I was listening to The Exploding Barrel Podcast this week, which GamesBeat reviews editor Mike Minotti hosts, when they started talking about how the news around gaming is often a buzzkill. Between lay offs, crunch, and 8Chan, controversy has tainted a lot of this hobby.

It also feels like gaming no longer has any lulls. We’ve had nonstop huge games since last summer. Just throughout February, publishers launched Apex Legends, Metro Exodus, Anthem, Far Cry: New Dawn, and plenty of others.

And the thing about the bummer news and the constant onslaught of releases is that I don’t want a break from games. Sure, I wish I had more time to read and workout, but I’ve already cut out television and it takes me four days to watch a movie now.

So for me, what I need more than anything right now is a game that can wipe everything else from my mind. And by some miracle, publisher Devolver Digital and developers Gabe Cuzzillo, Bennett Foddy, and Matt Boch released Ape Out today.

Ape Out is a good video game

Ape Out is exactly the kind of game that I need right now. It has you playing as a gorilla trying to escape from various scenarios. The top-down action features some heavily stylized art and an intense jazz score with dynamic percussion that changes depending on how you play.

It’s fun, simple, and light. It puts you immediately into the action where you are crushing guards and throwing them into each other. The abstract aesthetic enables the developers to drench the levels in blood. These mercenaries are waiting for you to pop them until they burst into a red, wet puddle. It is some deeply satisfying violence.

Ape Out only uses two buttons. You can grab or you can smash. It is a smash-and-grab simulator. And as someone who isn’t sleeping much, it’s great to play something that rewards action over thinking. In most situations, I have a better chance of surviving if I play decisively. And that’s about all I’m capable of these days.

And then I’m pretty confident in playing games from Devolver Digital and Bennett Foddy (I’m unfamiliar with Cuzzillo and Boch). Devolver hasn’t laid off 800 people after a record fiscal quarter. Foddy doesn’t have a culture of mistreating women. And they’re not going to post about “lolis” and “alien prostitutes” on 8Chan.

Ape Out is the kind of game where I can feel good about turning off my brain to play it. That’s what makes it so refreshing right now. And it’s why I’m going to go buy the Switch version even though I’ve already played the PC version for a couple hours.

(Reuters) — Uber and Lyft plan to offer cash bonuses to some of their most active drivers with the option to purchase shares in the ride-hailing firms’ highly anticipated Wall Street debuts, a bold effort to improve driver relations as the companies transition to the public markets.

Both programs will offer drivers who have driven the longest and logged the most miles for the companies the rare chance to purchase stock at the initial public offering, before shares begin trading on public stock exchanges, according to four sources with knowledge of the matter. Such transactions are normally unavailable to retail investors.

The move is the latest bid by Uber and Lyft to improve relations with drivers who have long contested their classification as independent contractors and what they have claimed are low wages and poor treatment by the companies. Both companies still face thousands of driver arbitration claims over their employment status.

Lyft plans to give drivers who have logged at least 10,000 rides on the platform $1,000 that can be kept as a cash bonus or used to buy the IPO shares, one of the sources said on Thursday. The plan is an effort to reward the longest-serving and most active drivers, who do not enjoy employee benefits such as health insurance and reimbursement for expenses.

A driver who has completed 20,000 rides would be eligible for $10,000 in cash or an equivalent amount of stock, the person said. It was not clear how many drivers would qualify, but there is no cap on the program.

Many drivers in urban areas like San Francisco and Los Angeles drive for both Uber and Lyft, and some could stand to benefit from both stock programs.

The Wall Street Journal first reported Uber and Lyft’s driver stock plans earlier on Thursday.

Lyft plans to launch its “roadshow,” when the company will pitch prospective investors to buy stock in the offering, the week of March 18, Reuters reported last week. The roadshow is expected to last about two weeks, likely making Lyft the first Wall Street debut from a group of highly valued, venture-backed companies all expected to go public this year.

Both Uber and Lyft confidentially filed for an IPO in December. Lyft is expected to publicly release its regulatory paperwork this week, and it likely will contain details on the driver stock reward program.

