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• James Gunn has provided some big updates on the next two Batman movies
• The DC Studios co-CEO may have found a "way in" for The Brave and the Bold's story
• Gunn also reconfirmed that The Batman Part II hasn't been canceled

James Gunn has provided some exciting – and slightly worrisome – updates on the next two Batman movies.

Speaking to Rolling Stone, the DC Studios co-chief said he might have found a "way in" to finally get The Brave and The Bold's script up and running. That film, which is part of his and Peter Safran's rebooted DC Universe (DCU), is one of the company's biggest creative priorities.

It's not the only Batman flick in development. Matt Reeves' long-gestating The Batman Part II, which is currently slated to arrive in October 2027, is also moving forward, Gunn reconfirmed. However, other comments he made to Rolling Stone about this DCU-adjacent movie didn't provide clarity on a persistent question DC fans have about this Robert Pattinson-led franchise.

But let's start with what Gunn had to say about The Brave and the Bold. Announced as part of the initial DCU Chapter One line-up in January 2023, this movie, which is inspired by Frank Morrison's graphic novel namesake, has been a tough nut for Gunn and company to crack. Now, though, it sounds like Gunn and the film's yet-to-be-announced writer have made a breakthrough on the storytelling front.

The Brave and the Bold has been in development for over two years at this point (Image credit: DC Studios)

"Batman has to have a reason for existing, right?" Gunn said. "Batman can’t just be 'oh, we’re making a Batman movie because Batman’s the biggest character in all of Warner Bros.,' which he is... so, we’re dealing with that.

"I think I have a way in, by the way," Gunn added. "I think I really know what it’s – I just am dealing with the writer to make sure that we can make it a reality."

It'll be a while before Batman makes his DCU debut – after all, Gunn and the unnamed scribe aside, the only talent attached to the project is Andy Muschietti (The Flash, It), as the DCU Chapter One film's director. Nevertheless, I'm glad to hear that there's been some movement on one of the most exciting DCU movies and TV shows on the DC Studios docket.

The two Batman problem

It's been three years since The Batman was released in theaters (Image credit: Jonathan Olley/Warner Bros.)

Okay, but what about The Batman's film sequel? Here's what Gunn said about the follow-up to The Batman Epic Crime Saga's first entry: "[The] Batman Part II is not canceled. That’s the other thing I hear all the time – that The Batman Part II is canceled. It’s not. We don’t have a script. Matt [Reeves] is slow. Let him take his time. Let him do what he’s doing. God, people are mean. Let him do his thing, man."

That's great news! Well, until you start to consider the wider implications of having two different Batman projects on the go and comments Gunn has made about distinguishing one from the other.

Where the latter is concerned, Gunn has stressed that the DCU's Caped Crusader has to be distinct enough to separate him from the gritty, grounded, and almost realistic universe Reeves has co-created. However, that doesn't mean we should expect the DCU's iteration to channel the flamboyance of the '90s era of Batman movies or the slapstick nature of the Adam Scott-starring TV show from the '60s.

"[There's a need that he’s not exactly the same as Matt’s Batman," Gunn opined. "But he’s not a campy Batman. I’m not interested in that. I’m not interested in a funny, campy Batman, really."

Comment from r/DC_Cinematic

And therein lies the first problem: how will Gunn and company differentiate their Dark Knight from the Reeves-Verse's one? You could incorporate the fantastical elements from Batman literature, but there's a fine line to be drawn between the extraordinary and the purposeful realism that the best Batman movies, shows, and comic books contain.

The easiest solution – according to some fans, anyway – would be to merge the Reeves-Verse with the DCU and install Pattinson's Bruce Wayne as the latter's billionaire vigilante. It's a topic of conversation that's dominated online and in-person discussions for months, so much so, in fact, that it came up during the last big DCU update Gunn and Safran gave in February.

While Gunn and Reeves have discussed such a possibility, they have always played down suggestions that it'll ever happen. Gunn did so again during his chat with Rolling Stone – "It’s not likely at all", Gunn said. However, that quote, coupled with another – "I would never say zero, because you just never know" – haven't exactly closed the door on Pattinson becoming the DCU's Caped Crusader.

