Monthly Archives: January 2022

CDPR will expand The Witcher universe with a single-player 'Gwent' game

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A single-player version of the card game Gwent is in the works. CD Projekt Red said the standalone title, which is currently codenamed Project Golden Nekker, will be released this year. Although the developer has already released a single-player component of Gwent called Thronebreaker: The Witcher Tales, it says the upcoming game will be a distinct experience.

“It’s not another Witcher Tales but something different,” Gwent communication lead Paweł Burza told IGN. “We’re aiming to provide a captivating single-player for players who prefer it over competitive multiplayer Gwent.”

CDPR has been teasing Project Golden Nekker over the last several months, including in a Gwent roadmap presentation in December. It hasn’t revealed many more concrete details beyond the release window and some concept art.

As for Gwent, itself a spin-off from The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, CDPR plans to add new cards throughout the year. The studio is also aiming to release the delayed current-gen console versions of The Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk 2077 in 2022.



Source: Engadget – CDPR will expand The Witcher universe with a single-player ‘Gwent’ game

'Apex Legends' adds 9v9 Control battles on February 8th

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Respawn is continuing to expand Apex Legendsbeyond its battle royale roots. The studio is launching its first big team mode, Control, as a limited-time feature available starting February 8th. The mode will sound familiar if you’ve played Destiny‘s Control or other hold-the-points gameplay formats. Two teams of nine players each vie to capture and keep up to three zones, with infinite respawns for every player. Those zones will confer benefits like they do in other games, but the nature of those benefits is different — there’s a strong incentive to focus on territory rather than wiping out the enemy team.

Every zone your team owns will add points each second, up to a score limit of 1,250. You’ll randomly encounter “Capture Bonuses” that deliver a wealth of points if your team holds a given zone when the bonus timer runs out. Own both the center point and your team’s home point and you can spawn in that middle ground. And if you manage to capture all three points, you’ll start a “Lockout” that guarantees a win if those points are yours when a timer expires. A lopsided match shouldn’t drag on longer than necessary, to put it another way.

Control also introduces a ratings system where players can progress through tiers the more they accomplish for the team in a given life. You’ll earn use of your ultimate ability every time you move up a tier, so there’s plenty of motivation to stay in one piece. Respawn is promising Control-specific badges and challenges for those interested in longer-term goals.

And yes, there’s a new Apex character. The game is introducing Mad Maggie, a seemingly Mad Max-inspired, Australian-sounding warlord who has been sentenced to fight in the Apex games. Much like Caustic, her abilities reflect her willingness to leave morality at the door — Riot Drill forces enemies out of cover by burning them, and Wrecking Ball produces boost pads while also exploding near foes. She can also highlight enemies she shoots, and moves more quickly while using shotguns.

It’s too soon to know if Control will become permanent like Arenas. Respawn’s strategy is clear, however. Modes like this potentially keep Apex fresh for veteran players, and might expand the audience to newcomers who aren’t fans of the original game’s last-one-standing experience.

Worms Developer The Latest To Sell Out Over NFTs

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In 1994, Andy Davidson had an idea. That idea was to take the infinitely copied mid-70s Tektronix 4051 game, Artillery, but do it with cartoon worms. Then-developer Team17 snapped it up, called it Worms, and have since wrung out every last drop of miserable profit from the mediocre idea ever since. So of course…

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Source: Kotaku – Worms Developer The Latest To Sell Out Over NFTs

Add Outdoor Space to Your Home With a DIY Roof Deck

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Outdoor space is always a good thing in a home. No matter how nice your interiors are, human beings are animals, and as such, we are meant to roam free with the wind in our hair. While typical suburban homes often have a sizeable backyard, and some rural homes come with plenty of acreage to enjoy, the more urban your…

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Source: LifeHacker – Add Outdoor Space to Your Home With a DIY Roof Deck

Pokémon Legends: Arceus’ Inventory Expansion Is A Rip-off

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I’ve found my mortal enemy in Pokémon Legends: Arceus, and no, it’s not the surly-faced captain who threatened to leave me to die in the wilds. It’s the guy standing right outside of her office. You know who I’m talking about. It’s Bagin, the guy who offers to expand your inventory–for a price.

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Source: Kotaku – Pokémon Legends: Arceus’ Inventory Expansion Is A Rip-off

Spotify publicly posts content policy as Rogan responds

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Joe Rogan.

Enlarge / Joe Rogan. (credit: Dylan Buell/Getty Images)

Spotify publicly posted its platform policies for the first time on Sunday following artists’ outrage over COVID-related episodes of Joe Rogan’s podcast.

