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Sony has published a patent (via SegmentNext) that uses artificial intelligence to monitor players as they play games with the intent of creating and controlling an AI character that mimics the user's inputs in those games. Basically, Sony has patented a bot that can play the way you play. The AI profile starts with a basic set of behaviours but adds to these in response to monitoring the player's actions, so as to make similar decisions to that player. The end goal is an AI profile that will play games in a similar way to that player. The player then has the option of letting the AI take over and play the game on their behalf. The patent also covers the possibility of a game being able to notify a player if they are struggling to complete a task that the AI can assist them with. There's even the inclusion of identifying such tasks as being completed by the player with assistance from the AI. While one take on this is a nightmarish future where we end up with games being played by AI versions of ourselves against other AI players, the alternative is a way for multiplayer games to continue even when you have to take a break to eat, take a toilet break, or do some work. It could also help gamers that have accessibility needs. There's a push from the industry as a whole to explore what AI and machine learning can bring to our lives, and it's no surprise that gaming will be part of this. Case and point: Nvidia's latest patent hints at a future use for AI in game haptics. We've had bots in games for years, usually to the annoyance of other players and game developers, but Sony's patent points to a much more beneficial system. Especially if it's clear you're playing against a human or AI.

Microsoft is previewing a new Windows developer feature called EcoQoS for reducing power consumption, as well as adding Eco Mode to Task Manager. As such, Microsoft has requested developers use an API, where appropriate, that asks Windows to trade performance for efficiency. According to program manager Raymond Li, the new Quality of Service (QoS) level means "higher clock speeds provide higher performance but with exponentially higher power consumption." Essentially, an application can achieve the same work more efficiently by running slower. The API requires knowledge of the hardware and initial tuning will support Intel 10th and 11th generation mobile processors, AMD Ryzen 5000 mobile processors, and Qualcomm processors. Li said that support for desktop PCs will come later. Developers can opt into EcoQos per process (such as for a complete application) or per thread, using the API calls SetProcessInformation and SetThreadInformation. These API calls are not new, and although Li did not spell this out in the post, it looks as if EcoQoS is more about improving the implementation of ProcessPowerThrottling. Suggested use cases include background services, sync engines, indexers and update services. Li has also posted about Task Manager Eco Mode, which will be a right-click option in the Processes view, in the Windows utility for managing running applications and background processes. Task Manager already has an option for Set Priority, which determines how CPU time is allocated, but this does not change the speed at which the CPU runs. Another relevant existing setting is Power Throttling, which determines whether the process invokes CPU power management features (such as Intel's SpeedStep and SpeedShift) to reduce power consumption. Power Throttling is generally disabled when a PC is plugged into mains. In the past, the main focus of attention for reducing PC power consumption has been prolonging battery life, but in the context of climate change, power consumption irrespective of the power source is key. Over on the Windows Insider blog, Microsoft's principal program manager Amanda Langowski and senior program manager Brandon LeBlanc said that Eco Mode will be handy to tame applications that are grabbing too many resources. This does seem to confuse the idea of power saving with that of priority though. Possibly it can do double-duty. According to Li, EcoQoS provides "up to a 90 per cent reduction in CPU power consumption" and consumes "less than half the CPU energy to complete the same work." Other benefits are reduced heat and fan noise, and better performance from concurrent workloads. EcoQos and Task Manager Eco Mode are enabled in Insider build 21364 of Windows 10, though Langowski and Leblanc said that "this feature is rolling out to a subset of Insiders in the Dev Channel at first" and we were not one of the lucky ones to find Eco Mode in our install. The feature does, however, raise some questions. Microsoft is hyping EcoQos as part of green initiatives including one called Sustainable Software and another called Carbon Negative by 2030. To achieve such goals though, Eco Mode will have to apply to more than just background processes like indexers and updaters. Microsoft's Green Cloud Advocacy lead Asim Hussain has kicked off a personal project called Green Software Engineering that lays out a set of principles for building energy-efficient applications, while software engineer Sara Bergman has posted about measuring the power consumption of mobile applications. Such initiatives seem worthy: but how many product teams at Microsoft will be willing to sacrifice cool features for the sake of power-efficiency, or mark applications for EcoQos at the expense of user experience? The company will also need to make progress on ARM64 computing to achieve a more power-efficient Windows. ®

As light shines steadily on a silver slip of a fish, minuscule dots on the fish start flashing: blue, yellow, blue, yellow. The bodies “do not glow like luminous fish,” Masakazu Iwasaka, an interdisciplinary engineer at Hiroshima University in Japan has discovered. Instead of making their own light, it turns out that remarkable little photonic crystals in fish spots reflect certain wavelengths of light, alternating between blues and more greenish-yellows, he reports April 7 in Royal Society Open Science. Lots of biological materials have evolved tricks mani[CENSORED]ting light. The iconic morpho blue butterfly doesn’t have a flake of blue pigment. It creates its dream-perfect sky blue with stacks of microscopic light-mani[CENSORED]ting plates. So do blue-leaved begonias (SN: 11/28/16). Those fish reflectors are doing something similar in wide-banded hardyhead silversides (Atherinomorus lacunosus). “I found the flashing of a small spot by chance” while screening the dots no bigger than 7 to 10 micrometers across on fish backs, he says. Inside the reflective flash spots lie little platelets of the compound guanine that have grown in such a way that they can reflect colorful light depending on the angle. Guanine may sound familiar. It’s one of the four major coding units that pair up in storing DNA’s genetic information. What gives the fish guanine platelets particular abilities though remains a puzzle. Iwasaka suspects that inside a spot, platelets move in ways that change their apparent color and dazzle power. The blue-yellow light pulses only in living silversides. Dead fish just reflect white-white. Iwasaka hopes to create human-made counterparts to the fish reflectors. He proposes mimicking fishy structures for sensors far, far smaller than the period on a magazine page. Versions of little sparkling fish lights could fit into the world of micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) to monitor conditions inside living tissues, responding to light or flashing themselves. In earlier work, he’s shown how guanine platelets can be mani[CENSORED]ted in magnetic fields, suggesting that such sensors could be targeted and herded. What the fish uses its lightshow for remains a mystery. Flashing spots aren’t unique to wide-banded hardyhead silversides, Iwasaka points out. At least two other papers reported flashing (blue to red) in other tropical fishes, probably for communication. Maybe silverside flashing communicates something too, Iwasaka says. Or there could be safety benefits. Fish ecologist David Conover of the University of Oregon in Eugene has worked with a silvery Menidia species in the same fish family as the species Iwasaka studies. “For fish that live in bright light and near the surface, as do silversides, the reflectivity probably serves as a type of camouflage or distraction from predators lurking or striking from below,” Conover says. Whatever drives the evolution of iridophores, those reflective spots where Iwasaka found inspiration, they’re common in the fish world. There could be plenty more places to look for flashes. © Society for Science & the Public 2000–2021. All rights reserved.