Do I think that'll happen? No. If it was going to, it would've done by now. Each time that Gunn and/or Reeves leave the door ajar on it, though, it only reignites the perpetual debate about whether it should be done or not. So, here I am, Messrs Gunn, Safran, and Reeves: clarify this once and for all by ruling out a merging of the DCU and Reeves-Verse. Do so and we (including you three!) can all get on with our lives without having to read any more about this already tiresome discussion.

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I’d have placed a decent bet on Apple making a big deal about Apple Intelligence at WWDC this year, and from that I’d have predicted that the iPhone 17 would be Cupertino’s first proper AI phone.

The company somewhat fluffed the launch of Apple Intelligence, with AI-powered features for the iPhone 16 family taking a long time to roll out after its launch, and a smarter ChatGPT-centric Siri still absent. With that in mind, I’d have thought Apple would have gone harder on AI at its yearly developer's conference.

I was wrong.

Apple Intelligence was mentioned, but more as a smart virtual icing to a cake consisting mostly of the Liquid Glass design material and feature updates across Apple’s software ecosystem.

So with that in mind it’s arguably hard to draw any big insights into what’ll be in store at the next Apple event, which is likely to be a September one centred around new iPhones. But I think I can have a good stab at what the next iPhone will be like.

It’ll be boring.

Send me now new iOS

(Image credit: Apple)

My theory here is that the iPhone 17, if Apple does go with that nomenclature, will be a vehicle for iOS 26 with hardware upgrades taking a back seat.

While a lot of the core iOS experience will broadly be the same as iOS 18, the design changes could take a little getting used to; plus there are a host of new features in the native apps that could offer users new ways to do things.

So I suspect Apple won’t do much on the hardware side to get in the way of that experience; there’s not likely to be any big changes to the core iPhone design, camera array or materials.

Depressingly, I even expect the standard iPhone 17 will still have a 60Hz display, as it seems like Apple is one of the few companies who can get away with this and still charge a premium price.

There are some rumors that tout changes such as the use of aluminum for the frame of the iPhone 17 Pro, but I don’t buy them; the rumored iPhone 17 Air could use the lighter material, though I don’t see that phone shaking up the core design of iPhones.

Rather than champion many hardware upgrades, which in recent years have become iterative to the point of being dull, I think Apple will position the iPhone 17 range as a new chapter in getting the most out of a fresh iOS.

And I think a lot of people will buy into it.

The iPhone’s new clothes

(Image credit: Apple)

Much like changing up an outfit with the addition of a new shirt or coat, or swapping the strap of a watch, redesigned software can make tried and tested hardware seem fresh and new, even if most of those changes are merely aesthetic.

But I think new features like an overhauled Phone app, smart tools for Maps, Wallet and Music, plus new dedicated Games app-meets-hub will make next-generation iPhones feel a lot newer than those that have simply had camera sensor or button upgrades over their predecessors.

I’m particularly intrigued to see how the Games app plays out, as Apple has quietly been strengthening the gaming experience on iPhone, with support for titles such as Death Stranding and a suite of original games in the growing Apple Arcade service, both of which I don’t feel Android has a strong answer for.

Add in a new chip, which is all but guaranteed for the next-gen iPhones, and you could be looking at some impressive stealthy gaming phones.

With that in mind, I can see the iPhone 17 offering a family of phones for people who’ve resisted upgrading to a new iPhone for a couple of years. That’s often the case, of course, but I feel iOS 26 will be more of an upgrade catalyst even though models dating back to the iPhone 11 can run this upcoming iteration of Apple’s mobile operating system.

I'd place a very solid bet that Apple will market the iPhone 17 range as the ideal vehicle for iOS 26, and I'm forecasting that'll suck in a lot of people; let me know in the comments if you don't agree.

All that being said, I’m totally open to Apple surprising me with an iPhone that’s being given a serious reworking or just has a good clutch of hardware upgrades. I don’t personally think this is the year for that – but I don’t think that matters either.

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• New QLED panels wouldn't need expensive barrier film layers
• Samsung doesn't yet know when the tech will be commercialized
• It's only for QLED; QD-OLEDs are made differently

One of the most expensive parts of a QLED display panel is about to get a whole lot cheaper, and that should mean even more affordable QLED televisions.

