game

The few video game magazines that remain in print have retro content. That’s why ‘Micromanía’ returns in sheet format

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In times when the traditional video game press, on paper and sold in kiosks, has practically disappeared from the map (only with some glorious exception that barely resists), products aimed at the nostalgic waterline of the most veteran players are, however, in very good health. They know it well in Made with Pixelswho publish not only a magazine dedicated to retro (‘Pixels‘), but also official continuations of kiosk icons such as ‘microhobby‘ and now, ‘Micromania‘… in sheet format! Two-year hiatus. In January 2024, just over 24 months ago, the veteran ‘Micromania‘, the magazine of microcomputers first, PC later, which would accompany several generations of gamers. Its first issues, in traditional format, covered current 8-bit machines such as Spectrum 48K, Amstrad CPC and Commodore 64. They revolutionized newsstands with their second stage, the most iconic, in a tabloid format that multiplied the content and served as a bridge to 16 bits. A third stage, again in a traditional format, would focus on the PC world. A mixed return. In this new incarnation the format will be somewhat smaller: 25cm x 35cm, that is, larger than any other magazine, but without reaching the brutal excess of the original. The magazine will be bimonthly, and can be purchased in digital format in PDF (5.99 euros), in paper (11.99) or both (13.99). The layout and design are inevitably reminiscent of the original style and the contents will be comparable: analysis in the classic style of Amiga, Atari ST, MS-DOS, Game Boy, NES, Master System, Mega Drive, SNESm, etc., arcade games, news on the current retro scene, solutions and maps… What’s in number one. For now, the contents of the first issue that we know are: Cover dedicated to Monkey Island, with report on Ron Gilbert and the complete saga Two gift posters on the central pages of each issue in giant size Damned Castile Requiem– Exclusive review and downloadable demos for Mega Drive and Dreamcast Interviews with original editors of Hobby Press (Microhobby, Micromanía, Hobby Consolas) Reunion with Turbo Girlset of the first cover in sheet format, 38 years ago Who is behind. Without a doubt, this is the most interesting detail of this proposal: behind the writing of the magazine there are a good number of names from the classic age of video game journalism in Spain, which guarantee that the style of the reviews and articles will be in line with what was done then. It is directed by José Luis Sanz, who was already in charge of ‘Hobby Consolas’, and he is accompanied by Marcos García, who directed magazines, paradoxically, in the competition: ‘Superjuegos’ and ‘Revista Oficial Playstation’, among others. They are joined by editors such as Jesús Martínez del Vas, José Luis Rodríguez, J. Luis Molina and Juanjo Muñoz, among others. Bet on the past. As it could not be otherwise, the magazines that survive on paper, with few exceptions, rely on retro content, or at least retro has a strong presence in their pages. In addition to the aforementioned Hecho con Pixels titles, publications such as the Spanish edition of ‘Retro Gamer’, also by Axel Springer, are added. The new incarnation of ‘Micromanía’ is aimed, obviously, at those who bought it at the time: a juicy market of forty-somethings looking to return to even the most spectacularly uncomfortable format in the history of our newsstands. In Xataka | A programmer’s ingenuity turned a fatal error in this classic video game into a congratulatory message

We just found a planetary system that breaks the rules of the game with a planet where it should not be