Half of all Ferraris registered last year left the dealership with a personalised number plate, according to new data. Statistics obtained from the Driver and Vehicle Licencing Agency via a Freedom of Information request showed 50.72 percent of Ferraris registered in the UK in 2020 left the showroom with a personalised plate. The brand with the next highest proportion of unique numberplates is Morgan (40.91 percent), followed by Lamborghini (37.21 percent). The data was compiled by YesAuto and, unsurprisingly, premium and supercar manufacturers make up the top spots. McLaren (34.7 percent) and Aston Martin (32.5 percent) complete the top five positions. In order to make a fair comparison between low-volume manufacturers and mainstream car makers, Yes Auto ranked its list by the percentage of registrations from last year, rather than the total number of vehicles registered from each brand. At the other end of the spectrum, just 0.02 percent – or five cars, in other words – of Teslas registered last year were sold with personalised plates. According to Yes Auto, “the drop may simply be a policy change at [Elon] Musk’s EV company, where they no longer help customers put a private plate on their new car.” French manufacturers fared particularly badly – aside from Vauxhall, Dacia and Tesla, the bottom-end of the list consisted of DS, Renault, Peugeot and Citroen.

One of the West Midland’s leading Asian bridal businesses faces being turfed out of its premises – by the Catholic church. The man and wife who run AsianA Bridal, closed for a year because of Covid, say they have two weeks to find the £5,335 owed in rent arrears. If not, their lease on the Perry Barr office – formerly part of St Teresa of the Child Jesus Church and still owned by the Catholic archdiocese – will be scrapped. Agents working for the parish have also warned legal action will be taken to recover the money and legal cost incurred. That, say bosses Rashpal and Sukhi Sanghera, would end the business they launched at the premises in 2009. AsianA Bridal is well known in the Asian community for providing beauty care courses and make-overs for wedding guest. After being mothballed for a year through Covid, it re-opened on Monday. Rashpal, aged 59, said: “We just thought the church would be more understanding. We opened on Monday, but we have to create business, we have to get people through the door. “We have to get people to sign up to our beauty care courses, we have to advertise. I just thought there would be more understanding.” “This has taken its toll on my wife’s health. I’ve booked an appointment to see her GP.” He alleges they have offered £2,000. In fairness to the church, it provided a rent reduction last year and the business owners have received a £14,000 bail-out from the government. Rashpal says that has not been touched because he and his wife do not want to slip further in debt. They intend to give it back, he insists. Through its agents, the church stated the couple have failed to provide accounts to prove the current financial situation. Rashpal said: “We have been here for 13 years and always been a good tenant, we have, until lockdown, always paid on time. Thirteen years and we’ve had no trouble. We’ve even cleaned up the area. There used to be litter, bottles, needles outside – we’ve cleaned all that up. “We’ve built this business from scratch and don’t want to lose it. We’re not refusing to pay the rent, we’re just asking for a bit of understanding about the situation we’re in. We are about to lose our livelihood.” He added: “They want me to show them my accounts. Why should I?” A letter from the agents carries a deadline of April 28 before legal action commences. It states: “While they (the parish) appreciate the pandemic has restricted trading, they are concerned that you have made no effort to clear any of the arrears for almost six months and that you now appear to be withholding any kind of rent payment until the parish offer another rent concession. “They feel they have been more than generous by arranging a rent reduction last year despite not receiving any financial assistance themselves. They also feel that they are unable to consider a further rent concession because you are unwilling to share accounts information which would show the financial position of your company. © 2021 a Reach plc subsidiary

Moscow [Russia], April 19 (ANI): The Russian Foreign Ministry has decided to expel 20 Czech diplomats in response to the expulsion of Russian diplomats from Prague and gave the Czech diplomatic staff time until Monday to leave Russia. "A strong protest was declared to the ambassador in connection with the unfriendly act of the Czech authorities against the personnel of the Russian diplomatic mission in Prague. Pivonka was informed that 20 employees of the Czech embassy in Moscow were declared persona non grata," a foreign ministry statement read. Czech Ambassador to Moscow Vitzeslav Pivonka was on Sunday summoned to the Russian Foreign Ministry amid a diplomatic tussle between the two countries. The Czech diplomatic employees are required to leave Russia before the end of Monday, the ministry said. "The Czech side was also required to bring the number of employees of the diplomatic mission in Moscow in the category of those hired locally to parity with the number of employees of a similar category in the Russian embassy in the Czech Republic. The ambassador received the relevant note," the statement said. On Saturday, Czech Interior Minister Jan Hamacek had said that 18 Russian diplomats would be expelled from the country on suspicion of being officers of Russia's special services. (ANI) copyrights © aninews.in | All rights Reserved