The component in question is the quantum dot sheet, which sits on top of the LCD panel to improve color reproduction – it's the actual quantum dot part of QLED TVs.

A QLED display currently has barrier film on either side of it to protect the quantum dot layer from oxygen and water. According to trade site The Elec, those films account for 40% of the cost of quantum dot sheets – and Samsung and its supplier Hansol Chemical have found a way to get rid of them.

What Samsung's tech means for QLED – and why it won't help QD-OLED TV

At the moment, a quantum dot sheet has five layers. With the new design there are three.

Samsung and Hansol's new quantum dot sheet design does away with the barrier films altogether without exposing the quantum dots to potential problems.

That should mean a huge drop in the price of QLED panels, but not immediately: Samsung doesn't yet know when the technology will be commercialized.

And even then, it doesn't necessarily mean that QLED TVs will definitely become cheaper – the savings might just be used to absorb rising costs and keep the TVs the same price, or the money from the saving might be invested in other areas of the TV, such as improving the backlight or speaker system.

As The Elec points out, while the new design is good news for QLED TVs, it's not going to make any difference to QD-OLED displays.

That's because QD-OLED panels use a different design. Whereas QLED panels put a quantum dot layer atop an LCD light source, QD-OLED TVs use a blue OLED light source with two red and green conversion layers added via inkjet printing rather than in their own separately manufactured layer.

That's a bit of a shame, because QLED TVs are already getting pretty low-priced, but QD-OLED TVs such as the Samsung S95F or Sony Bravia 8 II very much are not.

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The co-op game set in the world of Control and Alan Wake is a fun, if uneven, first foray into multiplayer games.

Add Bluetooth connectivity to just about anything, anywhere, including on airplanes, in older cars and more.

While your ragtag team of Firebreakers fights through the Oldest House, you'll find a couple of interesting references to the beginning of the Hiss invasion.

• The Google Pixel 10 series could allow you to use the telephoto camera for macro photos
• This would allow you to shoot from further away, and help avoid you blocking the light
• However, macro shots will also apparently be possible with the ultra-wide camera

Macro photography on phones often seems to be a bit of an afterthought, but with the Pixel 10 series, Google might be taking it more seriously.

This is according to Android Headlines, which claims that the Pixel 10 and its siblings – which are expected to include the Pixel 10 Pro, the Pixel 10 Pro XL, and the Pixel 10 Pro Fold – will have a tele-macro mode.

In other words, if this rumor is right, then these phones will be able to use their telephoto cameras for macro shots. That’s in contrast to the Google Pixel 9 series and most other high-end handsets, which tend to use their ultra-wide cameras for macro photography.

The advantage of tele-macro is that you can take macro photos from further away. That can be more convenient, especially when photographing something that might not appreciate you looming over it, like an insect. And because you can be further away from the subject, you also won’t be blocking the light as much.

But you may still want to get closer sometimes, and the Pixel 10 series should have you covered there too, because according to this leak, it will also offer macro capabilities with its ultra-wide camera.

So, in other words the Google Pixel 10 series might be doubling down on macro modes, offering two options where most phones have just one at most.

A macro focus

The Google Pixel 9 Pro (Image credit: Blue Pixl Media)

That – and especially the tele-macro mode – is great news, as it should make it much easier to take high-quality macro photos, and as a photography fan that could tempt me to upgrade.

Phone companies understandably tend to focus on their main and ultra-wide snappers, with telephotos often coming in third place and macro being even less of a consideration.

But if you like taking photos of a wide variety of things from a range of perspectives, then it’s important to have a wide range of focal lengths that you can shoot at.

It sounds like the Pixel 10 Pro and Pixel 10 Pro XL in particular could offer this, with wide, ultra-wide, telephoto (likely at 5x optical zoom), and two different macro modes potentially set to be offered – not to mention optical-quality 2x zoom, which is achieved on the Pixel 9 series through cropping the main sensor.

That could make for one of the most comprehensive cameras setups you’ll find on a smartphone, and might even tempt me back from the Apple side.

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The Pitt is my very favorite show of 2025, and HBO has confirmed that production has now started on season 2 of the hit medical drama.

The HBO Max Original has been a huge success, gaining a 95% rating on Rotten Tomatoes from the critics and sitting comfortably in Max's top three most-watched streaming shows worldwide.

