XZoro

Game Informations. Developers : Human Head Studios. Released : November 1, 2018. Genre : ‏Action,adventure. Mode : Single-player Platforms : Microsoft Windows - PlayStation 4. We wrapped up The Quiet Man's conclusion no less than five minutes ago, and to say we’re baffled and bewildered would be an understatement. The bottom line is that Human Head Studios’ attempt at blending FMV with interactive combat scenes utterly fails in every conceivable way. In fact, everything about this project is truly perplexing, and to confuse matters even further, Japanese bigwig Square Enix actually forked out genuine money to publish this monstrosity. So, where do we even begin? You play as Dane, a gentleman who is deaf. A protagonist who has lost their hearing is a half-decent concept in theory, but when put into practise, The Quiet Man gets it all wrong. Due to the disability, you won’t hear a single piece of spoken dialogue throughout the entire game, which immediately throws the overall plot into obscurity. From what we could piece together, Dane must rescue a female family member from the clutches of a masked figure. It’s a short descriptor, because honestly, the game makes no sense whatsoever. Flashbacks to Dane’s childhood try to describe the relationships between characters, but they regularly contradict each other or continue to raise more questions than answers. And then back in the present day, motivations remain unclear, people come and go without rhyme or reason, and plot arcs are communicated horrendously. It’s this lack of verbal conversation that kills any understanding of what’s going on because despite characters and even Dane himself moving their lips and presumably speaking words, we never hear any of it. We seriously struggled to grasp any sort of cohesive narrative, and we’d be hard-pressed to believe that anyone else could too. And then, there’s the biggest kicker of the lot. The Quiet Man doesn’t have a traditional ending, because it’s being delivered via DLC in a week’s time. This add-on will be free, but it leads to a scenario where the base game simply displays a countdown timer upon its completion. It felt like the rug has been pulled out from under us because after an incomprehensible three hours to make it to the climax, we’re made to wait a further seven days for what will most likely be one more ludicrous cutscene. When you’re not trying to work out what each FMV sequence means, you’ll be taking the fight to supposed enemies in scenes where you’ll actually have to pick up the controller and play. Unfortunately, though, the combat system is just as atrocious as the ridiculous plot. Not a single one of its mechanics are explained, which led us to button mashing our way through the majority of brawls. And the biggest issue here is that there absolutely are cogs and gears for you to engage with, but we only know thanks to the Trophy list that speaks of close shave encounter attacks, beatdowns, and special environment finishers. We’ve unlocked each of those Trophies so apparently we did perform those moves at some point in the game, but we wouldn’t have known it at the time. Boss fights do require a little more skill, with a dodge button becoming your biggest ally, but simply pounding on square and triangle will get you through most altercations. To be honest, the controls feel bad, with unresponsive inputs leading to a sense of clunkiness that never goes away. Woeful hit feedback worsens things with punches that fail to feel weighty and blows that can’t decide if they were blocked or not, while enemies themselves all originate from a few very particular character models. You'll often fight foes with the same appearance. It’s this sense of cheapness that has a serious detriment on the transitions between FMV and the in-game sequences, too. The video looks fine, because of course it’s shot on high-quality cameras, but it’s this that makes the switch to the interactive scenes all the more glaring. There’s a very noticeable drop in presentational quality once it’s time to pick up the controller, with a sort of washed out effect that makes backgrounds and setting look incredibly lacklustre, while character’s faces could almost be an entirely different person. Obviously we weren’t expecting top of the line graphics, but The Quiet Man wouldn’t look out of place on a PlayStation 3. As an overall product, we can’t state enough just how much of a negative impact the lack of sound has on the experience. It’s the title’s defining mechanic, but it doesn’t work in any practical manner. Long stretches of the game had us confused and befuddled by events on-screen, and at some point the wheels fall off completely and the whole affair starts to turn into a comedy sketch. It’s an experiment gone badly wrong, and an example to those who wish to dabble in the FMV genre of what not to do. We wish this was a "so bad it's good" situation where a slice of self-deprication could glean even a hint of enjoyment out of the experience, but it's sadly anything but. There’s nothing else quite like The Quiet Man, and there’s a reason for that. The blend of FMV and interactive combat sequences fails on every level with an unfathomable plot that raises far more questions than it answers, and encounters that fail to explain themselves and do little to engage. The Quiet Man is the most baffling release of 2018, to the point where a post-mortem investigation into its sheer existence sounds so much more exciting than this bizarre and convoluted comedy sketch.

Game Informations. Developers : Invader Studios. Released : September 17, 2019. Genre : ‏Survival, horror. Platforms : Microsoft Windows - PlayStation 4 - Xbox One. Daymare: 1998 has had a long and fascinating road to release. Dating back a number of years, Invader Studios' project actually began life as a Resident Evil 2 remake. No, not that remake. It actually dates back to before Capcom’s announcement of its legendary return to Raccoon City. Once the publisher made it known it was tackling the title itself, the developer pivoted to this new, but eerily similar project. And while the product may not be up to the standards of a AAA project from a major publisher, the end result is a decidedly retro experience that gets just enough right to be worth your time. The rural town of Keen Sight, Idaho finds itself as ground zero for a bizarre pandemic. A sinister corporation – Hexacore Biogenetics – has a massive presence in the town, and as you progress through the game’s surprisingly varied locales, their influence is felt more and more, as some sinister plans start to unravel. The game places you in the shoes of three different characters: Liev and Raven, members of the elite H.A.D.E.S. team, and Sam, a local forest ranger. These three navigate the town as it falls into chaos. While the characters technically change, Liev and Raven are barely distinguishable. Sam is a little different, but the gameplay doesn’t change any for him. Daymare is a third-person action-horror game that plays near identically to what you’d expect from a Resident Evil title, albeit on a massively truncated budget. Budgetary restrictions wind up holding many aspects of the game back, but it still captures the spirit of its inspirations. Sure, the textures are muddy, and the animations are limited in scope, but the actual gameplay is still quite fun even if the presentation can be dicey. The environments have an impressive breadth despite the graphical missteps however, as you’ll see many locales familiar Resident Evil fans: a hospital, the streets of Keen Sight, and even a high-tech secret lab. All of these places are chock-full of items to scoop up, as well as collectibles, and exploration winds up being the strongest asset at the title’s disposal. Power weapons, better ammo, and lots of world-building collectibles adorn the eerie halls of Keen Sight. If you want to get the most out of these collectibles be prepared to do some reading as well; many of the collectibles span multiple pages of text and are sometimes so lengthy they completely disrupt the flow of gameplay. The most rewarding items that you can find are the weapons, even if the total firearm count is threadbare. At any one point, you’ll have a pistol, a more powerful pistol, and a shotgun. And that’s it. The management of ammo is one of the game's most unique features, though. You have to juggle multiple magazines and hand load them, using a “combine” system that – again – Resident Evil fans will recognise. Not to mention the script, which is full of so many incredible lines of ridiculous melodrama and cheese that the game could have been plucked right out of the 90s. Nothing quite hits 'Jill Sandwich' level, but it comes closer than you might expect. That’s an unreasonably high bar to hit anyway. The Resident Evil comparisons extend beyond the gameplay and narrative, too. There are many homages and winking nods to the series, from finding things like typewriters all over the place to movie posters, and more. In fact, this game is absolutely loaded with pop-culture winks. Under normal circumstances, these kinds of things can come off as eye-rolling and unsubtle, which is technically the case here. But these nods are so frequent and so fun that rather than be a source of irritation, they reinforce how passionately the development team feels about these subjects. There are some movie poster parodies in particular that are genuinely funny. So between the exploration and truly fun pop culture integration, we were coasting through our 10 hours with the game. For a while. But the late game brought our enjoyment to a screeching halt. You go up against a recurring boss enemy a handful of times towards the game’s conclusion, and these encounters are, to put it lightly, aggressively unfun. We had particular trouble during a gauntlet sequence where we kept tripping fail states where it made no logical sense for them to be. After doing this 20 or so times, we wound up so discouraged by the game, we put it down for the rest of the day and tried to start fresh the next morning. These last forty-or-so minutes stand out massively in comparison to the rest of the game, as we were having quite a good time to that point. Looking through another lens, however, it’s quite impressive that we didn’t really run into issues prior to the conclusion. A lower-budget title with AAA aspirations will almost always have some jank to it, but performance-wise, Daymare is actually quite sound; no crashes and no framerate hitches, which was honestly dumbfounding. Given that the amount of content isn’t really scaled back in relation to a AAA title targeting the same goals, it’s truly admirable. Hit detection when firing your guns will pop up now and again. It’s usually a minor problem, as the game provides an abundance of ammo, but once in a while, if a tougher enemy takes a hit that should’ve knocked them down, it can briefly create a panic. Elsewhere, the UI is phenomenal, with your inventory management, collectibles, and map being integrated into the game via a wrist communicator that doesn't pause the action. This helps with the tension, as swapping magazines once you run out can be a very real problem if you don’t prepare prior to the encounter. This makes for some of the game’s best moments, as finding the exact right time to open that UI is critical. The soundtrack is also excellent, greatly enhancing the atmosphere of an already spooky title. The ambient tracks and more sombre tunes stand out quite a bit more than the action music, but all in all, the soundtrack is pretty excellent. Daymare: 1998 is a low budget release with an ambition that outpaces its production values, but it's still a good attempt. There are stumbling blocks – hit detection, boss fights, animations – but the lighting is good, the soundtrack is great, and the exploration is satisfying.

