HICHEM

Big White has a new chairlift, one that will move four people up the mountain at a fleet 5.2 feet per second. Dubbed the Powder 2.0 Quad Chair, the lift, with its 137 chairs, began operating Friday morning. The first 50 guests in line received limited edition Big White souvenir pins. All told, the chairlift will accomdate 2,400 passengers per hour. According to Big White, that’s 600 more than its predecessor. “Exams can wait,” Marcos Aviña said in a press release. Aviña, a Kelowna-based student, was one of 12 people to win a ride up on one of the first chairs and get first tracks. He and three friends nabbed the second chair up and took Corkscrew, a blue run, back down to the base of the chair. “It was so nice; untouched. A beautiful day. We have so much energy!” Big White director and vice president of outdoor operations, Jeremy Hopkinson says the alignment of the old Powder Chair was always good, but it needed a slight tweak. “It had an unfortunate unload spot. Skiers had to climb a hill to get to the west side of the mountain,” said Hopkinson, who has worked at Big White for 44 years. Another awkward part was that the lift line didn’t have ski-under clearance, meaning it could never be a legitimate run. “The lift line, at the time the old chair was put in, was almost the best fall line off the Powder Chair.” The old Powder Chair, which would have turned 40 in 2019, has found a new home at another ski resort in B.C.

Volkswagen has officially announced the Golf GTI TCR, a brawny 286bhp version of the seventh-generation Golf GTI built to celebrate the brand's participation in touring car racing. The TCR is set to become the fastest front-wheel-drive Golf the firm has released to date, with an option to raise the top speed from 155mph to 162mph. The 0-62mph sprint is dispatched in 5.6sec, 0.3sec faster than the hardcore Golf GTI Clubsport S. It uses the same turbocharged 2.0-litre four-cylinder petrol engine as the earlier Golf GTI Clubsport, with 286bhp at 5000rpm in overboost mode, when turbo boost pressure is raised from 1.9 to 2.1bar for periods of up to 10 seconds. During that time, the engine develops 44bhp more than the standard Golf GTI's with the optional performance package, while torque remains the same, building to a peak of 272lb ft at 1600-4300rpm. It comes with a petrol particulate filter and is combined with a seven-speed dual-clutch automatic gearbox and front axle differential lock. There's no option of a manual gearbox. The Golf GTI TCR stands out from the standard Golf GTI with a more prominent front splitter, wider side sills, a TCR-specific spoiler and a large full-width diffuser at the rear. Buyers will be able to specify TCR decals over the rear of the sills, a body side foil featuring the honeycomb shape reflected in the design of the grille, and puddle lamps that project a TCR logo to the side of the car when the door is opened. LED headlights come as standard, along with Front Assist automatic emergency braking and an Active Info Display digital instrument cluster. Inside, the Golf GTI TCR adopts new microfibre upholstery for the sides of the sport seats, door inserts and gear selector glove. The design of the upholstery for the seat centre has been developed specifically for this model, while the flat-bottomed steering wheel and gear selector knob receive a red marker at the 12 o’clock position as a homage to the racing version of the Golf GTI TCR, of which VW Motorsport claims to have delivered up to 100 examples since 2016. UK prices have yet to be revealed, but in Volkswagen's home territory the TCR will cost €38,950 (£34,500). Buyers will be able to choose from a selection of extras packages, which add sports-tuned rear dampers and Dynamic Chassis Control, the top speed upgrade and 19in alloy wheels on either street or semi-slick tyres. The Golf GTI TCR was previewed at last year's Wörthersee fan meet in Austria by the TCR Concept, which used the same titanium Akrapovič exhaust system as the four-wheel-drive Golf R. It is currently unknown if the production version does the same. The TCR was confirmed for production by VW officials at Wörthersee, who suggested volumes will not be restricted, unlike the limited-run Clubsport S. However, with development of the eighth-generation Golf - planned for introduction in 2019 - already at an advanced stage, the road-going Golf GTI TCR is set for a relatively short production life.

