TechRadar Gaming at Summer Game Fest 2026, Wilton Regan, who discussed the process of bringing the character to life for the new "reimagining" of the 1996 game, shared that her "favorite" movie in the franchise is the original 2001 Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, starring Angelina Jolie.

Besides loving Jolie's portrayal of the iconic video game character, the actress also said developer Crystal Dynamics "used a lot of those scenes" for her auditions.

"They used a lot of those scenes for my callbacks when I was auditioning, because Angelina Jolie encapsulates Lara's charisma, confidence, sassiness, and that was something that the creators at Crystal Dynamics really wanted to capture as we move forward into a new era of Tomb Raider," Wilton Regan said.

When asked if players will be able to recognize some of Jolie's vibe from her performance, the actress joked, "I mean, I would never compare myself to Angelina Jolie, but I would love for someone else to compare me to Angeline Jolie."

She went on to outline the audition process, which began in a hot, mountain villa in Italy (very Lara Croft) where she shot three scenes, with two takes each. Afterward, she took a moped down the mountain to a tiny cafe and begged for the Wi-Fi password, then sat for "literally, not figuratively, five hours" getting steadily drunk on Aperol spritz. "Which I love, by the way," she added.

"So it was no chore as I watched these six auditions upload and get sent back to LA to my agents there, and all those were auditions from the game, but they were dummy scenes," Wilton Regan continued.

"Dummy scenes are when they're fake scenes with fake character names, the essence of what the creative team are looking for, and then the next few rounds were a combination of some of the scenes from the Angelina Jolie movies, and also a combination of actual scenes from the video game, where I could see that it said Lara Croft. However, all of the other characters in the scene still had dummy names, so I couldn't work out who Lara was actually talking to."

When she eventually received the news that she got the role, Wilton Regan said she "screamed and burst into tears."

"It was remarkably undignified, but it was very true to what I was feeling emotionally in the moment," she said.

Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis will launch on February 27, 2027, for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and Series S, Nintendo Switch 2, and PC.

• Demeo x Dungeons & Dragons: Battlemarked has just launched on Nintendo Switch 2
• The port arrives alongside an update that adds a new playable character
• The game is a Dungeons & Dragons themed version of the digital board game Demeo

The smash hit Baldur’s Gate 3 might not be coming to Nintendo Switch 2, but that doesn't mean that you should sleep on some of the other brilliant Dungeons & Dragons roleplaying games (RPGs) out on the platform. In fact, one just launched today in Demeo x Dungeons & Dragons: Battlemarked.

As the name would suggest, it's a distinctly D&D take on the existing digital board game Demeo, which has players exploring dungeons and fighting monsters with tactical card-based combat. If you have fond memories of the physical board game HeroQuest, then you’ll feel right at home in Demeo, as it’s almost like a modernised version with a unique deck-builder twist.

Battlemarked adds a whole heap of D&D goodness into the mix, and it’s a match made in heaven. There are eight playable heroes to choose from, including one that’s just been added in time for the Nintendo Switch 2 port, all based on classic D&D classes. There’s a paladin, of course, alongside the expected sorcerer, ranger, fighter, bard, and rogue, all with their own weapons and unique abilities. I’m usually drawn towards playing a versatile bard character, but I’m very keen to unlock the newest addition to the roster: an orc druid who can literally turn into a giant bear.

D&D features like skill checks are present and accounted for throughout the two available story campaigns (more are set to be added in future), but this is by no means a proper adaptation of the ruleset. This is a more casual experience that can be enjoyed with up to three friends regardless of their individual levels of experience with the wider D&D universe.

You don't need to worry if nobody in your friend group has played Demeo before either. There's no prior knowledge of that game needed, as a detailed tutorial explains everything you need to know right when you first start.

The art direction is strong as well, with a presentation that makes it really feel like a board game come to life. The different classes are represented by little miniatures with a set design, though I do appreciate the fact that you can mix up their color schemes or change their in-game names if you’re eager for a little more role-play.

I rarely use the touchscreen on Nintendo Switch 2 in handheld mode, but the support for it in Battlemarked is superb. Dragging your pieces around the board feels totally natural and flicking the die every time you need to roll it is so satisfying that it's become my favorite way to play.

Joy-Con 2 mouse controls are similarly well implemented, with an on-screen cursor appearing automatically and letting you have a similarly enjoyable experience even if you're playing in docked mode on a TV.

This is definitely good thing, as I had one major complaint from my time so far: the regular thumbstick and button controls can be a little fiddly.

You can pick up Demeo x Dungeons & Dragons via the Nintendo Switch 2 eShop for $29.99 / £24.99 / AU$41.99.

It’s also out on PlayStation 5, PC, and Meta Quest with full support for cross-platform multiplayer. If you already own it, there’s no need to worry about missing out on the new content added to the Switch 2 release — it’s coming to other platforms as a free update today.