Cyclone Amphan has made landfall in eastern India and Bangladesh, killing at least 15 people as it lashed coastal areas with ferocious wind and rain. Trees were uprooted and homes toppled in both countries, including in the Indian city of Kolkata in West Bengal. Nearly three million people were evacuated - most of them in Bangladesh - before the severe storm hit. Coronavirus restrictions have been hampering emergency and relief efforts. Covid-19 and social-distancing measures have made mass evacuations more difficult for authorities, with shelters unable to be used to full capacity. The storm is the first super cyclone to form in the Bay of Bengal since 1999. Though its winds have now weakened, it is still classified as a very severe cyclone. "Our estimate is that some areas 10-15km from the coast could be inundated," said Mrutyunjay Mohapatra, the head of India's meteorological department. Amphan began hitting the Sundarbans, a mangrove area around the India-Bangladesh border home to four million people on Wednesday afternoon, before carving north and north-eastwards towards Kolkata, a historic city that was the capital of the British Raj. It was moving with winds gusting up to 185km/h (115mph). Amphan is expected to move further into Bangladesh on Thursday, and later Bhutan. Meteorologists warn there could be up to 300mm more rainfall to come, which could increase the risk of flooding and deadly mudslides. Satya Narayan Pradhan, director general of India's National Disaster Response Force, told the BBC the impact had been "fairly devastating", especially in poor areas. Although it had been hard to keep people apart during evacuations, social distancing is being enforced at cyclone shelters, along with hygiene protocols, he said. 'I was nearly blown away' Kolkata has been facing the full force of Cyclone Amphan since it made landfall several hours ago. My building has lost electricity. The telephone network is gone so I'm here with a candle. The mobile network is running. But the situation just outside my window is terrifying - I went outside to try to record something and was nearly blown away. I'm getting reports from across the city as well as from coastal districts that the situation is pretty bad there. Thousands of trees and electricity poles are down. When the last super cyclone struck in 1999 I was travelling on a train and was stuck for two days. At one point, I thought we'd be blown away. How much devastation this cyclone has caused we'll get to know only in the morning. Kolkata residents said it was the worst storm they had experienced in decades. They spoke of flooded homes, electricity transformers exploding and power cuts. One man told the BBC the boundary walls of his condominium had collapsed. "I am in my house. I have been prepared for a while. But I've never seen a storm as bad as this," said one resident, Pooja Kaur. "There is no power at the moment." Earlier, a Bangladesh Red Crescent volunteer helping villagers to evacuate became the first fatality after the boat he was in capsized in strong winds, the organisation said. Bangladesh has reported four other deaths. In India, media reported 10 fatalities, including a child in the state of Orissa (also known as Odisha), who was killed after the mud wall of his family's home collapsed. In the Sundarbans, also a rich habitat for Bengal tigers, houses "look like they have been run over by a bulldozer", a villager called Babul Mondal told the FP news agency. India and Bangladesh are using schools and other buildings as temporary shelters - but they need more space than usual in order to house people while maintaining social distancing. Police in West Bengal, which along with Orissa is expected to be the worst-hit part of India, told the BBC that people were unwilling to go to the shelters because they were afraid of contracting Covid-19. Officials in Bangladesh fear it will be the most powerful storm since Cyclone Sidr killed about 3,500 people in 2007. Most died as a result of sea water surging in. India's weather department had predicted storm surges as high as 10-16 feet (3-5 metres). The rising of sea levels in this way can send deadly walls of water barrelling far inland, devastating communities. The cyclone comes as tens of thousands of migrant workers continue to flee cities for their villages during India's lockdown to curb the spread of coronavirus. West Bengal and Orissa are among the Indian states seeing large numbers return. Orissa cancelled trains and some district officials asked the state government to accommodate the migrants - many of whom are walking home - elsewhere until the storm passes. Although they are not in the direct path of the storm, there are fears for hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees who fled Myanmar and live in crowded camps in Bangladesh where cases of coronavirus have recently been reported. Officials said they had moved hundreds of Rohingya living on an island in the Bay of Bengal into shelters. The UN and human rights groups are also gravely worried for Rohingya refugees who they believe could be on boats in the Bay of Bengal, and possibly in the storm's path, after trying to flee to Malaysia and Thailand but being blocked by authorities in those countries from landing.

Game Informations. Developers : nterceptor Entertainment (Original),Slipgate Studios. Released : December 1, 2016 (Original), February 21, 2018. Genre : ‏Adventure. MSRP: $11.99 (Original), $19.99 Platforms : Microsoft Windows - PlayStation 4 - Xbox One - Nintendo Switch. What is the opposite of Rad? First impressions count for a lot in gaming. Sometimes a bad launch can tarnish an otherwise solid game from ever recovering, but there are some rare instances where a title gets a second shot. Rad Rodgers happens to be one such game. I reviewed the original release on PC a little over a year ago and I was surprised to learn there was new content coming to the game. I thought the game was pretty decent, just lacking in some key areas. Does this fix any of the issues I originally had? Does the new content live up to the promise set by the original? Sadly, it seems developer Slipgate Studios has squandered that second chance, because this more “complete” release of Rad Rodgers is markedly worse in almost every category. The plot of Rad Rodgers isn’t all too important, but this new release doesn’t expand or change any of the details from the original release. Rad is still a kid living in the ‘90s that hates school and loves video games. He gets sucked into the world of a game and his console, named Dusty, takes on a personality and guides him through this new world. His console is also voiced by Jon St. John, so curse words and absurd humor ensue. I don’t have a problem with the relatively threadbare plot since classic MS-DOS sidescrollers rarely had anything resembling a plot. A lot of older games were still coming to terms with how to properly get players invested and narrative design typically took a backseat to interesting gameplay hooks. Rad Rodgers doesn’t do anything new, though, even with this second lease on life. You’ll be running and gunning through nine main levels along with three completely pointless pogo-stick levels in what amounts to a lot of padding on the original premise. The regular game had six main levels with a boss fight, but I guess more content equals better. Any of the somewhat decent designs from the original are muddled by some new collision detection model that is just terrible. I may have had some issues with jumps in the original release, but I can’t tell you how many platforms I fell through or otherwise missed thanks to whatever is going on with Rad’s physics. The best example I can give is in this area where there are some platforms spinning on wheels in front of a waterfall. Since the geometry overlaps, Rad tends to get shifted to the next coming platform without you doing anything, which is very disorienting. Dusty also loves to pull you up to ledges you weren’t aiming for, which is totally great for random deaths you could have easily avoided. There is something very odd going on with the jump mechanic. For some unexplained reason, Rad can jump in mid-air. He doesn’t have access to a double jump, mind you, but you can do some weird Donkey Kong Country style antics by falling a long distance and then jumping at the last second. The thing is, this isn’t consistent and sometimes Rad decides not to jump. It leads to many segments where you’ll be plummeting towards spikes and then just watch Rad die when he hits the ground. These physics don’t really change for the new pogo levels, either. Here, Rad will be relegated to moving on a pogo stick and has to jump up a level while water gradually rises below him. Sometimes you’ll fly through multiple platforms and Rad will automatically jump, where other times he won’t. You can also immediately fail them and skip the levels, so I’m not sure what the purpose of including them was. I understand these are meant to be a nod to Commander Keen, who would often jump around on a pogo stick, but they feel like padding on an already padded-out game. As for combat, something has gone seriously wrong with the AI now. While I wouldn’t call the original game challenging, now the enemies are completely braindead. If they aren’t running around in circles for no reason, they’ll stand still to shoot at you and never even attempt any form of self-preservation. The bigger threats, which can often one-shot you, will also stand at the edge of the screen and let you pick them off, which mostly makes for scenarios where you’re actively trying to avoid enemies due to how boring the game feels. I also cannot get over the new laser totem enemies that have been thrown into some levels. The shoddy collision detection strikes again as these beams will hit you with pixel perfect accuracy. Some of the traps have you navigating through beams while standing directly under a totem that isn’t firing, thus elongating the time it takes to run through a level. If you get even the slightest bit too close, Rad will take damage and often outright die. At least the combat mechanics have slightly improved. My biggest beef with the original was a lack of a button for changing weapons, but that was mainly because the grenade launcher power-up couldn’t break boxes. That has been fixed, so Rad is now able to shoot everything. That being said, the rapid-fire power-up is more like a downgrade, since its fire rate seems to have been lowered. Speaking of those boxes, new TNT boxes po[CENSORED]te the levels and there are even some question mark boxes. Sometimes you’ll run up to a question block to smash it and it will explode in your face. The splash damage radius is also insane, as I’ve been on a platform below an explosive box (that was masked, mind you) and died due to the explosion; so much for being fair. All these problems and I haven’t even gotten into Dusty’s “revamped” pixelverse stages. At certain points in each level, you’ll need to have Dusty jump into the game code and move around platforms for you, but even these segments aren’t free of new issues. More puzzles have been added to mix up the flow, but the tutorials given for these are so abrupt and poorly explained that you’ll naturally end up with a few deaths due to not understanding what is going on. It doesn’t help that touching certain enemies or obstacles hurts Dusty, but those objects tend to disappear for some reason. I also encountered a segment where Dusty was periodically losing health for no reason. Once he died, I got kicked back to Rad who was now completely bald. The game started eating itself and I had to bear witness to it. I’m also totally baffled how the last boss wasn’t changed at all. The final encounter is still frustrating and anti-climactic, not to mention the last cutscene is still censored despite the rest of the game letting F-bombs drop left and right. For that matter, the humor in this new version seems more focused on gross-out style jokes. In one instance, you’ll walk into a house and a guy will talk about how he could have been masturbating, which isn’t funny or clever. Previously, I enthusiastically stated that Rad Rodgers had “sleeper hit” potential, but that has been absolutely obliterated now. The foundation for something better is still here, but Slipgate Studios has reworked Rad into something that isn’t worth spending your cash on. At least on PC, you can still get the original version with your purchase (or get an “upgrade” to this new one for free), but console gamers should stay far away until some patches land. Even with patches, I don’t know how much you can fix in this game.