Name of the game: Mortal Kombat 11 Price: 14.99# Link Store: Steam Offer ends up after X hours: 17h Requirements: SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS MINIMUM: OS: 64-bit Windows 7 / Windows 10 Processor: Intel Core i5-750, 2.66 GHz / AMD Phenom II X4 965, 3.4 GHz or AMD Ryzen™ 3 1200, 3.1 GHz Memory: 8 GB RAM Graphics: NVIDIA® GeForce™ GTX 670 or NVIDIA® GeForce™ GTX 1050 / AMD® Radeon™ HD 7950 or AMD® Radeon™ R9 270 DirectX: Version 11 Network: Broadband Internet connection RECOMMENDED: OS: 64-bit Windows 7 / Windows 10 Processor: Intel Core i5-2300, 2.8 GHz / AMD FX-6300, 3.5GHz or AMD Ryzen™ 5 1400, 3.2 GHz Memory: 8 GB RAM Graphics: NVIDIA® GeForce™ GTX 780 or NVIDIA® GeForce™ GTX 1060-6GB / AMD® Radeon™ R9 290 or RX 570 DirectX: Version 11 Network: Broadband Internet connection

Game Information: Initial release date: 29 May, 2015. Software Developer: MichaelArts. Publisher: MichaelArts. Platform: PlayStation 4, Windows Microsoft. The chances are that at some point in your life, you'll take some sort of psychometric assessment – such as a Myers-Briggs test – where, based on your answers, you'll be given a full rundown on your personality preferences. Are you an introvert or an extrovert, a thinker or a feeler? Whatever the answer, you'll find some degree of truth in the mirror that these attempt to hold up to you. Pillar, a new puzzle game on the PlayStation 4, is heavily inspired by such evaluations, and hopes to resonate with players on a unique level by basing its minigames on specific personality types. In this puzzler you're tasked with guiding a number of characters through their own set of obstacles in order to reach the titular 'pillar' that supposedly holds the secret of understanding. When the game starts, you're asked to select the sort of person that you are from a list of personality types, and this puts you in control of the first character. Initially you'll think that by selecting a personality trait that best reflects you, this means that the game is going to tailor the experience to you own mental outlook. However, after you've completed the first puzzles, you'll soon realise that the list of traits is merely a disguised character select screen, and you'll eventually play through each of those listed, solving each character's conundrums as you work your way through the campaign. Presented with a hand painted art style, the look of the game is wonderfully unique, and while you could argue that it's little on the basic side, it does a good job of evoking the snow covered and lonely town that acts as the backdrop for its cast of characters. The music also adds to the feeling of wintery isolation, with the entire score nicely understated, keeping to the background just enough that you register its presence, while not distracting you from the puzzles at hand. In total, there are six characters for you to guide – Distant, Focussed, Giving, Capable, Enduring, and Renewing – with each having differing challenges to overcome. Distant and Focussed are the most similar, with both needing to avoid contact with other residents of the town as they work their way towards the pillar. With contrasting motivations as to why they shy away from contact, both have the means to distract the town's residents, enabling them to clear the path ahead. Focussed can shout at people and call them towards her, while Distant needs to place distractions on the ground – along with corresponding pressure pads – that when triggered will lure residents towards their sound. While they start their journey separately, in order to reach the pillar, they'll need to team up for a final set of puzzles that has you switching between each of the characters on the fly. This teaming up of complementary personalities occurs throughout Pillar, with other sections seeing Giving and Capable lighting street lamps by triggering pressure pads, while Enduring has to evade Renewing to collect globes in a sequence of challenges that clearly took inspiration from maze games like Pac-Man. While none of these mini-games turn out to be particularly challenging – proving to be far too easy in many cases – the release at least manages to pack in a nice mix of them. There's also a welcome difference in pace between the various puzzle types, with some requiring a very deliberate sequence of pre-planned steps to solve, while in others you'll need to think on your feet, adjusting your plan as you go. The puzzles are still, generally disappointing, though, and the characters' stories aren't particularly engaging either. With very little information about their motivations expressed, any insight instead has to be gleaned from the information seeded in the game's mechanics, world, and collectible notes. It's possible that if you share a particular trait with a character, their trials may resonate with you on a personal level, but it all feels a bit too abstract at times for that to happen. SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS OS: Windows XP SP3. Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo 2.8Ghz or equivalent. Memory: 2 GB RAM. Graphics: 2GB of video RAM, support for 4096 x 4096 textures, Shader Model 3.0. DirectX: Version 9.0c. Storage: 705 MB available space. Sound Card: Required.

