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Bentley has just revealed a convertible version of its second generation Continental GT, identical in every important way to the coupe except that it now has an elegant powered hood that takes 19 seconds to erect, can be lowered or raised while the car is being driven at speeds up to 31mph (50km/h) and whose total assembly — plus the requirement for extra chassis stiffness — adds just over 100kg to the coupe’s already substantial 2295kg kerb weight. And which brings its own new level of versatility to two-door luxury coupe ownership. Because this car was engineered from the beginning with a bespoke platform shared only with Porsche’s Panamera, and the need for a ragtop was taken into account at the earliest design stage, the hood intrudes less into the cabin, requires less chassis reinforcement and disturbs the car’s aerodynamics less (drag factor rises only fractionally to 0.32) than in the outgoing car. The result is a rarity in the UK, a luxurious convertible with decent seating for four, though even here the largest occupants probably fit better in the front. t’s a big car, for sure, fractionally longer than the outgoing car at 4.85metre overall length and with 100mm added to the wheelbase. Mainly, this moves the front wheels forward, an action that greatly improves body proportions and removes the last sign of a relationship with the old VW Phaeton limo, the car that provided the original Conti’s platform. The engine is the recently revised 6.0-litre W12, now with both direct and indirect fuel injection (to spread torque and cut CO2) as well as variable valve timing and many more mechanical refinements. The engine produces 626bhp at 6000rpm, plus a mighty 664lb ft of torque, an output that easily beats even the most powerful versions of the previous GT. Like its predecessor this car has four-wheel drive, but the emphasis of the system has completely changed. You now get a set-up that retains rear-wheel drive most of the time, delivering an adjustability of handling the old car never offered. If necessary it can divert up to 38% of its torque to the front wheels in the Bentley or Comfort suspension settings, or 17% in Sport, all according to demand from the sophisticated chassis electronics. As the above suggests, the Conti now uses the same three-chamber air suspension units as its coupe sibling, and the Panamera. And instead of the old Slushmatic, you now get an eight-speed twin-clutch gearbox. All that power and torque easily overcomes the Convertible’s weight to make 3.7sec 0-60mph sprints possible (it concedes an undetectable 0.1sec to the fixed-head model) and the 0-100mph time is a Ferrari-rivalling 8.0 seconds. In truth, there’s little else different between coupe and convertible. The siblings have virtually the same chassis balance, the same steering response and the same ride quality because Bentey’s engineers have done such a brilliant job of eliminating the chassis flex and scuttle shake so often present in big convertibles. They also have virtually the same performance — everything except the all-important open-air facility for which you pay around £18,000 extra. Sounds a lot, doesn’t it? But nothing comes cheaply in this arena, and neither does the customer seem to expect it. Our First Edition Convertible test car (£36,000 extra over the £175,100 base price) also had a further £17,000 of classy gadgetry, including a “Naim for Bentley” premium hi-fi that costs a cool £6500 extra. Once you’re driving with the top down, you rapidly realise how much less important total performance is to a luxury convertible. The balmy cockpit airflow, the prestigious progress, the way the exhaust note murmurs up to your ears over the boot, the greater sense of pleasurable driving (and reduction in effort to concentrate when driving long distances) all come into play in a convertible — or at least, in the average convertible. Where the Bentley convertible scores is that, when its hood is erect, it’s difficult to distinguish from its coupe cousin. Daily driver versatility is a quality Bentley has always claimed for its cars, and this new Conti convertible definitely delivers. Top down touring is profoundly enjoyable and there’s little or no compromise, either when it rains or when it comes to carrying rear passengers. If you’re shopping for drop-top four-seaters in the Bentley bracket, it’s hard to find anything that compares. Other big convertibles are available, some a good deal cheaper, the Rolls Dawn a lot more expensive. All but the latter lack the Bentley’s combination of name, timeless quality, space, capability. And in the Bentley you pay less and get much more performance. So it strikes us that potential Conti ragtop owners aren’t going to be faced with a need to sift exhaustively through lots of rivals. The decision will be a simple matter of deciding whether they want the world’s only luxurious £175,000 to £220,000 convertible or not. Bentley Continental GTC specification Where Twickenham, UK Price £175,100 On sale now Engine W12, 5950cc, twin turbo petrol Power 626bhp at 6000rpm Torque 664lb ft at 1350-4500rpm Gearbox dual-clutch eight-speed automatic Kerb weight 2414kg Top speed 207mph 0-62mph 3.7sec Fuel economy 20.2mpg CO2 317g/km Rivals Mercedes-Benz S-class Cabriolet, Rolls-Royce Dawn