Welcome Have fun, enjoy T/C

Psychiatrists are warning of a "tsunami" of mental illness from problems stored up during lockdown. They are particularly concerned that children and older adults are not getting the support they need because of school closures, self-isolation and fear of hospitals. In a survey, psychiatrists reported rises in emergency cases and a drop in routine appointments. They emphasised that mental-health services were still open for business. 'Patients have evaporated' "We are already seeing the devastating impact of Covid-19 on mental health, with more people in crisis," said Prof Wendy Burn, president of the Royal College of Psychiatrists. "But we are just as worried about the people who need help now but aren't getting it. Our fear is that the lockdown is storing up problems which could then lead to a tsunami of referrals." A survey of 1,300 mental-health doctors from across the UK found that 43% had seen a rise in urgent cases while 45% reported a reduction in routine appointments. One psychiatrist said: "In old-age psychiatry our patients appear to have evaporated, I think people are too fearful to seek help." Another wrote: "Many of our patients have developed mental disorders as a direct result of the coronavirus disruption - eg social isolation, increased stress, running out of meds."

Game Informations. Developers : King Art Games. Released : November 28, 2017. Genre : ‏Adventure. Mode : Solo, Multiplayer Platforms : Microsoft Windows- PlayStation 4 - Xbox One - Nintendo Switch -Linux. Before Charlie Brooker came onto the scene, Black Mirror was more commonly known as a series of point-and-click adventure games released on the PC in the mid-2000s. Its initial three entries were fairly well received, and after a seven year absence, the name is back with a re-imagining of its story, themes, and a mix-up in the gameplay department. So, does this blast from the past manage to replicate its past successes? After learning of the mysterious circumstances surrounding his father’s death, David Gordon visits his family’s stately mansion in the Scottish highlands to uncover what really happened. As he learns of a potential curse put upon the family, his father’s descent into madness, and what could lie beneath the mansion, the plot thickens and expands to a scope we didn’t see coming. It’s this that becomes the driving force behind Black Mirror, and so we were pleased to find a quality tale to follow. The revelations and twists you unearth are genuinely interesting and surprising, while making the characters of David Gordon and his side-kick all the more convincing. This is then backed up by some quality voice acting, with the entire cast putting in an excellent shift that combines David’s high-brow English vocabulary with Scottish dialect. Making each and every member of the mansion believable went a long way in terms of our investment in the story, and so we came to care for their troubles and perils. When it comes to gameplay, Black Mirror feels like a combination of Life Is Strange and the puzzle solving of a classic Resident Evil title. You’ll explore the mansion as you hunt for clues, talk to fellow residents to glean any information they might have, and then solve puzzles as you encounter them. It’s these brain teasers that provide the most amount of challenge, but the game’s structure is undoubtedly the second biggest hurdle. What the title has you doing at any given moment is enjoyable, but it is very rigid in how you approach it. The QuestLog will always give you an objective to accomplish, but the descriptors are far too vague and as a result, you’ll often find yourself mindlessly exploring the mansion in the hope that you’ll bump into the interaction you need to progress the story. There’s no dynamic way of solving a puzzle or uncovering the next story beat: you have to interact with the game in the exact way it wants you to, or you’re not going to make any breakthroughs. To break up the murder mystery hunt, you can engage a number of the mansion’s residents in conversation. You’ll get a basic set of dialogue options, which more often than not allow you to ask every question presented on the screen. There’ll also be cases where you can influence David’s actions, as you choose to either continue to eavesdrop on another dweller or make your presence known. The ramifications of these choices and actions seem to have an extremely minimal impact on the overall adventure, primarily just affecting the current scene you’re in, but they’re a neat touch that introduce a small amount of flexibility. What isn’t flexible, however, are characters' facial expressions when engaging them in discussion. The aforementioned scenes are of a high quality voice-acting wise, but when it comes to displaying any sort of emotion or expression, the in-game characters’ faces are stiff as cardboard. This is a real shame because a great deal of emotion can be found in the writing, but the personification of it can’t do it any justice. And if that wasn’t enough, an unhealthy dose of very poor lip-syncing worsens the overall look even further. But this is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Black Mirror’s flaws, as the clunky and frustrating controls will be your main source of annoyance. A slow walking and turn speed makes navigation a tedious crawl, and thanks to getting caught on geometry all too often, this frustration was heightened even more. The scheme and layout only just feels like a step above tank controls. It’s clear that Black Mirror wasn’t developed on a big budget, and unfortunately that has led to a number of glitches finding their way into the final release. Interacting with objects at certain angles will cause David to stand still in place with no amount of button presses breaking his apparent trance, which effectively crashes the game. The framerate violently fluctuates, too, as it goes from providing a smooth experience to suddenly tanking and leaving the frame counter in the low teens. Load times are also far, far too frequent. You'll encounter one every time you enter a different room, and with each lasting 10 to 15 seconds, they become a real drag on the experience. Random invisible walls will halt your exploration, and graphical glitches can be replicated on demand. At least there’s a guaranteed Platinum Trophy at the end of the five hour mystery, though.