The press release hasn't shared any more information, but a few days ago it was revealed that the second season would stream in January 2026 and would bring a host of new faces into the ER – including Skinny Pete from Breaking Bad, aka the actor Charles Baker. Baker will be joined by Irene Choie, Laëtitia Hollard, and Lucas Iverson.

What to expect from The Pitt season 2

As Hello magazine reports, Baker will be playing an unhoused man called Troy; Iren Choie will be Joy, a medical student "with strong boundaries"; Laëtitia Hollard plays a recent nursing school graduate; and Lucas Iverson will play James, a fourth year medical student.

Noah Wyle, the man with the saddest eyes on any streamer, will of course return as Dr Robbie, and he previously told Deadline that the second season will take place over the Fourth of July weekend. Dr King, Dr Abbot, Dr Langdon and charge nurse Dana Evans are confirmed to be returning too.

I genuinely loved every episode of season 1 of one of the best Max shows, and cried quite a lot in every single one of them: it's a show with a huge heart and the cast are exceptional. In a time when there are many horrible things happening it reminds me of Fred Rogers' famous line: "look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping."

The Pitt season 1 is streaming now on Max. Season 2 is scheduled for January 2026.

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The attacks was one of the largest on Ukraine's capital in months. It came as President Volodymyr Zelenskyy prepared for the G7 summit in Canada, where he is pushing for stronger sanctions on Russia.

(Image credit: Efrem Lukatsky)

• Salesforce research finds single-turn tasks see only 58% success, while multi-turn effectiveness drops to 35%
• Reasoning models like gemini-2.5-pro tend to outperform lighter models
• CRMArena-Pro has proven to be a challenging benchmark

Researchers from Salesforce AI Research have introduced a new benchmark – CRMArena-Pro – which uses synthetic enterprise data to access LLM agent performance in difference CRM scenarios.

It found LLM agents achieved around 58% success on tasks which can be completed in a single step, with tasks that require multiple interactions dropping in effectiveness to just 35% – barely more than one in three.

Although models like gemini-2.5-pro achieved over 83% success in workflow execution, the Salesforce researchers still highlighted some concerns with AI agents, suggesting they might not quite be up to scratch after all.

Are AI agents actually that good?

The paper, entitled 'Holistic Assessment of LLM Agents Across Diverse Business Scenarios and Interactions', explained that LLM agents displayed near-zero inherent confidentiality awareness, noting that their performance in handling sensitive information is only improved with explicit prompting (which often came at the expense of task success).

They also criticized previous and existing benchmarks for failing to capture multi-turn interactions, addressing B2B scenarios or confidentiality, and reflecting realistic data environments. CRMArena-Pro is build on synthetic data validated by CRM experts, covering B2B and B2C settings.

In terms of analysis results, reasoning models like gemini-2.5-pro and o1 outperformed lighter models most of the time – Salesforce's researchers concluded that models that seek more clarifications generally perform better, especially in multi-turn tasks.

For example, while the average performance across the nine models tested (three each from OpenAI, Google and Meta) resulted in a score of 35.1%, gemini-2.5-pro scored 54.5%.

"These findings suggest a significant gap between current LLM capabilities and the multifaceted demands of real-world enterprise scenarios, positioning CRMArena-Pro as a challenging testbed for guiding future advancements in developing more sophisticated, reliable, and confidentiality-aware LLM agents for professional use," the researchers concluded.

Looking ahead, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff views AI agents as a high-margin opportunities, with major corporate clients including governments betting on AI agents for boosted efficiency and further cost savings.

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• New Magnetic Switch to turn the earbuds on and off without the case
• Up to 65 hours of battery life with ANC off
• £125 / €149 / $149

If you're looking for earbuds to wear on a mission to space, Audio-Technica have just the things: their new ATH-CKS50TW earbuds have an extraordinary 65-hour battery life in total, which is just about long enough to fly to the moon. That makes my AirPods Pro 2 look pretty feeble.

The buds' own batteries deliver 25 hours of continuous playback, and the charging case adds another 40. Those figures are with active noise cancelling (ANC) off, but with ANC enabled the numbers are still astounding: 15 hours from the buds and a further 25 from the case.