The Duke of Edinburgh has been involved in a car crash while driving near the Queen's Sandringham estate, Buckingham Palace has said. Prince Philip, 97, was not injured in the accident, which happened as he drove a Range Rover out of a driveway onto the A149 shortly before 15:00 GMT. Buckingham Palace said the crash involved another car. Two people in the car were treated for minor injuries. According to eyewitnesses, the car that the duke was in overturned. The eyewitnesses said they helped the duke out of the vehicle. He was conscious but very, very shocked and shaken, they added. The duke is back at Sandringham and has seen a doctor as a precaution. The Duke of Edinburgh has been involved in a car crash while driving near the Queen's Sandringham estate, Buckingham Palace has said. Prince Philip, 97, was not injured in the accident, which happened as he drove a Range Rover out of a driveway onto the A149 shortly before 15:00 GMT. Buckingham Palace said the crash involved another car. Two people in the car were treated for minor injuries. According to eyewitnesses, the car that the duke was in overturned. The eyewitnesses said they helped the duke out of the vehicle. He was conscious but very, very shocked and shaken, they added. The duke is back at Sandringham and has seen a doctor as a precaution. A witness who drove past the scene at around 15:40 said she saw an ambulance and "a heavy police presence". "I was just going down the A149 … and saw a lot of blue flashing lights ahead," she said. "I saw a black, 4x4 type car on its side and me and my son were like 'oh my word, that doesn't look good'. "Luckily it was just sort of on the side of the road, the road wasn't closed in any way. "Obviously it looked quite smashed in. I'm quite amazed he [the duke] is okay actually." The Queen and Prince Philip have been staying at the estate in Norfolk since Christmas. The Archbishop of York, John Sentamu, tweeted a prayer in support to the duke. Analysis: 'Surprise that the duke still drives' By BBC royal correspondent Jonny Dymond There will be several sharp intakes of breath over this accident. The first will be over the good news - that the Duke escaped unscathed. A photo of what is believed to be the accident shows what looks like a Range Rover resting on its passenger side, having turned or flipped as a result of the collision. That must have been some impact. The duke was, a witness told the BBC, "very very shocked". But the Palace says the duke was not injured and did not need medical treatment. The duke is five months short of his 98th birthday. By anyone's standards, getting away from an accident like that unhurt is pretty impressive. There will be some surprise that the duke still drives himself on public roads. But he has always been fiercely independent, and would have resisted any suggestion that he be denied the right to drive himself. And there will now be an investigation into the circumstances of the accident. It might be that the duke is about to be persuaded to give up the wheel. Royal biographer Hugo Vickers told BBC News: "Any kind of car accident at the age of 97 is likely to produce shock. "Some years ago he gave up flying planes long before he needed to because he was scared that if something happened there would be a lot of criticism. "You know, why was he, at the age of 55, still flying a plane when he should have retired at 48 or something like that. "So he does listen to these things - he's very, very sensible. "If anyone's involved in a car accident, it's quite a frightening thing. If he thought that he'd lost concentration or something or he hadn't seen somebody he would realise he's not up to it anymore." The president of the AA, Edmund King said high profile car crashes involving elderly drivers often spark calls for bans or restrictions on older drivers. But he added: "If driving restrictions based on age and safety were introduced we would be more likely to restrict young drivers rather than older drivers. "Young, predominantly male, drivers are much more likely to crash within six months of passing their test than older drivers within six months of hanging up their keys. "Older drivers often self restrict their driving by not driving at night and only driving on familiar roads." The duke famously drove the Obamas when the then-US president and first lady visited Windsor in 2016. Prince Philip retired from public life in August 2017 having spent decades supporting the Queen and attending events for his own charities and organisations. Buckingham Palace calculated he had completed 22,219 solo engagements since 1952. Since retiring from official solo duties, he has appeared in public alongside the Queen and other members of the royal family at events and church services. He did not attend the Royal Family's church service at Sandringham this Christmas.