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The universe has a curious habit: every time we think we have a perfect standard model for how things form, something comes along that forces us to rewrite the textbooks. At the moment, our solar system (like many others) seems to have a logical order with rocky planets like the Earth near the Sun and gas giants far away, but what just published the magazine Science It is the exception that confirms that the rules are meant to be broken. A new model. An international team, with strong Spanish participation from IEEC-CSIC and the IAChas discovered LHS 1903, a system 120 light years away which presents an “impossible” architecture according to traditional models: rocky, gaseous, gaseous and… rocky again. The importance of order. This study details the discovery of four exoplanets orbiting a red dwarf starwhich a priori does not seem anything out of the ordinary. But the focus is on how they are placed, as can be summarized in the following list: LHS 1903 b: an inner rocky planet. LHS 1903 c: a gaseous sub-Neptune. LHS 1903 d: another gaseous sub-Neptune. LHS 1903 e: an outer rocky planet. The normal thing in planetary formation is that the outer planets, when formed far from the heat of the star where ice and gas are abundant, accumulate enormous gaseous atmospheres like Jupiter or Neptune. This is why a rocky, bare planet, without a gaseous envelope, in the outermost orbit is an anomaly that has baffled astronomers. It’s like there are two Earths in locations where they shouldn’t be. How it has been seen. To confirm this strange system, a single telescope was not enough. The finding is the result of the combination of data from TESSNASA’s exoplanet hunter, and the satellite’s surgical precision Cheops of the European Space Agency (ESA). In this way, while TESS detects the general transit signals when a planet passes in front of the star, Cheops is able to refine those observations to determine the exact size. Combining all this with velocity measurements from ground-based observatories such as the Canary Islands telescope, the team was able to calculate the densities and confirm that planet ‘e’ is indeed a solitary rock on the outside. How is it possible? A priori, there are two theories to explain why a planet loses its gas and becomes rocky: photoevaporation and the internal heat of the planet. However, neither of these theories work for LHS 1903 e. As the most distant planet, it receives much less radiation than its inner gaseous brethren and is too cold to have lost its atmosphere on its own. In this way, if the planet did not lose its atmosphere a priori, the only logical explanation that the authors find is that it never had it. The study proposes a training model in a gas-depleted environment where the protoplanetary disk ((the cloud of gas and dust where the planets are born) did not form all the bodies at once. What happened, theoretically speaking, is that the inner planets formed first when there was a lot of gas and the outer planet formed later. He is left with the crumbs. By the time the last planet finished forming, the gas in the disk had already dissipated or been absorbed by its older brothers. In this way, it was formed from solid “leftovers”, with no gas available to build an atmosphere. This supports the theory of the “inside-out” formation, where the planets appear sequentially. It is a scenario that has rarely been confirmed with such observational clarity as until now in this system. Its importance. This discovery forces us to rethink the history of solar systems around red dwarfs, which are the most common stars in our galaxy. And we even thought that the position of a planet determined its destiny, but LHS 1903 teaches us that timing is just as important. The LHS 1903 system thus becomes a perfect laboratory: four planets, the same star, but completely different birth stories coexisting in a stable orbital balance. Images | THAT Images | There are satellites in space that need to be “towed.” And a company from Galicia has exactly what is needed

Netflix spends 17 billion on producing content and YouTube does it for free. And that’s why YouTube is winning the game

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Alphabet first revealed in its Q4 2025 earnings report that YouTube generated more than 60 billion dollars over the past year, adding advertising revenue and subscriptions. The figure is 33% higher than the 45,000 million that Netflix reached in the same period and places the video platform above all the entertainment giants except Disney, which had a turnover of 95.7 billion. The data confirms what many in the industry already sensed: YouTube is not simply another competitor in the online video market, but the main beneficiary of the transformation in audiovisual consumption habits. Paradigm shift. YouTube’s victory reflects a profound transformation in how we consume video. While subscription platforms opted for the Netflix model (closed catalogs of professional productions), YouTube added in July 2025 13.4% of total television viewing time in the United States. It expanded its lead over Disney (9.4%) to establish the largest difference recorded since these measurements began. Youtube on your TV. Time spent watching YouTube on television has grown 53% since February 2023. The traditional streaming market, meanwhile, is going through what is known as “subscription fatigue“: the average number of subscriptions per consumer in the European market has stagnated at 2.35 in both 2023 and 2024, after growing systematically for years. This saturation has caused structural changes: the number of original series released in the United States fell 11% in 2025third consecutive year of declines from the 2022 peak. The difference in the plan. Breaking down where the money comes from can point to the reasons for this triumph. Of the 60,000 million in YouTube revenue, we have: Advertising revenue in the last quarter of the year was 11.38 billion dollars, with a growth of 8.7% year-on-year 325 million paid subscriptions on all your consumer services, such as YouTube Music or YouTube Premium For its part, Netflix: It reported revenue of $12.05 billion in the fourth quarter of 2025, with a growth of 17.6% For the year as a whole, the platform reached $45.2 billion, with more than 325 million paid memberships The most notable difference lies in the business model. While YouTube maintains a hybrid model where advertising remains dominant, Netflix revealed its advertising figures for the first time: in 2025, its third year selling ads, advertising revenue exceeded $1.5 billion, multiplying by more than 2.5 compared to 2024. The company projects double that ad revenue in 2026. Why YouTube wins. YouTube’s competitive advantage lies in features that traditional platforms cannot replicate. On the one hand, the radical democratization of content creation: Netflix invests 17 billion dollars annually to produce, while on YouTube the creators assume the production costs. The base of 69 million creators generates a volume of content that is impossible to match: every minute 500 hours of video are uploaded to the platform The second differentiating factor is the algorithmic recommendation system. YouTube’s recommendation system uses large-scale language models that can handle massive amounts of data. This allows YouTube to do something that closed catalog platforms cannot: recommend videos based not only on general categories, but by fine-tuning suggestions based on specific interests. In 2025, YouTube’s recommendation system is the most sophisticated and user-focused. The third advantage is the absence of entry barriers for the public. While Netflix requires a mandatory subscription, YouTube offers free ad-supported access, with premium subscription as an option. This hybrid model maximizes potential reach: YouTube’s monthly active user base reached approximately 2.7 billion people in early 2025. This means that more than 25% of the world’s population uses YouTube in any given month. What it points to. YouTube’s triumph over Netflix in annual revenue represents more than a change in leadership: it signals a structural transformation in how audiovisual content is produced, distributed and monetized. The centralized studio model, a direct heir to the Hollywood system, is giving way to a decentralized ecosystem where millions of creators generate content for hyper-segmented audiences. And the implications for the industry are very profound. Header | Photo of NordWood Themes in Unsplash In Xataka | A YouTube video that lasts 140 years has gone viral. Nobody is clear why