Again, for comparison, the AirPods Pro 2 give you six hours from the buds alone. The Sony WF-1000XM5 give you eight hours. Audio-Technica's new earbuds absolutely crush any of the best earbuds in this measure.

(Image credit: Audio-Technica)Audio-Technica ATH-CKS50TW2: key features and pricing

The icing on the long-lasting cake is that the new earbuds will cost only $149 / £125 (about AU$260).

One of the more unusual new features here is a magnetic switch, which powers the buds on or off by separating or joining their built-in magnets. The idea is to be able to turn off the buds without having to pop them in the case, although I'm not sure there are many people who've been cursing the tyranny of charging cases. It's nice to have the option, though.

The case is also compatible with Qi wireless chargers, which is somewhat rare among affordable earbuds – you don't get it from the Sony WF-C710N or the Nothing Ear (a) for example.

The earbuds feature hybrid ANC with hear-through and talk-through modes, Bluetooth LE Audio with the more advanced LC3 codec, custom-designed 9mm drivers with extended low-end response, and hybrid hard and soft silicone ear tips. They're waterproof and dustproof, rated IP55.

The specs and the battery specs in particular are impressive, but it's worth noting that Audio-Technica has had a few issues with earbud batteries in the past: its SQ1TW2 wireless earphones had a faulty batch that overheated and even produced smoke, and there has also been a recall of the charging case for the ATH-CK3TW earbuds – again due to overheating.

So while I'm glad to see game-changing battery life, if A-T is pushing the limits of battery tech here you might want to keep an eye out for any recalls, just in case. (No pun intended.)

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Federal officials say the suspect in the killings of a Minnesota lawmaker and her husband had a much larger list of targets, including Democratic officeholders and abortion rights supporters.

The super-producer whose beats moved the boundaries of Top 40 radio is chasing a new revolution: digital superstars and the erasure of artistic process as we know it.

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Americans across the political spectrum like Medicaid and think it should get more funding, not less, according to a new poll from health research organization KFF.

(Image credit: Jemal Countess)

Clever advice on how to quickly rebook your flight, skip long lines and avoid flight issues in the future. One tip? Try queuing up for an agent in the airport lounge.

On Tuesday, Virginia hold its primary election. The contest is a barometer for how Virginians, and maybe the country, feel about the Trump administration ahead of the 2026 midterms.

(Image credit: Win McNamee via Getty Images/The Washington Post via Getty Images)

Since last week, Israel has been attacking Iran's nuclear facilities, along with many other targets around the country. Iran has fired hundreds of missiles in response. NPR correspondent Geoff Brumfiel has been watching all of this very closely because Israel's missile defenses have been a focus of the Trump White House. This year, President Trump requested funding from Congress for a "Golden Dome for America" — a missile defense system that would protect all of the United States. The idea comes from Israel's Iron Dome — a network of interceptor missiles stationed at points across the country. Iron Dome and related Israeli air defenses don't get every missile fired — including some launched in the past few days by Iran — but the Israeli military says it has intercepted thousands of rockets since it was built. Trying to get that kind of protection for America, though, might be a very different matter.

Read more of science correspondent Geoff Brumfiel's reporting on this topic and find NPR's coverage of the Middle East here.

Questions about nuclear science? Email us at shortwave@npr.org.

Listen to every episode of Short Wave sponsor-free and support our work at NPR by signing up for Short Wave+ at plus.npr.org/shortwave.

Dr. Salvador Plasencia agreed to plead guilty to four counts of distribution of ketamine, according to the signed document filed in federal court in Los Angeles.

(Image credit: Willy Sanjuan/Invision)

I wasn't quite sure what to expect from The Alters, the latest game from developer and publisher 11 Bit Studios. From the trailers I'd watched, it seemed almost like parts of several different games were grabbed and hastily cobbled together into something that shouldn't work - and yet, much like my hastily-cobbled-together base in-game, it does.

Review information

Platform reviewed: PC
Available on: PC, PS5, Xbox Series X/S
Release date: June 13, 2025

Following Jan Dolski, a construction specialist on a space mission to find the ultra-rare element Unobtaini- sorry, ‘Rapidium’, The Alters meshes together survival, management sim, third-person action adventure, and decision-based narrative elements with apparent grace and ease. There's a well-struck balance here, never tipping too far in any one direction, keeping you constantly engaged and on your toes. Less than two hours in, I was already having a blast.