Have fun, enjoy Topic/Closed

Nissan Sunderland factory could get boost under alliance restructuring programme, reports claim, with production being moved from Spain Nissan is in talks with alliance partner Renault to build two of the French brand’s SUV models at its Sunderland plant, the Financial Times is reporting. The Kadjar and Captur SUVs, which share their platforms with Nissan’s Qashqai and Juke respectively, are currently built in Spain. However, the two brands are looking to consolidate production, as well as boost the fortunes of Sunderland, Nissan’s flagship international factory. The FT cites two people familiar with the discussions. A major reshuffle is expected to result in Nissan cutting its overall production capacity by 20% in 2023, closing the firm’s Barcelona plant, which makes commercial vehicles for export. That plant had been running at just 30% capacity, reports suggest. A decision to move production of two of Renault’s most po[CENSORED]r models to the UK would likely secure thousands of jobs at Sunderland. The plant’s future had been in doubt following Britain’s decision to leave the EU, with Nissan warning that tariffs on exports into the EU would put it in jeopardy. The move would also point to a reunification between Nissan and Renault, a relationship that looked strained after the arrest and subsequent escape of former alliance boss Carlos Ghosn. Ghosn was instrumental in forming the alliance between the French and Japanese makers, which was at one time the world’s largest car-making group. Since then, in-fighting is said to have caused a rift between senior executives. The full strategy of restructuring Nissan’s European business will be outlined by new Nissan CEO Makoto Uchida on 28 May. The brand has struggled in the region, with problems being greatly compounded by the coronavirus crisis.

Scientists in Australia say they have found a way to help coral reefs fight the devastating effects of bleaching by making them more heat-resistant. Rising sea temperatures make corals expel tiny algae which live inside them. This turns the corals white and effectively starves them. In response, researchers have developed a lab-grown strain of microalgae which is more tolerant to heat. When injected back into the coral, the algae can handle warmer water better. The researchers believe their findings may help in the effort to restore coral reefs, which they say are "suffering mass mortalities from marine heatwaves". The team made the coral - which is a type of animal, a marine invertebrate - more tolerant to temperature-induced bleaching by bolstering the heat tolerance of its microalgal symbionts - tiny cells of algae that live inside the coral tissue. They then exposed the cultured microalgae to increasingly warmer temperatures over a period of four years. This assisted them to adapt and survive hotter conditions. "Once the microalgae were reintroduced into coral larvae, the newly established coral-algal symbiosis was more heat-tolerant compared to the original one," lead author Dr Patrick Buerger, of Csiro, Australia's national science agency, said in a statement. "We found that the heat-tolerant microalgae are better at photosynthesis and improve the heat response of the coral animal," Prof Madeleine van Oppen, of the Australian Institute of Marine Science and the University of Melbourne, said. "These exciting findings show that the microalgae and the coral are in direct communication with each other." The next step is to further test the algal strains across a range of coral species. How bad is coral bleaching? "Coral reefs are in decline worldwide," Dr Buerger says. "Climate change has reduced coral cover, and surviving corals are under increasing pressure as water temperatures rise and the frequency and severity of coral bleaching events increase." Earlier this year, Australia's Great Barrier Reef suffered a mass bleaching event - the third in just five years. Warmer sea temperatures - particularly in February - are feared to have caused huge coral loss across it. Scientists say they have detected widespread bleaching, including extensive patches of severe damage. But they have also found healthy pockets. Two-thirds of the reef - the world's largest such system - were damaged by similar events in 2016 and 2017.

Game Informations. Developers : Magic Design Studios. Released : January 23, 2019. Genre : ‏Genre: Platform game. Modes: Solo, Multiplayer Platforms : Microsoft Windows- Nintendo Switch - PlayStation 4 - Xbox One. Whether it’s the Dragon Ball series or Enslaved: Odyssey to the West, video games have often dabbled with the classic Chinese text Journey to the West. Unruly Heroes uses the 2D platformer genre to tell its tale, where you take control of Sanzang, Wukong, Kihong, and Sandmonk to restore the Sacred Parchment and bring order to the world. And with more than a smidge of influence from the likes of Rayman Legends,it manages to deliver an enjoyable and varied adventure. Unruly Heroes doesn’t simply make you choose one of the four main characters at the start of each level but instead encourages you to switch between each of them during play. Each character has their own life bar, as well as a special meter that fills after enemies are killed and once full can unleash a powerful AOE attack. Swapping between characters is a useful way of keeping them alive or being tactful with the use of their specials. The differences between them – aside from the character models – fall into the two main areas of mobility and combat. Half the characters are blessed with smaller jumps but the ability to double-jump at will, whereas the other half have a single larger jump and can float in the air for more lateral movement. Combat is a little more unique depending on who you choose, ranging from fist-fighting to long-range staff combat, to even attacking with orbs of pure light that surround you and attack from multiple directions. You’ll likely find an individual you prefer; I myself gravitated towards Wukong the monkey, with his double-jump and far-reaching staff for combat being able to cope with the majority of situations. And those situations are actually surprisingly varied given the genre. There’s certainly an interesting mix of ideas and mechanics at play here that satisfyingly change things up across different levels. On one level you could be riding a psychedelic undead rollercoaster, another could see you literally mani[CENSORED]ting gravity to move around, with another seeing you suck up the darkness with a rustic version of a Dustbuster that also helps move nearby platforms. It means that across its 29 levels, there’s always something new to experience, and levels are often more than simple smatterings of familiar platform stalwarts such as the wall-jump or pressure pads. Each character also has a unique ability that helps solve various puzzles. Wukong could create extended bridges to cross large gaps, Sandmonk can destroy barriers other characters can’t, and Kihong can inflate himself like a balloon at certain points, rising high above to new areas. It all helps to keep things fresh without running the risk of over-complicating proceedings, allowing you to enjoy the platforming and puzzling in front of you. In addition, the game is a wonder to look at. Where it most fondly resembles Rayman Legends is in its art design and stunning visual aesthetic which shines through in droves. The game is gorgeous at times, will well-crafted and detailed levels, as well as stunning backgrounds and vistas that really immerse you. Unlike, say, Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze that sees you actively launch into the background, these are for display purposes only, but they do still serve a different purpose, as they are often a perfect set up for future boss encounters. A lumbering shadow will move across at certain moments, giving you a glimpse of what you’ll likely face off against later, doing a great job of ramping up the expectation. Combat is simplistic, but it serves its purpose. With easy controls and the infamous dodge roll mechanic employed, most combat encounters become quite trivial and you’ll only take damage if you make a mistake or get overrun by sheer numbers. But it’s still fun because hitboxes are well executed and so it feels fair when hits land, either for you or the other way around. Miniboss battles that appear at the end of some levels are laughably simple, thanks to most of them simply swinging to the side, and this being heavily choreographed with windup animation and a big exclamation mark to warn you of impending damage. Rolling to safety and continued whacking with the occasional AOE attack sorts most of these out, which is a bit of a shame, but these are offset by the several larger boss battles, who have multiple life bars and different, more inventive ways to overcome them. Their difficulty tends still lie more with the platforming attributed to finding an opening, rather than the combat though, but their challenge is still a welcome addition given the simplicity of the rest of the combat. The main complaint I have is that the platforming feels a bit floaty and imprecise at times, often resulting in a fall to your death, and a restart with a different character. Not good if I lose my favourite monkey character. Coupled with this, certain mechanics can feel inconsistent as wall-jumps don’t always seem to connect, neither does the automatic “pull-up” animation when you almost reach a ledge, and the game helps you the final few millimetres. This wouldn’t be so bad but the game often throws gauntlet runs at you, escaping an enemy or lava that requires timely movement, often with perfect accuracy, and nothing is more frustrating than failing a section through no real fault of your own. This is exacerbated further when you consider that the game keeps track of your number of deaths in a level and uses this – alongside how many coins you collected and the time taken to complete it – to rank your performance. I don’t mind retrying the odd time because of a glitch, these things happen, but when the game only awards me a bronze award due to my death count being so high, my competitive nature growls ferociously and I feel hard done by. Story-wise, Unruly Heroes is paper-thin, like the parchment you’re tasked with restoring. It’s a shame considering the iconic subject matter at hand. However, one strong suit is the humour, often stirring a chuckle out of this miserly old curmudgeon. My only gripe would be that it seems very sparsely used, with some humourous characters or situations linked to single levels or moments. It seems like the game is afraid to embrace the comedy title it wants to be, which is a shame because it actually does this part surprisingly well. There’s plenty of replayability here, not least to improve your ranking in each level. The most recent update also offers additional difficulty options, both a harder, less forgiving mode, and an easier one for those looking to just enjoy the experience. If you’re dedicated enough, there’s even a new Diamond ranking available if you secure those perfect runs on this new harder difficulty. All levels can be played with up to four players locally. Multiplayer works well, although you have to keep all on the same screen, so there’s a need to keep up with each other as you play. Thankfully characters don’t bang into each other (I’m looking at you Yoshi’s Crafted World) and are free to traverse the levels independently. Playing with more people does make the combat and boss battles simpler, as you might expect, but can make tight, timely set pieces more fiddly to accomplish. There’s also a multiplayer arena mode which is passable. Think along the lines of a watered-down Smash Bros. You’ll likely bounce off it after a while as it’s pretty shallow in scope, albeit still fun to beat the life out of a mate. Overall, Unruly Heroes stays true to its name. Strong level design, platforming, and puzzles are all present, and it’s glorious to look at to boot. But the controls can be a bit, well, unruly, at times which is frustrating given the focus on your performance in each level. It still comes with a glowing recommendation though because when it works – which it does the majority of the time – you’re in for a well-designed and beautifully-executed treat of a game.