It looks increasingly likely this will be one of Australia’s worst flu seasons on record, yet despite the potentially deadly consequences, some people still refuse to be vaccinated. Last year, half of Aussies admitted they had no plans to get a flu shot, with a bizarre misconception fuelling many of these decisions. The main reason people didn’t get the jab in 2018 was because they believed it made them sick, according to a Finder.com.au survey of over 2000 people. This misconceptions comes up every flu season and is likely to be one of the reasons some Aussies skip out on this year's vaccine. According to Dr Daria Fielder, owner of Sapphire Family Health Practice, getting the flu while vaccinated is not because of the shot. The reason you still might get sick is from people choosing not to vaccinate and causing the spread of different strains of virus. “Influenza vaccine is an inactive vaccine and therefore it is unable to give you the flu. It does have some side effects, which commonly include pain in the arm or a fever, however it will not make you sick,” Dr Fielder said. “In an ideal world, of course it would be better if everyone receives vaccination. If only some are vaccinated, the virus will continue to spread in the community.” The 2019 flu season started early and has already claimed at least 90 lives, surpassing the 57 flu-related deaths that occurred throughout 2018. This year there has already been 49,072 cases of the flu recorded — over three times more than the same period last year. And the worst is yet to come, with flu cases usually spiking around August. Each year scientists calculate the probability of which strains are likely to be the most problematic, as they cannot include all of them in the vaccine. “However, if you get your flu vaccine every year you reduce your overall chance of contracting influenza virus significantly,” Dr Fielder said. Generation X is the age group most suspicious of the vaccine, with 18 per cent believing it doesn’t work, while only 10 per cent of the younger generation agree. In many cases, people who contract influenza will be incredibly sick and unable to work for around seven to 10 days. Even in mild cases, victims are likely to have to take at least a few days off work, personal finance expert at Finder, Kate Browne, said. “Flu season has started early this year, with an abnormal amount of Australians contracting the disease in the first few months of the year,” she said. “A few health funds will cover you for the flu shot, so check your policy. If you are covered you should consider getting the vaccine, as even mild cases can see you out of work for a few days.”

He stressed the need to "maintain the smooth functioning of the EU" as the EU ruled out any change to Brexit policy. Mrs May is stepping down after failing to get her Withdrawal Agreement through Parliament three times. The French leader also joined EU leaders in paying tribute to Mrs May's "courage". The Withdrawal Agreement was reached with the EU in November after arduous negotiations. What are EU leaders saying? The European Commission made clear it would work with Theresa May's successor but that there would not be any changes to the Withdrawal Agreement. "[EU Commission] President [Jean-Claude] Juncker followed Prime Minister May's announcement this morning without personal joy," said Commission spokesperson Mina Andreeva. "The president very much liked and appreciated working with Prime Minister May and, as he has said before, Theresa May is a woman of courage for whom he has great respect. "He will equally respect and establish working relations with any new prime minister, whoever they may be, without stopping his conversations with Prime Minister May. And our position on the Withdrawal Agreement and anything else has been set out. There is no change to that." In an interview before Mrs May's resignation, Mr Juncker asked: "How could anybody else achieve what she couldn't?" The UK's previous prime minister, David Cameron, clashed with Mr Juncker over the EU budget and other issues before arguing - unsuccessfully - to stay in the EU in the 2016 referendum. Reflecting on that vote, Mr Juncker told the German public broadcaster ARD: "If you tell people for 40 or 45 years 'we're in it, but not really in it', we're part-time Europeans and we don't like these full-time Europeans, then you should not be surprised if people follow simple slogans once they're asked to vote in a referendum." He also accepted that the EU had "failed" by not adopting "the position that was necessary". "Abstention is not a position," he said. A statement from the French president's office said: "The principles of the EU will continue to apply, with the priority on the smooth functioning of the EU, and this requires a rapid clarification. "At a time of an important choice, votes of rejection that do not offer an alternative project will lead to an impasse."