Even the basic DDR5 specification is faster than all but the best DDR4 kits, at around 4,800MHz, but that may not be anywhere close to its full potential. Netac, a Chinese memory manufacturer, is aiming much, much higher with its experimental 'ultra high frequency' kits. How does a DDR5-10000 kit sound to you? Netac is aiming for a 10,000MHz (effective) memory kit with DDR5 memory (via ITHome, El Chapuzas Informatico), although it's got a long way to go yet. The company says it just received its first batch of DDR5 DRAM from Micron, a batch of MT60B2G8HB-48B ES:A RAM. That part number appears to correspond to DRAM DDR5 16Gb kits. Micron's DDR5 DRAM is officially rated between 3200–6400MT/s, between 1.1 and 1.8V, and is available with up to 64Gb per chip. That's potentially a whole lot of memory per DIMM. Samsung has managed to stuff 512GB of DDR5 DRAM onto a single stick of RAM. That's SSD-sized system memory—makes even 32GB of DDR4 look paltry by comparison. Netac will need to push Micron's quite a distance to tip it over 10,000 MT/s (10,000MHz effective), which will likely necessitate some very loose timings and high voltages to achieve. It's certainly not impossible, however. DDR4 is able to reach speeds more than double its 'stock' speed nowadays. Memory kit manufacturers will all be looking to push DDR5 memory to the limit with every new memory kit, and I suspect the race will be on to hit a DDR5-10000 kit just for the acclaim. Memory manufacturers—namely Micron, Samsung, and SK Hynix—will also want to be the chip of choice for high-performance RAM kits, such as Samsung's infamous B-die DDR4, and will undoubtedly offer more performant chips as time goes on. For gaming workloads, you'll want tighter timings and a solid relationship between memory speed and memory controller, which is found on your CPU. None of today's chips from AMD or Intel will be suitable, either. AMD's first DDR5 compatible chip will arrive with the Zen 4 architecture, expected to arrive in 2022, and Intel has confirmed both DDR5 and DDR4 memory support will come onboard its Intel Alder Lake processors later this year.

From the department of "I'm not dead yet" comes news of a Slackware 15 beta release, nearly five years after the distribution last saw a major update. Created by Patrick Volkerding (who still lays claim to the title Benevolent Dictator For Life), the current release version arrived in the form of 2016's 14.2. While there have been some rumblings over the years, the lengthy absence of a full new version hinted that all might not be well with one of the oldest Linux distributions and its band of contributors. Indeed, Slackware is getting close to entering its fourth decade: it was created in 1993 and was the first Linux product distributed by community veterans SUSE. But a five-year gap is a long time in the open-source world, and users would have been forgiven for taking the extended gestation period between releases as a sign that maybe it was time to look elsewhere. Not so. With little fanfare, the beta of version 15 turned up this week (following the debut of February's alpha.) The Linux kernel has been updated to 5.10.30 (at time of writing) with 5.11.14 available for testing. Desktop fans may be pleased to see, among the many updates, KDE Plasma hitting 5.21.4 as well as updates for old faithfuls, such as Mozilla Firefox and Thunderbird. The beta itself dropped on 12 April (with the 5.10.29 kernel) and Volkerding noted: "I'm going to go ahead and call this a beta even though there's still no fix for the illegal instruction issue with 32-bit mariadb. But there should be soon." Tinkering has continued since, judging by the change log, although the beta tag brings hope there will be a release before long. We celebrated 25 years of Slackware in 2018 and managed to get it installed despite (or because of) its "UNIX-like" design ethos. While other shiny baubles may have distracted us since, that ethos has remained in Slackware and, after a bit of fight (there are no official friendly ISO images for the beta, although an unofficial one can be found if one looks hard enough), taking the old thing out for a spin was a delight. Enough to switch from a favoured distribution? Probably not. But more than enough to sate the faithful. ®

Richard Parry-Jones, the engineer responsible more than any other for the driving excellence of 21st-century Fords, has died aged 69. The news has sent shockwaves round an industry where his influence had spread hugely. And where he wasn’t only admired but held in deep affection by everyone who knew him. He was killed in an accident on the farm in Wales where he’d retired. Parry-Jones was a brilliant dynamics engineer, a superb communicator, a motorsports fan and an early advocate for the need for the car industry to reduce CO2. His working life is a demonstration of how one individual really can have an influence over this whole colossal industry. The man known to all as RP-J was a Ford lifer, having joined as an apprentice. His first big hit was as chief engineer of the Mondeo, launched in 1992. This was a huge programme: Ford spent about £5bn (in 1995 money) on the Mondeo and its American equivalents the Ford Contour and Mercury Mystique. Previous to that car, Ford’s engineering effort – and it was very well executed - was all about saving money. If in consequence the car’s ride was lumpy and the engine rough and the steering slack, well that was tough luck: they were profitable cars to manufacture and sell. With the Mondeo, Parry-Jones shifted Ford’s course. He reckoned there would be more money to be made by building better cars that would sell in higher numbers at higher prices. He sweated every detail of the engineering in search of improvements in dynamics and refinement. You’d be driving with him and he’d say things like, ‘see, we’ve changed the compliance in the steering rack bushes. The customer can feel it you know’. He was passionate, and a brilliant communicator. It’s a rather awful irony that within weeks of Ford’s announcement that the Mondeo will be no more, we also lose the man that made it. After that Mondeo, he led on the Fiesta, a vast improvement on what went before, and the lovely Puma coupe. Then the 1998 Focus, a radically designed and brilliant-driving hatch, night and day better than the Escort. All spawned wonderful hot versions too. At that point he was promoted to Detroit to head all Ford’s engineering and design worldwide. He admitted to being pretty shocked at some of the US metal he had to deal with. Even the dominant F-150 pickup. He was also in charge of engineering for all the vehicles under the FoMoCo umbrella, including, at the time, Jaguar Land Rover, Volvo, Mazda, Lincoln and Aston Martin. He returned to the board of Aston recently.