ARMA 3 is an open-world tactical military shooter with an emphasis on simulation gameplay in both single- and multiplayer modes. link download :https://store.steampowered.com/app/107410/Arma_3/

Horror fans, heed the Call of Cthulhu and plunge yourself into an expertly produced Lovecraftian mystery in a finely paced, hybridized adventure/RPG package that, while mostly linear, delivers more depth than its contemporary genre rivals.

One of the challenges strategy games often face is in finding the challenge and fun in tasks and themes that don’t immediately seem attractive or entertaining. Wargames and theme park management have certain obvious appeals, but when taxation and logistics seem to be the order of the day, a game can quickly look a lot like a job. Imperialism 2 is one such game. Although its scope is impressive and the idea of ruling a country and building an empire is potentially exciting, SSI’s game focuses on labour and resource management, and is mainly about solving problms of supply and economics. That it succeeds in making these elements of rule both engaging and relatively accessible is down to the strength of the design. By concentrating on logistics, Imperialism and its sequel become games about the big picture that the smaller details are part of, rather than lists of numbers and complicated spreadsheets. Micromanagement is out and important nation-wide decisions are the order of the day. Miscellaneous Notes: Developers Frog City Software closed in 2006 while working on a game about drug trafficking. Previously, they had been working on a strategy game about Greek gods, Pantheon, but that was never completed.

If you want TOTAL EXCESS at its most attractive then you’ll want Serious Sam 3, but frankly it takes far too long to get going. Serious Sam HD, meanwhile, embraces cray-cray early on. Some say it’s a welcome return to the just-get-on-with-it carnage of early shooters such as Doom, but really Sam is a law unto himself. Huge open spaces, huge enemies, huge weapons: it passes all the way through parody and comes out the other side as something pure and earnest. Are you shooting? Are you moving? Are you shooting and moving? Are you emitting a low, sustained scream? If not, you are not playing Serious Sam. Early Call of Duties had their infinite waves of enemies, but that micro-second to micro-second ferocity just isn’t there in anything else. This is bullet hell shump as FPS, a wild dance of breathless persistence. And every time you think it’s gotten as big as it can, it gets bigger. Notes: There are now more Serious Sams than you’ve had hot dinners, most of which are different versions of the first game. You could get Serious Sam HD Gold instead, which includes The Second Encounter HD and assorted DLC. Or if you’re a purist who wants to play it in its original engine, there is the option of Serious Sam Classics instead of HD, or the fairly new Serious Sam Classics: Revolution which packages The First Encounter and The Second Encounter with some brand new stuff. Where can I buy it: Steam, primarily, but boxed copies are still sold on yer Amazons and whatnot too. Alternatively GoG has the significantly more archaic non-HD version if you want to do the DRM-free thing. What else should I be playing if I like this: Doom, if you want just-getting-on-with-it shooting that won’t see you grind your teeth to paste with the intensity of it all. Or there’s Painkiller if you want a more latter-day take on traditional shooter values, but without Sam’s shouty craziness.

dungeon crawlers create a sense of momentum as you hack through monsters, pick up the loot they drop, equip any high-level gear, and move on to do it again. This is a gameplay loop Torchlight II completely nails. Story and character tend to fall to the wayside here, but you’re too busy wreaking ultra-violence and collecting shiny new things to care. The four character classes are stocked with skills that are satisfying to use, the environments pulse with color, and playing co-op with friends makes it even more of a chaotic joy to play. The craving for loot is real, and Torchlight II delivers it in the best way.

People’s hearts are ageing "faster than their owners", according to a worrying new study by Bupa. The global health and care company released results from a survey of over 8,000 consumers who had undergone a heart age check, which calculates the user’s heart age based on personal health details like blood pressure, family medical history and lifestyle risk factors. Among the respondents, occupation was reported to affect the average difference between physical age and heart age. The jobs with the best heart health Medicine Teaching Accountancy, banking and finance IT and information services Retail and sales Johanna Ralston, CEO of the World Heart Federation commented: "The age on your birth certificate may say one thing, but your heart age could be saying something quite different. We urge employers to put a focus on creating heart-healthy environments to help their employees bring down their 'heart age'.” Dr. Fiona Adshead, Chief Wellbeing and Public Health Officer at Bupa, added: “If current trends continue, by 2030 more than 23 million people will die annually from cardiovascular disease[2], yet this research shows that there is huge potential for employers to help improve their employees’ health – not only reaping the benefits of a healthy workforce, but also tackling the heart disease epidemic facing the world.