Uber, Lyft’s much larger rival, still needs several more weeks to prepare for its IPO. The company is working out the details on a broad program for drivers that would give a significant portion of its 3 million active drivers and couriers globally a cash bonus, which they can use to purchase shares at the IPO price, according to three of the people with knowledge of the matter.

The stock program will be much more complicated than Lyft’s since it involves many more drivers and countries with different securities laws, and it will run into the millions of dollars, one of these people said.

For drivers in overseas markets where securities laws will prohibit them from purchasing shares, keeping the cash will be their only option, another of the sources said.

The cash bonuses will be doled out on a sliding scale based on the driver’s length of service and number of trips or deliveries, this person said. The target numbers and the cutoff date to meet those targets are still being worked out and will be set prior to the IPO.

Stock prices often pop after trading begins, making for a lucrative payday for shareholders who are able to buy at the IPO price. However, many drivers are likely to keep the cash, said Harry Campbell, creator of the Rideshare Guy blog and podcast, which offers advice to drivers.

“Most drivers are on a pretty tight budget so I think it will be tempting for them to take the cash bonus,” he said.

Uber last year sent a letter to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission asking for a rule change so the company could award shares to drivers while it was still privately held. Such programs had been problematic in the past. New York-based ride-hailing startup Juno promised equity to drivers, which drew SEC scrutiny. Juno ended up voiding the equity program after it was acquired, prompting a lawsuit from drivers.

Lyft expects to be valued at between $20 billion and $25 billion in its IPO, up from its current $15 billion valuation. Uber is seeking a valuation that could reach $120 billion, up from its $76 billion valuation in the private market.

Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own.

Taiwan is aiming to start negotiations for a new deal with a major trading partner, the European Union. The bloc of countries that did about $62 billion in trade with Taiwan last year decided in 2015 to explore “launching negotiations on investment with Taiwan,” and earlier this month an EU trade official said the deal was still being considered.

Taiwan's efforts at reaching free trade agreements with major trading partners such as the EU had been stymied under the weight of China's growing economic might. China discourages other countries from making deals because it considers Taiwan part of its territory, not a state with rights to foreign diplomacy. Meanwhile, companies from Taiwan’s export-reliant peers, such as Japan and South Korea, fare better in foreign markets because their governments have trade deals with many of the world’s biggest economies, meaning low or no import tariffs.

Based on existing Taiwan-EU trade patterns, the island’s top consumer electronics firms including Acer and MSI would gain from a new agreement, as would its chief bicycle builder Giant Manufacturing and many of its financial service providers.

“I believe Taiwan’s enterprises, like enterprises in other places, all want diversification, so you can say the higher the connectivity, the more they expect,” says Liang Kuo-yuan, president of  Polaris Research Institute, a Taipei-based think tank.

Big names that would gain from a deal with the EU

The European Commission states on its website that an agreement would be “particularly vital” for tie-ups in green energy. Wind power would be one example,  says Joffrey Simonet, an economist with FocusEconomics in Spain.

Data from Taiwan’s Investment Commission show that 89% of approved deals in Europe last year went to financial firms, including buyers of investment assets. In December, for example, Fubon Life Insurance, which has $111 billion in assets, bought a landmark commercial property in Frankfurt for $659 million. A month earlier, Taiwan Life Insurance said it would place $56.6 million of its $48.6 billion in investment assets in a European infrastructure fund.

Manufacturing came in at 6.6% of Taiwanese investments in Europe last year. A lot of that was furniture, motor vehicles and consumer electronics. PC vendors MSI, Acer and Asustek Computer all have operations in France, which is also a market for Giant bikes. Fellow bike vendor Merida, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) and Pegatron have business units in the Netherlands, the Investment Commission's data shows.

“The tech sector in general, and the semiconductor industry specifically, are poised to reap gains from an EU investment deal,” Simonet says. “The automotive industry is a particularly juicy market as the drive towards autonomous and electric vehicles will require more and more electronic equipment on board.”

European officials eying an enhanced investment deal

An investment deal between governments normally simplifies business permits and strengthens legal guarantees for money invested on one side by the other. It may relax shipping rights and property ownership, as well.

The deal with Taiwan would take a "comprehensive approach with respect to market access,” the European Commission said on its website in 2016. Market access conjures up the idea of liberalization, which could mean lower tariffs and other fees paid by Taiwan’s chief exporters.