Demolishing prices on Google and Xiaomi mobiles, the Nintendo Switch 2 with free game and more bargains, Bargain Hunting

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There’s nothing left for Valentine’s Day, so many stores have begun to lower the price of many devices, whether or not they are related to Valentine’s Day. In the new Bargain Hunting we are going to review the best deals we have seen all weekwith pretty good offers on cell phones, sound bars and even Meta glasses. Google Pixel 10 by 584.10 euros with coupon, a high-end mobile phone with an excellent photography section. Ray-Ban Meta by 246 eurosperfect glasses if you are looking for more than just glasses. Hisense AX5125H by 199 eurosa great sound bar with subwoofer and rear speakers. nintendo switch 2 by 459 eurosthe latest console launched by the brand with totally free games. Xiaomi 15T Pro by 799 eurosa mobile phone that has no less than 1 TB of internal storage. Google Pixel 10 If there is a mobile phone that we should pay close attention to, that is the Google Pixel 10. During these last few months it has dropped a lot in price, its current offer on MediaMarkt being the best: with the coupon 10PIXELMMFEBRUARY stays for 584.10 euros. It is a fairly small mobile phone that stands out mainly for its photographic quality, but also for its design and because its software will receive updates for many years. The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Ray-Ban Meta Also at MediaMarkt we can find at a very good price (in fact, it is the minimum in the store) the Ray-Ban Metavery practical glasses that with the discount are worth 246 euros. They accept prescription lenses and allow record audio or video and translate in real timemake video calls and even listen to music, among other things. The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Hisense AX5125H The best deal we’ve seen this week on sound bars has fallen on the Hisense AX5125Hwhich can be found right now on Amazon for a price of 199 euros. We are talking about an interesting bar because it comes with a subwoofer and wireless rear speakers, but it is also compatible with Dolby Atmos and offers a power of up to 500W at 5.1.2 channels. The price could vary. We earn commission from these links nintendo switch 2 The nintendo switch 2 It has received many offers since its launch and now MediaMarkt has a very interesting one. Not only is it slightly lowered, but 459 euros Plus we can take the video game ‘Donkey Kong Bananza‘ totally free. And we are talking about a title that was nominated for Best Game of the Year in 2025. Nintendo Switch 2 + Donkey Kong Bananza The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Xiaomi 15T Pro As an alternative to the Google Pixel 10, this week we have found a quite interesting offer on the Xiaomi 15T Pro. Amazon (like other stores) has it for 799 euros in your 1TB configurationso it is ideal if you want to have a lot of storage. It has the MediaTek Dimensity 9400+ processor, its screen offers a 1.5K resolution and its cameras are signed by Leica. The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Some of the links in this article are affiliated and may provide a benefit to Xataka. In case of non-availability, offers may vary. Images | Google, Meta, Hisense, Nintendo, Xiaomi In Xataka | The best mobile phones, we have tested them and here are their analyzes In Xataka | Best sound bars in quality price (2026). Which one to buy and seven recommended models from 99 euros