The policies, which previously weren’t known to the public, offer podcasters and musicians wide latitude over what they can stream on Spotify. They’re similar to the approaches used by other platforms. Spotify does not allow hatred and incitement of violence, deception, graphic depictions of violence, sexually explicit material, and illegal content. The streaming service also says it forbids “content that promotes dangerous false or dangerous deceptive medical information that may cause offline harm or poses a direct threat to public health.”

“These are rules of the road to guide all of our creators—from those we work with exclusively to those whose work is shared across multiple platforms,” CEO Daniel Ek said in a blog post.

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Source: Ars Technica – Spotify publicly posts content policy as Rogan responds

This Working Quadcopter Drone Was Built Using Leonardo da Vinci's 500-Year-Old Sketches

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Leonardo da Vinci is best known for works like the Mona Lisa and The Last Supper, but what you might not know is that in the 1480s—hundreds of years before the first flight—the polymath sketched a design for an aircraft. Lacking the right materials, da Vinci never built or tested the helicopter-like device, leaving us…

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Source: Gizmodo – This Working Quadcopter Drone Was Built Using Leonardo da Vinci’s 500-Year-Old Sketches

Losses Mount for Startups Racing To Deliver Groceries Fast and Cheap

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A venture capital-backed battle is raging in New York City in the burgeoning field of instant delivery. From a report: At least six startups, including Gorillas, Jokr SARL, Getir Perakende Lojistik and Buyk, are vying to win the chance to ferry groceries to customers within 10 to 20 minutes of their order placement on an app. Prices are similar to grocery stores, discounts are plentiful, and many services don’t have a fee or minimum order, allowing consumers to request a single pint of Ben & Jerry’s delivered to their doorstep. Food-delivery app DoorDash, based in San Francisco, also recently entered the fray in New York City.

While these consumer-friendly offerings have brought surging sales, losses are heavy given the high cost of prolific advertising and paying couriers to hand-deliver potato chips, soap and eggs in a short time frame, industry investors and executives said. Some of the companies are averaging a loss of over $20 per order when factoring in costs like advertising, those people said. “The economics are brutal,” said Damir Becirovic, a principal at venture-capital firm Index Ventures, which hasn’t invested in any of the startups. He added that if any of the companies can build a giant business with efficiencies from scale, that picture could change, but the short-term challenges seem daunting. Take for example Fridge No More, a New York-based company that launched in 2020. As of September, its average order value was $33, according to a 2021 investor presentation viewed by The Wall Street Journal. After paying for the products, the people packaging them, delivery riders, waste and other expenses related to storage, it lost $3.30 on every order. That doesn’t include marketing costs. Fridge No More spent $70 on advertising to win the average customer, an investment that resulted in a $78 loss for every customer that stayed in the 10 months through September, according to the presentation.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.



Source: Slashdot – Losses Mount for Startups Racing To Deliver Groceries Fast and Cheap

Elon Musk Mulls Paying Teen $50K To Turn Off Twitter Bot That Tracks His Private Jet

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Elon Musk Mulls Paying Teen $50K To Turn Off Twitter Bot That Tracks His Private Jet
A teen who created a bot that tracks Elon Musk’s private jetd wants $50,000 to take it off Twitter. The amount was a counteroffer when Musk asked the teen if he’d remove the content from social media for a $5,000 payday.

Musk is no stranger to being in the spotlight for all sorts of things. The multi-billionaire has been busy launching

Source: Hot Hardware – Elon Musk Mulls Paying Teen K To Turn Off Twitter Bot That Tracks His Private Jet

7-Eleven Stores in Japan Are Getting Touch-Free Floating Holographic Self-Checkouts

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As convenient as self-checkout machines can be for quickly getting out of a store, they’re also a convenient way to expose yourself to a touchscreen that thousands of others have used. To make the machines more sanitary, some 7-Eleven stores in Japan will be installing floating holographic displays that work without…

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Source: Gizmodo – 7-Eleven Stores in Japan Are Getting Touch-Free Floating Holographic Self-Checkouts

In Netflix's Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Leatherface Takes on Social Media

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Just like their murderous stars, you can’t keep a venerable horror franchise dead for long. In fact, it’s only been five years since chainsaw-enthusiast Leatherface appeared on screen in 2017’s Leatherface, which served as a prequel to the original 1974 film. Now he’s back, and ready to slaughter the real enemy:…

