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The NFL has reinstated Isaiah Rodgers, a star cornerback for the Philadelphia Eagles. This marks the end of a challenging period for the player who was ousted from the league due to a gambling ban.
Rodgers was suspended for a season, a significant penalty, for violating the NFL’s gambling policy and regulations for active players.
Rodgers reinstated by NFL
The cornerback was released by the Indiana Colts after the league made the decision to ban the player. At that time, Chris Ballard General Manager of the Colts said “We have made the following roster moves as a consequence of the determination that these players violated the league’s gambling policy.”
At the same time, the Colts released defensive end Rashod Berry, taking a zero-tolerance approach to gambling breaches. Both players were found to be wagering on teammate’s props and on behalf of other individuals in states with no legal gambling laws.
Sports betting is prohibited for active players across all sports in the United States, especially where individual player performances are concerned. These are called “props,” a single statistic or milestone a player must meet to win the bet.
Rodgers took to X at that time to comment on the decision made by the league:

pic.twitter.com/735qAiLH4h
— Isaiah Rodgers Sr. (@rodgers_isaiah) June 6, 2023

Despite the ban for gambling Rodgers was snapped up by the Philadelphia Eagles in August 2023, with the team understanding that they would not involve him in any sporting commitments. This has turned out to be a boon for the 2017 Superbowl Champions.
They now have three available cornerbacks for the season ahead, which has been a problem position for the NFL giants. The Philly team also heads into the NFL draft knowing that Rodgers can bolster the position alongside veterans and a possible Rookie.
Executive Vice President/General Manager Howie Roseman said at the time of Rodgers’ signing, “We believe in second chances, and now it’s on him. So, he’ll come in next year and be ready to go for the offseason program and Training Camp. I think. He’s got (to) apply for reinstatement, so I’m not taking that for granted.”
Rodgers will now have to toe the line and be watched on and off the field by his new team. So Rodgers and the Eagles will hope he hits the headlines for all the right reasons in his second chance season.
Image: Ideogram.
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New research suggests that Bitcoin whales have been accumulating the cryptocurrency, keeping the price above a crucial resistance level until April 24, 2024.
According to data from TradingView, Bitcoin’s price witnessed a surge to $67,000 following the latest daily close, with bulls maintaining a tight range and moving away from order book liquidity for the BTC/USD pair.
Investors Continue to Accumulate
Current figures from the blockchain data platform CoinGlass reveal that approximately $35 million worth of bid walls were absorbed at the daily close on Binance, with most of the selling liquidity now positioned between $67,000 and $67,500.
An accompanying chart also displayed trading behavior among various Bitcoin whale classes. Interestingly, unlike others, the $1-10 million order category increased risk until April. This aligns with current data from research firm Santiment, indicating that FOMO is now prevalent among wallets holding between 1,000 and 10,000 Bitcoins. Santiment posted on X:
Bitcoin’s key whale tier holding 1K-10K $BTC are supporting this rise, and have now accumulated 266K more $BTC since the start of 2024. This translates to an accumulation of 1.24% of the entire supply. The crowd is also showing a high degree of #FOMO.
What’s Happening on the Bitcoin Front?
Meanwhile, trading firm QCP Capital suggested that crypto markets might experience a period of low volatility before any significant changes occur. In a market update sent to Telegram channel subscribers, QCP described the situation:
 BTC is right smack in the middle 60/73k range and BTC front-end vols have trickled down closer to 60% […] Just last week, we had the fourth BTC halving and the market was panicking over the outbreak of war in the Middle East (which has since de-escalated).
What can we make of this unsettling quietness in the market?
While market participants showed great anticipation of the Bitcoin halving, the price action failed to deliver on that premise. Reports indicate that Bitcoin miners started stockpiling near-record amounts of Bitcoin, hoping the token will rise in value and offset a drop in new supply that will cut the rewards for verifying transactions in half.
Still, so far the price is very near where it was before the halving — currently at about $66,000 — and even transaction fees have fallen sharply following the event.
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Sony has filed a patent for an auto-play feature, which allows AI to take the wheel for those monotonous grinding moments in video games.
The patent, aligning with the trend of other companies transitioning to AI as it increasingly integrates into business models, has the potential to revolutionize the way players game.
Sony states the aim isn’t to fully automate gameplay or make it easy to win challenges. As outlined in their patent, Sony intends for the AI autoplay feature to serve as an alternative for players who prefer to bypass “grinding content.”
Despite developers’ efforts to create exciting video games, certain players may find specific sections less thrilling, especially when tasked with repetitive actions or when trying to finish quests they don’t like and find mundane.
Hence in the patent, they add: “Each of these scenarios can adversely impact a player’s enjoyment of the video game. It is in this context that embodiments arise.”
The Japanese company indicates that the new mode will leverage user data to copy the player’s style as it carries out tasks. Each player’s auto-play mode is expected to be personalized, mimicking player control.
After Sony’s auto-play mode finishes its designated tasks, it will then prompt the player to resume manual control of the game. At this point, the player can choose to dive back into the action or let auto-play continue advancing through the game.
A patent filing doesn’t necessarily mean it’ll be integrated into Sony hardware, but it may be implemented into multiplayer games down the line.
Players’ reactions to Sony’s AI autoplay mode
However, some gamers have found the move controversial and “absurd,” equating it to cheating.
“If you really want to experience the plot and the vibe of the game but don’t jive with the gameplay, and don’t want to gamble on watching a streamer play it, that type of thing,” one person said on a Reddit thread.
Sony Patents ‘Auto-Play’ Game Mode byu/Diamond_Guy_666 ingaming