LONDON (Reuters) - Behind the shuttered doors of some of London’s top private members’ clubs, chefs in masks are preparing thousands of meals, not for the well-heeled and well-connected but for health workers and those left vulnerable by the coronavirus pandemic. Annabel’s is part of a network of peers and Michelin-starred chefs that has opened kitchens during the nationwide lockdown and is sending 7,000 meals per week to London hospitals with the help of volunteers, suppliers, members and supporters. The tables in its secluded garden in London’s exclusive Mayfair district are laden with brown paper bags packed with meals awaiting delivery. Richard Caring, whose businesses include Caprice Holdings restaurants, Annabel’s and The Ivy Collection, says his family charity, The Caring Foundation, aims to call on his network to provide one million meals by the end of June for health workers, emergency services staff and the needy across Britain. His businesses produced 90,000 cooked meals last week as Britain’s death toll from COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, has topped 40,000, the highest in Europe. “We ... have restaurants and clubs and all of them, of course, have kitchens,” Caring, 71, told Reuters by email. “We had thousands of staff ‘at home’ and when you put those two together, kitchens and the amazingly loyal staff, it was obvious that we could help.” INDEBTED TO HEALTH WORKERS Soho House, a global group of hotels, restaurants and spas, is providing thousands of meals weekly for health workers and the vulnerable in London, Barcelona and across North America as well as bedrooms in its Istanbul hotel for medical staff between shifts. Chefs from the Ned, whose members could once enjoy a rooftop pool overlooking London’s St Paul’s Cathedral, have teamed up with Soho House to create lunch and supper menus that include beef bourguignon, mushroom stroganoff and lentil dahl. Nick Jones, Soho House’s 56-year-old founder and CEO, said small taskforces of local volunteers had been drawn from each city around the world to limit travel during the pandemic. “We were looking for ways to support from the moment the Houses closed,” he told Reuters by email. “Many of us at Soho House are indebted to the NHS (National Health Service) both for the work they are doing now and at various points in our lives.” The clubs have not forgotten their members. Soho House’s online offerings include home hair care tutorials, cocktail masterclasses, fine dining recipes, yoga and meditation classes. Annabel’s also has a reputation as a party destination to maintain. For that, it is relying on social networking app Zoom.

India has announced a 20 trillion rupee ($264bn; £216bn) economic package to help the country cope with its prolonged coronavirus lockdown. In a televised address Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the measures would support farmers and small businesses. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is due to announce further details in the next few days. India has more than 70,000 cases among its 1.3bn po[CENSORED]tion and is expected to pass China's numbers within a week. Mr Modi said the package, which is equivalent to 10% of India's gross domestic product, aimed to help people who have lost their jobs and businesses hit by the shutdown. "The package will also focus on land, labour, liquidity and laws. It will cater to various sections including cottage industry, medium and small enterprises, labourers, middle class, industries, among others," he said. He also said that strict stay-at-home orders would be extended beyond 17 May with a new set of rules. The country's very strict lockdown, which started on 25 March, has had a huge economic impact, with tens of millions of poorer Indians and migrant workers hit hardest. In March, India said it would provide around 1.7 trillion rupees in direct cash transfers and food security measures, mainly for the poor. However, Mr Modi's administration had been accused in some quarters of not having done enough. It comes as governments and central banks in other countries around the world have provided unprecedented levels of support for their economies to tackle the crisis. "India's response has so far been tepid compared to other key nations and thus the catch-up is welcome and is also the need of the hour," said economist Madhavi Arora at Edelweiss FX and Rates. "It needs to be seen how much will be in the form of direct budgetary support to gauge the immediate fiscal hit and the consequent funding sources," he added.

Game Informations. Developers : The Voxel Agents. Released : September 20, 2018. Genre : Puzzle. Platforms : Microsoft Windows- PlayStation 4 - Xbox One - Nintendo Switch - iOS- Linux - macOS - Puzzle games are a dime a dozen, so in order to really stand out, the game in question needs to do something special to garner attention. And The Voxel Agents’ time-mani[CENSORED]tion puzzle game, The Gardens Between, happens to be one title that achieves this. The Gardens Between is a puzzler where all of the scenarios you encounter revolve around mani[CENSORED]ting time forwards and back to create or destroy certain pathways, while trying to reach a 'portal' to the next level. You control two kids, who appear to be playing make-believe in a tree house up on a hill behind their homes, but honestly, the narrative is mostly irrelevant. The story elements of the title are almost completely non-existent outside of some brief cutscenes that bookend the experience. It comes off as more of an excuse to ground the puzzles in some semblance of reality, rather than existing to say anything meaningful. If you view it as a device to do that instead of to tell an actual story, it works quite well. The environments are these really great, surreal diorama-esque islands. Each island presents its own puzzle, and by fast-forwarding or rewinding time, the kids make their way around the locales. The puzzles are fairly straightforward in the beginning, as the game perfectly helps you dip your toes in the water. The early puzzles only revolve around mani[CENSORED]ting time, but as you progress, collecting light sources and opening pathways are thrown into the mix, requiring a much more involved level of problem-solving. By the late game, you’ll be juggling a whole collection of variables as you look forward to the next puzzle. That is, until the game just stops. The game’s learning curve is executed flawlessly, incrementally ramping up the challenge as you go along. It even captures the ever-elusive feeling of satisfaction that comes from solving a particularly tricky element of a puzzle. However, the actual amount of content is rather slim. By our count, the game consists of a total of 18 islands, and then one final, larger puzzle that happens in three stages. The actual amount of content ends up feeling like a letdown -- the title can easily be polished off in one sitting. Ultimately, the problem with that doesn’t stem from just the lack of content, but more from the fact that what is here is extraordinary. We were constantly impressed by numerous instances of clever design during the game's short length. Having to forward and reverse time in order to saw through a board to create a bridge, or stop a bolt of lightning at just the right time to power a television are phenomenal little moments. There’s a smattering of nice touches across the islands that are just so deliciously clever, that there’s a constant desire for there to be “just one more puzzle” coming up. That wish stops coming true all too soon. Not only are the puzzles themselves great, but the rules of the game feel remarkably consistent. A lot of puzzle games fall into the trap of throwing the player a curveball, introducing something obtuse that will leave you scratching your head. There’s no moment like that here, which is refreshing. The music ebbs and flows along with how you mani[CENSORED]te time, often comfortably sitting in the realm of ethereal ambience, heightening the game’s dreamlike quality. The art too is absolutely wonderful. The items the two kids have littered around their yards and tree house are transplanted into the surreal environments, but on a much grander scale. Things like calculators become large bridges, and TVs loom over you, an imposing wall of static. The collection of lo-fi tech brings a nice retro touch to the game’s fantasy, creating an interesting marriage of old and new that really stands out. It all makes the game really pop visually. The Gardens Between is almost a truly great puzzle game, but it gets hung up in a couple of small areas. Gorgeous surreal environments pair with a perfect score to create a killer atmosphere for some of the most clever puzzle mechanics - complete with impressively consistent internal logic - that we’ve seen in some time. However, the title’s relative lack of content means it can be polished off quite quickly, even if you’re not in a hurry. The fact that the puzzles are so good left us craving more from the title, and we're looking forward to whatever The Voxel Agents puts its mind to after this, as it's definitely on to something here.

