Monthly Archives: January 2022

The Hitman trilogy comes to Game Pass on January 20th

Posted on by

On January 20th, IO Interactive will celebrate the first anniversary of Hitman 3 in a style befitting Agent 47’s sharp suit. It will release a bundle of all three World of Assassination games on PlayStation 4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S and PC. What’s more, the bundle will be available to Xbox Game Pass, PC Game Pass and Game Pass Ultimate subscribers at no extra cost.

Hitman 3 will debut on Steam on the same day, one year after it arrived on Epic Games Store. Epic’s one-year exclusivity window on PC might have caused issues for those who wanted to pull in locations from the first two games. In any case, you’ll soon be able to access the whole trilogy on Steam

Later this month, PC players can check out Hitman 3‘s virtual reality mode. Given that owners of the previous two games can access locations from those titles, you’ll be able to play the entire trilogy in VR. The virtual reality mode has been available on PSVR since last January.

IO has also laid out some of its content plans for Year Two of Hitman 3. In Elusive Target Arcade, each contract will challenge players to take down multiple Elusive Targets in a certain order, with some complications added for good measure. 

Unlike standard Elusive Targets, which you only get one shot at, Arcade contracts are permanent additions to the game. The twist is that, if you fail a contract, you need to wait 12 hours before you can try again. IO says this will help Arcade contracts retain the high-stakes spirit of Elusive Targets. Three Arcade Contracts will be added on January 20th, with more to follow later in the year.

Another new mode called Freelancer is coming to Hitman 3 this spring. It includes a customizable safehouse where you can plan out missions. That’s important, because the mode has roguelike elements. If you take gear out on a mission and don’t return with it, that equipment will vanish from your inventory. However, you’ll be able to acquire weapons and items from Suppliers that you find in mission locations.

Later this year, IO will add a ray-tracing mode to the PC version of Hitman 3, which will work with locations from the other games. The studio also plans to harness XeSS (Xe Super Sampling), Intel’s answer to NVIDIA DLSS and AMD FSR upscaling tech, as well as variable rate shading to boost performance.

Even though IO Interactive has another exciting project in the works in the form of a James Bond game, it’s nice to see the studio giving Hitman fans plenty to look forward to as well.



Source: Engadget – The Hitman trilogy comes to Game Pass on January 20th

This Raised by Wolves Season 2 Trailer Is Heavy on Wolves

Posted on by

Full disclosure: the only two minutes of Ridley Scott’s gooey sci-fi HBO Max series Raised by Wolves that I’ve seen were in the original trailer for season one, which didn’t really capture my attention. Now I’ve seen two more minutes, courtesy of this brand-new season two trailer, you can consider my attention…

Read more…



Source: Gizmodo – This Raised by Wolves Season 2 Trailer Is Heavy on Wolves

Ancient Peruvians partied hard, spiked their beer with hallucinogens to win friends

Posted on by
A vessel from the Wari site of Conchopata features the tree and its tell-tale seed pods sprouting from the head of the Staff God.

Enlarge / A vessel from the Wari site of Conchopata features the tree and its tell-tale seed pods sprouting from the head of the Staff God. (credit: J. Ochatoma Paravicino/M.E. Biwer et al., 2022)

Lacing the beer served at their feasts with hallucinogens may have helped an ancient Peruvian people known as the Wari forge political alliances and expand their empire, according to a new paper published in the journal Antiquity. Recent excavations at a remote Wari outpost called Quilcapampa unearthed seeds from the vilca tree that can be used to produce a potent hallucinogenic drug. The authors think the Wari held one big final blowout before the site was abandoned.

“This is, to my knowledge, the first finding of vilca at a Wari site where we can get a glimpse of its use,” co-author Matthew Biwer, an archaeobotanist at Dickinson College, told Gizmodo. “Vilca seeds or residue has been found in burial tombs before, but we could only assume how it was used. These findings point to a more nuanced understanding of Wari feasting and politics and how vilca was implicated in these practices.”