It’s been a year of learning to appreciate what we have. Whether it’s our morning coffee and favourite magazine that make us happy; designer clothes and exotic holidays; or spending time with our friends and family, we have a lot to be happy about. But, if we want more, will getting it make us happy? Or is striving for happiness in itself making us miserable? According to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), from April 2019 to March 2020, life satisfaction and happiness in the UK deteriorated. Since, the pandemic has had a negative effect on the country. But what made us unhappy before? Social media? It’s common knowledge that comparing ourselves with strangers (with six-pack abs, dream jobs, mansions, and luxury yachts) is bad for our health. Or adverts, claiming that new clothes, cars, and fragrances will make us happy – suggesting that without them we won’t be? Or getting married and having kids? For generations that seemed to be the answer. But divorce rates are up and people appear to be waiting before starting a family. A year of lockdowns seems to have given many the chance to rethink their lives, and determine what will make them happy – encouraged by life coaches such as The Angry Therapist, John Kim, who encourages us to find ‘our truth’ and illustrator Lainey Molnar who advocates women being happy and fulfilled whether as a wife, mother, career woman, or otherwise. But – all the time that we’re being told how to be happy – if we’re constantly striving to be happy, and chasing after what we think will make us happy, will this endless pursuit eventually make us miserable? Counselling Directory member Dee Johnson believes chasing down perma-happiness isn’t good for us. ‘Being happy all the time is not a natural way to be,’ Dee tells Metro.co.uk. © 2021 Associated Newspapers Limited

Safety regulators warned people with kids and pets Saturday to immediately stop using a treadmill made by Peloton after one child died and nearly 40 others were injured. The US Consumer Product Safety Commission said it received reports of children and a pet being pulled, pinned and entrapped under the rear roller of the Tread+ treadmill, leading to fractures, scrapes and the death of one child. The commission posted a video on its YouTube page of a child being pulled under the treadmill. (Warning: this video may be disturbing to some.) New York-based Peloton Interactive Inc said in a news release that the warning was “inaccurate and misleading”. It said there’s no reason to stop using the treadmill as long as children and pets are kept away from it at all times, it is turned off when not in use, and a safety key is removed. But the safety commission said that in at least one episode, a child was pulled under the treadmill while a parent was running on it, suggesting it can be dangerous to children even while a parent is present. If adults want to keep using the treadmill, the commission said, they should use it only in a locked room so children and pets can’t come near it. When not in use, the treadmill should be unplugged and the safety key taken out and hidden away. The commission also said to keep exercise balls and other objects away from it, because those have been pulled under the treadmill, too. Peloton is best known for its stationary bikes, but it introduced the treadmill about three years ago and now calls it the Tread+. It costs more than $4,000. Sales of Peloton equipment have soared during the pandemic as virus-weary people avoid gyms and workout at home instead. The company brought in $1bn in revenue in the last three months of 2020, more than double its revenue from the same period a year before. The commission did not say how many of the Peloton treadmills have been sold. © 2021 Guardian News & Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. (modern)

Name of the game: Battlefield 1. Price: 11.99$ Link Store: Steam Offer ends up after X hours: 26 April Requirements: SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS MINIMUM: Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system OS: 64-bit Windows 7, Windows 8.1 and Windows 10 Processor: Processor (AMD): AMD FX-6350 Processor (Intel): Intel Core i5 6600K Memory: 8 GB RAM Graphics: Graphics card (AMD): AMD Radeon™ HD 7850 2GB Graphics card (NVIDIA): NVIDIA GeForce® GTX 660 2GB DirectX: Version 11 Network: Broadband Internet connection Storage: 50 GB available space RECOMMENDED: Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system OS: 64-bit Windows 10 or later Processor: Processor (AMD): AMD FX 8350 Wraith Processor (Intel): Intel Core i7 4790 or equivalent Memory: 16 GB RAM Graphics: Graphics card (AMD): AMD Radeon™ RX 480 4GB Graphics card (NVIDIA): NVIDIA GeForce® GTX 1060 3GB DirectX: Version 11 Network: Broadband Internet connection Storage: 50 GB available space

Following rumours of a reinvigorated attempt at limiting Ethereum mining on the RTX 3060 12GB by Nvidia, further speculation points to yet more Ampere GPU variants coming in to spoil the fun of cryptocurrency miners everywhere. If you've been keeping up with the whole ordeal, you'll be aware that Nvidia has been trying every way possible to lure cryptominers away from gaming GPUs. Not only has the company been readying mining-focused CMP cards to divert demand away from our precious gaming cards, mining limiters—first found in the RTX 3060—are another potential solution Nvidia has been exploring. The first of these limiters were circumvented in a very short period of time, thanks to Nvidia's 470.05 dev drivers accidentally allowing cryptominers to bypass them. Rumours suggest that, in order to combat this, a possible resurrection of the restrictive tech through new GA106-302 GPUs could be hitting RTX 3060s. This would replace the GA106-300-A1 GPU in newer models. Now, though, there's talk of limiters beginning to seep into the design of more powerful Ampere GPU models, as known Twitter leaker kopite7kimi hints that there may be more of these updated variants coming to the rest of the 30-series GPU lineup. The tweet indicates a potential updates to the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3090 and RTX 3080, with its mention of GA102-302/202, as well as the RTX 3070 and RTX 3060 Ti alike, with potential GA104-302/202 variants to boot. That would be a full house, and if there's any weight to the claims we could be seeing cryptocurrency miners sulking off with their tails between their legs—potentially leaving more GPUs for us gamers to play with in the process.

