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The line between PC, console, and mobile games keeps getting thinner and thinner. In fact, it might be gone now. Not only have developers been porting old PC and console titles like the Grand Theft Auto and Final Fantasy series games to run on mobile d…
The line between PC, console, and mobile games keeps getting thinner and thinner. In fact, it might be gone now. Not only have developers been porting old PC and console titles like the Grand Theft Auto and Final Fantasy series games to run on mobile devices for years. But today we saw the launch of […]
Civilization VI is now available for iPads: it’s pretty much the same as the PC game (for the same price) is a post from: Liliputing
There are new 4K and QHD monitors, too, though we’re still missing some details.
Brace yourself: the deluge of product announcements for next month’s Consumer Electronics Show has begun.
LG took its turn in the spotlight on Thursday, announcing a trio of new monitors that’ll be showcased in full at the upcoming trade show. The star of the bunch is likely the 34WK95U, a 34-inch ultrawide monitor with a (roughly) 21:9 aspect ratio and a 5K resolution. Well, sort of 5K—that resolution is technically 5,120 x 2,160, meaning it has the same number of vertical pixels as a 4K monitor but adds pixels horizontally.
The device will include a Thunderbolt 3 port and what appear to be fairly slim bezels, too. The idea here is to court professionals who need to have several windows open at once, edit images and videos with precision, and so on. Here’s hoping it doesn’t suffer from any technical issues like its last high-profile 5K monitor.
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Wednesday update to iOS rules also touches on VPN services, cryptocurrency apps.
Enlarge / This is not the way loot boxes work in the Xbox/Windows exclusive Forza Motorsport 7. After Aurich's Photoshop job, however, we almost wish it were. (credit: Turn 10 / Aurich remix)
Apple rolled out a number of iOS App Store rule changes on Wednesday, and the one that catches your eye will likely depend on your mobile-app interests. The biggest change, at least in terms of number of people likely reached, is a tweak to a major rule about video games on the platform: how loot boxes are advertised to players.
9to5Mac was among the first sites to dig into the rules update and pick out the big changes, and it found that Apple has opted to use the term "loot boxes," which it defines as "mechanisms that provide randomized virtual items for purchase." Now, any game or app that utilizes such a random-item system "must disclose the odds of receiving each type of item to customers prior to purchase."
While loot-box mechanics have landed in news headlines thanks to major console games, the practice was popularized long ago in free-to-play mobile games on iOS and Android, typically in a Japanese genre known as "gacha." The most prominent example of this type of mobile game in the West is arguably Nintendo's Fire Emblem Heroes, which launched on all smartphone platforms earlier this year and encourages players to accumulate fighters, knights, and mages by getting them out of virtual slot machines—which dole out random rewards, not static or guaranteed ones. Currency for those slot machines can be earned by playing the game, but you can get that currency faster by paying real-world money.
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The first 60 turns are free, then the game costs $60—but it’s $30 for launch.
Enlarge / Civilization VI is the first full Civ game to be released on mobile. (credit: Aspyr)
Civilization VI is now available on the App Store for iPad. It's the full game, making it the first legit, main series Civ game to be released on mobile.
The game was ported by Aspyr Media, a company that has been doing Mac game ports for two decades and which had previously ported BioWare's Jade Empire and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic to iOS. While those games were available on the iPhone in addition to the iPad, Civilization VI is not.
Unfortunately, Civ VI will not work on just any iPad. According to Aspyr's blog post announcing the release, Civilization VI requires "iOS 11 on an iPad Air 2, iPad 2017, or any iPad Pro." This is not surprising, but it cuts out the entire iPad mini line—which is still available for sale from Apple—and the original iPad Air, which is still popular and in use.
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Prof asks: “We’re wondering if this is the best use of a billion dollars?”
Enlarge / A young passenger uses JetBlue's facial-recognition system at Logan Airport in Boston on June 15, 2017. (credit: Craig F. Walker/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)
Georgetown University researchers have released yet another report warning of the potential dangers and ineffectiveness of the beginnings of routine facial recognition scanning by certain airlines at a handful of airports nationwide.
The new report, which was released Thursday, comes on the heels of a related 2016 report showing that half of Americans’ faces are already in a facial recognition database.
“As currently envisioned, the program represents a serious escalation of biometric scanning of Americans, and there are no codified rules that constrain it,” the report concludes.
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Google’s Android operating system may be open source, but most of the phones and other devices that ship with Android also include a bunch of closed source apps and services including the Google Play Store, Gmail, YouTube, and Google Maps. Mandra…
Google’s Android operating system may be open source, but most of the phones and other devices that ship with Android also include a bunch of closed source apps and services including the Google Play Store, Gmail, YouTube, and Google Maps. Mandrake Linux founder Gaël Duval wasn’t satisfied with that, so he decided to create a new […]
Mandrake Linux founder is developing eelo: an open source mobile OS (Android without the Google apps and services) is a post from: Liliputing
Several organizations and gaming fans are asking the Copyright Office to make a DMCA circumvention exemption for abandoned online games, to preserve them for future generations. The exemption would allow museums and libraries to offer copies of abandoned online servers, so these games won’t turn to dust.