Tesla turns on the mega-refinery in Texas with which it wants to break China’s game

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The map of global power is no longer drawn only with oil wellsbut with the critical mineral pathways. In a move that redefines the auto industry and energy geopolitics, Tesla has announced that its lithium refinery in Texas is already an operational reality. It is not just another factory; It is the West’s first major attempt to wrest the keys to 21st century mobility from China. The advertisement. tesla sent a strong message through its official channels: its lithium refinery is now operational. According to Elon Musk himselfthis milestone “marks the beginning of energy independence for North America.” The facility, located in Robstown, near Corpus Christi Harbornot only seeks to ensure the supply of components, but also to reduce logistics emissions and generate regionalized employment. As detailed by Spectrum Newsthe plant has met the ambitious deadlines set since it was launched the first stone in May 2023. What was then a project of more than 1,000 million dollars, today is, according to Musk’s wordsthe largest and most advanced facility of its kind on the continent. A look towards China. To understand the magnitude of this step, you have to look at the Asian giant. Tesla is replicating the successful strategy of the Chinese giant BYD: absolute vertical integration. It’s no longer just about designing software or assembling chassis; it’s about controlling the entire value chainfrom when the mineral comes out of the ground until it becomes a battery cell. The capacity of this plant is massive. According to the specialized media DiscoverAlertthe refinery has a capacity of 50 GWh per year, which translates into enough lithium to manufacture approximately one million battery packs per year. By eliminating intermediaries, Tesla not only ensures its production rate, but also shields itself from the frailties of global logistics and geopolitical tensions. Texas alchemy. The real revolution of this plant is not only its size, but its chemistry. As Jason Bevan explainsmanager of Tesla, the plant uses a pioneering process in the United States: alkaline leaching to directly convert spodumene mineral into lithium hydroxide suitable for batteries. Unlike traditional refining—which often relies on aggressive acids and generates hazardous waste such as sodium sulfate—Tesla’s method is acid-free (acid free). As the refinery staff explains in the official video released by the brandthis process eliminates toxic byproducts. Instead, it generates a mixture of sand and limestone known as “anhydrite.” This byproduct, far from being waste, is being integrated into the circular economy. tesla confirmed from the beginning of the project that this material would be used in the production of construction materials (concrete), turning a traditional waste stream into a useful resource. Is it possible to break away from China’s shadow? Despite the optimism in Texas, the reality of the global market remains overwhelmingly favorable to Asia. How we have developed in XatakaChina currently controls the refining of 19 of the 20 strategic minerals evaluated by the International Energy Agency (IEA). Their dominance is almost total, since they process 95% of the graphite and 98% of the rare earths on the planet. Furthermore, the Chinese advantage is not coincidental, but the result of decades of investment under the “Made in China 2025” plan. While Tesla has managed to build its refinery in a record time of 19 months, the IEA warns that, on average, a mine takes up to 17 years to be operational. However, the United States has begun to play its cards with unprecedented aggressiveness. According to OilPricethe US administration has moved from traditional lending to direct involvement, acquiring stakes in mining companies such as Lithium Americas. This paradigm shift seeks to close the gap with China through public-private collaboration that includes massive projects such as Thacker Pass in Nevada, which is expected to be the largest lithium supply in the Western Hemisphere by 2027. The mining ecosystem: from Nevada to Texas. Until now, lithium production in the United States was almost negligible. According to a CNBC report, the Silver Peak plant in Nevada, owned by Albemarle, has been the only active source in the country for decades. Their method, based on solar evaporation in giant pools covering 13,000 acres, is a slow process that requires 18 to 24 months to concentrate the mineral. The arrival of Tesla and other players such as American Lithium (which recently expanded its assets in Nevada according to their own corporate statements) is transforming the sector. While Albemarle focuses in the extraction of underground brinesTesla focuses on the refining of hard rock (spodumene), creating a diversified ecosystem that seeks to feed the growing demand for electric vehicles. A change of era. The success of the Texas refinery will not be measured only by the tons of lithium hydroxide it produces, but by its ability to demonstrate that the West can compete on costs and sustainability without depending on Chinese infrastructure. Tesla isn’t just making electric cars; is building the foundations of industrial sovereignty. This project is the first concrete step to reduce a dependency that until recently was considered inevitable. Time will tell if 19 months of Texan engineering can beat two decades of Chinese strategy, but, for now, Tesla already has one of the keys. Image | tesla Xataka | Tesla urgently needs to make its electric cars cheaper. And their plan is to produce batteries in Germany