Predictably, things go wrong almost immediately for poor Jan, and despite finding an abundance of Rapidium, he's left stranded on a hostile planet with an approaching sunrise that will scorch him and his base to an irradiated crisp. Alone, desperate, and running out of options, he follows the highly questionable directions of a crackly voice on the base comms to utilize Rapidium’s mysterious qualities and create a duplicate of himself: an ‘alter’. After all, many hands make light work - and the rest of the original crew are too dead to help out.

Seeing double

Needless to say, this planet is not exactly hospitable. (Image credit: 11 Bit Studios)

The thing is, Jan’s duplicates aren't exactly that. The core premise of The Alters is right there in the name, with each alternate Jan Dolski having a distinct - though familiar - personality and memories of a life that went a different direction at one pivotal moment or another. It's an excellent central conceit for both a story and a game. Need a miner to help gather the resources required to survive on this desolate planet? Good news: in another life, Jan chose to pursue his father’s mining career. Bad news: Miner Jan has a substance abuse problem and crippling self-esteem issues, and you're going to have to deal with that now.

This is where the narrative segment of the game comes in, with a wide variety of both one-on-one chats and group interactions to be had with Jan’s parallel selves. It's reminiscent of chatting to your crew aboard the Normandy between missions in the Mass Effect series; although instead of a sleek spaceship, your base of operations in The Alters is a thin, blocky structure housed on a gyro inside a gigantic tire. It gives the story a sort of twisted road trip vibe, which I loved - check out Overland and Get In The Car, Loser! If you’re interested in some other very weird virtual road trips.

Best bit

(Image credit: 11 Bit Studios)

Jan's rolling base is certainly unique - just don't question the physical logistics of how such a vehicle would remain upright.

The ‘mobile base’ is just one part of the fantastic and occasionally goofy world-building on display here. True to 11 Bit Studios’ Polish heritage, the life Jan left behind to join this mission is a corporate sci-fi dystopia with a distinctly Eastern European flavor. Janky Europop plays from a jukebox in the social room you can build for the Alters to relax in; Jan’s childhood home is a nondescript mining town with brutalist concrete architecture; two Jan Dolskis bond over their shared love of pierogi. While the planetary backdrop of Jan’s current predicament might be a bit more par for the course, the injection of a little cultural identity helps massively in creating a more unique, interesting setting. The soundtrack is pretty good too, an appropriate blend of synthy overtures and foreboding background music.

I won’t delve too much into the plot to avoid spoilers (this is a story best experienced as blind as possible), but I will say as a lifelong sci-fi lover that the story is solid. The writing and voice acting are both excellent, with some interesting supporting characters and plenty of dialogue that serves to flesh out the characters and move the story along. Particular props go to Alex Jordan, who voices not just Jan but also all of his titular alters - and make no mistake, despite sharing the same origins, this is a greatly varied group of characters who don't always get along. Listen up, Geoff Keighley, because I fully expect to see him nominated for Best Performance at the next Game Awards.

Too many cooks

See that weird glowing stuff? That's Rapidium - and Jan's going to need a lot of it to make more alters. (Image credit: 11 Bit Studios)

Speaking of not getting along, though: we're all going to need to get along, or we're all going to die.

Befriending Jan’s alters isn't enough to survive with the radioactive sunrise mere days away. You need to put them to work, whether that's producing food or equipment aboard the mobile base or gathering resources in the dangerous environment outside.

This is mostly done through a series of menu screens, which have clean, well-designed UIs, and managing your alters takes up a decent portion of your time in-game. They're quite proactive; for example, if an alter in the workshop finishes building all the tools you've queued up for manufacturing, they'll suggest moving to a different assignment, prioritizing stations aboard the base with unfinished workflows and no assigned staff.

It's not the deepest management sim system I've ever seen - 11 Bit Studios previously developed Frostpunk and Frostpunk 2, which offers great complexity for hardcore fans of the genre - but it works well as one component of a broader story-driven survival game and keeps the focus on the micro rather than the macro. You can only have a maximum of six alters out of a possible nine (although two of them, Technician Jan and Scientist Jan, are mandatory for the plot - so it's more like picking four out of seven).

