A Tien Kung robot (left) competes in the 400-meter race at the National Speed Skating Oval in Beijing on August 23, 2026 during the 2nd World Humanoid Robot Games (WHRG). Photo: VCG
On the blue track inside the National Speed Skating Oval, robots chased each other in the 400-meter race. A sprinting Tien Kung robot was tripped by a rival robot lying on the track but did not fall. Instead, it adjusted its posture in seconds and continued toward the finish line with a result of 38.15 seconds, breaking human 400-meter race world record of 43.03 seconds, held by South African athlete Wayde van Niekerk. This scene unfolded on Sunday, the first official competition day of the 2nd World Humanoid Robot Games (WHRG). Later that evening, a humanoid robot named Lightning, developed by Honor Co., broke the long-standing human 1,500-meter world record of 3:26 set by Moroccan athlete Hicham El Guerrouj with a time of 2:30.22. Just one night earlier, during the opening ceremony's 100-meter sprint and high jump demonstrations, humanoid robots had already shattered records long held by human athletes Usain Bolt and Javier Sotomayor — merely an appetizer for the five-day sci-fi spectacle. The Games have attracted 666 teams from 16 countries across six continents, up 138 percent from its inaugural edition. The number of participating robots quadrupled to 2,056, the Global Times learned from the organizing committee. Yet the biggest change this year was not only the scale, but also the technological maturity. More teams have shifted from remote-controlled robots to fully autonomous systems. Chinese observers, after watching several events, said humanoid robots are no longer limited to simple demonstrations of walking or dancing. Increasingly, they are being tested in environments that demand speed, coordination, perception and decision-making. From movement to intelligence
Behind the record-breaking performances are a series of technological upgrades. During the running events, Global Times reporters observed that robots were able to make subtle movements around their hip joints while walking, allowing them to maintain balance and produce movements closer to human biomechanics. Guo Yijie, technical director of Tien Kung Ultra, said the improvement came from advances in hardware design. "Robot joints have improved in torque and speed. As competitions demand higher power output, the reliability of the main control board, power board and high-power battery discharge capability have become increasingly important," Guo told the Global Times. According to Guo, the same Tien Kung Ultra robot was used in both sprinting and jumping events. For running, the waist needs rotation to balance the inertia generated by leg movements. For jumping, the upper body requires pitching movement to help the robot achieve greater distance or height, Guo said, noting that these can all be achieved with only slight adjustments to the waist configuration were needed, and it highly demonstrated to the robot design's flexibility. Besides the hardware upgrades, developments in robots' faster decision-making in "brains' is better showcased in football competitions. The Booster T2 robot used by many domestic and overseas football teams has increased its onboard computing capability by 10 times compared with the previous generation. The time from recognizing the goal to deciding whether to pass or shoot has been reduced to around 100 milliseconds - faster than the time humans usually need to blink. Cheng Hao, a technical representative from Boosters Robotics, said the improvement represents an "end-to-end" transformation in embodied intelligence. "In the past, robots relied on separate steps: perception, planning, decision-making and execution. Each stage was disconnected. Now, with an end-to-end motion foundation model, visual input can directly generate joint control commands," Cheng said. The newly introduced table tennis and tennis competitions are also testing another important capability: perception. "Robots are moving from simply recognizing the three-dimensional position of a ball to understanding the movement information of opponents and more complex environments," said Li Yinghui, a postdoc researcher and the leader from the Hong Kong University team at the table tennis event. Such capabilities developed in sports scenarios could eventually be transferred to other scenarios in industries or daily life, Li said. Beyond entertainment Though clips from the robot competitions have made a buzz on social media, with some critics from Western media questioning why robots need to dance, play football or compete in athletics while arguing that these activities appear far from everyday needs. Zhou Changjiu, Vice President of the RoboCup Federation and the Robotics Competition Association of the Asia-Pacific (RCAP), stressed robot sports are not designed for entertainment alone. "Robot competitions are testing the capabilities needed for humanoid robots to enter the