Israel Police said its officers had conducted searches and seized documents Police in Israel have arrested a top lawyer as part of an investigation into claims that judicial appointments were traded for sexual favours. The lawyer has not been named and a gag order covers most details of the case. But police said it concerned the appointment of a female magistrates' court judge and an attempt to promote a male judge to a district court. Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit has reportedly recused himself because he is a friend of the main suspect. Country profile Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked and Supreme Court Chief Justice Esther Hayut, who are members of the Judicial Appointments Committee, are meanwhile expected to be summoned to give testimony. Israeli police said in a statement that the force's Lahav 433 anti-corruption unit had launched an investigation two weeks ago after receiving information about judicial appointments. On Wednesday morning, one male lawyer was arrested as part of the inquiry. Two other suspects - a female magistrates' court judge and a female lawyer - had already been questioned, the police added. Officers have also conducted searches and seized documents. The Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper reports that the Jerusalem office of the Israel Bar Association was raided on Wednesday. Ms Shaked and Justice Hayut later issued a joint statement saying they felt "confident that the law enforcement system will complete the investigation and reach the truth". They also rejected any allegations of widespread corruption in the judicial appointment system.

The Escapists is a sandbox simulator with some puzzle elements as well. Players break out of prison with a variety of methods. You can tunnel under the prison or steal a guard uniform along with many other scenarios. However, you also have to look and play the part. That means showing up for evening count, hiding your tools, and getting along with the other inmates. The game itself includes six prisons to escape from, a rudimentary crafting system, stats to improve, and more. This is one of the few good simulator games with a single price and $6.49 is quite reasonable for what the game has. Link download : https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.team17.escapists

Newcomers need not apply, but fans of the Danganronpa series are in for a treat, as the story and characters are among the best we’ve seen, while the gameplay introduces just enough tweaks to keep things interesting. Set in a “psycho-cool” environment, a new cast of 16 characters find themselves kidnapped and imprisoned in a school. Inside, some will kill, some will die, and some will be punished. Reimagine what you thought high-stakes, fast-paced investigation was as you investigate twisted murder cases and condemn your new friends to death. Link : https://adventuregamers.com/games/view/31830

In addition to being the preeminent competitive strategy game of the last decade, StarCraft II deserves credit for rethinking how a traditional RTS campaign is structured. Heart of the Swarm is a good example of this, but the human-centric Wings of Liberty instalment is the place to start: an inventive adventure that mixes up the familiar formula at every stage. From zombie defence scenarios to planets that flood with lava every few minutes, you’re forced to learn and relearn StarCraft’s basic elements as you go.