I am not the world’s greatest StarCraft player. That—currently—is a guy called sOs. You might have heard of him: he was the one lifting that heavy-looking trophy at the World Championship at BlizzCon. sOs became the world’s greatest StarCraft player by defeating somebody called Life in a seven-game series—a test of physical dexterity, mental acuity and psychological endurance in excess of any other competitive computer game. StarCraft’s competitive element has become the thing it is best known for over the course of the series’ long life. That makes sense: it’s the original stadium-filling esport and one of the most skill-intensive games ever made. For the long-term fans who know StarCraft primarily in this regard, Legacy of the Void marks the start of the game’s new era. It’s a suite of new units, features and balance changes that will define the character of the game for the next couple of years. From my position of limited skill, I can tell you that Legacy of the Void’s changes make the competitive game faster, more skill-intensive, and less fiddly. There’s a greater emphasis on making big decisions early. You begin your match with more worker units than you used to, and the business of setting up your economy has been streamlined. Fights happen faster and, as a consequence, matches are shorter. You might get caught out by a rush strategy you didn’t see coming: you type ‘GG’, surrender, tab out to TeamLiquid, read up on your counters, tab back, and you’re playing again within a minute. It is easier than ever to lose evenings to the ladder in this way. That elevated skill ceiling is thanks to new units that become dramatically more powerful if you’re capable of micromanaging them effectively. One example is the Protoss Adept, a ranged infantry unit that can act as an alternative to Stalkers and Zealots. In and of itself, it’s capable enough—but it’s real power comes from Psionic Transfer, which creates a ghostly duplicate of the Adept that is controlled separately. These are invulnerable and after seven seconds the Adept teleports to the ghost’s location. Suddenly, new strategic pathways open up: around entrenched positions and into worker lines, past the enemy’s own targeted abilities and (hopefully) into victories that go beyond cheeses and strict counters. Legacy of the Void wholeheartedly supports the notion that StarCraft is a difficult game and that player skill should be respected. If you get too tired or anxious to climb the ladder, there are also automated tournament brackets that run every couple of hours. These allow you to experience some of the drama of structured play without any of the logistical hassle. You’re playing for bragging rights, ultimately, but it rounds out the experience and it’s something that I wish more competitive games would offer. The reason Legacy of the Void comes highly recommended, however, is that it also supports the idea that you should be able to have fun regardless of how good you are. The competitive game has been allowed to change in ways that make it deeper, but the package as a whole is broad and generous in its provision of entry points for new players. If competitive StarCraft has become an art, then Legacy of the Void’s campaign offers a colour-by-numbers alternative for those still developing their abilities. As in Wings of Liberty and Heart of the Swarm, Blizzard treat singleplayer as its own entity, with its own units and rules. The final part of the trilogy tasks you with uniting the fragmented factions of the Protoss race from aboard an ancient warship, the Spear of Adun. Your ship and the factions you pick up form the basis of the extra toys you get to play with. Where James Raynor had his upgrades and Kerrigan had her mutations, Protoss Hierarch Artanis picks between multiple versions of the same unit type. There are Templar and Dark Templar variants on the basic melee zealot, for example, with further options unlocked as additional Protoss forces are recruited. Then, the Spear of Adun itself can be upgraded by investing resources gathered by completing optional objectives within each mission. Some of these upgrades are passive, such as increased build speed, increased starting supplies, and shield regeneration. Others are active, deployed mid-battle from a new command interface along the top of the screen. These include direct attacks—orbital strikes, bombardments, a giant moveable laser, and so on—and support powers, like the ability to freeze time for enemy units or summon a Pylon along with reinforcements anywhere on the battlefield. They’re wildly overpowered but mitigated by cooldowns and a recharging energy meter, acting as both siege-breaking opening gambits and last-ditch survival options. Taken in combination, this degree of customisation allows you to tailor your approach to suit your style and skill level. I prefer a slow siege, with Stalkers supported by forcefield-emitting Sentries and, later, Immortals and Colossi. I put together a tweaked variant on that, with artillery-spewing Immortal variants protecting a new kind of Sentry that lays down a power grid, allowing me to warp fresh Stalkers right to the front