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• Imagen 4 is now available to all Gemini users
• 2K images with more detail and better typography
• Google claims you can now use it to create greetings cards

Google's AI image generation just levelled up, with a new version of Imagen 4 bringing with it a bunch of big upgrades including a higher resolution and better text handling.

The upgrade was announced at Google I/O 2025 today, and should noticeably improve Gemini’s image capabilities, which were already rivalling those of ChatGPT.

Taking over from the previous version 3, Imagen 4 has "remarkable clarity in fine details like intricate fabrics, water droplets and animal fur, and excels in both photorealistic and abstract styles”, according to Google. You can see the new level of detail in the preview images above and below.

Imagen 4 is also the first version of Google’s AI image generator that can go up to 2K resolution, meaning you’ll be able to make larger images for presentations and pictures that will look even better when printed out.

The detail on the water droplets in this image generated by Imagen 4 is quite impressive. (Image credit: Google)

A real challenge for AI image generators in the past (apart from creating realistic fingers) has been representing text in a way that makes sense and is readable.

While Imagen 3 did make significant inroads into presenting typography in a better way, Imagen 4 promises to take text to the next level.

Google claims Imagen 4 will be “significantly better at spelling and typography, making it easier to create your own greeting cards, posters and even comics”.

Usage limits

When it comes to the usage limits on Imagen 4, we don’t expect the situation to be radically different from those with Imagen 3, but will update this post if we hear anything different.

Currently, if you are using Imagen 3 through the Gemini chatbot, daily limits vary depending on whether you’re a free Gemini user or a Gemini Advanced subscriber.

Free users can expect around 10-20 image generations per day, depending on how heavily the service is being used. Gemini Advanced subscribers can expect higher limits of up to 100-150 daily image generations.

As with Imagen 3, there are content restrictions on Imagen 4, especially around generating images of real individuals. However, Imagen 4 has no problems generating images of generic people.

Available today across Google apps

Imagen 4 isn’t only available in Gemini, either; from today you’ll be able to use it across Whisk, Vertex AI, Slides, Vids, Docs and more in Workspace.

And there’s more to come, too. Google says that it will “soon” be launching a super-fast variant of Imagen 4 that’s up to 10x faster than Imagen 3 at generating images.

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• Google Gemini 2.5 Pro is getting a new Deep Think model
• Deep Think allows Gemini to consider multiple reasoning paths before responding
• Deep Think will improve Gemini's accuracy on complex math and code

Google is adding some extra brainpower to Gemini with a new Deep Think Mode. The company unveiled the latest option for Google Gemini 2.5 Pro at Google I/O 2025, showing off just what its AI can do with extra depth.

Deep Think basically augments Gemini's AI 'mind' with additional brains. Gemini in Deep Think mode won't just spit out an answer to a query as fast as possible. Instead, it runs multiple possible lines of reasoning in parallel before deciding how to respond. It’s like the AI equivalent of looking both ways, or rereading the instructions before building a piece of furniture.

And if Google's tests are anything to go by, Deep Think's brainpower is working. It’s performing at a top-tier level on the 2025 U.S. math olympiad, coming out on top in the LiveCodeBench competitive programming test, scoring an amazingly high 84% on the popular MMMU, a sort of decathlon of multimodal reasoning tasks. Deep Think isn’t widely available just yet. Google is rolling it out to trusted testers only for now. But, presumably, once all the kinks are ironed out, everyone will have access to the deepest of Gemini's thoughts.

Gemini shines on

Deep Think fits right into the rest of Gemini 2.5’s growing lineup and the new features arriving for its various models in the API used by developers to embed Gemini in their software.

For instance, Gemini 2.5 Pro now supports native audio generation out. That means it can talk back to you. The speech has an “affective dialogue” feature, which detects emotional shifts in your tone and adjusts accordingly. If you sound stressed, Gemini might stop talking like a patient customer service agent and respond more like an empathetic and thoughtful friend (or at least how the AI interprets such a response). And it will be better at knowing when to talk at all thanks to the new Proactive Audio feature, which filters out background noise so Gemini only chimes in when it’s sure you’re talking to it.