A deal might make it easier to open sales channels and do marketing, Liang adds. All components of a deal would “create a chain effect” for investors, he says.

The foreign and economic affairs ministries in Taipei are “working hard” to sign this deal, foreign ministry spokesman Andrew Lee told a news conference on February 21. Despite a 4-year lag since it first floated the idea, the EU said in a 2017 trade policy report it was preparing for talks with Taiwan.

Neither Taiwan nor the EU rules out interference from China, but both say that factor won't kill a deal. A European Commission member responsible for trade with East Asia said this month a deal could still happen even though the EU recognizes China diplomatically over Taiwan. Taiwan is accustomed to China's opposition of such agreements.

“China’s pressure is always there any time we try to promote international projects,” Lee says. “We have ample understanding of this, so we will find ways to try to eliminate these obstacles.”

It’s been said before that for all their intelligence to enable you to play music, control smart home devices, and alert you when someone breaks into your home, that Amazon’s Echo smart speakers are essentially a Dash button with speakers.

Well, I guess Echo is just an intelligent speaker now, as Amazon announced today that it will indefinitely discontinue Dash buttons sales globally.

Dash buttons were first made available in 2015 as a way to help people reorder important items they most often use in their homes for things like paper towels, laundry detergent, and energy bars. Dash buttons costing $5 were made available from more than 150 brands like Tide, Clif Bar, and Campbell’s Soup.

Since then, a number of devices and services from Amazon have increasingly made the Dash button obsolete, including the Echo Wand, which can scan the barcodes of devices you want to reorder, and Alexa, which can either help users do shopping research or remember the kind of toilet paper or trash bags or snacks you like best.

Last year, virtual Dash buttons were introduced for third-parties to make their own Dash buttons for devices with screens.

Dash Replenishment, a service that makes smart home devices like Brita water filters and Whirlpool washing machines automatically orders new supplies, was also introduced last year and now supports reorders for hundreds of products, a company spokesperson said in a statement shared with VentureBeat.

Existing Dash buttons will continue to work for people out there who are die hard Dash fans. For people who like the simplicity of pressing a button to complete reorders, virtual dash buttons will also continue to work on devices like Amazon’s Echo Show.

Anthem is a live-service video game, so that means it launched with some problems. And while many people are enjoying their time with the cooperative sci-fi shooter, its issues are dominating the conversation surrounding it. That put developer BioWare on its heels coming out of launch. But as the studio transitions Anthem from release to an ongoing platform, BioWare is revealing how it plans to attack updates and community concerns head on.

In a post on Reddit from late Wednesday night, BioWare announced plans to update how it handles loot in Anthem. This patch is going out today or tomorrow, and the studio wants to make sure that players feel like they are making progress while grinding.

One of the more frustrating things about the loot is that players can earn weapon upgrades called inscriptions that are specific to a gun but don’t actually improve the performance of that item. BioWare is addressing this by ensuring that an assault rifle inscription will never feature a buff for a pistol, for example. Instead, that inscription will either improve your assault rifle or the performance of your javelin suit as a whole.

BioWare is also preventing the game from dropping common weapons for players who are higher than level 30. And it is reducing the number of materials you need to craft one of Anthem’s high-level “Masterworks” firearms.

BioWare is trying to remain transparent with fans

I won’t say that a live-service game lives or dies on how well a developer communicates with its fans. It’s not that easy, and I honestly have no idea what it takes to keep a live-service game growing. But keeping an open dialogue with your community seems important, and BioWare is embracing this so far.

In its Reddit post, the studio didn’t just list its changes. Instead, it begins the post by summarizing the player-provided complaints.

“First off, thank you for all the feedback about loot drops,” reads the post. “This is what we have heard.”

The post then provides four bullet points that explain how Anthem is broken. This moment feels like BioWare is taking ownership over the fate of this game. It’s not shying away from problems. It’s no longer back on its heels.

Anthem probably won’t get Andromeda’d

It has turned into something of a meme that EA might do to this game what it did to Mass Effect: Andromeda. That means that people believe EA could cancel ongoing support for Anthem the same way it ended plans for Andromeda’s expansions.