The Wari empire lasted from around 500 CE to 1100 CE in the central highlands of Peru. There is some debate among scholars as to whether the network of roadways linking various provincial cities constituted a bona fide empire as opposed to a loose economic network. But the Wari’s construction of complex, distinctive architecture and the 2013 discovery of an imperial royal tomb lend credence to the Wari’s empire status. The culture began to decline around 800 CE, largely due to drought. Many central buildings were blocked up, suggesting people thought they might return if the rains did, and there is archaeological evidence of possible warfare and raiding in the empire’s final days as the local infrastructure collapsed and supply chains failed.

Read 13 remaining paragraphs | Comments



Source: Ars Technica – Ancient Peruvians partied hard, spiked their beer with hallucinogens to win friends

This Ad-Free Google Search Alternative Is Actually Worth Using

Posted on by

When a company like Google controls more than 90% of the search engine market, it’s always seemed near-impossible for any competitor to woo away the company’s users. More recently though, that tide’s started to change—Google’s constant flubs in protecting users’ privacy have left folks looking for alternatives that…

Read more…



Source: Gizmodo – This Ad-Free Google Search Alternative Is Actually Worth Using

Why You Need Dropbox's New Beta If You Have an M1 Mac

Posted on by

Last year, Dropbox stirred up emotions by stating that they won’t be working on a Dropbox client optimized for Apple Silicon (M1) Macs until they see the demand for it—words that thankfully retreated fast, and a new Dropbox client was promised in the first half of 2022. As we roll off this year, the M1 app is…

Read more…



Source: LifeHacker – Why You Need Dropbox’s New Beta If You Have an M1 Mac

Second Life Founder Returns To Revamp His Original Metaverse

Posted on by

An anonymous reader shares a report: The metaverse isn’t a new concept. Not only did Neal Stephenson coin the idea in 1992, but some of us were literally living in virtual spaces with virtual currency and virtual storefronts nearly 20 years ago. The virtual place many people went back then was Second Life. Philip Rosedale, Second Life’s founder, has decided to task a core team to work on evolving Second Life now that the metaverse has become a buzzword yet again. His hopes are that developing community-focused worlds like Second Life will solve some metaverse problems that aren’t necessarily being solved in VR headsets… yet. After Second Life, Rosedale became focused on VR technology in 2013, co-founding a company called High Fidelity that promised high-end, low-latency VR. But High Fidelity started to pivot from VR to other technologies over the last few years, focusing on spatial audio most recently.

In 2019, Rosedale published a goodbye of sorts to VR, stating that VR hadn’t reached a form that was good enough for most people to want to use. Talking with him over Google Meet in 2022, he still feels that way, calling VR headsets a blindfold to the real world that only some people feel comfortable enough to use. Rosedale thinks VR headsets could hit an iPhone moment, but maybe not for another few years. In the meantime, he’s shifting focus to a metaverse platform that doesn’t require headsets: namely, Second Life. He isn’t the only person to feel this way: Even VR/AR software companies like Spatial have recently pivoted away from VR headsets as a way to reach more people.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.



Source: Slashdot – Second Life Founder Returns To Revamp His Original Metaverse

Reliability Report Pits Intel Vs AMD CPUs, GPU Brands, Storage: Failure Rates Are Telling

Posted on by

Reliability Report Pits Intel Vs AMD CPUs, GPU Brands, Storage: Failure Rates Are Telling
Puget Systems is a well-known system integrator that primarily offers workstation and server machines to businesses. We’re fans of Puget around here because the company frequently releases data from both its own internal testing as well as its experiences in the market. Most resellers and integrators don’t share this sort of data with the

Source: Hot Hardware – Reliability Report Pits Intel Vs AMD CPUs, GPU Brands, Storage: Failure Rates Are Telling