line. As the scale of each mission increases, there’s a real thrill to seeing a plan like this come together: the glow of dozens of protoss units warping in at once, the angry red beams of custom Void Rays strafing waves of zerglings that pop just so. After over five years of StarCraft II, the new missions don’t manage to feel quite as fresh or original as Wings of Liberty’s did when it came out. Though I wouldn’t say there were any especially weak links, certain objectives get repetitive after a while. You will track down and destroy three different objectives while also hunting for two or three different optional objectives on several worlds and in several different contexts, albeit with new units and powers to prevent each encounter from feeling exactly the same. There are certainly exceptions to this rule. One mission strands your base on a landlocked island with minimal resources, but allows you to move that island along rails to reach new areas. Another allows you to command three different squads of Protoss hero units in succession, completing multiple objectives at once in three different parts of a world. In another you join allied Terran forces in a battle against their corrupt counterparts. Every few minutes, a psychic blast leaves every Terran on the battlefield incapacitated—friends and foe alike. This is either an opportunity to lay waste to a defenceless enemy or time to defend your stricken ally depending on how ruthless you’re feeling. There’s rarely a mission where Legacy of the Void doesn’t innovate along these lines, but certain designs stand out more than others. The core Protoss campaign is the shortest of the series so far, but it’s bookended by mini-campaigns that, collectively, amount to a substantial and largely gratifying conclusion to the series. The nebulous cosmic threat spoken of in cutscenes from Brood War onwards finally arrives, and is dealt with not just by the Protoss but by the Terran and Zerg characters that you’ve come to know as well. Raynor and Kerrigan get their ending, as do Zeratul, Artanis, and all of the other Protoss who (if you’re me) you’ve probably confused with each other over the almost two decades that Blizzard have been telling this story. There was a risk that a Protoss narrative could end up feeling dry and this holds true to a certain degree. The Protoss are part elf, part Vulcan, part Marvel Comics Asgardian: they’re big and gold and Shakespearean and silly, and if you take the time to talk to everybody on board the Spear of Adun you’ll have more than your share of conversations about Templars and Nerazim and Tal’darim and the Khala and so on. Blizzard commit to this wholeheartedly and a huge investment has been made in furnishing the campaign with impressive cinematic moments. If you are a fan already, this is a party being put on to serve your very specific interests. If you are not, it may mean very little if you haven’t at least played Wings of Liberty and Heart of the Swarm. Nonetheless, it has heart: that loud technicolour exploding metal album cover heart that finds its way into most Blizzard games. For the first time in StarCraft II, some of that freeform campaign feel makes its way into multiplayer. In co-op, you and a friend (or an online stranger) pick commanders that each offer a different spin on their faction, complete with unique special powers and distinct units. You then take on objective-based missions at varying difficulty levels for XP, which unlock new abilities, units, and so on. This is a brilliant addition: it gets more life out of units designed for singleplayer, and provides a welcoming way into multiplayer for those daunted by it. As an introduction to the game, co-op is actually more effective than Archon mode despite the latter getting the loudest fanfare from Blizzard. Archon is a new competitive two-vs-two format where both players control a single army. When both players are equally skilled, this is pretty entertaining—a way of taking the pressure off each individual by having one brain to look after the army and another to look after the base. With a newcomer, however, I don’t really think it works—it feels too much like teaching somebody by doing everything for them, where co-op (and traditional two-vs-twos) both allow newbies to work with all of the game’s systems themselves. These weaker moments don’t spoil the whole, however. Legacy of the Void feels like a Blizzard game from another era—one where the box you buy (or download, I guess) contains a wide variety of experiences and promises to sustain investment for a long time to come. This is a game from the universe where the RTS never went away, where they kept getting made and improved over the course of decades. I’d say “they don’t make them like this any more”—but they clearly do. THE VERDICT A brilliant strategy game that manages to be both broad and deep, challenging and accessible. NEED TO KNOW What is it? The fifth entry in Blizzard’s sci-fi RTS series, and the conclusion of its story. Expect to pay $40/£30 Release Out now Developer Blizzard Publisher In-house Multiplayer Co-op and competitive, extensive options. Link Official site