But those two games are very different as is DLC and live-service support. For Andromeda, BioWare Montreal was going to have to get back to work on the game after years working on the original release. For Anthem, EA prepped BioWare Austin to specifically work on constant updates separate from BioWare Edmonton.

And BioWare Austin is the same team that launched Star Wars: The Old Republic. That massively multiplayer online game had its share of problems at launch, and the BioWare Austin team went to work and turned it into something that many people regard quite highly. That experience should help Anthem, and it’s one reason for fans of this game to have some optimism.

Tesla today began selling the standard Model 3 at a base price of $35,000 in the U.S. and Canada  — a model with 220 miles of range, a top speed of 130 miles per hour, and 0-60 miles per hour acceleration of 5.6 seconds. An enhanced version of the Model 3 — the Model 3 Standard Range Plus — starts at $37,000, and offers 240 miles of range, a top speed of 140mph, and 0-60mph acceleration of 5.3 seconds, in addition to “most” premium interior features.

Tesla also announced that it’s shifting sales worldwide to online-only. Online-only sales, it says, were a critical piece in achieving lower vehicle prices — 6 percent lower on average.

“You can now buy a Tesla in North America via your phone in about 1 minute, and that capability will soon be extended worldwide,” Tesla wrote in a blog post. “Over the next few months, we will be winding down many of our stores, with a small number of stores in high-traffic locations remaining as galleries, showcases and Tesla information centers.”

Tesla’s making it easier to try out and return cars, too — potential buyers can return a car within seven days or 1,000 miles for a full refund. Additionally, it’s rolling out firmware upgrades that’ll increase the range of the Long Range Rear-Wheel Drive Model 3 to 325 miles, the top speed of Model 3 Performance to 162 mph, and add an average of 5 percent peak power to all Model 3 cars.

Finally, it’s making pricing and variant adjustments across its lineup. The Model X now costs $88,000, while the Model S costs $79,000. And Tesla’s offering two Autopilot packages for the Model S, Model X, and Model 3 in most regions: Autopilot, which starts at $3,000 ($4,000 if purchased as an upgrade) and enables Autosteer and Traffic Aware Cruise Control, and a $5,000 ($7,000 if purchased as an upgrade) Full Self-Driving Capability, which in addition to Autosteer and Traffic Aware Cruise Control (Autopilot package) adds Summon, Autopark, Navigate on Autopilot, and “other features” coming later this year.

The announcements come shortly after Tesla rolled out a 360-degree surveillance system — “sentry mode” — to Model 3 owners in the U.S. (with Model S and Model X vehicle built after 2017 to follow), which uses eight onboard cameras to provide a holistic view of everything going on outside.

And follow on the heels of rumors that Telsa would soon reveal its Autopilot Hardware 3.0 hardware, which it claims is the “world’s most advanced computer for autonomous driving.” Musk says that it’s able to handle 2,000 frames per second with redundancy compared with the current-gen Autopilot 2.0 computer’s 200 frames per second, and that it’ll be offered as an upgrade to current Autopilot 2.0 owners.

Tesla earlier said that it’ll be required to enable the features under its Full Self-Driving Capability Package. (Musk claimed that Tesla’s vehicles would be ready and able to completely drive themselves without any human interaction by 2017)

the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission asked a federal judge to hold Musk in contempt of court for violating the terms of a $40 million settlement reached last year. In a tweet earlier this month, regulators say, he overstated the number of cars Tesla plans to deliver in 2019. (He pegged the number at 500,000, corrected in a subsequent tweet to: “annualized production rate at the end of 2019 probably around 500k, ie 10k cars/week. Deliveries for year still estimated to be about 400k.”)

Musk has until March 11 to respond.

2018 was a tumultuous year for the car company — and for Musk personally. In October, Tesla announced it would reduce its full-time staff by 7 percent, cuts Musk blamed on the high price points of its cars. (Still, Tesla managed to make a four percent profit in Q3 2018.)

That news followed on heels of Musk’s tweets about his intentions to take the company private. They triggered an investigation by the SEC, and subsequently forced his resignation as chairman and the aforementioned settlement.