We love video-games. Games are fun. They can take you to far-off worlds and let you shoot down entire space fleets; they allow you to find ways to save mankind or ways to quash it, and they let you play the hero, or the villain. For many of us they have helped define our childhoods, or even led us to our careers. But what video game console or system do you most fondly remember? Which gaming hardware deserves its place as the best of all time? It's a topic of fierce debate, so we invited the readers of Retro Gamer magazine to vote for the greatest video game consoles and systems of all time, and are delighted to present the results below. We asked Retro Gamer readers to rank their top ten favourite gaming systems of all-time - not just the best retro consoles on-sale today, like the PS Classic or SNES Classic Mini - with 94 systems voted for from 35 different manufacturers. We spoke to leading developers and industry professionals, past and present (including Mark Cerny, Nolan Bushnell and Yu Suzuki) for their views on what made each gaming system special; in what must be the most comprehensive poll of historical gaming hardware ever conducted. The top five manufacturers will come as no surprise, but what is interesting is that no single company had all its machines appear in the final top 30. Some choices raised eyebrows, as we’re sure they will with you, and certain systems simply didn’t amass enough points to make the final list. All consoles and hardware systems were eligible for voting, so don’t be surprised if you see a few current systems in the list. Starting with… Nintendo Switch We’re surprised to be kicking off the list with a such a young console, honestly. However, the Switch elegantly realises the concept of being both a handheld and home console, and it’s impossible to deny the quality of games like The Legend Of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild, Splatoon 2 and Super Mario Odyssey. Answers by Christie Sandy, Producer at Team17 Why do you think a brand-new console has made such an impact? I believe the Nintendo Switch has resonated so strongly because it really brings a whole new gaming experience to the market, by taking classic home console gaming and allowing it to break free from your lounge. The seamless transition from TV mode to handheld mode is a real winner for any gamer, as your gaming experience can continue on uninterrupted when someone else needs the TV! What’s the Switch like as a development system? It’s an exciting console to develop on. Learning about the Switch’s capabilities and how we could use them within our games was a fantastic experience. Have developers been caught by surprise by the Switch’s success in 2017? I think everyone has been pleased with the Switch’s success, as well as developers. We’re gamers too so it’s fantastic to see it do well. The Switch really brings something unique to the market and it’s certainly a big hit around our office! Why is Team17 releasing so many games on Switch? I believe it’s because our games really suit the Switch console and its audience. Overcooked, Worms WMD, Yooka-Laylee and The Escapists 2 are all great, good fun games to play that really feel at home on the Nintendo Switch. How do Team17’s games, such as Worms WMD, benefit from being on Switch? It’s been seven years since we launched a Worms game on a Nintendo platform, so we were excited to get the chance to bring Worms WMD to a new system, especially one that really allows the player to have an uninterrupted experience. Being able to whip out the Joy-Cons means that multiplayer games can be up and running so quickly too! This is a great match for Worms WMD which features both local and online multiplayer modes. Atari Lynx Manufacturer: Atari Year: 1989 The first ever colour handheld console was a real powerhouse, boasting features like sprite scaling that weren’t even possible on most home consoles. Though it lost out in the marketplace, the Lynx makes it into your list thanks to a series of amazing arcade conversions and some impressive original games. Answers by D Scott Williamson, Former Atari programmer/designer Tell us a little about your first encounter with the Lynx, and what did you think about it? I honestly don’t remember my first encounter. Like every game system I’ve worked with, I remember the discovery phase, that time when you get to play the system and when you read every word of all the manuals. I remember how free form the sprite system with built-in hardware collision detection felt – Todd’s Adventures In Slime World had character graphics but they squished and squashed and oozed. You could also do 3D like never before with sorted scaled sprites, and I leveraged that in RoadBlasters and S.T.U.N. Runner. Advertisement What was it you liked about coding games for the Lynx? There was a lot I liked about working on the ‘Handy’, er, the Lynx. It had good, complete, documentation with lots of examples. The tools were excellent, and I really came to like working on the Amiga [ while making Lynx games]. The Lynx itself was extremely capable, especially considering its size and portability – it was 6502-based, like many systems of the day, but it had hardware multiply and divide, bitmapped graphics, powerful sprites, really decent sound hardware, and good tools and samples that got you developing games quickly. Why do you think your arcade conversions are so po[CENSORED]r? I really can’t take credit for the games, all the gameplay was built into the originals. I really like to exploit technology, especially under constraints like limited memory or bandwidth, and I think that is what I really liked about doing coin-op ports. Fitting all the graphics, gameplay, levels, bosses, and sound into a little cartridge that ran on simple hardware was kind of a puzzle. What do you personally love about the Lynx? This is a hard one to answer, but I think I really like its versatility, how capable the hardware was at the time and how much it enabled a developer to do. Amstrad CPC 464 Manufacturer: Amstrad Year: 1984 Despite being an all-in-one answer to the Commodore 64 and ZX Spectrum, Lord Sugar’s (for the benefit of younger readers, that's Alan Sugar, presenter of the UK version of The Apprentice) machine still found itself trailing behind its peers, which explains why it’s so low down on your list. Having said that, everyone loves an underdog, which probably explains why it still managed to break into your top 30. Answers by Philip and Andrew Oliver, Former Amstrad programmers What did you think about Amstrad entering the computer market? Philip Oliver: We really liked the computer and thought it was a great opportunity for us to make many games on, with far less competition from the top game developers on Spectrum, C64 and the BBC Micro. How did the Amstrad compare to its rivals? Andrew Oliver: We loved the real keyboard, disk drive and monitor – it was a very good package for a fair price. Having its own screen meant most people gave it a dedicated setup, and didn’t have to contend with a poor quality RF (aerial) signal and fuzzy display. We were quick to buy a plug-in Z80 assembler, called Maxam, that gave us the ability to write very fast arcade-style games in assembler. So, despite a lot going for it, why do you feel the Amstrad was less po[CENSORED]r than its 8-bit peers? PO: It was less po[CENSORED]r than the Spectrum and C64 because it came a couple of years later and was more expensive. But because it was a complete package, most buyers would tell you it was worth the extra, and they were quick to defend their purchase against the more po[CENSORED]r Spectrum and C64. Fundamentally, the Amstrad was a souped-up Spectrum, running the same Z80 CPU with a variety of graphic modes and a little more RAM. How did Dizzy benefit from appearing on the Amstrad? AO: The Amstrad was a less crowded market with fewer established names. As a result it was easier for the new guys like us to break in – and break in we did! Dizzy was seen by many as the mascot character for the Amstrad, because we always prioritised the Amstrad version to the ported versions as it was always the first and had slightly more colours, no colour clash and better music. The Amstrad has a vibrant community today, why do you think it still strikes a chord with its fans? PO: People who bought the Amstrad, had a complete, easy-to-use, computer. There was no sharing of the TV and no messing with cables. It was there to be switched on and instantly enjoyed.