Laying out your base smartly (as I have very much not done in this screenshot) is key to making the most of your limited resources. (Image credit: 11 Bit Studios)

You're also responsible for the base itself, meaning that you'll need an alter - or yourself - on hand to carry out repair work when needed, and you'll need to modify and expand the base to match the evolving demands of your journey across the planet's surface to a promised rescue rendezvous. Thanks to the two-dimensional nature of your base-in-a-giant-tire, rooms are laid out in a grid and can be moved and slotted together Tetris-style to make the most of your available space.

This is another balancing act; everything needs to be correctly connected to function, and every new room added increases the total weight of your base and thus the amount of resources you'll need to travel to the next area. There's always a tradeoff; should you build the alters private cabins to help improve their mood, or make them bunk together in a far more space-efficient dorm room? Do you really need that greenhouse for manually producing proper food, when you could all survive perfectly well on processed organic mush?

Venturing forth

Scanning for mining deposits as you explore each new area is a vital task if you want to stay alive. (Image credit: 11 Bit Studios)

Of course, even with your alters hard at work, this is a team effort. Real boy Jan doesn't get to sit on his hands while his clones do all the heavy lifting, no, sir. You need to make use of every precious hour before sunrise comes, because every single job your alters can do is also something you could also be doing yourself.

This is where the third-person exploration and action elements of the game come into play - though I use the word ‘action’ quite generously here, since The Alters doesn't really have traditional combat. When I said ‘hostile planet’ earlier on, I wasn't talking about angry local megafauna or marauding aliens. The areas outside the base are populated by strange, pulsating anomalies, which can deliver a potentially lethal dose of radiation on contact. Luckily, you can research and build the Luminator: a magic UV flashlight that can be used to target the floating cores of the anomalies and shrink them into a stable ball of useful resources with an admittedly rather satisfying vwoosh.

It's perhaps the weakest component in The Alters’ otherwise flawless assembly of disparate parts, but it's far from a deal-breaker. The anomalies just aren't a particularly engaging threat, although later on, some more interesting variants do show up. One variety has two cores and rhythmically grows and shrinks in size; another warps spacetime in close proximity, causing you to lose hours in seconds while you remain within its radius.

I like the design of the Ally Corp spacesuits Jan and his alters wear - and even their standard-issue on-base clothes have little variations to help keep the alters distinct. (Image credit: 11 Bit Studios)

The rest of the off-base gameplay is a bit more appealing; you explore, gather resources, and map out locations for fixed mining stations, which must then be connected to the base by setting up pylons before being operated by yourself or one of the alters. Your rolling base only makes pit stops at a handful of locations throughout the game, and the maps aren't that large, but they do feel densely populated and hand-crafted - no sprawling procedurally-generated wilderness here. Sometimes, you'll stumble across wreckage from your original crashed ship, and can recover personal effects that certain alters might appreciate, improving their mood.

Brothers in arms

Keeping those alters happy is no laughing matter, however. They can go hungry or become depressed, get injured on the job, or fall sick from radiation poisoning if you force them to work outside for too long. Sometimes you'll find two or more of them in disagreement, at which point you'll need to find a solution - and it's not always possible to stay on everyone’s good side.

Some of these disputes are key to the overarching plot, while others are merely for character development and establishing personal conflicts - but I really appreciate how The Alters makes you stand on your decisions, even the smaller ones. A lesser game would have you pick a side and mete out judgment, with corresponding mood shifts based on your choice, but here you have to back up your words with actions or deal with the consequences. When one alter argues that we need more protection from radiation, while another insists that we should stop gathering irradiated metals altogether, you're expected to follow through on your decision. Fail to build that radiation shield quickly enough after choosing to support that plan? Tough, now both alters have lost some respect for you.

