Amazon is reportedly adding Teresa Palmer (The Fall Guy, Warm Bodies, Hacksaw Ridge) to its pantheon of Norse gods for its God of War TV show adaptation. As first reported by Deadline, Palmer will play Sif, Thor’s wife and eventual leader of the Aesir, in the live-action adaptation. It may not carry as much weight as the casting of the video game’s protagonist that was revealed earlier this week to be Ryan Hurst, but it could hint at the direction the TV show may take.

While Sif plays a minor role in the God of War Ragnarok game, the early casting confirmation could indicate that the showrunner, Ronald D. Moore, may give the character a more involved role. In God of War Ragnarok, Sif is known as Odin’s diplomat before the events of Ragnarok, where she becomes the new leader of the Aesir, one of two tribes of Norse gods. Notably, Amazon’s adaptation is still missing the casting confirmations for Atreus, Thor, Odin and many other Norse gods seen in the video game. Even so, the God of War TV show has already secured at least two seasons.

Google Meet is joining Drive for Android this month in adopting more Material 3 Expressive. Like other Workspace services, the video calling app now has a search app bar.

Google Meet for Android now uses the search app bar component. Previously, the text field spanned the full width of your screen. The hamburger menu and profile switcher have been placed outside for a cleaner look. 

“Search contacts” is still home to the “Code” button that lets you join a meeting by manually entering an ID. The button drops the text label and nicely curves into the right edge of the search container.

We’re seeing Google Meet’s search app bar rolled out with a server-side update, though version 341 is widely available today. 

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Old vs. new

The app’s homepage (history list), pre-calling screen (ludicrously capacious buttons), and in-call interface gained M3 Expressive last year.  

Looking ahead, Google Meet this month will replace Duo Legacy calling. This was postponed from September 2025. 

With this update, most Google Workspace apps — Chat, Docs, Drive, Gmail, Keep, Sheets, and Slides — now use the search app bar. This makes for a nice family resemblance. The main exception is Google Calendar, though it probably doesn’t make sense in light of the month switcher. Then there’s Google Voice, which is still rocking Material You.

Six years after the announcement of plans to build Atari Hotels in eight cities across the US, including Las Vegas, only one now seems to be moving forward, in Phoenix, Arizona. The Las Vegas deal ultimately “didn’t come to fruition,” spokesperson Sara Collins told Las Vegas Sun this week, and Atari Hotels is putting its focus into the Phoenix site “for the time being.”

Phoenix was always meant to be the first site, followed by other hotels in Austin, Chicago, Denver, Las Vegas, San Francisco, San Jose and Seattle. But Las Vegas is now apparently off the table, and there haven’t been any signs of life around the other planned locations. The FAQ on the Atari Hotels website notes, “Additional sites, including Denver, are being explored under separate development and licensing agreements.” The Atari Hotel project was announced in 2020 just before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and consequently experienced development delays. Construction on the Phoenix hotel, which was supposed to break ground in 2020, is expected to begin late this year, with its opening now planned for 2028.

But maybe don’t hold your breath. According to a December press release, the company is still trying to raise $35 million to $40 million to fund the “playable destination” for gamers in Phoenix.

A post on Google Design this week takes a look at the design and illustration of the Gemini app, with gradients playing a big role.

Google considers AI assistants to be an “uncharted design territory” akin to the original (Happy) Macintosh graphical user interface in 1984.

Using simple visual metaphors, [designer Susan Kare] made abstract digital processes tangible and intuitive for new users: a trash can, a paintbrush, a smiling computer face. Her icons weren’t just pixels; they were bridges between human understanding and machine logic. 

Google says “Gemini faces a similar challenge around accessibility, visibility, and alleviating potential concerns.” This is in part due to its “always evolving nature” and general “conceptual gaps around AI.” 

What is Gemini’s equivalent of Kare’s smiling computer face?

For Google, gradients are the answer to “gently guide users into the new collaborative world with Gemini” and offer an “amorphous, adaptable approach.” 

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Gradients might be much more about energy than “objectness,” like Kare’s illustrations (a trash can is a thing, a gradient is a vibe), but they infuse a spirit and directionality into Gemini.