Another person responded: “We had a similar system 30 years ago called ‘cheat codes.’”
Conversely, a user said it could be seen as an “assisted play mode,” allowing non-gamers to “enjoy a game like a movie without just watching it.”
The general theme of the Reddit discussion revolves around concerns about games becoming too easy.
As of now, Sony has not publicly announced any details about auto-play. Their plans to develop and integrate such a feature remain undisclosed.
Featured image: Canva
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PUBG Battlegrounds is reintroducing the game’s original map, Erangel, with all sorts of content and design touches to fully evoke the days when the game was called PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, and it was the breakout hit of battle royale gaming.
Called Erangel Classic, the map will be available on PC from May 14 to May 28, and on consoles (PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X) May 23 to June 6. Erangel Classic will not be available on PUBG Mobile. Erangel Classic will replace the current Erangel map in Normal Match during its two-week availability.
And by Erangel Classic, Krafton doesn’t mean just restoring topographical features or buildings that have been altered and iterated on over the past seven years. Bench weapons, which are guns laid out on a grid of picnic tables at certain locations, make their return.

The UI will also have an OG PUBG look, from the world map and minimap to “the charmingly tacky font and graphics,” the developer said. Weapon recoil, although not a perfect match for PUBG in the original game, is noticeably reduced on this map, too.
“Erangel Classic preserves the essence of the earlier version of Erangel, its distinctive appearance and atmosphere, all while delivering the enjoyable gameplay experiences that players have grown accustomed to,” Krafton said. The patch notes dropping May 13 will have more.
PUBG Battlegrounds still has a powerhouse player base
PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds launched in early access on Windows PC in March 2017. with a full launch the following December on PC, around the time it showed up in Xbox One’s early access Game Preview program. It made its full launch on that console in September 2018. It was renamed PUBG Battlegrounds in the summer of 2021.
Although not the first battle royale, even in early access PUBG was the top game leading that genre through its 2017 craze, albeit ceding that status to Fortnite in 2018, after its battle royale mode launched in September 2017. PUBG Battlegrounds has made a comeback, somewhat, surging from a monthly peak current player count, on Steam, of 415,000 in September to 764,034 in March, its highest monthly peak since December 2020.
PUBG Mobile, which launched in March 2018, boasts 20 million active users, those figures according to Krafton. Greatly helped by a sizeable audience in both China and India (playing versions specific to their locations), PUBG Mobile counted more than a billion users by the end of 2022.
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Manor Lords is soon to be upon us and we can’t wait to get our hands on the early access Lord ‘em-up. The game will be arriving on PC Game Pass and Steam, with an Xbox version to follow, but in case you are wondering when you can get out there and tax some peasants (not much has changed really has it?) in your part of the world, well, we can help you with that.
What time does Manor Lords release?
As with most games these days the game will unlock simultaneously the globe over, which means, depending on which part of the Earth you call home, will dictate whether it is an early morning or indeed a late night ahead for you.
Indeed if you are in New Zealand, because of the weird way time differences work you are going to be playing the game in the future, even though it is the same time as everybody else. Science eh?
Publisher Hooded Horse has posted a world map on X showing the times in the various zones which you can see below. California is getting up early to play with a 6 AM PT kick-off, Europe will be joining the fun in the mid-afternoon for them with Asia and Australia starting late on the evening of the 26th leaving New Zealand out to play on their 27th April. Will they tell us what the future holds I wonder.
If you are looking for something to do to while away the time before you start playing you could always start to design your own coat of arms to upload into the game to pass an hour or two.

What kind of game is Manor Lords?
Manor Lords is a medieval strategy game featuring in-depth city building, large-scale tactical battles, and complex economic and social simulations. Rule your lands as a medieval lord — the seasons pass, the weather changes, and cities rise and fall.
The post Manor Lords global release times – when is it available where you are? appeared first on ReadWrite.