Geely brings larger scales and Volvo know-how to the table as EV brand becomes a joint venture The future of Smart is far more promising than it once was, according to Mercedes R&D boss Markus Schäfer, as the EV brand establishes itself as a joint venture between Daimler and Geely. The deal, completed in January, includes production of Smart vehicles in China. The brand will remain focused on electric, urban-centric cars. Schäfer said that while Smart had been successful in terms of how it was received by consumers, it had failed to be commercially viable. He said: “It was a successful product in terms of customers liking it and moving to an EV-only brand was a courageous step but ultimately we missed the opportunity to make it commercially successful. “We need to increase volume. With current volumes, we don’t have scale and we need to be competitive in a world where larger volume – especially in this segment – is extremely important. “Working with Geely, we have access to larger scales, Geely’s know-how and close co-operation with Volvo and our know-how of Smart and its history.” He said the combined forces are now geared towards product design, which is based mainly at Daimler HQ, and working side by side in engineering. “This is a good basis for us to create a scalable platform and enough volume to be successful,” Schäfer said. Smart is due to introduce new electric Fortwo and Forfour models by the middle of the year. By 2022, a compact electric SUV is expected. Schäfer said: “We have the genes of the brand – and, with engineering and design power, we are off to a good start. In terms of product, I would say ‘stay tuned’.”

Game Informations. Developers : Amplify. Released : August 27, 2019. Genre : ‏Action-Adventure, Role-Playing . Platforms : Microsoft Windows- PlayStation 4 - Xbox One - Nintendo Switch - Linux. A burning village, a dark abomination harassing a noble looking elk, and a sword at your feet. These are the opening moments in Decay of Logos. No tutorial, no lengthy exposition of the world’s lore, just you and a sword. This opening is a sign of things to come. This is not a game that’s going to hold your hand. It’s not going to tell you where to go or what you should be doing next. Instead, it’s down to you to figure things out. The opening means that you’ll instantly feel connected with the game’s silent protagonist, Ada, and her loyal elk companion. You’re learning things at the same time she is and so it’s easy to be swept up in her desire to track down those responsible for the destruction of her village. The world that Ada lives in is one of high fantasy, with mythical creatures, a royal family in turmoil, and a land ravaged by war. As you venture through the world and explore its many ancient ruins and dungeons it’s hard not to just take a moment to stop and enjoy the views. The cel-shaded graphics are used to wonderfully capture the nature of each area that you’re in, whether it’s a vibrant open field with glorious views of nearby mountains or a dark and oppressive battlefield littered with the bodies of the dead. Decay of Logos did push me to my limits but not in the way I was hoping. I boot up the game and am immediately thrown into the middle of the village being attacked. Action from the off is a big plus for me. Only this action lasts less time than it took you to read this far. It felt like an abrupt stopping point rather than a natural one. I feel like there isn’t enough time to feel anything about the village being attacked. Props to Amplify, though, as it’s a dark way to start a game and I’m all for a bit of bleakness. At that point, after a brief intro of Ada gaining the trust of your elk companion, we can get right into Decay of Logos. Unfortunately, this is where the trouble starts. Now, Decay of Logos has taken the minimalist non hand holding approach to guiding you, which I’m fine with. The statue heads you’ll find give you the basics, like how to attack, parry, use items etc. but other than that you’re on your own. There’s a strong focus on environmental storytelling so there isn’t a mini-map pointing you towards the nearest side quest or loads of long-winded interactions with non-playable characters s to tell you why you should care. It’s more subtle than that and instead requires you to pay attention to your surroundings and indulge in your own natural curiosity. If you do prefer the more traditional kinds of storytelling then it’s worth seeking out the Echo Shells hidden in each area. These hold people’s memories and will elaborate on the lore in each area. They are presented as diary entries and will tell you more about some of the atrocities and betrayals that the locals have suffered through. You won’t just be reading about atrocities - you'll have to deal with plenty of them yourself. The world is filled with deadly creatures and you’ll learn pretty quickly just how dangerous they are. One of the first enemies that you’ll come across is a cute monster that looks like an onion, but it becomes distinctly less cute once you realise that it can kill you in just a couple of chomps. The combat system is simple but quite tough. You can use your weapon to hack away at an enemy with a mix or light and heavy attacks, and you’ll also be dodging and ducking out of the way of incoming blows. These vigorous actions will rapidly drain your stamina so you can’t just constantly go on the offensive. If you mess up your timing then your opponent will swiftly punish you. When you die (which you will, a lot) you’ll be resurrected at the last checkpoint that you visited, but there are consequences to your death. Ada’s stats will be temporarily weakened and the only way to restore them is to rest at a camp. This can be a bit annoying, however, as not all checkpoints have camps. This can mean that you if you’re trying to get through an area without a camp nearby, you end up in a spiral of doom whereby you get weaker and weaker with every death until you either finally manage to push through to an area with a camp or give up and backtrack so that you can recover. In the early parts of the game we definitely died more times than we’d care to admit, but things do start to get easier once you get some loot from monsters. On defeat they’ll occasionally drop pieces of their armour and you’ll be able to equip them. It’ll also has the added benefit of changing Ada’s physical appearance; it’s pretty awesome to get her dressed up like one of the mutated tree men or wear the tribal-style clothes of the creepy puppet children. Over time weapons and armour will slowly degrade until they’re eventually at risk of breaking. Thankfully it does take quite a while to get to that stage so you don’t need to panic about it too much. You’ll also eventually come across a little village where a blacksmith will restore your weapons for free. The village reminded us a little of the central hub in Demon’s Souls. You’ll be able to access different territories that all branch off from the village and many of the strange NPCs that you come across on your travels will eventually turn up here. They will give you little snippets of mysterious information as well as teach you things like magic spells Ada will gradually level up based on your playstyle. This means that if you’re fighting lots then you’ll get physically stronger, or if you spend lots of time exploring and solving puzzles then your intelligence and magic attacks will increase. Magic never really feels particularly useful, though. There are only a few spells to learn and as they use up some of your limited health to cast, you’ll only really use them when absolutely necessary. The game does currently have a handful of teething issues, but many of these are fairly minor things like the game feeling a little unresponsive when you’re trying to exit out of any text. The most annoying issue is that the game really doesn’t like to be left paused. If you do it for any prolonged length of time then you’re at risk of the game freezing. This doesn’t happen every time and you can work around it by leaving Ada in a safe place, unpaused, if you need to take a break. Hopefully these problems will be patched out in the future. Decay of Logos is a game that’s an absolute joy to get lost in. It’s not going to hold your hand, and it expects you to indulge your curiosity by exploring hidden pathways and seeking out the land's dark secrets. While the combat can be quite tough, it feels much more accessible than games like the Souls series - it won’t take too long before you’re ducking and dodging like a pro.

An Australian man filmed and mocked four police officers as they lay dying, a court has heard according to local media. An Australian man filmed and mocked four police officers as they lay dying, a court has heard according to local media. Richard Pusey, 41, who faces charges of reckless conduct and obstructing justice, applied for bail on Monday. He was pulled over for speeding on a highway last month. A short while later, a truck veered into the lane and ploughed into the officers. Mr Pusey was left uninjured. Police say he filmed the scene before fleeing. On Monday, his lawyer, Vincent Peters, said his client may have been in shock following the accident, reported the Australian Associated Press. All four police officers had been standing out of their cars when the refrigerated lorry drove into them and Mr Pusey's Porsche sports car. The driver, Mohinder Singh Bajwa, is facing negligent driving charges over the crash. Mr Pusey was arrested at his home in Melbourne hours after the crash on 22 April on the Eastern Freeway. Senior Constables Lynette Taylor and Kevin King, and Constables Glen Humphris and Josh Prestney died at the scene. It represented the worst loss of life in the history of Victoria Police, officials said. Police told a court on Monday that Mr Pusey filmed the scene for over three minutes, during which he zoomed in on certain areas and made derogatory remarks. The body camera of Senior Constable Taylor also captured Mr Pusey taunting her as she lay pinned under the truck. Experts say she was likely still alive at the time. Police have alleged that he later tested positive for drugs. "There you go. Amazing, absolutely amazing," he is alleged to have said. "All I wanted was to go home and have my sushi now and you've [expletive] my [expletive] car." His reported statements have sparked outrage in the local community. Victoria's Police Minister Lisa Neville previously condemned his actions as "completely sickening and disgusting". The court is yet to make a decision on his bail application.