Ghostbusters: Afterlife: The Spoiler FAQ

Posted on by

There’s something strange in the neighborhood… and it’s the plot of Ghostbusters: Afterlife! In celebration of Ivan and Jason Reitman’s critically divisive, audience-adored sequel to the original Ghostbusters movie coming to digital on demand last week, we’ve decided to give it the (admittedly belated) Spoiler FAQ…

Read more…



Source: Gizmodo – Ghostbusters: Afterlife: The Spoiler FAQ

How 'Gamification' of Everything Is Manipulating You (and How to Recognize It)

Posted on by

“Gamification” is the practice of adding game-like elements to non-game contexts. It isn’t new, nor it is always a negative, but it is being aimed at consumers and employees more and more frequently, whether to keep you addicted to an app, motivated at work, or inclined to spend your money on something.

Read more…



Source: LifeHacker – How ‘Gamification’ of Everything Is Manipulating You (and How to Recognize It)

'Baby Shark' is the first YouTube video to reach 10 billion views

Posted on by

No, you still can’t escape “Baby Shark.” Billboardreports Pinkfong’s so-catchy-it-hurts children’s song has become the first video to reach 10 billion views on YouTube. And no one is likely to catch it any time soon — Luis Fonsi’s “Despacito” video, which “Baby Shark” overtook as the most popular video in November 2020, has managed ‘just’ 7.7 billion views as of this writing.

The 2016 tune’s familiar (if very repetitive) hook is certainly part of its success, but it has also been helped by returning to popular culture over and over again. On top of celebrity covers from the likes of James Corden and Bebe Rexha, “Baby Shark” has also enjoyed a 2019 tour, a viral dance challenge, a spot in Just Dance 2020 and a Nickelodeon TV show that premiered in 2021. Simply put, Pinkfong has kept the track in the limelight where even breakout songs like “Despacito” have faded away.

Interest isn’t likely to cool off in the immediate future. Nickelodeon has not only renewed its “Baby Shark” show, but promised a feature-length movie. There’s even an NFT collection if you’re determined to merge two internet trends. It could take a long while before another video pulls ahead, even with K-pop megastars routinely breaking ground in other areas.

Game Maker Says Apple, Google Selling Rip-offs in New Lawsuit

Posted on by

The maker of the popular game “PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds” says in a new U.S. lawsuit that a Singapore-based company made rip-off versions of its game, and Apple and Google have refused to stop selling them. From a report: Krafton alleged Monday in a Los Angeles federal court complaint that Garena Online’s “Free Fire” games copy several copyrighted aspects of PUBG: Battlegrounds, including its game structure and in-game items, equipment, and locations. Released in 2017, Battlegrounds was one of the first and most successful “battle royale” games, a popular genre that now includes “Fortnite” and “Call of Duty: Warzone.” Korea-based Krafton’s complaint said Battlegrounds has sold more than 75 million copies. The complaint said Garena, owned by Singapore-based Sea Ltd, began selling Free Fire through Apple and Google’s app stores in 2017, and started selling another infringing game called “Free Fire MAX” last year. According to Krafton, Apple and Google have distributed hundreds of millions of copies of the Free Fire games. The complaint says Garena generated more than $100 million in revenue from Free Fire sales in the U.S. in the first three months of 2021. Krafton also named Google’s YouTube as a defendant for allegedly hosting videos of Free Fire gameplay, as well as a Chinese film that Krafton says is a live-action dramatization of its game.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.



Source: Slashdot – Game Maker Says Apple, Google Selling Rip-offs in New Lawsuit

The Best Free Online Courses Everyone Should Take This Year

Posted on by

The days when you graduated college, started a career, and never looked back are long behind us. Lifelong learning isn’t just a catchy phrase—it’s an essential aspect of survival. Even a cursory glance at the last few decades reveals how fast things change, not just in terms of your actual job, but in the way we even…

Read more…



Source: LifeHacker – The Best Free Online Courses Everyone Should Take This Year

One of Nintendo Switch’s best puzzle games is now (mostly) free for 7 days

Posted on by
Usually, NSO trials like this feel like teasers for full-price purchases. This one is different.