Source: TF, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and more. We also have VPN discounts, offers and coupons
The U.S. Copyright Office is considering whether or not to update the DMCA’s anti-circumvention provisions, which prevent the public from tinkering with DRM-protected content and devices.
These provisions are renewed every three years. To allow individuals and organizations to chime in, the Office traditionally launches a public consultation, before it makes any decisions.
This week a series of new responses were received and many of these focused on abandoned games. As is true for most software, games have a limited lifespan, so after a few years they are no longer supported by manufacturers.
To preserve these games for future generations and nostalgic gamers, the Copyright Office previously included game preservation exemptions. This means that libraries, archives and museums can use emulators and other circumvention tools to make old classics playable.
However, these exemptions are limited and do not apply to games that require a connection to an online server, which includes most recent games. When the online servers are taken down, the game simply disappears forever.
This should be prevented, according to The Museum of Art and Digital Entertainment (the MADE), a nonprofit organization operating in California.
“Although the Current Exemption does not cover it, preservation of online video games is now critical,” MADE writes in its comment to the Copyright Office.
“Online games have become ubiquitous and are only growing in popularity. For example, an estimated fifty-three percent of gamers play multiplayer games at least once a week, and spend, on average, six hours a week playing with others online.”
During the previous review, similar calls for an online exemption were made but, at the time, the Register of Copyrights noted that multiplayer games could still be played on local area networks.
“Today, however, local multiplayer options are increasingly rare, and many games no longer support LAN connected multiplayer capability,” MADE counters, adding that nowadays even some single-player games require an online connection.
“More troubling still to archivists, many video games rely on server connectivity to function in single-player mode and become unplayable when servers shut down.”
MADE asks the Copyright Office to extend the current exemptions and include games with an online connection as well. This would allow libraries, archives, and museums to operate servers for these abandoned games and keep them alive.
The nonprofit museum is not alone in its call, with digital rights group Public Knowledge submitting a similar comment. They also highlight the need to preserve online games. Not just for nostalgic gamers, but also for researchers and scholars.
This issue is more relevant than ever before, as hundreds of online multiplayer games have been abandoned already.
“It is difficult to quantify the number of multiplayer servers that have been shut down in recent years. However, Electronic Arts’ ‘Online Services Shutdown’ list is one illustrative example,” Public Knowledge writes.
“The list — which is littered with popular franchises such as FIFA World Cup, Nascar, and The Sims — currently stands at 319 games and servers discontinued since 2013, or just over one game per week since 2012.”
Finally, several ‘regular’ gaming fans have also made their feelings known. While their arguments are usually not as elaborate, the personal pleasure people still get out of older games can’t be overstated.
“I have been playing video games since the Atari 2600, for 35 years. Nowadays, game ‘museums’ — getting the opportunity to replay games from my youth, and share them with my child — are a source of joy for me,” one individual commenter wrote.
“I would love the opportunity to explore some of the early online / MMO games that I spent so much time on in the past!”
Game on?
—
Header image via MMOs.com
Source: TF, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and more. We also have VPN discounts, offers and coupons
20 identical I-Pace electric cars will take part in the 10-round eTrophy.
Jonathan Gitlin
LOS ANGELES—Car companies like Jaguar go racing for a couple of reasons. One is to prove their engineering in as fierce a crucible as possible, something the English company did to good effect with technologies like disc brakes and monocoque chassis construction in the 1950s. The other reason may be less high-minded, but no less important—races sell cars. Call it "speed by association." That's particularly true of racing programs that use street cars as their starting point, which goes some way to explain the Jaguar I-Pace eTrophy, a one-make race series using electric vehicles that will travel and race with the Formula E circus next season.
Jaguar was one of the first OEMs to take the idea of electric racing seriously, and it has had a team competing in Formula E for a while now. That's useful for developing its engineering know-how, but a Formula E race car—with its open wheels and a single seat—looks nothing like an EV you or I could buy. What better way, then, for Jaguar to let people know that its new I-Pace EV—which hits the showrooms in 2018—can handle it than by having a pack of 20 of them race each other as a support series? And since all the cars will be identical I-Paces, a Jaguar is guaranteed to win every race.
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Comcast says it will increase network investment, but it was already doing that.
Enlarge (credit: Steve Johnson)
Comcast yesterday claimed that it will invest more than $50 billion in infrastructure over the next five years because of the repeal of net neutrality rules and the new tax overhaul.
But the numbers show that Comcast's investments soared while the net neutrality rules were in place and would hit the "new" milestone if its investments continued increasing by a modest amount.
Comcast's announcement yesterday said the following:
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Das Land Sachsen übernimmt den Eigenanteil, den die Kommunen bisher trotz Breitbandförderung des Bundes noch zahlen müssen. Das Geld soll nur in reine Glasfaser-Projekte gehen. Doch selbst bis 2025 will man nur 100 MBit/s flächendeckend erreichen. (Bre…
Das Land Sachsen übernimmt den Eigenanteil, den die Kommunen bisher trotz Breitbandförderung des Bundes noch zahlen müssen. Das Geld soll nur in reine Glasfaser-Projekte gehen. Doch selbst bis 2025 will man nur 100 MBit/s flächendeckend erreichen. (
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