Epic made a name for itself with Unreal – impressive in a time when shooters were dominated by id – but it was with 1999’s Unreal Tournament that Epic earned its grand moniker. Tournament had the same core concept of Quake Arena but offered an alternative for those looking for a few more frills. Among the game’s exciting weapons is the BioRifle, which weaponises toxic sludge. You can even charge it up and release a great bulb of the stuff, using it as a gelatinous landmine. Then there is Redeemer, a rocket launcher that flings a pilotable thermonuclear warhead at your enemies. You should also try the Ripper, which fires saw blades that bounce around corners. Each gun has separate strengths and alternate fire modes that need mastering in order for you to dominate in the arena. Tournament’s maps – old and new – are filled with memorably mad architecture. There is nothing quite like leaping in low gravity between the three stratospheric towers in DM-Morpheus – particularly if you can gib someone in mid-air, spraying their gore through the sky.

Keys attending Billboard's 13th Annual Women In Music event in December 2018.PHOTOS: AFP LOS ANGELES (NYTIMES) - Singer Alicia Keys will host the 61st annual Grammy Awards on Feb 10, she announced on Tuesday (Jan 15) in a nearly 10-minute celebratory video that emphasised the show as female-driven a year after the Grammys faced controversy over gender diversity. Keys succeeds late-night host James Corden, who presided over the Grammys for the last two years and took over from LL Cool J, who hosted for five years beginning in 2012. Previous hosts include Queen Latifah, Rosie O'Donnell, Ellen DeGeneres and Garry Shandling. Keys, the first woman to host the Grammys in more than a decade, also joins a class of nominees in the major categories that leans more heavily toward female artists than in recent years. At the 2018 show, after only one woman won a prominent award in the televised portion, Neil Portnow, the head of the Recording Academy, ignited a backlash when he said that women in the industry should "step up" to advance their careers. Portnow will step down from the Academy, the organisation behind the Grammys, in July, making the February show, which is scheduled to air on CBS, his last. In Keys' announcement video, which is positioned as a series of candid clips seemingly shot on a cellphone, an unidentified voice tells her about the job offer, noting, "It's going to be such an exciting show this year because of all the female artists and performers." Drake and Kendrick Lamar lead the field of nominees, but are followed by acts like Brandi Carlile, Janelle Monáe, Cardi B, H.E.R. and Kacey Musgraves, all of whom will compete for album of the year. The Recording Academy has yet to announce any performers for the show. In the behind-the-scenes footage, Keys goes on to share news of her hosting duties with her mother, her husband (producer Swizz Beatz), and her children, one of whom responds, "What's the Grammys?"