Paired with new security safeguards and the upcoming Project Mariner computer-use features, Gemini 2.5 is trying very hard to be the AI you trust not just with your calendar or code, but with your book narration or entire operating system.

Another element expanding across Gemini 2.5 is what Google calls a 'thinking budget.' Previously unique to Gemini 2.5 Flash, the thinking budget lets developers decide just how deeply the model should think before responding. It's a good way to ensure you get a full answer without spending too much. Otherwise, Deep Think could give you just a taste of its reasoning, or give you the whole thing and make it too expensive for any follow-ups.

In case it's not clear what those thoughts involve, Gemini 2.5 Pro and Flash will offer 'thought summaries' for developers, a document showing the exact details of what the AI was doing in terms of applying information through its reasoning process, so you can actually look inside the AI brain.

All of this signals a pivot from models that just talk fast to emphasizing ones that can reason deeper, if slower. Deep Think is part of that shift toward deliberate, layered reasoning. It’s not just trying to predict the next word anymore, it's applying that logic to ideas and the very process of coming up with answers to your questions. Google seems keen to make Gemini not only able to fetch answers, but to understand the shape of the question itself.

Of course, AI reasoning still exists in a space where a perfectly logical answer might come with a random side of nonsense, no matter how impressive the benchmark scores. But you can start to see the shape of what’s coming, where the promise of an actual 'co-pilot' AI comes to fruition.

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• Hideo Kojima has said he'd like to make a film after Death Stranding 2: On the Beach and Physint are complete
• He says Physint is at least five or six years away from being released
• The game director is also working on a horror game for Microsoft called oD

Death Stranding 2: On the Beach director Hideo Kojima has said that his next game, Physint, is still at least five to six years away from release.

In a new interview with French magazine Le Film Français(via VGC), ahead of the launch of Death Stranding 2, Kojima was asked whether he would ever consider directing a film in the future.

The game director said he would, and that he "received many offers after leaving Konami."

Besides the Death Stranding sequel, Kojima is currently working on his action espionage game Physint, which he said will take another five to six years to finish before he can consider moving into filmmaking.

“Besides Death Stranding 2, there is Physint in development," Kojima said. "That will take me another five or six years. Maybe after that, I could finally decide to tackle a film. I grew up with cinema. Directing would be a kind of homage to it. Besides, I’m getting older, and I would prefer to do it while still young.”

Phyisint is a brand new "original IP" that was announced during the PlayStation State of Play in January 2024 and will be Kojima Productions' third major game.

Kojima is also developing OD, his horror project for Microsoft that was revealed back in 2023. The director didn't mention anything new about OD during his interview, but it's said to be a "totally new style of game" being developed alongside Xbox Game Studios and will star actors Sophia Lillis, Udo Kier, and Hunter Schaffer.

For now, Kojima fans can look forward to Death Stranding 2: On the Beach, which is set to launch on June 26, 2025, for PS5.

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The 2025 Europa League Final is here - Tottenham face off against Man Utd in all English final as both teams look to put behind dreadful domestic campaigns.

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Having toiled away on critically-acclaimed titles in the Metroid series and reviving Konami’s Castlevania series, developer MercurySteam has taken the risk of co-financing their latest project. Blades of Fire is its chance to prove their development skills at crafting their own original idea, and there’s a lot to love about this game’s blend of dark fantasy and mythology.

Review info

Platform reviewed: PS5
Available on: PS5, Xbox Series X|S, PC
Release date: May 22, 2025

That being said, it’s hard not to feel the weight of legacy and industry trends, rather than instilling this world with bold new ideas, holding this game back from greatness.

Rather than focusing on the negatives, there’s much to appreciate in this new game, particularly the father-son-esque bond at the heart of this story. While the game builds up a story about an ancient race of giants known as Forgers, instilling the knowledge to craft weapons from steel into humanity, with this power being seized by the anointed Queen Nerea to curse those who oppose her and turn steel to stone, the plot is simple. Aran de Lira possesses one of the ancient hammers necessary to forge his own steel, and alongside Asdo, the son of his deceased friend, embarks on a quest to kill the queen.