Game Information: Initial release date: 10 Oct, 2017. Software Developer: Monolith Productions. Publisher: Web Games. Platform: PlayStation 4, Windows Microsoft. Middle-earth: Shadow of War takes the best parts of its predecessor and gives them room to breathe. It's a sequel that opts to expand rather than alter, but that's fine when Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor debuted with such strong core mechanics. Those of you who played the first game will find yourselves in the familiar boots of Talion – an undead ranger who was murdered alongside his family by the forces of that pesky Dark Lord Sauron. Sharing his body with the wraith of an incredibly powerful elven warrior, Talion's out to put a stop to Sauron once and for all. The nations of mankind hang in the balance as our hero hops around Mordor killing high ranking orc generals and building his own ugly army. Shadow of War tells a better story than its predecessor. It features a large amount of well directed and well acted cutscenes, and a wider cast of secondary characters help give the plot a better sense of purpose. While it's nothing amazing, the narrative is good enough to get you somewhat invested, and there are a few standout moments where the story successfully heightens the stakes. For an action game it's enjoyable stuff, but devout The Lord of the Rings fans may take issue with some of the creative liberties that developer Monolith takes with information and lore gleaned from the source material. We don't think that there's anything especially blasphemous here, and it's clear the that studio has a passion for Tolkien's work, but there are moments where, if you've studied the books and immersed yourself in Middle-earth before, you'll likely raise an eyebrow or two. Unfortunately for Shadow of War and its story, proceedings are held back by some uninspired mission design. Main quests are generally quite boring in terms of structure, tasking you with completing mundane objectives before you can lay your peepers on another cutscene. The plot's pretty lengthy, but a lot of that length stems from story missions that can feel like filler. It's not that these missions are awful, but their flaws are highlighted by the fact that Shadow of War is so much fun elsewhere. Outside of core quests, the game offers up a selection of open environments for you to play around in, and this is where the release really comes into its own. Everything is once again built upon the Nemesis System – an intricate and thoroughly impressive creation that the developer revealed in Shadow of Mordor. The system's put to even better use this time around as Talion forges dynamic relationships with randomly generated orc captains. At its heart the Nemesis System remains the same, but so much variety and spice has been added that it's really evolved into something special. The open environments that we mentioned earlier are po[CENSORED]ted with armies of orcs. The vast majority are generic footsoldiers who patrol the land and have a terrible habit of sitting way too close to explosive barrels, but these grunts are headed by captains – named orcs who have individual abilities and skills. As Talion, you'll constantly be working to hunt down captains and decide their fate. It's this decision making that influences the Nemesis System as a whole. Once you find your target captain, it's time to choose: does he die, join your cause, or flee in shame? Whatever path you take, there are usually consequences. Captains that you kill can come back later to take revenge, this time with a huge scar down their face and perhaps a missing arm. Orcs that you've branded, forcing them to side with you, may try to stab you in the back further down the line. The way that the Nemesis System takes all of these potential interactions and turns them into their own unique substories is fantastic. Forging personal narratives with the many monsters of Mordor is what keeps the game ticking, and the system provides a massive amount of replay value to boot. However, it's this free-form storytelling that casts a shadow on the aforementioned main quests. You end up getting so invested in your unique roster of orcs that the main plot can start to feel like it's getting in the way – like it's been nailed onto something much more interesting. And again, that's not to say the story is bad, rather it shows just how brilliantly engaging the Nemesis System is. Fortunately, you can play around with the system as much as you want, particularly once you've mopped up the main story. After the credits roll, you see what the Nemesis System is truly capable of in the Shadow Wars endgame. Here, you're free to continue conquering Mordor however you see fit, and without any distractions, the tangled web of relationships seems to stretch on endlessly. All of this is of course tied to a fast and fluid combat system, which really hasn't changed much from the first game. Talion flips and slashes across the battlefield in style, and the animations still look great. As with any contextual combat that sees you react to your opponents by hitting the right button at the right time, things can get slightly awkward as you glitch out every now and then, but overall, the system's still a lot of good, bloody fun. It's also bolstered by a welcome loot system, even if there's not that much depth to it. Shadow of War is a huge game that you can get lost in for hours on end, but if you find yourself wanting to wreak some extra havoc, you can always check out the title's online features. Connect to the Internet and you can test your skills against captains from the games of other players, or you can assault fortresses prepared by fellow users with the armies that you've cultivated. These missions are entirely optional, but if you're hungry for further action, they're nice to have around. Successful online escapades reward you with loot boxes, and this is where we have to talk about microtransactions in Shadow of War. Right off the bat, we'll say that the loot boxes feel out of place, and not just because this is a single player game. Going to a separate menu screen just to open them up makes it seem like they've been haphazardly bolted to the experience. Can you complete the game without ever opening a loot box? Absolutely, but that doesn't change the fact that they've been jammed into a title that definitely doesn't need them. Whether you use them or not, seeing that little marketplace tab on the main menu cheapens what is otherwise a great game. On that note, it's worth pointing out that much of what's impressive about Shadow of War hides beneath its surface. Now, it's certainly not the best looking game in the world. Lighting can appear far too flat at times and locations can come across as monotonous, but the engine is capable of some spectacular feats, namely when you're charging into battle with dozens of orcs by your side and watching as they clash with the opposing army. It's almost Dynasty Warriors-level stuff but much more intricate, and the framerate stays rock solid throughout. SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS MINIMUM: Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system OS: Windows 7 SP1 with Platform Update Processor: AMD FX-4350, 4.2 GHz / Intel Core i5-2300, 2.80 GHz Memory: 6 GB RAM Graphics: AMD HD 7870, 2 GB / NVIDIA GTX 660, 2 GB DirectX: Version 11 Network: Broadband Internet connection Storage: 70 GB available space Additional Notes: X64 required RECOMMENDED: Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system OS: Windows 10 Creators Update Processor: AMD FX-8350, 4.0 GHz / Intel Core i7-3770, 3.4 GHz Memory: 12 GB RAM Graphics: AMD RX 480, 4 GB or RX580, 4GB / NVIDIA GTX 970, 4GB or GTX1060, 6GB DirectX: Version 11 Network: Broadband Internet connection Storage: 70 GB available space Additional Notes: X64 required