Volkswagen has chosen Chattanooga, Tenn., as the site of its electric vehicle manufacturing in the U.S. starting with its ID sub-brand cars in 2022, about two years after the first ID models become available in the U.S. The German automaker plans to invest $800 million in the Chattanooga facility and will create 1,000 jobs at the plant alone, in addition to more jobs at parts suppliers. The hotly-anticipated decision came weeks after rumors that Volkswagen had been looking for an additional site in the U.S. after making plans to convert several German plants to EV production in the coming years. Volkswagen CEO Herbert Diess made the announcement at the Detroit auto show in the presence of the outgoing and the incoming Tennessee governors and other VIPs from Tennessee. "The U.S. is one of the most important locations for us and producing electric cars in Chattanooga is a key part of our growth strategy in North America,” said Dr. Diess. "The management team, led by Scott Keogh, is committed to continuing to increase our market share in the coming years. Together with our ongoing investments and this increase in local production, we are strengthening the foundation for sustainable growth of the Volkswagen brand in the U.S." The first ID models will land in 2020, starting with the production version of the ID Crozz SUV, which was previewed in concept form earlier in 2017. The production version of the ID Buzz concept will also be among the first electric VW models to launch in the States. "The shift toward electric vehicles is a trend that can be seen worldwide, and Volkswagen’s decision to locate its first North American EV manufacturing facility in Chattanooga underscores Tennessee’s manufacturing strength and highly-skilled workforce," said Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam. "As one of Hamilton County’s top employers, these additional 1,000 jobs will have a lasting impact on the region."

First name: @HICHEMNumber: 56Other information?: Thank you so much For this giveaway

Suspected militants have attacked a luxury hotel complex in Nairobi. Gunfire and blasts were heard at the compound in the Westlands district of the Kenyan capital, which houses the DusitD2 hotel as well as offices. The Somalia-based militant group al-Shabab said it was behind the attack but gave no details. Four armed men entered the complex, eyewitnesses say. People have been leaving the site escorted by armed officers. Several people were led out covered in blood. Nairobi attack: Live updates In pictures: Assault on hotel complex What is the latest? The attack began at about 15:00 local time (12:00 GMT). A woman working in a neighbouring building told Reuters news agency: "I just started hearing gunshots, and then started seeing people running away raising their hands up and some were entering the bank to hide for their lives." Explosions were heard and a plume of smoke rose above the compound, with vehicles on fire in the car park. One police officer told the BBC's Ferdinand Omondi at the scene: "Things are not good. People are dying." There are no details about casualties so far. Kenyan police chief Joseph Boinnet told reporters: "Armed criminals are holding up in the hotel and specialist forces are currently flushing them out." People have been escorted out of the building with gunshot wounds The five-star DusitD2 hotel has 101 rooms. Located in the Westlands suburb, minutes from the capital's business district, it has its own spa and several restaurants. Kenya has seen a number of terror attacks in recent years - most notably in areas close to the Somali border and in the country's capital. Who are al-Shabab? They are a militant Islamist group that opposes the Somali government but has also carried out attacks throughout East Africa. Who are Somalia's al-Shabab? Kenya is part of a regional peacekeeping operation that supports the Somali government in its battle against al-Shabab. In September 2013, al-Shabab gunmen entered the Westgate shopping mall in Nairobi and targeted shoppers. During an 80-hour siege at the upscale centre, 67 people were killed. Two years later, the group carried out its deadliest ever assault in Kenya, shooting dead almost 150 people at Garissa University.