real world," Zhou told the Global Times. Different events evaluate different abilities. Sprinting tests speed, marathons examine battery endurance and energy management, while football provides a comprehensive test because of its dynamic and unpredictable nature, testing intelligence, manipulation, interaction, safety, cost and trust at the same time, Zhou said. Unlike a single-task demonstration, football requires robots to cooperate. Players must understand their own roles, recognize teammates and opponents, and make collective decisions - a form of swarm intelligence that could become essential when robots work together in homes, factories and emergency rescue environments. Entertainment, however, can generate business opportunities. Gu Jinghai, brand director of EYOU Robot Co, told the Global Times that the company sold 95,000 integrated joints in China in 2025 and expects sales to exceed 1 million units in 2026. Growth mainly comes from planetary joints used in entertainment robots, while harmonic joints for industrial robots are also expanding steadily, he said. Jiao Jichao, an executive from UBTECH Robotics, said the criticism that "Chinese robots can only sing and dance" reflects only a temporary stage of development. "Performance and dancing are also real commercial demands, and their existence has value," Jiao said. "Beyond entertainment, Chinese robots are already demonstrating intelligent capabilities that support practical applications in manufacturing, and partnerships with companies including Huawei and Foxconn, where robots have already entered production lines in small-scale applications." The Outline of the 15th Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development of China stated that the country will construct a comprehensive cultivation system for future industries including the embody intelligence as new economic growth drivers. Zhou said the development of humanoid robots is not only about individual machines, but about building an entire ecosystem. China's advantage lies in its complete supply chain, abundant application scenarios and manufacturing capabilities, while the fast growing industry still faces challenges such as the lack of unified standards. Gu said the company has launched mass production of robotics joint under domestic standard of auto parts. Robot competitions can help address these issues by creating common standards in areas such as competition rules, robot dimensions, communication systems, batteries and joint modules. "As applications expand, the cost of key robot components will continue to decline," Zhou said. "Numbers are magic," Zhou said. "If producing one robot costs a huge amount because it is handmade, producing one million robots will completely change the cost structure." For humanoid robots, the race taking place inside the Ice Ribbon may not ultimately be about who crosses the finish line first. It may be about whether these machines can learn to navigate the far more complicated race outside the stadium - the race into the real world. 。 《巫师 3：狂猎 Songs of the Past》在 2026 年科隆游戏展开幕之夜直播（ONL）上正式公布了预告片，开发商 CD Projekt Red 现场介绍了全新的锁链武器、Letten 领地以及更多细节。利维亚的杰洛特助力了 2026 年 ONL 的压轴环节，工作室讨论了计划如何在明年为这款备受赞誉的 2015 年角色扮演游戏推出新内容。
二 | 虽然仍有许多细节尚未公开，但这次首秀终于向玩家展示了在《巫师4 3》首发 12 年后重返该作的体验。我们将深入探讨 CD Projekt Red 分享的所有细节，但首先，展会为观众准备了另一个惊喜：一段预告片。你可以在下方查看《巫师4 3 Songs of the Past》的首支先导预告。锁链出击那么，首支《Songs of the Past》预告片告诉了我们什么？遗憾的是，乍看之下内容并不多。
三 | 杰洛特首先出现在一棵挂满灯笼的树前，随后在营地里与一位可能并不存在的伴侣跳舞。接着，我们看到了 Letten 洒满月光的星空和阳光普照的田野，这也是《Songs of the Past》故事发生的全新领地。杰洛特将面临一系列全新的人类和怪物敌人，虽然这对于一位猎魔人来说并不新鲜，但整个预告片中不断低语的强大反派可能是个新威胁。然而，最让《巫师4 3》粉丝感到兴奋的，可能是视频末尾出现的武器。短短几秒钟的画面展示了杰洛特使用锁链抓取并控制敌人，随后将其斩首。这看起来像是直接从《真人快打11》的蝎子手中夺过来的，而且似乎非常契合猎魔人的武器库。
四 | 欢迎来到 Letten该资料片的官方描述揭示了 Letten 的景象及其与新故事的联系：“这片田园诗般的土地拥有丰富的乡村传统和民俗，那里的人们过着丰收与奢华节日的充实生活。但在表面之下隐藏着一个黑暗的秘密，杰洛特在努力战胜长期蛰伏的邪恶时，必须克服前所未见的敌人。”正如展会期间所透露的，粉丝们可以在《Songs of the Past》最终发布前正式将其加入愿望单。CD Projekt Red 表示，新内容将带领玩家前往新的 Letten 领地，尽管目前我们看到的只有预告片中的寥寥数瞥。CD Projekt Red 谈重返《巫师4 3》在等待《Songs of the Past》明年发布的过程中，《巫师4》系列游戏和原著的粉丝肯定能从中挖掘出大量细节，但 CD Projekt Red 并不打算止步于此。关卡设计主管 Miles Tost 登上科隆 ONL 舞台，分享了更多关于该扩展包如何基于原版游戏构建的细节。“这非常酷，”Tost 笑着说，“一段时间以来，我们一直有为杰洛特再创作一个故事的想法，但一直没能确定如何将其排入我们繁忙的日程。幸运的是，我们的朋友 Fool's Theory 伸出了援手，他们聘请了一群《巫师4 3》的老牌资深开发者——包括我的导师 Peter Gelenscer——于是就有了今天的成果。
五 | ”Tost 指出，这是《巫师4 3》主角的最后一次冒险，之后希里将在 2028 年左右的《巫师4 4》中接过火炬。给杰洛特配备锁链将使他在《Songs of the Past》中的旅程变得格外令人难忘。“这种锁链是游戏中的新武器，但许多人，也许是资深的《巫师4》粉丝，会意识到这是我们在《巫师4 1》开场动画中首次展示过的武器，”Tost 继续说道，并引导粉丝前往科隆游戏展的 CD Projekt Red 展台了解更多信息。Tost 还分享了关于 Letten 以及该环境将如何为粉丝带来改变的看法：“Letten 是一个全新的、独特的区域，拥有独特的身份标识，就像游戏中的其他区域一样。它充满了任务、新怪物、冒险和探索——正如《巫师4》粉丝所热爱的那样。但这是一个近乎诡异的田园诗般的地方，然而，在表面之下隐藏着一个黑暗的秘密，既然这是一款《巫师4》游戏，这种秘密就需要一位真正的专业猎魔人来解决。
六 | ”杰洛特终于回来了。
七 | 《巫师4 3 Songs of the Past》虽然尚未公布确切发售日期，但预计将于 2027 年在 PC、Nintendo Switch 2、PlayStation 5 和 Xbox Series X|S 平台上发布。
《巫师 3：狂猎 Songs of the Past》在 2026 年科隆游戏展开幕之夜直播（ONL）上正式公布了预告片，开发商 CD Projekt Red 现场介绍了全新的锁链武器、Letten 领地以及更多细节。利维亚的杰洛特助力了 2026 年 ONL 的压轴环节，工作室讨论了计划如何在明年为这款备受赞誉的 2015 年角色扮演游戏推出新内容。
