News
- Invoke Studios head Dominic Guay says Warlock: Dungeons & Dragons' imp companion Skev provides narrative and gameplay assistance
- Skev will provide lore to the player as they explore Darkon, but can't be controlled in combat
- Guay says the imp is "his own character" with his own personal motivations
Warlock: Dungeons & Dragons' imp companion Skev serves multiple purposes for the player, but was designed to be "his own character."
In an interview with TechRadar Gaming at Gamescom, Invoke Studios head Dominic Guay offered more insight into Skev and his relationship with the warlock protagonist Kaatri, revealing that the imp will assist the player as they navigate the open world of Darkon both narratively and with his utilities.
However, while Skev will act as a companion to Kaatri, Guay stressed that he still has his own motivations, including seeking out his lost master, just like how Kaatri is searching for someone too.
"We iterated a lot on him. So he actually is his own character," Guay said. "That was important to us. He wasn't born to be a sidekick. That was the mentality. He used to be the advisor to the ruler of Darkon, so in a way, he had a really important role in that land before his master vanished, and his quest is to find his lost master, and Kaatri's quest is to find someone too.
"So, he tags along, and Kaatri's kind of like, 'Oh well, he knows this place, and that's useful.' So he gives you a lot of insights as you travel around. You find new places."
The studio head said Skev will offer lore about new locations as players explore, adding that he thinks of the imp as "your unreliable guide to Darkon."
Skev won't be controlled by the player either, Guay confirmed, so he won't die in combat or get in the way, but will sometimes help in certain instances, like by picking locks.
"You can actually decide how you want to upgrade his abilities throughout the adventure," he added, "So [there's] some practical application."
Warlock: Dungeons & Dragons arrives in 2027 for PS5, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, and PC.
- The final season of Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 has been revealed
- It includes a Doom crossover and lots of Halloween content
- Only one new multiplayer map is being added, however
Activision has lifted the curtain on the content coming to Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 in its final season ahead of the Modern Warfare 4 launch.
With a new game on the way, it shouldn't come as much of a surprise that this update is going to be a smaller one. Still, it includes plenty of spooky Halloween content as part of the series' annual The Haunting event.
This includes a bombastic Doom crossover, allowing players to unlock loads of Doom-themed rewards in a new limited-time event pass. As usual, this pass will be divided into two tracks: a free one and a premium option.
The free track contains new operator skins for Wei Lin and Falkner, plus an adorable Mini Slayer weapon charm and a range of other rewards. Completing the entire track will grant you the Roc 20mm special weapon — a massive, almost cannon-like rifle that fires devastating 20mm rounds.
The premium track, on the other hand, unlocks the Doom Slayer himself as a playable operator in the JSOC faction. By default, he's wearing his Doom: The Dark Ages attire, but the premium track's final reward is an alternate classic 1993-style skin.
(Image credit: Activision)Other weapons introduced in the upcoming season include the TR41 Para Assault Rifle, which will be available at launch, and the Arcblade melee weapon added later on. There are also some new weapon attachments on the way for the VS Recon Sniper Rifle, Dravec 45 SMG, and Sokol 545 LMG.
Unfortunately, the offering is pretty sparse on the map front, with only one new one being introduced. It's called Quantum, and it looks like an appropriately ruined laboratory. There is at least also a new version of the existing Homestead map, called Bloodstead, for you to explore as well.
The cool Hordepoint mode will be returning from previous games in season too, challenging players to face off against a rival team and spawning waves of zombies.
All of this comes alongside a fresh battle pass full of new skins and unlocks, not to mention additional content for the Zombies and Endgame modes, plus the free-to-play Warzone battle royale.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 is available now for PC, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X and Series S, and Xbox One.
- Qualcomm to help build custom silicon and optical networking for AWS data centers
- Amazon will acquire 25 million Qualcomm shares, worth over $4 billion
- AWS data centers are more efficient than the industry average, but behind Google's
Qualcomm and Amazon have announced what they have describing as a "multi-generational product collaboration," in which Qualcomm will help build future AI data center infrastructure for AWS.
Because this isn't a one-off project, instead of announcing a single component, the companies are likely to work together across multiple generations of infrastructure spanning both custom inference silicon and high-speed optical connectivity.
Together, the two companies are expected to combine their expertise in AI infrastructure and data centers to improve performance, power efficiency and cost efficiency for a future where data centers exist in even higher volumes.
AWS and Qualcomm to work together on future data centersThe project spans two key areas – custom AI silicon and networking hardware. On the silicon front, Qualcomm will help produce custom AWS silicon with a major focus on inference, giving the chipmaker a potentially big entry into the data center semiconductor market – one that Nvidia has seen major success in.
As for networking, Qualcomm will be behind high-performance optical connectivity for AWS data centers, covering connections of up to 1.6T initially but plans to scale.
With data centers under intense pressure from all angles to boost efficiency and reduce resources consumption, operators are being forced to make progress in all areas, and reducing losses between components with efficient networking is often overlooked compared with outright chip efficiency.
"As AI demand accelerates, data center infrastructure will require advances in both computing and connectivity to deliver greater performance with more efficiency,” Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon summarized.
In Amazon's 2025 sustainability report, it declared a global average PUE of 1.14, which was nearly 9% better than the public cloud industry average of 1.25. Still, Google says it managed a fleet-wide average of 1.09, so Amazon's work with Qualcomm could be key to it overtaking Google.
"By working together on customized silicon and advanced connectivity, we’re delivering more performant, efficient, and cost-effective infrastructure for our customers," AWS VP Prasad Kalyanaraman added.
As part of the deal, Qualcomm has issued warrants for Amazon to acquire around $4.03 billion in stock, per a SEC filing – the equivalent of 25 million shares priced at $161.26. Qualcomm is currently trading at $174.09, up nearly 5% in five days.
- The Ninja Crispi DualZone is an air fryer designed to cook two foods at once
- It has two glass containers that you can take from fridge or freezer to table
- It's on sale in the UK today (September 9) for £299.99
Ninja has launched another version of the Crispi glass air fryer — this time with a pair of cooking zones so you can prepare two different foods at once, and time them to finish at the same time so your meal is ready to serve with no effort on your part.
Like the original portable Ninja Crispi and the family-sized Ninja Crispi Pro, the Ninja Crispi DualZone Air Fryer has non-toxic glass dishes with resealable lids, which you can use to store, cook, and serve food without any mess. The two CleanCrisp containers have a capacity of 3.8 litres each, and are thermal shock-resistant so you can start cooking your food direct from the freezer, and immediately place the dishes on cold stone work surfaces once your meal is ready.
Like the Ninja Crispi Pro, the Crispi DualZone has eight cooking modes (Air Fry, Bake, Max Crisp, Roast, Dehydrate, Re-crisp, Keep Warm, and Prove), and the twin cooking zones mean you can use two different settings at once.
SharkNinjaSharkNinjaOnce you're done, the glass containers, crisper plates, and lids are all dishwasher-safe, unlike conventional air fryer baskets, which require careful hand-washing to avoid damaging their non-stick coating.
The Ninja Crispi Dual Zone air fryer is available to buy now direct from SharkNinja for £299.99 in the UK, and comes in three colours: Cyberspace (dark blue), Bone (off-white), and Rose Quartz (pastel pink). We'll be putting it to the test soon to see how it compares with traditional dual-zone air fryers, and the rest of the Ninja Crispi range.