Zorin OS 16 Linux has moved into beta, promising improved performance and a more extensive application Store covering Flathub and Snap as well as old-style repositories. Zorin is a Linux distribution aimed at switchers from Windows or Mac, and endeavours to offer a polished user experience and a minimum of fuss. It is offered in both free and commercial versions, with the paid-for Ultimate Edition priced at £39 ($53), and free Core, Lite and Education editions. The Lite edition uses the XFCE minimalist desktop, while the others have a custom GNOME-based desktop GUI. The extras in the Ultimate edition are additional desktop layouts, one imitating macOS, additional bundled applications and games, and installation support. A note on “why does it cost” puts the emphasis on supporting the project rather than the value to the user. Version 16 is expected this summer, and in the meantime the public beta has just been released. This is not a cutting-edge Linux; it is based on Ubuntu 20.04, “Focal Fossa”, a long-term support release. The desktop is based on Gnome Shell 3.38. Zorin’s press release highlights performance improvements, as well as the addition of the Flathub repository alongside the Canonical Snap store and additional Ubuntu and Zorin repositories. Windows apps can be installed “optionally using WINE,” the release said, and added the claim that “Zorin OS 16 has the largest library of apps available out of the box of any open source desktop ever.” The Store has been a focus of attention and merges all these sources into one application. If an application is available from more than one source, the user can select from a Source dropdown. This dropdown may also offer different versions of the app. The Core edition has a somewhat Windows-like appearance including a taskbar which shows application previews as you move the mouse over its icons. A Zorin Appearance utility lets users select a different desktop layout as well as changing themes. A Windows 10X-like layout (yes, the new Windows 10 that Microsoft has yet to release) is “coming soon” to Zorin Ultimate, the organisation said. There is also a Jelly mode which makes windows wobble when moved or resized; fortunately this is off by default. We ran up the new beta on a virtual machine and liked the clean appearance and Windows-like application launch panel. As is common on desktop Linux, LibreOffice is pre-installed, for immediate productivity with an office suite. Evolution is there for email, and other out-of-the-box applications include Mapbox, based on OpenStreetMap, Rhythmbox for music, and Firefox for web browsing. Zorin OS 16 picked up an HP printer on the network without any configuration, and the initial experience is smooth. We were keen to try the promised Windows application compatibility and tried downloading several examples including the editor Notepad++. Firefox offered to open it immediately with “Install Windows Application.” Zorin OS downloaded a bunch of stuff and warned about an “unknown Windows app.” We chose to run it anyway and then ... nothing happened. After manually installing Wine we got a bit further but although the installer ran, the application immediately crashed. As it turns out Notepad++ can run on Wine when carefully configured and has been pre-packaged with an embedded version of Wine as a Snap. This ran fine on Zorin OS, but based on our experience the notion of easily running Windows applications is far from reality - though note this is a beta. Early users of Zorin 16 in this forum thread express delight with the improved performance and report that the Software Store is also much improved, though as you would expect there are also gripes about details of the revamped user interface. Overall though, it look like the forthcoming release will be welcomed.

Mazda has added a new special edition member to its line-up with this Mazda 6 Kuro model, which is available as either a saloon or an estate bodied Touring model. The new trim will be limited to just 50 examples of each in the UK. This special-edition version of the brand’s family saloon and estate gets a new polymetal grey metallic paint finish and black exterior detailing, including door mirrors and 19-inch alloy wheels finished in black. Inside, the Kuro versions of the Mazda 6 are upholstered in burgundy leather. Power is provided by a 2.0-litre Skyactiv-G petrol engine developing 163bhp, and it’s the only engine available in the Mazda 6 Kuro - the 143bhp version of this unit and the more powerful 191bhp 2.5-litre motor available elsewhere in the 6 line-up are not offered here. The Kuro sits equivalent to Sport specification in the Mazda 6 line-up, and it features the same level of standard equipment. Buyers benefit from a heated steering wheel, keyless entry, an 11-speaker sound system from Bose, a reversing camera and signature LED running lights. As part of the updated Mazda 6 range for 2021, wireless Apple CarPlay is now available, as is the Kuro’s new polymetal grey metallic paint. Prices for the Mazda 6 Kuro start from £29,250 for the saloon and £30,250 for the estate, with cars arriving in UK Mazda dealerships this month. Copyright © Autovia Ltd 2021 (Autovia Ltd is part of Dennis Group). All rights reserved.

A volunteer firefighter who sought to “satisfy his ego” by using petrol to start a blaze that devoured 144 hectares of forest and scrubland in northern Spain has been given a three-and-a-half-year prison sentence and ordered to pay more than €158,000 (£137,000) in damages. Luis Trueba, the former head of the Civil Protection volunteer service in Ramales de la Victoria, Cantabria, had denied deliberately setting the fire in February 2019 so that he could help put it out, insisting instead that he had rushed to the scene “out of instinct”. But prosecutors argued he had torched the land to “satisfy his ego” and “play a leading role” in extinguishing the fire on its “frontline”. Cantabria’s provincial court was told that Trueba’s behaviour immediately before the fire was suspicious – as was the fact that he returned to base afterwards “and took a petrol can out of the driver’s side [of his vehicle], which he tried to hide”. Hours before the fire began, Trueba and a colleague were on a patrol after a fire-risk alert was declared in the area. His co-worker said Trueba had looked at the land and said: “It’s really dry; it just needs someone to take a match to it and see whether they crack out the hydrants.” A fellow volunteer also told the court the accused liked fires and was like “a junkie after his fix” when it came to finding them. An investigation was launched after the fire burned through 144.3 hectares (356 acres) of eucalyptus, gorse, bramble, scrubland and pasture in the Sierra de Alcomba on 17 and 18 February 2019. Although Trueba claimed to have been delivering chairs to a cousin who lived elsewhere, the GPS in his regional government vehicle put him at the scene in the early hours of 17 February. “Using petrol as an accelerant in the ditch on the left-hand side of the road from Ramales to La Alcomba, he set fire to the land in at least seven different initial points, with a distance of 65 metres between each so that the fire could spread easily,” the court said in its judgment. It dismissed his alibi as “an “incredible excuse”, adding: “In the court’s opinion, there is ample proof of the crime beyond any reasonable doubt [and the fire] was started directly, intentionally and voluntarily.” Trueba was found guilty of starting a forest fire of “considerable seriousness”, sentenced to three-and-a-half years’ imprisonment, and ordered to pay a fine of €3,600 and damages of €158,000. The sentence can be appealed. The court rejected the defence’s offer of €4,000 in compensation, saying the sum would “not even cover a tenth of the costs of extinguishing the fire started by the defendant”, adding that the damages caused exceeded €200,000. It also frowned on the defence’s suggestion that the defendant had tried to make amends by helping to put out the fire he had set “for his own personal reasons”. The judgment concluded: “[His participation] was neither effective nor relevant given that bringing the fire under control not only required volunteers – whose role was fundamentally logistical – but also the involvement of four wildlife rangers, three forestry teams, an emergency services crew with four professional firefighters, three pumps, a water supply vehicle, a pickup truck and two amphibious air force planes.” © 2021 Guardian News & Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. (modern)