Today’s Barcelona game, the African Cup final and more on Movistar Plus for 9.99 euros per month. And without permanence

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Being able to watch all the football in Spain it’s not cheap at all. Those of us who are soccer fans and like to watch games every week (whether our favorite team is playing or not) have a very interesting alternative that has a much more attractive price. We refer to Movistar Plus+a streaming platform that costs 9.99 euros per month (or 99.90 euros per year). And be careful: because it includes much more than the beautiful sport. Monthly subscription to Movistar Plus+ The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Movistar Plus+ comes with a lot of football this January It is a quite attractive price if we take into account everything it offers. Before that is what we will be able to see in the coming weeks, it is worth noting that it is a platform that we can hire regardless of the operator we are, so we will not have to change companies for it. Besides, has no permanenceso we can try it for a month and if it doesn’t convince us, unsubscribe in a couple of minutes. Let’s assume that we subscribe today, January 15. In that case, the first thing we are going to be able to see is the Copa del Rey round of 16 match against the Racing de Santander and Barcelonarecent champion of the Spanish Super Cup. Is it the only party that broadcasts this platform? Not at all. As a summary, below are some of the most notable matches of the coming days: Third and fourth place in the African Cup (January 17) Betis-Villarreal (January 17) Manchester City-Manchester United (January 17) Africa Cup final (January 18) Galatasaray-Atlético de Madrid (January 21) PAOK-Betis (January 22) Atlético de Madrid-Mallorca (January 25) Arsenal-Manchester United (January 25) Benfica-Real Madrid (January 28) Betis-Valencia (February 1) Beyond football, Movistar Plus+ also has a fairly extensive catalog of high-quality films, series and documentaries where there is a presence of its own productions that we will only be able to see on this platform. If we add to all that that, in addition, we can share it with whoever we wantThe truth is that it is worth giving it a try. Besides, It is the only platform compatible with the Young Cultural Bonus. Some of the links in this article are affiliated and may provide a benefit to Xataka. In case of non-availability, offers may vary. Images | Movistar Plus+ In Xataka | The best streaming platforms 2025 | Comparison of Disney+, Netflix, HBO Max, Prime Video, Movistar Plus+, Filmin, Apple TV, SkyShowtime and Rakuten TV: catalog, functions and prices In Xataka | Mega-guide to set up a home theater: projector, screen, sound system and more

Nvidia is the ball in the AI ​​game. The US wants to share it with China, but it is not clear that China wants to play