(Image credit: MercurySteam) Classic is queen

There’s an almost-quaint retro simplicity to which the world of Blades of Fire is introduced: Aran is a lonely figure with an unspoken past that fuels his desire for a solitary existence, yet he’s more than willing to go and save an old friend he hears in danger nearby. The child desires revenge for his father’s death and, thanks to his knowledge of the Forgers, goes on this adventure with Aran to take down the queen.

The contrast of scholarly child and mysterious scarred older man soon warms to you, and not solely due to the similarities between their bond and that of Kratos and Atreus in the recent God of War titles. Asdo is far from an annoying sidekick, balancing wisdom with genuinely funny quips that are enough to make you laugh without grating (and you can always send him away, if you do wish for him to be quiet). I felt a warmth for Aran and a desire to learn more of his past, especially the guarded secrets of his past relationship to the Queen before her descent to despotic control.

Having first expected a practical but minimal story, I was surprised to find myself attached and with a desire to learn more of the rich lore the devs instilled into this world.

There’s an unabashed videogame-y nature to this world and cast, imbued with a quirkiness reminiscent of mid-budget adventure games abundant in the Xbox 360 and PS3 era

This is balanced with an engaging combat system that, though its quirks and intricacies will take time to learn, thanks to an at-first clunky and uncomfortable control scheme, you soon come to appreciate. Victory requires players to learn enemy attack patterns and the best weapons to counter each of them.

All four face buttons are each mapped to their direction of attack: on a PlayStation controller, this means Triangle will strike from above, X from below, and Square and Circle from each side. Depending on an opponent’s armor, it’s required to consider where you strike in order to deal maximum damage, or at times, inflict any damage at all.

The need to be aware of not just when but where you strike is most important in boss fights. One early sub-boss, a troll, requires you to whittle down its health, then slice off a part of the enemy’s body in order to drain it further before it can regenerate. Whether fighting big bosses - one boss at the end of the Crimson Fort is particularly interesting in how it forces you to learn both attack patterns and strike direction to defeat it most effectively - or small-fry enemies, it rarely tires even after dozens of hours have passed.

It may take time to get used to the stamina system that is required to inflict stronger, quicker attacks, and your hands will strain getting used to the unusual grip of having both block and dodging mapped to the left bumper and trigger, but you soon adjust to the fascinating tension it instils to high-stakes conflict.

(Image credit: MercurySteam) Nerves of steel

Embodying the blacksmith skills key to the game’s identity, you must collect materials around the world to forge new weapons. You have complete control over the type of steel you use, which determines weight, speed, strength, blocking, and more, and once you’ve refined this selection, you must then physically hammer the weapon into shape. The closer to the real shape, the more refined the weapon, and therefore the more you can repair it before it’s unusable.

It’s fun, at first. After a while, it becomes repetitive and time-consuming. If you craft a good enough weapon, you can automatically recraft it to this level without replaying the minigame, but if you wish to improve this stat or build a new weapon, you must spend upwards of five minutes forging, grinding the momentum to a shuddering halt.

It’s one of a few issues holding the game back, many tied to the long legacy leading into this game’s development and the weight of adjusting the game’s design to chase industry trends. Many senior developers on Blades of Fire worked on the mostly forgotten 2001 action title named Severance: Blade of Darkness, which, beyond visual similarities, is often regarded as a precursor to the Dark Souls genre in its careful use of stamina and deliberate action.

Best bit

While it takes some time to get used to it, getting to grips with this unusual control scheme and observing a difficult boss’ attack patterns to correctly slice, dodge, and weave your way to victory brings about a primal joy that wills you forward towards the next area on your adventure.

While this makes it perhaps unfair to compare a game refining these 2001 ideas to Dark Souls, it’s hard not to see their implementation, and many other mechanics not found in Severance but introduced to this game are clearly inspired by the industry’s wholesale embrace of the beloved FromSoftware title. Players have limited flasks of health potions that can only be restored by resting at anvils, this game’s thematically fitting equivalent to bonfires, and upon death, players must return to the location they were felled in order to rescue their weapon.