Name of the game: Battlefield Price: 9.99$ Link Store: Steam Offer ends up after X hours: 26 April Requirements: MINIMUM: OS: Windows 8 32-bit Processor: Processor (AMD): Athlon X2 2.8 GHz Processor (Intel): Core 2 Duo 2.4 GHz Memory: 4 GB RAM Graphics: Graphics card (AMD): AMD Radeon HD 3870 Graphics card (NVIDIA): Nvidia GeForce 8800 GT Network: Broadband Internet connection Storage: 30 GB available space RECOMMENDED: OS: Windows 8 64-bit Processor: Processor (AMD): Six-core CPU Processor (Intel): Quad-core CPU Memory: 8 GB RAM Graphics: Graphics card (AMD): AMD Radeon HD 7870 Graphics card (Nvidia): NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660 Network: Broadband Internet connection Storage: 30 GB available space

Game Information: Initial release date: 20 Jun, 2019. Software Developer: U-Play Online. Publisher: 🚀 Raiser Games. Platform: PlayStation 4, Windows Microsoft. With last year’s YouTubers Life, Spanish studio U-Play Online transformed content creation into a kind of arcade strategy game, where your objective was to grow your subscriber count across a variety of different disciplines – from gaming through to cooking. Esports Life Tycoon is a similar sort of experience, marrying the inter-personal relationships of The Sims with management simulation aspects. It’s a weird blend, but oddly addictive. You’ll start out by creating a coach, and then you’ll need to assemble a squad of MOBA maestros to take from rags to riches. Throughout, you’ll be analysing your opponents, trading for better players, negotiating sponsorships, and attempting to keep your head above water while you’re pulled in a billion different directions. Your goal is to work your way up the leagues, all without p*ssing your players off, accounting for wrist injuries (really!), and managing relationships with opponents. Ultimately, it all amounts to a lot of busy-work, but once again the developer has managed to find a gameplay format that may not particularly resemble real-life team management, but keeps you on your toes at all times. You can upgrade your apartment, bring in psychologists to improve morale, and even coach your team as they compete. It’s all relatively simplistic, but there’s always something you need to do, and thus it’s hard to put down. In terms of presentation, the package leaves a lot to be desired, but this is all about assembling the ultimate team and watching your bank balance bulge – the visuals are secondary to the ever-increasing numbers. Controls could be better optimised, and it’s perhaps a little too easy – but a separate challenge mode, where you’re put into increasingly tough situations, adds some much-needed difficulty to the standard sandbox option. SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS OS: Windows 7. Processor: Intel i3 or equivalent. Memory: 2 GB RAM. Graphics: 1GB VRAM. DirectX: Version 9.0. Storage: 4 GB available space.

MSI has slashed the warranty of some of its gaming graphics cards in Russia to just six months, leaving us wondering if this is something it will try and roll out to other territories soon. At the same time, Gigabyte has released a mining card that has a warranty of just 90 days. A worrying development for sure, although consumer protection law should prevent this from happening in other areas. For reference, graphics cards normally come with 36-month warranties. Given the limited supply of graphics cards globally, the idea that a GPU you do finally manage to get your hands on could be out of warranty so soon is not something any of us wants to hear right now. Once again, it's mining that seems to be shifting the landscape here. Cards aimed exclusively at miners, that is those without video outputs, have been known to offer limited warranties. This is a little more understandable though, as such cards tend to be used 24/7 without any letup. Not something that most gaming GPUs are subject to. Even allowing for some reduction in warranty, Gigabyte's latest move is shocking. It recently released its CMP 30HX D6 6G, which is essentially a GTX 1660 Super without any outputs. This card can be found on Romainian reseller IT Direct for the equivalent of $600 and boasts a warranty of just 90 days. Ninety days! This is a card purely for miners, but still, that is a ridiculously tight warranty. MSI seemed to be going down a similar route as well, with a document from MSI Russia showing it has decided to reduce the warranties of 19 cards down to just six months. The first few cards on this list are all mining cards, but then gaming versions pop up, like the GeForce RTX 3070 Ventus 3X OC, and it's suddenly not only affecting cryptocurrency miners. We've reached out to MSI for comment and will update this story when we hear back front them. In the meantime, it's worth double-checking the warranty period of any card you do manage to track down. You really shouldn't settle for anything less than 3 years.