Enlarge / Usually, NSO trials like this feel like teasers for full-price purchases. This one is different. (credit: Nintendo of America)

Nintendo mixes cool, weird, and ho-hum perks into its $20/year Switch Online subscription service, including one we don’t generally talk about: limited-time game trials. Other modern gaming services include this sort of thing, particularly “Days With Gold” on Xbox Live, and the idea is that subscribers can temporarily test unlocked retail versions of games for no additional cost.

Generally, these deals range from intriguing to annoying, though they’re at their worst when they feel like glorified advertisements for online games: Try a game for as little as 72 hours, get hooked, then buy it when the promotional timer runs out and locks the game. This week, however, a new deal exclusively for Nintendo Switch Online subscribers gets my wholehearted recommendation.

Starting right now—as of 1 pm EST today, January 13—the 2019 Switch puzzle game Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker is fully unlocked for anyone already paying for the $20/year NSO service. Its free trial lasts for a little over seven days, expiring at 2:59 am EST on Friday, January 21.

Read 5 remaining paragraphs | Comments



Source: Ars Technica – One of Nintendo Switch’s best puzzle games is now (mostly) free for 7 days

No, Smoking Weed Won’t Help You Avoid Covid

Posted on by

A new study that found compounds in cannabis could stop the coronavirus from infecting cells has understandably captured the internet’s attention this week. But while the findings are worth following up on, people shouldn’t get too excited yet, as the researchers are very clear that simply smoking or otherwise…

Read more…



Source: Gizmodo – No, Smoking Weed Won’t Help You Avoid Covid

Javier Bardem Wants to Ride a Dune Sandworm and He Should Get His Wish

Posted on by

Filmgoers who hadn’t read Frank Herbert’s Dune probably found it very curious that two huge stars like Oscar winner Javier Bardem and pop icon Zendaya only appeared in the new movie for a short amount of time. By the time the film ended, however, the reasoning surely became clearer: Bardem and Zendaya play Freman, the…

Read more…



Source: Gizmodo – Javier Bardem Wants to Ride a Dune Sandworm and He Should Get His Wish

Holmes to face maximum of 80 years in prison when she’s sentenced in September

Posted on by
Theranos founder and former CEO Elizabeth Holmes leaves the Robert F. Peckham Federal Building in San Jose, California, on December 17, 2021.

Enlarge / Theranos founder and former CEO Elizabeth Holmes leaves the Robert F. Peckham Federal Building in San Jose, California, on December 17, 2021. (credit: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

Elizabeth Holmes’ trial was delayed for months, and now her sentencing will be similarly held up. The judge in her trial scheduled the hearing for late September.

US District Judge Edward Davila’s order, issued yesterday, set sentencing for September 26. He also set aside June 16 to address motions that Holmes’ attorneys are likely to file in which they may ask for the conviction to be reversed or for a new trial.

Holmes was convicted earlier this month of three counts of wire fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. The jury was hung on three counts, which prosecutors moved to dismiss in a filing made jointly with Holmes’ attorneys. The former CEO of Theranos was acquitted of the remaining charges of wire fraud against patients.

Read 5 remaining paragraphs | Comments



Source: Ars Technica – Holmes to face maximum of 80 years in prison when she’s sentenced in September

A Firefox Update Broke The Browser For Some Sites, Here's How To Fix It

Posted on by

A Firefox Update Broke The Browser For Some Sites, Here's How To Fix It
If you use the Firefox browser, you may have noticed that some websites have not been working properly lately. This is because an unusual bug has been found that is causing some sites on Firefox browsers to not load on Mac, Windows and Linux desktops (it doesn’t appear to affect mobile).

If you use any sort of device that utilizes the internet

Source: Hot Hardware – A Firefox Update Broke The Browser For Some Sites, Here’s How To Fix It