Month: March 2017

Keeping a massively multiplayer online game fresh and challenging for longtime players while simultaneously staying accessible and fun for lower-powered relative newcomers is always a challenge. In World of Warcraft, a hidden change to the way end-game enemies power up alongside players has unintentionally thrown that balance out of whack, and Blizzard is working on a fix.

Shortly after yesterday's release of Patch 7.2 for the long-running MMO, players quickly began noticing that high-end enemies were scaling up in power depending on the power of the gear the player characters were wearing. The specific power numbers involved seem to make it so that players could perversely make a fight easier by taking off their high-end gear and replacing it with slightly worse weapons and armor, reducing the enemy's health and power greatly in the process.

The change in how enemy scaling works took many players by surprise because it wasn't explicitly mentioned in the extensive patch notes Blizzard released yesterday. Furthermore, WoW assistant director Ion Hazzikostas spoke out specifically against this kind of gear-based enemy scaling in a Twitch interview last year.

Enlarge / The Phantom Thieves love leather.

You should know exactly how you feel about Persona 5's style and tone within the first 10 minutes. I certainly did—although it has taken me well over 100 hours to see all the incredible and consistent ways developer Atlus' high-school heist RPG bends, breaks, and leans into its look, feel, and message.

Persona 5 took basically no time at all to knock me against the wild and woolly world of "shadows"—supernatural monsters born from the human psyche—in a frenetic opening scene set atop chandeliers hanging above a casino. Seemingly human guards hot on the protagonist's trail suddenly melted and morphed into mythical monsters. Just as the first creature showed its true form, the game's open environment smoothly twisted into turn-based combat. I took a while to realize the game even changes scenery when flipping into fights; the transitions are just that seamless.

Persona 5 has a much quicker, more gripping introduction than 2008's (also excellent) Persona 4. That game demanded players spend a good hour or more drifting through rural life before seriously hinting at the series' hybrid nature as part dating simulator, part dungeon crawler.

NEW YORK CITY—After months of speculation and leaks, Samsung has finally made the Galaxy S8 official. It's everything we were expecting based on weeks of leaks: a major redesign of Samsung's flagship smartphone, and a departure from the design language of the Galaxy S6 and S7. Samsung hasn't mentioned a price, but in the US the Galaxy S8 and S8+ will go up for pre-order on March 30 and will start shipping on April 21.

Customers who pre-order the phone will get a free Gear VR headset and controller for their trouble; normally the headset would cost $129.99 and the controller would cost $39.99.

Enlarge / FCC Chairman Ajit Pai testifying before a Senate subcommittee on May 11, 2016. (credit: Nicholas Kamm/AFP/Getty Images)

Internet privacy advocates are mourning the death of online privacy rules, but yesterday's House vote to eliminate the consumer protections was celebrated by ISPs, advertisers, and Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai.

The rules would have required home Internet and mobile broadband providers to get consumers' opt-in consent before selling or sharing Web browsing history, app usage history, and other private information with advertisers and other companies.

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai has consistently agreed with ISPs that they should not face stricter rules than website operators like Google and Facebook. Pai, a Republican, was in the commission minority when the rules were passed last year, but Republicans now have a majority on the FCC.