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The CES held in Las Vegas is the great showcase of technology, and if there has been a protagonist (apart from the chinese humanoid robots), that has been Jensen Huang. The CEO of Nvidia has become a key figure in the technology landscape. artificial intelligence because it is their chips that are shaping the data centersand the H200 It is the great proper name. It is the favorite for ‘assembling’ data centers and has become a throwing weapon in the commercial and technological warwith the United States vetoing the sale of the chip to China. But the situation seems to have relaxed and there are already those who point out that Nvidia will soon have access to a critical market. In short. We already mentioned it in December: Nvidia planned to increase production of the H200 chip for 2026. It was not something that responded only to the rise of artificial intelligence this year (which so many problems it is going to give us consumers), but to something much more important for the company: the reopening of the Chinese market. It all came after the announcement that the United States would allow exports, specifically, of the H200 to certain Chinese customers. They had to have a series of characteristics, such as being validated by the Department of Commerce, in addition to having a 25% rate on each sale. It’s outrageous, but while it was being debated whether China would now want to buy the H200s for its data centers (the country is developing its own solutions), from Reuters point to one piece of information: two million orders. Two million H200. After opening the door, it was reported that two Chinese giants such as Alibaba (e-commerce, cloud services and the model qwen) or ByteDance (TikTok, Douyin and AI chatbots) would be asking the Chinese Government to They will let them buy Nvidia chips to boost business. More recently, since Reuters A specific figure is pointed out: two million H200 chips (with ByteDance and Alibaba asking for 200,000 H200 each). It is the order that the Chinese companies would have already made, at the expense of receiving the green light to be able to formalize the purchase. Strict payment plan. The H200 is not the most cutting-edge chip that Nvidia has to offer, but it is one of the most used in data centers and the one that is allowed to export to China. Other more powerful ones remain restricted for national security reasons. And, although there is nothing official yet, Nvidia has set certain purchase conditions. Basically, transfer financial risk to customers: if imports are approved, they will have to make full payment in advance. Deposits were previously allowed to some companies, but this lack of regulatory clarity, market instability and a stock of H200 that may be insufficient if the market reopens require these measures. 50 billion dollars. With this operation, Nvidia must be crazy about music. In the middle of last year, Huang himself pointed out that the Chinese AI market had headed toward $50 billion, stating that “it would be a tremendous loss not to be able to address it as an American company.” That someone else says it may not have as much weight, but Nvidia is now in the focus of all the big technology companies. You don’t have to be naive. Messages like “the world is hungry for AI, let’s put American AI at the forefront” surely contributed to the relaxation of trade conditions approved by the Trump Administration a few weeks ago. In fact, if we say that Huang has been one of the great protagonists of the CES, it is not so much because of the technology presentation, but because of continuing to push that commercial narrative. The CEO pointed out in the ‘No Priors’ podcast that “the idea of ​​decoupling from China for philosophical or national security reasons is not based on common sense”, also stating that he was optimistic about the relaunched relationship with China thanks to the new measures imposed by the United States. Because “China is an adversary, but also a partner. And the idea of ​​decoupling is naive,” he said. What if I don’t want to now? But although Nvidia has increased production of its H200s in Taiwan in anticipation of an avalanche of orders from China, the ball is not in its court: it is in that of its potentially large new customer. Although everything boils down to “business,” in this case there is something else at stake: technological sovereignty. Huang believes that there will be no official announcement from China about the “openness” of its hand when it comes to letting its companies buy American technology and assumes that if orders are being placed it is because they can. Now, with the intensification of trade bans by the United States, China responded. Banned Apple devices in official centers, also purchasing from companies like Micron (which have also focused on AI, abandoning the RAM segment for users) and restricted the purchase of Nvidia chips Manufactured expressly for the Chinese market. At that time, Local companies such as Huawei or Cambricon have advanced with their solutionsachieving very high yields that are allowing China’s robotics and AI industry flourishes. Friction. However, the H200 remains the “standard” for many data centers, and there may be a desire to buy as much as possible in advance of possible future bans while they continue to develop their own chips. We will see if the wish of the American giant and some Chinese companies that see CUDA as the optimal system for AI. China is very clear that its “dragons” are enough to stand up to Western technology, the ‘Delete America’ plan is still going and accepting the H200 could perpetuate a situation of dependence on foreign technologysomething that the Government wants to avoid at all costs. In whatever way, depending on BloombergNvidia will start shipping H200 en masse in the short term. Images | Nvidia, Karola G, Pexels In Xataka | … Read more

Half of Spain has gotten hooked this Christmas on a board game that is not a board game: ‘El Impostor’