Even if we were to credit these ideas to Severance and not an attempt to create a Soulslike adventure, Blades of Fire’s level design and enemies feel best suited to a style of action opposite to the plodding action and unstoppable attack animations of both titles. In battles against undead hordes, you can at times be facing close to a dozen enemies at once, and even your fastest weapons are useless with the rate at which your attacks are interrupted.

As this game lacks the punishment of lost resources or the risk of losing your weapon forever if you die before reclaiming it, recovering your weapon feels more like a chore and an obligatory feature to adhere to the formula than a design suited to the pace of this adventure.

(Image credit: MercurySteam) A search for souls

It contributed to an overwhelming feeling that the embrace of so many Souls-isms only served to hinder the natural flow of the game, rather than enhance it.

This is before we discuss the game’s cumbersome map, which, through its lack of dimension, can become nearly useless when navigating more complex, multi-level terrain for the next objective.

This is only compounded by the fact that there’s no clear indication in the environment on where to go next, and even the optional objective markers activated by navigating menus and automatically disabled upon clearing that specific objective, unless reactivated, are often useless in more complex multi-level areas. If you’re navigating a multi-floor fortress and miss an inconspicuous door you must unlock with a newly-obtained key, even a marker won’t stop you wandering in circles for 20 minutes or longer, lost and frustrated.

Yet despite my complaints, I felt just enough charm to find myself soldiering forward. There’s an unabashed gamey nature to this world and cast, imbued with a quirkiness reminiscent of mid-budget adventure games abundant in the Xbox 360 and PS3 era, like Enslaved: Odyssey to the West, but non-existent in this modern era of spiraling budgets.

(Image credit: MercurySteam)

For all I can complain about Soulslike inspirations that these days induce more groans than excitement, there’s a simplicity to this quest to go and kill the queen while offering just enough mechanical depth without bogging you down in an overwhelming number of unnecessary systems.

You craft weapons, you fight enemies, you move forward. Simple, but the sense of a human hand touching every asset rather than some overcautious executive or an overzealous focus group drew me even to its flaws.

Blades of Fire is charming, even if its soulslike eccentricities were more of a hindrance to the characters and adventure housed within. This blend of retro simplicity and modern flair won’t be the best game you play in 2025, but it’s likely going to be one of the more charming (and as such memorable), and isn’t that just as good?

Should you play Blades of Fire? Play it if...

You miss your Xbox 360 or PS3
There’s an indescribable essence to this game that feels like a lost title from the PS3 and 360 generation, modernized with quality-of-life and graphics improvements, giving it a feel unlike many other modern games.

You enjoy customizing your weapons
The gameplay is fun, but key to victory is picking the right choice from dozens of refinements of steel while even customizing the pommel and small of your weapons to your playstyle. Understanding the best way to craft a weapon takes patience.

Don't play it if...

You aren’t a fan of Dark Souls or soulslikes
While not a soulslike, many mechanics indicative of the famous series are present, and likely won’t gel with players seeking a more fast-paced action adventure.

Accessibility features

Accessibility features in Blades of Fire are limited. Camera shake and motion blur can be adjusted, alongside the size and color of subtitles but otherwise, the default text is small, and it lacks many commonplace accessibility features such as colorblind modes.

How I reviewed Blades of Fire

I played just over 30 hours of the game on a base PS5 model using a standard DualSense controller on standard difficulty, getting all the way through the game to the latter stages of the main story.

I utilized an ASUS VG27AQL1A gaming monitor, while for audio, a mix of Denon speakers and a wireless audio adapter, and AirPods Max were used.

First reviewed May 2025

If you’d have told a 33-year-old Tom Cruise at the 1996 premiere of Mission: Impossible that he’d be promoting — and not just promoting, living — the same film franchise 29 years and seven instalments later, he probably would’ve believed you right there and then.

There are plenty of seemingly impossible things about Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning, but Cruise’s commitment to the character of Ethan Hunt is not one of them. Brian De Palma’s big-screen reboot of the 1966 Mission: Impossible TV series was the first to be produced by Cruise’s then-new production company C/W Productions, and the ageless star has since committed to going bigger and better with each subsequent instalment.

