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The Steam Machine isn't shy with its red LED error codes, but it's apparently jumping the gun in terms of temperature warnings. Luckily, Valve is already working on a BIOS fix that will tweak the thresholds to 100°C for both the CPU and GPU, which should prevent any scary false alarms from disrupting your couch PC sessions.

Originally flagged by Reddit user Pure-Outcome-5977, the Steam Machine temperature warning can currently kick in at way below 100°C. Performance overlay stats shared by the cube's owner show the full red LED bar showing with the CPU at just 81°C, with the GPU and VRAM sitting at an even cooler 75°C and 81°C, respectively.

If you're not used to dealing with gaming PC temperatures, the red warning light might have you believe the cube's about to explode. However, Steam Support has confirmed that the error codes are indeed in need of calibration, and Valve is reportedly already on the case.

Update Regarding Red Light During Gameplay from r/steammachine

"After discussing with our engineers, there is a known issue with the current BIOS that results in the red LED lights displaying much earlier than they should." Valve confesses. "The issue is just with when the lights are set to come on."

That's Valve's way of immediately signalling that there are no major faults at play here, especially since this isn't the first time error codes have caused a ruckus (looking at you, GPU Red Line of Dead ). Instead, the mini PC maker explains that the "Steam Machine itself is within normal operating temperatures, which they confirmed from your screenshot."

"Steam Machine will start throttling performance at 100 C for the CPU/GPU and will shut down to protect itself if temperatures rise past that." Valve guidance is honestly in line with every other GPU I've encountered, and in reality, chipsets won't immediately die even if it's running at those temps for some time. Emergency shutdowns are more a protective measure to ensure chips can live a long and happy life and flag absurd temps ASAP to protect the rest of your rig.

(Image credit: Valve) If your Steam Machine is currently shouting at you for temperatures nowhere near 100 C, Valve has your back. Steam Support confirms that "a BIOS update is being worked on to be released soon that will fix the red LED light behavior to be at 100/100 C for the CPU/GPU instead of 95/90 for the CPU/GPU that is currently happening."

I do find this specific instance a little curious, seeing as plenty of enthusiasts are currently pushing the Steam Machine to its limits for reviews and benchmarks without any red LED issues. I suspect that the lightbar is simply a little twitchy right now and more likely to sound false alarms, something that might not happen with every unit. Still, it's both nice to hear Valve is already on it, and I'd probably rather be safe than sorry with my $1,049 cube had I nabbed one at launch.

If you've got a Steam Machine sitting pretty on your desk or TV bench, it's probably worth checking out Valve's reference error codes . If you do end up with an aggressive red HAL light trying to get your attention, it might indicate a serious fault, but you'll at least have a rough idea of what's going on from the pattern displayed.

Swing by the best Steam Deck docks to turn Valve's portable into a budget Steam Machine stand-in.

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The creative team behind LA Noire considered Mad Men star Jon Hamm for the role of Cole Phelps.

I recently interviewed Daniel McMahon, a writer who worked on the Rockstar-published LA Noire, for a YouTube video about the 2011 detective game and its cancelled successor, Whore of the Orient. Our conversation was wide-spanning, but I was curious about one thing: was Jon Hamm ever considered for a part in the game?

For those that don't know, LA Noire features a number of actors from the TV series Mad Men, including Aaron Staton, the man who plays the game's protagonist, Cole Phelps. Hamm's breakout role came from playing the lead of Don Draper in Mad Men, so I figured he must've been on developer Team Bondi's radar.

McMahon noted that Mad Men and LA Noire shared the same casting director, which is likely why the two projects share so many faces. He also confirmed to me that yes, Hamm was discussed as a possibility for the role of Cole Phelps. McMahon shared images of Hamm wearing a suit and hat from Mad Men with the team on the game, showing that he perfectly fit the vibe and tone of LA Noire. However, it didn't happen.

"It was never said at the time, but now, I understand the vision which was Jon Hamm is a wonderful actor, but he's not Cole Phelps," McMahon said. "Jon Hamm would've been a much better Jack Kelso because he's a character of great power, he's a character of control. Jon Hamm knows what he's doing and gets s**t done.

"Aaron Staton was much better at portraying Cole's fragility. A lot of the time, Cole's flapping around having no idea what he's doing. He's very smart, but he's also young, not very experienced, and he's just trying his best. So, I think Jon Hamm would've been incredible, but expensive, and probably, in the end, not as good casting for that character as Aaron Staton was."

Cole Phelps and Don Draper do share similar stories, but are portrayed completely differently. Both men are World War II veterans trying desperately to run away from their failures overseas to avoid being consumed by guilt. They also both cheat on their wives, leading to the implosion of their families. Draper and Phelps are also consumed by their jobs and each career win inflates their ego, creating an unstainable arc. Their stories ultimately take different paths in the end, but it would've been interesting to see Hamm play Phelps or the game's second protagonist, Jack Kelso, as McMahon suggested.