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The Impostor game has dominated Spanish family gatherings during the 2025 holidays, going massively viral on social networks and causing the downloads of mobile applications to multiply that adapt the rules of an entertainment that, in reality, can be played without any type of add-on. We’ve dug into its origins and impact to find out why it’s making a splash this Christmas. The phenomenon. While families gathered over nougat, a dynamic of social deduction as simple as it was addictive crept into the dinners, turning every word into suspicion and every look into infallible proof. This is not a new game, but its massive viralization through TikTok During December, downloads of specialized applications such as “Imposter – Party Game” in the App Store or “Imposter: Word Game” on Google Play. It has not been an exclusively Spanish phenomenon, as articles such as this one from a Mexican digital. But the practical reason for its success is very clear: very simple and quick to explain rules, guaranteed light psychological tension and no preparations, only a handful of people are needed. How to play. The game works through an information asymmetry that starts with all participants knowing a secret word (“meatballs”, “Cuenca” or “car)” except one player. Your survival depends on pretending you know the word. Each person must offer a clue related to the word without saying it directly, balancing being specific enough not to seem suspicious and vague enough not to give away the answer to the imposter. After the clue round, the players debate and vote who is the imposter. If he manages to go unnoticed, victory is his. It can be played with paper and a human moderator, but apps facilitate randomness and word choice, sometimes online, sometimes with a single device passed from hand to hand that secretly assigns roles, which speeds up the pace of the game. Origins of the game. These date back to 1986, to the classroom of a psychology student at Moscow State University named Dimitry Davidoff. It began as a pedagogical exercise to teach “visual psychodiagnoses” (the interpretation of body language and non-verbal signals) and was named “Mafia.” Popular Mechanics He said that Davidoff’s objective was to create “a conflict between an informed minority and an uninformed majority”, that is, between gangsters and innocent citizens. The werewolves arrive. The thematic leap that would define the game came a decade later, in 1997, when designer Andrew Plotkin invented a reconversion: the gangsters were transformed into werewolves, the citizens into medieval villagers, and the game cycle adopted the day/night structure that suited the lycanthropic transformations under the full moon. This version introduced the role of the Seer (a villager with the ability to investigate other people’s identities every night), adding an additional strategic layer. Over time, these games (which fall into the category of “social deduction titles”) have been examined under multiple academic lenses, from the playful to the psychological. For example, in 2024 a paper It explored optimal strategies from a game theory perspective and built mathematical models to calculate what strategies each faction should follow to win. Institutions such as MIT developed their own regulatory variants and experts such as those on the web No Rolls Barred They theorized that these games work because they operate in “an information asymmetry where knowing something that others don’t know becomes a currency of social exchange.” The ‘Among Us’ revolution. It was this seemingly modest video game that would catapult the genre into the global mainstream. Developed by the small studio InnerSloth, it was launched in June 2018 for mobile and PC and for almost two years it languished in obscurity, averaging between 30 and 50 players connected simultaneously, a number so discreet that the studio considered abandoning the project. But when Twitch streamer Sodapoppin discovered the game in July 2020 and hosted a four-plus hour session with other content creators, he set off a chain reaction which would lead ‘Among Us’ to reach 3.8 million concurrent players in September, a growth of 1600% in just eight months. It was then spoken of the opportuneness of timing pandemic, with the world in confinement: ‘Among Us’ offered a form of remote socialization that replicated the experience of board games but without the need for physical proximity. In addition, the game was very accessible economically and technically: free on mobile devices and only five dollars on PC, with very simple mechanics thanks to which anyone with a phone could participate. Third, finally, he was ideal for the streaming: Watching games of ‘Among Us’ was almost as entertaining as playing them. Additionally, the game refined the original mechanics: there were tasks that players had to complete while investigating, eliminating the role of passive eliminated players. The viralization. TikTok has established itself as the true catalyst for the Impostor’s Christmas explosion. Unlike ‘Among Us’, the Impostor found its perfect ecosystem in the short vertical videos of TikTok, with grandmothers accusing grandchildren, groups of friends yelling at each other and entire families breaking up with suspicious laughter. The platform functioned as a visual instruction manual and eliminated the barrier to entry that ‘Mafia’ and ‘Werewolf’ had historically had, as well as mechanically inspired board gameslike ‘Little Secret’ or ‘The Liar’. The secret of the game’s success is that it has transcended generations: a 70-year-old can lie as convincingly as a 15-year-old. Grandparents have learned from their grandchildren how the game worked, parents have discovered that their children lied terrifyingly well, leading to a curious reversal of the usual roles in the family. Quite a game. Header | Alvaro Garcia