The Final Reckoning is, we presume, the last Mission: Impossible movie for some time (maybe ever!), and though it’s certainly no better than what’s come before – in truth, it probably places fifth or sixth in our ranking of the Mission: Impossible movies – it’s most definitely bigger than anything else you’ve seen (or will see) this year.

Back in the saddle

The series' eighth entry picks up where 2023’s Dead Reckoning left off, with Ethan and the rest of the IMF gang still trying to outfox the rogue artificial intelligence system known as 'the Entity'. It’s essentially the same Big Bad as before, except now the Entity is hell-bent on nuclear armageddon, and it’s also started to brainwash small pockets of the populace into supporting its apocalyptic cause (some people just have to be part of a club).

To ensure its own survival when the bombs start to fall, the Entity needs access to a secure digital bunker in South Africa, and it’s here that our heroes hope to trap ChatGPT-on-steroids using a combination of various hard-to-get-hold-of MacGuffins, including an elaborate USB stick buried in the belly of a sunken Russian submarine. So far, so Mission: Impossible.

There are many, many other facets to The Final Reckoning’s convoluted story, which is even more difficult to follow than the plot of the original Mission: Impossible, but the film is essentially a '90s disaster movie dressed up as a commentary on AI and misinformation.

That’s not necessarily unbecoming of the franchise – Ethan has always been dropped into a race against time to save the world – but, to its detriment, The Final Reckoning feels distinctly more grandiose than any other Mission movie before it, with more time devoted to politicking and fate-of-the-world decision-making than to ingenious gadgetry and covert spycraft.

Ethan spends precious little time with his IMF crew in The Final Reckoning (Image credit: Paramount)

Mission: Impossible is at its best when Ethan and his band of IMF misfits are infiltrating a famous landmark or pulling off an improbable escape, quipping at each other as they do so (the Burj Khalifa sequence in Ghost Protocol is an all-timer example of that formula in action). The Final Reckoning swaps this playful tone for doom and gloom in a bid to raise the emotional stakes, but the trade-off is a more serious, arguably un-Mission: Impossible-like experience overall.

This sentiment isn’t helped by an exposition-heavy first hour, which jumps between locations, characters, and plot threads like a YouTube recap of the Mission: Impossible series so far. Flashbacks are fine in moderation, but the sheer number of them deployed by director Christopher McQuarrie in the opening moments of The Final Reckoning is an indictment of the film’s unwieldy story.

Getting down to business

The underwater sequence is an instant Mission: Impossible classic (Image credit: Paramount)

Mercifully, things take a turn for the action-packed about halfway through, when Ethan jumps into the Bering Sea in search of that aforementioned Russian submarine. It’s here that we’re introduced to Captain Bledsoe, played with scene-stealing aplomb by Severance star Tramell Tillman, and the first of two outrageously gripping stunts gets underway.

If you’ve seen any of The Final Reckoning’s trailers or posters, you’ll know that the biplane sequence – shot at 8,000 feet in 140mph winds with no CGI – is being framed as the film’s centerpiece, and while it’s undeniably impressive, the earlier submarine sequence is arguably the bigger highlight. Here, McQuarrie and Cruise use a combination of digital effects and practical wizardry to simulate the inside of a missile-filled submarine at the bottom of the ocean, and the sense of scale and jeopardy the pair achieve is staggering.

Watching Cruise dodge nuclear warheads under life-threatening amounts of pressure will have you, too, feeling like you’re trapped on the ocean floor, especially if you experience this ordeal in the expanded aspect ratio afforded by IMAX.

Quite frankly, The Final Reckoning is saved by its two major set-pieces. They bring a much-needed injection of excitement to an otherwise drawn-out disaster story, and while the film as a whole could do with more action and less situation-room drama, these stunts will remind you why you paid the ticket price. Nobody is doing it like Tom Cruise, and this eighth and potentially final entry in the Mission: Impossible franchise – for all its many shortcomings – hammers home that truth and then some. Cue the theme music!

Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning arrives in theaters and IMAX on May 21 (UK) and May 23 (internationally).