In Gemini, gradients are used to:

• “…convey a transfer of energy and directional momentum, they feature sharp, almost opaque leading edges that diffuse at the tail, acting as clear visual pointers to direct user attention toward what’s most important.”
• “…make the system feel alive, our designers wanted to visualize Gemini’s process of active thinking and synthesis, which helps personify the AI assistant rather than rendering it impenetrable.”

Gemini Live and the overlay on Android, along with the icon, are the most prominent examples available today.

Google’s post includes several designs that the team explored, like alternative activation animations when holding the power button (current design: display shrink) or swiping from a corner (legacy Google Assistant light bar). 

We also have a closer look at the loading, morphing animation on the Gemini homepage before the greeting and suggestions appear. It is inspired by Material 3 Expressive shapes.

Speaking of shapes, there’s a focus on the “fundamental shape of the circle.”

This choice was deliberate, as circles tend to convey simplicity, harmony, and comfort. Even Gemini’s own logo is thoughtfully constructed from the negative space of four adjoining circles.

Motion is an “essential guiding element” in Gemini’s design:

Each animation has a defined start and end point, creating a sense of directional flow that mirrors user actions. This sense of responsiveness helps users intuitively understand that the system is working with them. Inner activity within the motion conveys thinking, analysis, and intelligence, making Gemini’s processing feel more transparent. Motion allows users to see information coming together, visualizing Gemini’s conversations and listening abilities.

“Softness” is another quality:

When a system is hard to approach, the design must be soft. This softness — conveyed through guided, pulsing gradient shapes, clear language, and transparent signaling — allows users to engage with the new system feeling secure and supported. The gradient can be many things through its animations: aspirational and uplifting, directional and instructional. But they remain soft and direct, and always looking forward; they’re deeply connected to the Google brand with room to grow, like the personified gradient, rippling and responding to voice.

At the end of the day, Google wants to “make Gemini feel intuitive, immersive, approachable, aspirational — and, above all, trustworthy.”

Welcome to our latest roundup of what’s going on in the indie game space. Several neat-looking games arrived this week, we got release dates for several others that I’m really looking forward to and a brand-new Steam festival was announced.

The Love, Romance, and Heartbreak Debutante Ball is said to be the first Valentine’s Day-themed Steam festival. It’ll run from February 13 to 20 and feature more than 100 games, including discounts and demos. A showcase will take place on February 13 at 1PM ET on the Sunny Demeanor Games YouTube channel too.

Organizers say the festival includes a wide variety of games about love, including RPGs, puzzle games and (naturally) visual novels. You might play as a cat or someone trying to fish an engagement ring out of a claw machine, as a secret agent or a couple that’s run off to another planet. I’m intrigued! There will be some NSFW games involved, for what it’s worth.

New releases

Quarantine Zone: The Last Check seems like a 3D version of Papers Please but with zombies. At a checkpoint amid a zombie outbreak, your mission is to screen survivors for signs of infection. If you’re unsure of their status, you can send an individual to quarantine for further observation or a lab for additional screening. Otherwise, you can let them in or send them to “liquidation.” Get things wrong and it could spell disaster, but at least you have a sidearm (and a weaponized drone) to help you deal with sticky situations.

It looks like there’s a lot going on in Quarantine Zone: The Last Check, which is from Brigada Games and publisher Devolver Digital. There are base and resource management aspects as well. It’s out now on Steam (usually $20, but there’s a 10 percent discount until January 26) and PC Game Pass.

Air Hares seems to draw inspiration from classic top-down shoot-’em-ups. But instead of simply blowing up countless ships, your mission is to restore farmland. You’ll fire seeds and water to turn barren land into fertile carrot fields. There are still enemies to contend with — you (and perhaps a co-op partner) can dodge and ram them as you try to protect the land. Expect boss battles, too.

I really like the aesthetic here. It has a ’90s-style cartoon look (I suddenly really want a modern Bucky O’Hare game). Also, the song from the trailer is going to live in my head for weeks.

Husband-and-wife team Tim and Megan Bungeroth created Air Hares over six years with the help of several contributors. According to a press release, the game is “inspired by the creators’ personal journey with infertility and the idea of creating life rather than destroying it.”

Air Hares is out now on Steam. It typically costs $9, but there’s a 20 percent discount until January 28.