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Source: Gizmodo – In Netflix’s Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Leatherface Takes on Social Media

Free Covid Tests Provide Latest Venue for Suspected Fraudsters

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As a new government website went live in January to offer free Covid-19 test kits, a rash of new domain names were registered. Some had remarkably similar URLs, or were nearly the same but slightly misspelled. From a report: Cybersecurity experts said the goal was likely the same for all of them: bogus domain names that can be used for phishing attacks and other scams. Suspected fraudsters have registered more than 600 suspicious domain registrations since Jan. 15, around the time Biden administration announced details about a program in which the U.S. Postal Service would deliver Covid-19 tests to Americans’ homes, email security firm Proofpoint told Bloomberg News. The look-alike URLs are often meant to trick Covid-weary Americans into thinking they are signing up for a free nasal swab, when in fact they might be handing personal data over to a cybercrime syndicate, cybersecurity experts said. The government website for free Covid tests, covidtests.gov, opened for business on Jan. 18, along with a related site, special.usps.com, where users are directed to place an order with the Postal Service.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.



Source: Slashdot – Free Covid Tests Provide Latest Venue for Suspected Fraudsters

This 500Hz Gaming Monitor Goes So Fast It Should Come With A Whiplash Warning

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This 500Hz Gaming Monitor Goes So Fast It Should Come With A Whiplash Warning
Remember when gaming monitors with 144Hz refresh rates were considered fast? They still are, really, but then came along the likes of  240Hz and even 360Hz displays. Well, all of them can bend the knee to a new gaming monitor by BOE, a company you probably never heard of but is making waves with a blisteringly-fast 500Hz monitor.

It’s a

Source: Hot Hardware – This 500Hz Gaming Monitor Goes So Fast It Should Come With A Whiplash Warning

Oops! Google Adsense Leaks Destiny 2 Witch Queen Trailer And Exotic Weapons Reveal

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Oops! Google Adsense Leaks Destiny 2 Witch Queen Trailer And Exotic Weapons Reveal
Bungie has been dropping tidbits of information about the upcoming The Witch Queen expansion through trailers and This Week at Bungie posts (TWABs). We so far know a little about some of the coming changes, but next to nothing about weapon crafting or new armor and weapons. The most information we have received so far has come from a rather

Source: Hot Hardware – Oops! Google Adsense Leaks Destiny 2 Witch Queen Trailer And Exotic Weapons Reveal

Debian tweaks its resolution process

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The vote has
concluded in the Debian project on a general resolution affecting the
way such resolutions are discussed in the future. The changes, as proposed
by Russ Allbery, have been adopted with the required three-to-one
supermajority, though the overall level of voting was low.
The new process is mostly
as described in this article from October
with a few changes. The end result may be to shorten the discussion period
for controversial issues and make the end of that period more predictable.

Source: LWN.net – Debian tweaks its resolution process

You Might Be Storing Your At-Home COVID Tests Wrong

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Whether you’re waiting for your free at-home COVID-19 tests from the government to arrive in the mail, or you’ve already stocked up and have a few sitting around, you should know that how—and more importantly, where—you store these rapid tests matters.

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Source: LifeHacker – You Might Be Storing Your At-Home COVID Tests Wrong

A new video of Tianwen-1 flying above Mars is pretty epic

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Source: Ars Technica – A new video of Tianwen-1 flying above Mars is pretty epic

LooksRare Has Reportedly Generated $8B in Ethereum NFT Wash Trading

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LooksRare seemingly came out of nowhere to become the biggest rival yet to leading NFT marketplace OpenSea earlier this month, but there’s a big asterisk on the astronomical trading figures coming out of the platform. From a report: It’s marred by rampant wash trading, as users buy and sell NFTs between wallets they control in an effort to manipulate daily trading rewards. Now we have a sense of how severe the wash trading has become since LooksRare launched on January 10. NFT analytics firm CryptoSlam reported today that it has identified more than $8.3 billion worth of wash trading from LooksRare, making up the vast majority of trading volume on the marketplace to date. Most of the wash trading comes from royalty-free collections, which means that sellers don’t have to pay the creators a secondary sale fee. Larva Labs’ Meebits has seen the most wash trading at $4.4 billion, with Terraforms at $2.9 billion, Loot at $705 million, and CryptoPhunks (a CryptoPunks derivative project) at $251 million, plus $62 million from other projects.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.



Source: Slashdot – LooksRare Has Reportedly Generated B in Ethereum NFT Wash Trading