Ever since LA Noire's release, fans of the game have called on Rockstar to green light a sequel. Earlier this year, Strauss Zelnick, boss of Rockstar parent company Take-Two, gave fans a sliver of hope that LA Noire 2 might happen one day .

“Broadly, we’re looking at doing something in the future with all of our intellectual property,” he said. “There’s nothing to announce on LA Noire specifically, and if there were, it would be Rockstar announcing it, not me. But in any case, with regard to our legacy IP, the teams are always looking at what we have and we’re always thinking about it. The question is, at any given time, do we have a team that’s passionate about working on that?”

Photo by: Peter Kramer/NBC/NBC Newswire/NBCUniversal via Getty Images.

Cade Onder is a freelancer for IGN's news team. He covers all things entertainment, including gaming, film, and more. You can find him on Twitter @Cade_Onder.

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Belgium’s foreign minister accused the European Commission on Monday of taking “insufficient” action against trade with illegal Israeli settlements as a push to clamp down divides EU countries.

EU foreign ministers gathered in Brussels are due to discuss a paper written by Ursula von der Leyen’s EU executive, and seen by POLITICO , that pitches various options for limiting trade with the West Bank settlements, including “prohibitive tariffs” and a licensing system.

But this paper falls short of Belgium’s demands for concrete proposals to ban or limit trade, according to Foreign Minister Maxime Prévot — who said the Commission had circulated the paper to give countries a “bone to chew on.”

“The European Commission has finally proposed some options over two pages,” Prévot told journalists on his way into the Foreign Affairs Council meeting in Brussels. “So this is the feeling they have thrown out a bone to chew on rather than any real will to go forward.”

Prévot went on to say that the measures were “largely insufficient compared to the need to be a credible actor on the geopolitical level in the Israeli-Palestinian situation — which, I regret to say, the European Union has not been for some time.”

The push to clamp down on Israel’s illegal settlements was due to loom large at the gathering of foreign ministers, with a group of countries — including Belgium, the Netherlands, Spain and Ireland — seeking to form a majority to force the Commission to table a formal proposal that can be put to a vote.

Speaking to journalists on her way into the meeting, chief EU diplomat Kaja Kallas said the situation with illegal settlements needs to be addressed and that she sided with the European Council’s legal service against the Commission on whether tariffs on the settlements are trade measures or sanctions. The difference is that the former requires only a qualified majority of states to pass, while the latter requires unanimity.

Ministers from the Netherlands and Spain also called for an EU-wide halt to trade with the settlements, pointing out that their own countries had already taken bilateral measures.

“Spain has banned these imports bilaterally. The European Union needs to do it too,” said Spanish Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares Bueno.

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Microsoft produced 20.3 million tons of CO2e emissions last year, up from 16.2 million tons

Of the 37.5 million MWh of energy used, only 422,000 MWh came from unsustainable sources

A rise in diesel/crude oil consumption and Scope 2 emissions are key drivers

In its latest sustainability report , Microsoft has admitted its greenhouse gas emissions actually rose 25.1% year-over-year from 16.2 million tons to 20.3 million tons in 2025.

With the company targeting a 2030 carbon negative deadline, rising emissions presents a major challenge that it must overcome, however current trends point to emissions continue to rise even further.

Microsoft said its rapid expansion of AI and cloud data centers as a key driver for rising emissions, and with more projects in the pipeline, this could be an ongoing challenge for years to come.

Microsoft's emissions are moving in the wrong direction

The company also noted its decision to stop buying short-term renewable energy certificates that do not directly support additional clean capacity. While the previous year's 16.2-million-ton figure was lower than last year's, it was largely offset by carbon credits and doesn't accurately represent the true emissions.

More broadly, Scope 2 and Scope 3 emissions are also under pressure from the continued data center expansion, due to electricity purchases, unsustainable construction materials and compute hardware. For example, Scope 2 emissions went from accounting for 1.6% of total emissions in FY24 to a staggering 13.3% in FY25.

As for fossil fuel use, the company saw a 51% rise in diesel and crude oil consumption despite reductions in natural gas (-6.5%), propane/LPG/jet fuel (-10%) and gasoline (-16%) use. Still, of the nearly 37.5 million MWh of energy the company used in FY25, only around 422,000 MWh came from non-renewable sources (per a separate data sheet ).

However, despite expansion-related challenges, Microsoft did make significant progress to reducing overall emissions, hitting around 20 million tons last year instead of the 34 million tones it could have hit without work on carbon-free electricity, sustainable fuels, energy efficiency improvements and other supple chain refinements.

Microsoft isn't the only company battling the impacts of AI – Amazon also recently noted a 16% annual increase in emissions, while also blaming AI and data centers. Google also saw a 25% rise in emissions for its most recent full year.