At least six people were killed when protesters angry at the distribution of food aid clashed with security forces in western Afghanistan, officials say. The violence began after demonstrators gathered in Firozkoh, the capital of Ghor province, to complain about the perceived failure to help the poor during the coronavirus pandemic. Gunmen in the crowd attacked a government office, prompting security forces to open fire, the interior ministry says. Two policemen and four civilians died. Local volunteer radio presenter Ahmadkhan Nawid was among those killed, according to the Afghanistan Journalists' Centre. Nine civilians and ten police officers were also injured, the interior ministry said. The human rights group Amnesty International called for an independent and effective investigation into what it said was the "use of unnecessary and excessive force" that led to the killing of the civilians. Vice-President Amrullah Saleh wrote on Facebook that the incident was "shocking" and announced that the government was "seriously investigating" it. He also assured Afghans that no-one would miss out on the food aid being distributed to help those plunged further into poverty as a result of the restrictions imposed to prevent the spread of Covid-19. "We will reach in support every single inhabitant of this country who has been affected economically by the coronavirus," he added. The chairwoman of the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission told Reuters news agency that in the past week it had received complaints that food aid was being distributed unfairly. "We hear repeated complaints from people that the ones who are receiving the limited aid that is there are not the ones that are most deserving, they are the ones who have connections to local authorities or local officials," Shaharzad Akbar said.

Game Informations. Developers : La Poule Noire. Released : May 31, 2019. Genre : Adventure. Platforms : Microsoft Windows - Xbox One - Nintendo Switch - Linux. Looking through history will throw up plenty of examples of a hero. They come in various shapes and sizes, in various ranges and reaches of heroism. From the dizzying highs of Joan of Arc or Boudica, to the everyday hero you hear about nowadays like a firefighter rescuing someone from a burning building. Enter the newest hero for 2020: Edgar. The unlikeliest of heroes, a squash farmer who considers himself an outcast and prefers to keep to himself, along with his chicken companion Precious, in La Poule Noire’s new point and click adventure, Edgar: Bokbok in Boulzac. The game begins showing you Edgar’s simple open plan cottage, starting the day thinking about breakfast and going through the daily routine of picking and planting squash. Unfortunately, disaster strikes, which pushes Edgar outside his comfort zone and onto a path of adventure in the nearby town of Boulzac to find some elusive Razidium – the one thing needed to power his machine that keeps those pesky bugs out of the squash patch. Edgar: Bokbok in Boulzac is a simple point and click style adventure with an interesting story full of nonsensical humour and random, memorable characters featured throughout. One example of this type of humor is Edgar referring to a bald character’s skull as being “open air”. This may lose something when it’s out of context but trust me, it’s pretty funny. La Poule Noire has done a really good job story-wise and even though the game is short, lasting around 5 hours, there is a lot going on without it ever feeling overwhelming. I don’t want to spoil the story too much but it deals with a lot more than squash farming. It takes some dark, twisting turns filled with adventure, peril and an ending that I feel was perfect for Edgar and Precious. As for the actual town of Boulzac, you’re free to wander but the story keeps things pretty linear. By that I mean that you can talk to the Boulzacians (not the official name but the one I’m giving them), but the conversations will be exhausted until after you complete the next story section. It does add more depth to Boulzac and its inhabitants, making the town feel more alive and interactive. Having chats with the residents helps flesh out their individuality and personalities, with some residents referencing others, further creating more of a backstory. I mentioned earlier that Bokbok in Boulzac lasts around the five hour mark but this could possibly be done in as little as a few hours. It all depends on how deep you want to go into the NPC’s of the world. Everyone has something to say, with most of it being interesting and worth a read. Sometimes it’ll be beneficial information, other times not but it’s all part of attempting to bring the village to life. Most of the time you can’t revisit the conversation so you’ll need to pay attention to what’s being said. An aspect I did like was the speech choice options. Sometimes it’s clear which option to choose to take the story forward, but if the choice is a little vague you have the option of talking to the NPC again to choose a different option. It saves needing to mull over a decision for too long or worry about trying to remember what you chose last time on a new playthrough. I need to mention the art style in Bokbok in Boulzac as it is beautiful. It’s a colourful, rough around the edges style that seems to just fit Edgar’s personality perfectly. Unfortunately I had an issue with the text appearing on screen. A few times when I pressed a button to go to the next speech box the boxes would stack making the next set of text illegible. The only fix was to quit to the menu which took me out of the flow. However, that was the only issue I happened to come across and everything else worked very smoothly. There was a nice addition to Bokbok in Boulzac in the form of a night and day cycle with changing weather. Unless you’re at a section of the story that requires it to be night or day, the scene will change from day to night and sometimes change the weather from dry to raining. There’s no other times or weather apart from that bit the fact it’s included and gives a sense of time passing while you play is a nice touch. If you’re looking for something a little different and original then Edgar: Bokbok in Boulzac is definitely one for you. It has a good heart, great humour, and a lovely art style with a new hero you can’t help but like. Nothing in this is too taxing so you won’t be spending hours trying to figure a certain section or be stuck against overpowered enemies, mainly because there’s nothing like that here. Bokbok in Boulzac is a funny, laid back, story-driven game that you should all give a try.

The rise of self-driving taxis in China comes at a time when people are nervous about taking public transport. Robotaxi providers plan to ramp up the number of driverless cars they are putting on the roads to cater to the increased demand. One of the leading players AutoX is rolling out 100 autonomous vehicles in Shanghai by June. The start-up is one of several Chinese companies quickly moving to offer self-driving taxi services to the public. "The pandemic has made our society realise that we need self-driving cars for situations like this," said a spokesman for AutoX, which is backed by Chinese internet giant Alibaba. "RoboTaxi with its self-disinfecting capabilities and driverless logistics could save lots of lives." Internet search engine Baidu, China's answer to Google, is rolling out a fleet of its Apollo robotaxis across three cities in China, although it hasn't disclosed the number. Baidu worked with a number of carmakers including Toyota, Honda and Ford for the development of Apollo "The epidemic highlights the large demand for autonomous driving technologies during special times," said a spokesman for Baidu. "We and partners are already using driverless vehicles during the epidemic and we've deployed 104 driverless vehicles across 17 cities to help with disinfection, delivery and transportation of goods." During this first phase the robotaxis will not be truly driverless as they need a human safety driver at the wheel. "The safety drivers will be phased out- that is absolutely the intention of this service," added the AutoX spokesman. "Virus spread will be a concern for a long time, so this strongly motivates this type of automation." In February, the Chinese government issued a blueprint for the development of intelligent vehicles, to speed up the mass production of high-level autonomous cars by 2025. Pony.ai, founded by former Baidu and Google engineers, received $400m (£325m) in funding from Japanese carmaker Toyota in February, pushing its valuation to $3bn. The firm has been trialling robotaxis in both China and the US. James Peng, cofounder of Pony.ai, said the pandemic could prove to be an "accelerator" of the trend towards autonomous driving. Guangzhou-based WeRide has partnered with Chinese state-owned Baiyun Taxi Group to test a fleet of 40 cars. WeRide said it expects fully driverless robotaxis to be ready by 2021. But there are still plenty of legal and regulatory hurdles for robotaxis to overcome even if the technology is ready. Another area for potential growth for robotaxi providers is driverless deliveries, given the sharp rise in demand for shipping packages and groceries during the coronavirus lockdown.

Eight people have died, with hundreds of others taken ill, after a gas leak in south India. The leak, in the city of Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh state, has been traced to the LG Polymers plant. Doctors say "hundreds" of people have been taken to hospital - many complaining of a burning sensation in the eyes and difficulties breathing. The incident, which took place around 03:00 local time (21:30 GMT), may have been due to negligence, officials say. The leak occurred when the plant was being re-opened for the first time since 24 March when India went into lockdown to curb the spread of coronavirus. The state Industries Minister Goutam Reddy told BBC Telugu that it looked as though proper procedures and guidelines were not followed when the plant was being re-opened. As the gas spread, residents ran out of their homes in panic. Distressing visuals of people fainting and dropping unconscious on the streets are being shared on social media. Some factory employees are believed to have been inside when the leak occurred, but officials say they have no information about them. It is feared that the fumes have spread over a radius of about 3km (2 miles) and officials have been evacuating people from surrounding areas. A senior district official said that initial attempts to control the gas leak were unsuccessful. However, local news agencies have reported that the situation is now under control. Meanwhile, Rajendra Reddy, a senior official in the Andhra Pradesh Pollution Control Board, told the BBC that the leaked gas was styrene, which is usually refrigerated. "We are trying to understand the long-term impact of the chemical on those who have inhaled it during the leak," he said. In the meantime, officials have asked people to protect themselves by covering their faces with a wet cloth. India has a tragic history of gas leaks. In 1984, a chemical leak in a plant in the central city of Bhopal killed thousands of people, in what is acknowledged to be the world's worst industrial disaster. More than 35 years later, victims say children are still being born with disabilities because of the effects of the spill.