War is a video game and the US has the best command

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He US assault to Venezuela has not only been a demonstration of force (above the law), but the confirmation of an intuition that had been floating in the air for years and that the invasion of Ukraine has multiplied: Modern warfare, at least for those who master the technology, increasingly resembles a video game screen. And, in that scenario, whoever has the best command, has the game. War as an interactive spectacle. The capture of Nicolás Maduro was the result of months of surveillance obsessive precision, millimetric rehearsal, and such precise coordination that it allowed Washington to execute one of the most complex operations in its recent history with an almost surgical level of control. From the observation of their routines daily to the exact recreation of their shelter in a full-scale model, everything was designed to reduce uncertainty to a minimum. When Trump gave the final order, he did so knowing that he was not launching his forces into the unknown, but rather activating a script rehearsed to the last second, with cameras, sensors and data links turning the battlefield into an interface controllable from thousands of miles away. The invisible board. The later satellite images The attack on complexes such as Fuerte Tiuna or the La Carlota air base reveal the essence of this new way of fighting. There are no carpets of bombs or indiscriminate devastation, but concrete buildings reduced to rubblespecific warehouses neutralized and air defense systems dismantled without large visible craters. The combination of prior intelligence, precision munitions and mastery of airspace allowed the United States to eliminate critical nodes of the Venezuelan military apparatus as if it were turning off icons. on a digital map. From stealth fighters to strategic bombers and swarms of drones, each platform served a defined function within a plan that was developed in multiple simultaneous layerswithout significant interference and with almost total knowledge of the terrain and the enemy. Images before the US attack Images of the destruction of buildings after the US attack Synchronization to the millimeter. As airstrikes blinded defenses and plunged parts of Caracas into darkness, the videos and analyzes that have been made public have revealed that the US special forces were advancing as perfectly coordinated pieces. Helicopters of elite units entered the city at low altitudesupported by electronic warfare, in-flight refueling and constant surveillance from the air. The assault on Maduro’s refuge, described as an authentic urban fortress, was the climax of a choreography in which every second counted. Even the possibility of having to open armored doors with blowtorches was integrated into the plan, in Trump’s own words. Before the attack After the attack No casualties. The result was a fulminant irruptionresistance neutralized in minutes and the extraction of the objective before the Venezuelan defensive system could react coherently. For Washington, the balance was revealing: no dead soldiers, complete control of the situation and an orderly withdrawal, as if a perfect mission in a digital campaign had been completed. Venezuela, for its part, has reported that the operation left at least 80 dead. The best controls in the game. The episode explains better than any speech why the United States and a few powers play in a league of their own. The key is not only to have more planes or ships, but to absolute integration intelligence, command and control, secure communications, space sensors and rapid intervention forces. Washington is able to gather in real time information from satellitesagents on the ground, drones and reconnaissance aircraft, process it in distributed command centers and translate it into immediate orders for units operating thousands of kilometers away. That ability to “see it all” and act instantly reduces the margin of error to levels that few can match today. Russia or China can deploy brute force or deny entire areas, but executing a capture operation of that caliber, in a foreign capital, with such precision and without assuming significant losses, remains a privilege. almost exclusive of the United States. The final message. If you want, the attack on Venezuela has left an uncomfortable lesson for the rest of the world. The war of the 21st century is not always decided in large battles or long fronts, but in control roomsdata flows and decisions made in front of screens that condense chaos into understandable symbols. For those who master this technology, combat becomes a succession of calculated actionswhere one’s own human risk is minimized and the adversary barely has room to respond. In other words: the attack on Caracas has shown that, when it comes to this type of war, the great powers not only play another game, but also have the best controls, the complete map and the saved game before even starting. Image | Vantor In Xataka | For 150 aircraft to bomb Venezuela, the US used one of the most lethal tactics of the war: gunboat diplomacy In Xataka | Someone bet $30,000 that Maduro would fall the night before he fell. He has won $400,000

The iconic Game Boy is back in LEGO format and is a good Christmas gift for the most nostalgic

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Do you want to surprise a gamer from the ’90s, now a forty-something, and you don’t know what to do it with? Surely in his youth he had the iconic Game Boy. Now, you can buy a LEGO Game Boy set to build Nintendo’s first portable console, thus becoming a perfect gift for Twelfth Night. LEGO Super Mario Game Boy The price could vary. We earn commission from these links A LEGO set with surprising realism Some time ago, LEGO released a set inspired by the Nintendo Entertainment System. Although, now, this new set wants to give a tribute to the iconic Game Boythe Japanese company’s first portable console. Composed of 421 pieces and with a design endowed with realism, if you have it in your hands, you will believe that you are looking at the real console and not one made with LEGO pieces. In addition, it comes with many details and accessories, such as a stand to place it and several games and screens. Specifically,’The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening‘ and ‘Super Mario Land‘ are the two screens that the LEGO set includes. Furthermore, to make matters worse (as far as realism is concerned), the console buttons can be pressed and the cartridges (fully buildable) can be inserted into this Game Boy. Other LEGO sets for gamers that may interest you LEGO Mario Kart 72037: Mario and Standard Kart The price could vary. We earn commission from these links LEGO 21265 Minecraft Workbench The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Some of the links in this article are affiliated and may provide a benefit to Xataka. In case of non-availability, offers may vary. Images | LEGO In Xataka | Your favorite series, comics and movies also in LEGO: 15 construction kits ideal to assemble yourself or give as a gift In Xataka | LEGO constructions on another level: the Technic Series has the models that any collector would dream of

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