Luckshot Games’ Big Hops looks like my kind of 3D platformer: joyous and playful. As a young frog who has been kidnapped, you’ll try to find airship parts for a raccoon who has promised to help get you home.

There are tons of movement mechanics here, and Hop’s tongue plays a major role in those. You can use it to swing across gaps, hookshot your way to higher platforms and solve puzzles.

Big Hops is out now on Steam, Nintendo Switch and PS5 for $20. The Switch and Steam versions have a 10 percent launch discount until January 19.

Cassette Boy is a pixel-art game that might appear to be a 2D exploration puzzler, but there’s more going on here. You can rotate the world to discover new secrets and hide enemies and hazards from view so you can move past them. If you can’t see something on your screen, it doesn’t exist. There’s a bit of a Fez influence here, it would appear.

Wonderland Kazakiri and publisher Pocketpair are behind this one, which I’m looking forward to checking out when I have a chance. Cassette Boy is available on Steam, Switch, PS4, PS5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S for $13.

Upcoming

I really enjoyed the demo for Aerial_Knight’s DropShot (as well as Aerial_Knight’s previous games). I’m for sure going to be playing the full game when it hits PS5, Xbox Series X/S, Steam and Epic Games Store on February 17.

This is a single-player first-person shooter in which you’re skydiving with finger guns. You compete with four enemies to grab the only available parachute as you’re falling through the air. Rounds are fast-paced too, generally lasting under a minute.

Point-and-click adventure Earth Must Die has been on my radar for a while and we’ll all get a chance to try it soon. It’s designed to be a playable cartoon (with a runtime of about eight hours) and it has an art style to match.

The cast is pretty stellar, with Ben Starr (Final Fantasy XVI, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, Hades II), Joel Fry (Our Flag Means Death) and a whole load of British comedy figures on board. There’s a demo available on Steam now and the full game — from Size Five Games and publisher No More Robots — will land on January 27.

Let’s wrap things up for this week something very silly-looking from Monster Shop Games. Pie in the Sky is a Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater-inspired action arcade game in which you play as a magpie that terrorizes bystanders. You can knock people off the Sydney Harbour Bridge, ram kids off of scooters, actually go skateboarding and, uh, cause havoc from above. In classic THPS-style, there are hidden areas too.

This looks like a fun distraction from [gestures at everything]. Pie is the Sky will swoop onto Steam on February 2.

OpenAI today announced the inevitable, that ChatGPT will start showing ads in your queries, and they’re pretty prominent too.

Ads run the modern internet, whether you like it or not, but AI chatbots have often been mostly devoid of them. Google has explicitly said that ads aren’t coming to the Gemini chatbot experience, for example, though has been testing ads in things like its AI features in Search.

Still, it was inevitable that ChatGPT would be adding ads of some kind, and now we know what they look like.

OpenAI says that ads are coming to ChatGPT users “in the coming weeks” if they’re a free user or on the new $8/month “Go” plan that offers “10x more messages, file uploads and image creation than the free tier,” while also boosting ChatGPT’s memory. That new plan is less than half of the cost of ChatGPT Plus, which costs $20/month and has no ads.

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For the time being, ads in ChatGPT will be a “test” in the US, and they’ll appear at the bottom of answers “when there’s a relevant sponsored product or service based on your current conversation.” The answer appears at the top of the response, with a visible line separating a “Sponsored” related result. In OpenAI’s demo, a query about “authentic Mexican dish ideas” is followed by an ad for a grocery delivery app with hot sauce, while another advertises lodging in a city the user is looking for information on, with the option to “chat with” that sponsor for more information.

Users were pretty quick to point out that the ads in ChatGPT take up a considerable amount of screen real estate, though they presumably will vary depending on the answer the AI spits out.

OpenAI says:

The best ads are useful, entertaining, and help people discover new products and services. Given what AI can do, we’re excited to develop new experiences over time that people find more helpful and relevant than any other ads. Conversational interfaces create possibilities for people to go beyond static messages and links. For example, soon you might see an ad and be able to directly ask the questions you need to make a purchase decision.

The company further adds that advertisements are “not eligible to appear near sensitive or regulated topics like health, mental health or politics,” or to users under the age of 18.

More on AI:

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