Seat has revealed UK pricing and specifications for the new, fourth-generation Leon, with it available to order now from £19,855. That entry-level price is less than that announced for its sibling model, the new Skoda Octavia, but that's because the Spanish firm is offering base variants from the start. The price is for an SE model with the 108bhp 1.0-litre turbocharged petrol engine. Further trims include SE Dynamic (from £20,955), which brings 17in alloy wheels, front and rear parking sensors, privacy glass and an upgrade to a 10in infotainment screen along with a 10.25in digital instrument display. FR (from £23,185) is the current range-topper. It gains a number of cosmetic upgrades, including LED tail-lights with scrolling indicators, a sporty bodykit and sports seats, and mechanical revisions such as a 15mm-lower ride height. Later this year, higher grades including Xcellence and FR Sport will be offered. Further engines available include a 128bhp 1.5-litre turbo petrol, a 148bhp 1.5-litre turbo petrol with or without mild-hybrid technology (DSG automatic-only for the latter) and a 113bhp 2.0-litre diesel. A more powerful diesel will be offered later in 2020. The estate bodystyle adds £1030 to the price but can't be had with the base 1.0 TSI engine. Seat is promising greater efficiency, a new technological standard and a greater emphasis on design than ever before for the latest Leon. The model is also its first to offer both mild-hybrid and plug-in hybrid options. It will be joined soon after by the new Cupra Leon performance model, itself available in both petrol and plug-in hybrid guises. The fourth-generation Leon continues a lineage that has accumulated more than two million global sales since its beginning in 1999. It’s the latest of the Volkswagen Group’s new MQB-based C-segment models to be revealed, after the Mk8 Volkswagen Golf and the Mk4 Skoda Octavia. Pitched as the sportiest and most "emotional" of the trio, the new Leon has what appears to be an evolutionary design at first. However, every body panel and exterior component is actually different from its predecessor. Seat’s head of exterior design, Joaquín García, told Autocar: “The new car is founded on a very strong base: the current Leon. Since then, we’ve had the Ateca, Ibiza and Tarraco, all evolving Seat’s design language further. Now the Leon arrives to culminate that. It has a certain DNA of its predecessors.” The front end brings forward the look seen on the Tarraco SUV, with revised proportions over the old Leon, including a curvier front profile and a more upright windscreen that sits closer to the driver. This was done, García claims, to create more of a “cockpit” feel and reduce the impact on forward visibility of the A-pillars. The side view features the same three styling lines as the old car, albeit positioned differently, kept because the design “doesn’t need more complexity”. The kink in the window line is also retained. It’s at the rear where the changes are most visible, though, thanks to a more expressive tailgate shape that’s joined by what Seat calls a ‘coast-to-coast’ full-width LED tail-light. Said to increase the Leon’s visual width, it also integrates the central brake light to replace the usual unit mounted high in the rear window. Further details on top-spec cars include scrolling indicators and an Audi-style animated lighting display when the car is unlocked. Size-wise, the new Leon is 17mm wider and just 3mm lower than the old car, but a significant 86mm has been added to its length, with 50mm of that in the wheelbase. Chassis development chief Marcus Keith claims this has all gone into rear leg room (a claim this 6ft 3in reporter can substantiate). Along with features such as three-zone climate control and a pair of USB-C ports in the rear, this is aimed at making the Leon’s rear quarters a lot more accommodating. The new Leon Estate is 93mm longer than its predecessor but has the same wheelbase extension. While boot capacity is unchanged in the hatchback (“Our customers were fine with that,” says Keith), the wagon has gained 30 litres, taking it up to a Ford Focus Estate-beating 617 litres. The interior innovations are most profound in the front, though. Much influence has been taken from the new Golf, most notably in the infotainment system. On SE Dynamic trim and above, the Leon features a 10.0in touchscreen, while the climate functions are integrated via a dedicated portion of the display and separate touch-sensitive ‘sliders’. This set-up is complemented by a 10.25in configurable digital instrument display (cheaper variants retain conventional analogue dials). As with the Golf and Octavia, the new infotainment system introduces features such as natural speech recognition, gesture control, real-time information via an embedded SIM card and an overhauled sat-nav system. The Leon is also ready for Car2X connectivity, which enables drivers to receive a warning of hazards ahead from other cars. Further useful technology that’s new to the Leon includes USB-free Apple CarPlay, wireless smartphone charging and the new Seat Connect app, which provides remote access to driving data, can lock and unlock the doors, sends an alert if the car has been stolen and can sound the horn. On plug-in hybrid models, it also allows you to manage the charging process and condition the interior before you set off. Like its MQB siblings, the Leon has a shift-by-wire gear selector for its automatic gearbox, freeing up space on the centre console. The most interesting new feature inside, though, is a lighting strip that spans the dashboard and both front doors. Complementing the LED ambient lighting, it also changes colour in accordance with features such as blindspot monitoring. As expected, the suite of active safety systems is enhanced to include predictive adaptive cruise control, traffic sign recognition and more advanced emergency lane-keeping assistance. Unsurprisingly, the Leon’s engine range mirrors those of the Golf and Octavia. Four turbocharged petrols (two with the option of 48V mild-hybrid technology) and two diesels will be offered, alongside a petrol-electric plug-in hybrid. The petrol range begins with a 1.0-litre three-cylinder unit that produces 109bhp. It comes with a six-speed manual gearbox or, in mild-hybrid form, a DSG dual-clutch automatic. A 1.5-litre four-cylinder motor is available in 129bhp and 148bhp forms, with the latter offered as a DSG-equipped mild hybrid. The 187bhp 2.0-litre comes with a seven-speed DSG only. Meanwhile, a 2.0-litre diesel four-pot is offered in two states of tune: 114bhp (manual only) and 148bhp (manual or DSG). But it’s the Leon eHybrid that’s the biggest story. This mates a 1.4-litre turbo petrol engine with an electric motor, a 13kWh battery pack and a six-speed DSG. Making 201bhp (no torque figures are quoted), it’s claimed to have a 38-mile electric-only range, with a full charge taking just over three hours from an AC charger. This powertrain will be available in both the hatchback and estate. Q&A, Marcus Keith, head of white vehicle development and chassis, Seat Which cars did you benchmark as the dynamic target for the new Leon? In regards to the chassis, we were benchmarking a sporty Ford [the Focus ST] and a sporty Hyundai [the i30 N] even for the standard Leon models. We don’t see them as competition, but also the Volkswagen Golf and Golf R and the Audi A3 and S3. Does this mean the Leon will feel firmer and sportier than the Golf? Absolutely: a sporty feeling is paramount. The behaviour of a Seat isn’t supposed to be comfortable, but still in among the sportiness we’ve made a very comfortable car. The FR model is 15mm lower and has adaptive dampers; if you want, you can take the needle from Comfort over to Sport. What challenges were brought by engineering the plug-in hybrid? Hybrid was a new area for us. We wanted the mild hybrids to offer behaviour you can feel as they regenerate and assist. In the plug-in hybrid, there was a big undertaking on tuning the behaviour of the car. Compared with the Golf GTE, we changed a couple of things in the DCC [Dynamic Chassis Control] to make it stiffer. Then we calibrated the powertrain differently at places like the Nürburgring. Why no 12V mild hybrid and why does the 48V system come with only a DSG ’box? The 12V system won’t make it into the Leon. There’s so much current that you need so many cables in the car, and it doesn’t bring enough benefit. To do a manual is more time-consuming, because you need to take into account the gearchanges of the customers. The product team said no, because we’re selling quite a lot of automatics now. Have you made efficiency improvements elsewhere? Yes: you feel it in all engine combinations. We’ve improved more than 60% of the variants compared with the old ones. We tried hard to get good CO2 emissions and good aerodynamics. The old car has [a drag coefficient of] 0.32 Cd; this one is 0.29 Cd. Can you tell us more about the Cupra variants? There will be both plug-in hybrid and straight petrol Cupra Leons. We have an outstanding sporty brand. We’re tuning them to be sportier. Just last week, I had the 306bhp engine in the estate and it was just not noisy enough; we talk about exhaust backfire, sportier shifting and more direct steering.