[Update] The job ad, which originally indicated IO was working on a new IP, has been updated, no longer mentioning the new project. [Original story] Hitman developer IO Interactive is working on a new IP, according to a recent job listing. The job ad states, "The team is currently working on an new unannounced IP," but gives few other clues as to what that might be. The ad is for a position in the studio's "incubation team," which apparently is "a small team of designers [who] prototype gameplay mechanics in Unreal Engine." IO's latest title is Hitman, which released in installments throughout 2016 and recently got a disc version. The studio has been associated with Hitman since the series' inception with 2000's Hitman: Codename 47. Outside of Agent 47's adventures, the company has developed Freedom Fighters, Mini Ninjas, and both Kane & Lynch games. Lead writer Michael Vogt told GameSpot that Hitman could get two more seasons of content. He said the story is "just getting started" when the first season ends. "We wanted to do a really ambitious storyline that would span several seasons and also build this ensemble cast," he explained. "In the old games, the targets were always the most interesting characters, but then you'd just kill them off instantly and move on to the next one. And now we wanted to build a much bigger main cast that will survive for much longer. "The story's really only beginning [with the first season]," he continued. "Season 1 is the first act in a feature film. You know all the characters, you know the stakes, you know the dilemma, but it's only getting started." Hitman was one of GameSpot's favourite games of 2016 and made it to No. 12 on our overall Game of the Year list.

Some aspects of the Xbox 360 hardware have changed since its launch in 2005, such as the addition of an HDMI port, built-in Wi-Fi, support for 1080p, and two total redesigns of the system — the Slim system and later the "E" — but the core of the hardware hasn't changed much. It is impressive that a system that was underpowered to begin with, compared to its competition (the PS3), is still alive and kicking and pumping out good-looking games. Custom IBM Power PC-Based CPU - Three symmetrical cores running at 3.2 GHz each - Two hardware threads per core, six hardware threads total - VMX-128 vector unit per core, three total - 128 VMX-128 registers per hardware thread - 1MB L2 cache CPU Game Math Performance - 9.6 billion dot product operations per second Custom ATI Graphics Processor - 500 MHz processor - 10MB of embedded DRAM - 48-way parallel floating-point dynamically scheduled shader pipelines - Unified shader architecture Polygon Performance - 500 million triangles per second - Pixel Fill Rate - 16 giga-samples per second fill rate using 4x MSAA Shader Performance - 48 billion shader operations per second Memory - 512MB of GDDR3 RAM - 700 MHz of DDR - Unified memory architecture Memory Bandwidth - 22.4 GB/s memory interface bus bandwidth - 256 GB/s memory bandwidth to EDRAM - 21.6 GB/s front-side bus Overall System Floating-Point Performance - 1 teraflop Storage - Detachable 20GB hard drive upgradeable to 2TB (Terabytes) - 12x dual-layer DVD-ROM - Memory Unit support starting at 64MB I/O - Detachable 20GB hard drive upgradeable to 2TB (Terabytes) - 12x dual-layer DVD-ROM - Memory Unit support starting at 64MB Optimized for Online - Instant, out-of-the-box access to Xbox Live features with broadband service, including Xbox Live for downloadable content, gamer profile for digital identity, and personalized - home screen. Multiplayer capability and free games require an optional Gold membership. - Built-in Ethernet port -Wi-Fi ready: 802.11a, 802.11b, 802.11g, and 802.11n - Video camera ready Digital Media Support - Support for DVD-Video, DVD-ROM, DVD-R/RW, DVD+R/RW, CD-DA, CD-ROM, CD-R, CD-RW, WMA CD, MP3 CD, JPEG Photo CD - Ability to stream media from portable music devices, digital cameras, and Windows PCs - Ability to rip music to the Xbox 360 hard drive - Custom playlists in every game - Built-in Media Center Extender for Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 - Interactive, full-screen 3-D visualizers High-Definition Game Support - All games supported at 16:9, 720p, 1280 x 720 pixels, 1080i, anti-aliasing, and upscale on 1080p TVs - Standard-definition and high-definition video output supported Audio - Multichannel surround sound output - Supports 48 kHz 16-bit audio - 320 independent decompression channels - 32-bit audio processing - 0 Over 256 audio channels System Orientation - Stands vertically or horizontally Customizable Face Plates - Interchangeable to personalize the console