I probably spent more time playing the beer pong minigame than I needed to. But I needed Jan's alters to understand that he's the king, and there's no beating him. (Image credit: 11 Bit Studios)

Fortunately, there are plenty of ways to boost your alters' mental states. Assigning them to work that fits their specialism is a good start, but you can also prepare better food, play beer pong (which has its own minigame), build a gym or a therapy room, or even settle in for a movie night with all of your alternate selves. Hilariously, the ‘movies’ you can uncover from the ship’s scattered wreckage are all live-action shorts made by YouTube comedy duo Chris & Jack, which can be viewed in their entirety while the Jans provide occasional commentary. It's weird, but great. Hell, the only thing you can't do is exactly what I would do in this situation, which is a sloppy make-out session with my clones.

Whatever your methods, ensuring that your self-made crew is healthy in body and mind is of paramount importance. An unhappy or rebellious alter will work fewer hours; an injured one can't work at all. It all plays into the core idea that Jan - perhaps every version of him, in fact - simply wasn't cut out for this job, and you're constantly flying from one near-catastrophe to another. I opted to pick Doctor Jan as my final alter quite late in the game, and I'm glad I did: Miner Jan decided to overwork himself not long after, and kept coming back to base with increasingly severe radiation sickness.

The human touch

It's nice to find your alters gathered to relax in their off-time during the (rare) periods when everyone seems to be getting along. (Image credit: 11 Bit Studios)

In short, The Alters is nothing short of an artistic triumph. It's a cheerfully strange game with a lot of heart, using its premise to ask genuine philosophical questions about the nature of memories and identity, but also managing to remain grounded in a story about people just trying to survive a terrible situation. At one point, Jan leads the alters in a (shockingly good) impromptu musical number. It's silly, but it's hard not to like how downright earnest it all is. It feels like something that was created with genuine love and care, an increasing rarity in today’s game industry landscape.

I wouldn't call it an extremely challenging game overall, so if you're expecting a gritty, difficult survival experience, you might be disappointed - although I've been a fan of management sims for a while, so players less familiar with the genre may find it a bit tougher to stay on top of each new crisis. There are separate difficulty settings for the anomaly combat and the resource economy, which is a nice touch.

Lastly, as a PC game, I found it ran well both on my RTX 4080 gaming PC and an older RTX 3060 gaming laptop, at 1440p and 1080p, respectively.

The game isn't particularly long, either - my first playthrough clocked in at just shy of 20 hours, and I felt was taking my time with it - but there's certainly some room for replayability based on the different available alters and multiple endings. After getting what I'd like to call a ‘good’ ending, I'm already itching to start over and say all the mean things I avoided saying the first time around. Watch out, space: here comes Asshole Jan.

Should I buy The Alters?Buy it if...

You want a meaningful story
The Alters delivers emotional beat after beat across its whole plot, taking the time to muse on human nature while keeping its focus on Jan's struggle for survival.

You like base-building
From fitting together rooms in your mobile base to laying out connected pylons and power lines to support your fast-travel mining outposts, The Alters has a little something for everyone who likes to build stuff.

Don't buy it if...

You want an intense survival experience
Simply put, the various elements of The Alters all work to serve the central narrative - if you want a game that's all hardcore survival or management sim, look elsewhere.

You want fast-paced action
This isn't exactly a slow-paced game - seeing 'SUNRISE IN 3 DAYS' will certainly get you galvanized - but the infrequent combat sections are fairly basic.

Accessibility

There are a small number of accessibility features available in The Alters, primarily focused on reducing some intrusive visual effects (like those caused by certain anomalies, or when Jan is drunk after too much beer pong). There's also the option to adjust the font size of the subtitles and change the entire HUD scale - potentially useful for anyone who struggles to read small text.

A notable omission is a colorblind mode, although this might be a game where it wouldn't actually make much difference; most of the management menu screens are fairly monochrome, and the game broadly manages to avoid overlapping UI elements.

How I reviewed Mario Kart World

I played through the majority of The Alters on a gaming PC equipped with an RTX 4080 GPU and Ryzen 9 5950X CPU, at 1440p resolution, and got a consistent 60+ fps at max settings. I also played a short segment of the game on my laptop, which has an RTX 3060, and found similarly reliable performance at 1080p once I'd tweaked the graphical settings a little.

It took me about 20 hours to complete a full playthrough of the game, which I spread out over the course of a week. I played with a mouse and keyboard, but you can use a controller too if that's your preference. The game is also available on PS5 and Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S.

First reviewed June 2025

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