. PREDATOR

Analysis: The logic behind Volvo's 112mph speed limit Volvo’s safety boss explains why it has set a speed cap on all its cars, and what its next steps will be Volvo’s decision to introduce a 112mph (180kph) top speed for all its cars, which the firm is adding across its range at the moment, seems unlikely to make a real difference in improving safety. That cap, for one thing, is still well above the speed limit in every country bar Germany. What’s more, drivers who want to speed won’t buy a Volvo in the future and were arguably unlikely to do so anyway. Even Malin Ekholm, head of the Volvo Cars Safety Centre, has admitted: “112mph is still fast, so is it going to be the end of speeding? No, it’s not.” So why is Volvo doing this, then? “It’s a limitation, and there really is no reason to go faster than 112mph,” said Ekholm. “Everyone talks about speeding, but we wanted to do something to show we’re serious. That will initiate an in-depth dialogue on the subject.” For Volvo, the speed cap is the latest step in its efforts to advance road safety. The firm introduced the three-point seatbelt and pushed industry standards on structural safety and crash-prevention systems. As a result, Ekholm said, “a lot of our customers are very supportive of what we’re doing. One reason they’ve chosen a Volvo is because we’re so focused on safety.” The reaction elsewhere has been more cynical. But Ekholm said: “There are always sceptics, because the challenge with human behavioural aspects is that the issue of speed is connected to how our brains are programmed. We’re not programmed to comprehend speed at a high level. “So how can we do that in a nice way? How do we balance the freedom to move with safety, what does the road map look like and how do we include the sceptics? The speed cap is the first step to looking into what is safe speed – and how do we help you maintain it?” Ekholm said Volvo isn’t out to determine what safe speed is. She added: “I attended a UN Road Safety Conference in Stockholm this year and there were politicians, traffic authorities and NGOs talking about speeding. Different groups can contribute different things: governments can introduce legislation and enforcement, for example. “As a car manufacturer, we want to bring to the table the toolbox we have, which includes speed caps, and look at how we can make drivers the best they can be in every single situation. It’s about doing so in a way that’s understood to help and not a Big Brother approach. “Twenty years ago, it wasn’t necessarily fun to drive fast, because it wasn’t comfortable. Now cars are fantastic and behave the same at any speed, so how can we translate the old signals you got that you were going very fast into a modern context?” As well as its speed limit, Volvo is introducing a Care Key, which allows owners to limit their car’s speed when they lend it to others. This is the sort of system enabled by recent advances in technology, but Ekholm claimed that Volvo’s focus is on the human aspect. “Using technology can help you understand the situation as much as possible,” she said. “My work is on understanding what we need to address, then using technology to address it.” To this end, Volvo is planning further steps. For instance, like several other car makers, it is developing a driver monitoring system. Likely to launch next year, this could stop drunk or too-tired people from driving. It’s undoubtedly a more controversial step, with the use of a camera-based system raising questions of whether Volvo is monitoring drivers. “The camera won’t be filming you to know what you’re doing,” said Ekholm. “The system reads your head and eye movements, studies your cognitive signals and translates that into where your mind is. Is it on driving, or do you need some help? “We’ll stay away from the reason behind any detachment from the driving situation, because that’s a legislative issue. There are so many things that at a specific point in time can reduce your focus on the task of driving, so what can we do in that situation to bring your focus back?”

Sir Ian was Oscar-nominated for Chariots of Fire Veteran stage and film actor Sir Ian Holm, who played Bilbo Baggins in The Lord of the Rings films, has died at the age of 88. Sir Ian, Oscar-nominated as the coach in Chariots of Fire, also played the android Ash in 1979's Alien. "It is with great sadness we can confirm that the actor Sir Ian Holm CBE passed away this morning at the age of 88," his agent said in a statement. "He died peacefully in hospital with his family and carer," he added. The actor, pictured last year, began his career in the theatre His illness was Parkinson's-related, his agent confirmed. Holm, who also played Dr Willis in The Madness of King George, was classically trained and put in memorable performances in numerous plays. The National Theatre remembered him as an "extraordinary actor" whose performance as King Lear in 1997 created "wonderful memories". Samuel West, whose father Timothy played Gloucester in the production, recalled on Twitter that the older cast members were all asked to grow beards. When they came together for a read-through, he remembered, "[director] Richard Eyre said it looked like a garden gnome convention". Sir Ian originated the role of Lenny in Harold Pinter's The Homecoming in 1965, reprising his performance on film eight years later. Holm starred with Judi Dench in a RSC production of Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard However, his stage career was cut short after he developed acute stage fright during a production of The Iceman Cometh in 1976. He went on to work primarily in film, thanks to roles in such high-profile movies as The Fifth Element and the Lord of the Rings series. It was 1981's Chariots of Fire that saw him receive his best supporting actor Oscar nomination. The same film won him a Bafta, as did his supporting performance in The Bofors Gun in 1968. Sir Ian played Bilbo in Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings films, having played Frodo Baggins for BBC radio in 1981. Diminutive in stature, he was similarly well-cast as Pod in 1992 children's series The Borrowers. "I'm never the same twice," he told the Los Angeles Times in 2000, "and I'm not a movie star-type, so people don't demand that I'm always the same." He received a knighthood in 1998 for his contribution to drama following the CBE he received in 1989. He returned to the stage to play King Lear at the National in 1997 Comedian Eddie Izzard remembered Sir Ian as "a wonderful actor", adding: "It's so sad to see him go." Director Edgar Wright also paid tribute, calling him "a genius actor who brought considerable presence to parts funny, heartbreaking and terrifying". "What an actor," tweeted League of Gentleman star Reece Shearsmith. "A lifetime of incredible performances." Peep Show star Robert Webb was among many others to express respect for "a splendid actor" who "could be very funny too".

Game Informations : Developer: Ubisoft Annecy, Ubisoft Montpellier, Ubisoft Kyiv, Ubisoft Paris Publishers : Ubisoft Platforms : PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Microsoft Windows Initial release date: 2 décembre 2016 Exploring the expansive, frozen Alps of Steep by means of snowboarding, skis, paragliding, or wingsuit is to tour one of the most diverse and visually interesting open worlds I’ve ever gotten lost in - especially in a sports game. Not all of the featured activities are equally fun, and I was disappointed in the lack of statistical customization, but the array of challenges and their satisfying physics that strike a nice balance between realistic and arcadey rarely left me without something new and exciting to try. Steep is based around a “Play Your Way” philosophy that, in the short term, works well. You can pick from skiing, snowboarding, paragliding, and wingsuit flying (which are all distinct except that snowboarding and skiing share the same courses) and progress through a number of different skill areas geared toward different playstyles. There are rewards for narrowly avoiding obstacles, pulling off complex tricks, exploration, riding creative routes down mountainsides, and even crashing into things or falling on your face and breaking every bone in your body in spectacular fashion. That one is especially entertaining, much in the same way as watching Homer Simpson repeatedly fall down Springfield Gorge. The problem is that if you decide you like certain playstyles more than others, it can be very difficult (if not impossible) to level up and unlock new peaks. For example, I decided fairly early on that I didn’t like paragliding at all. Slowly drifting around dangling from a parachute is the least intense, least realistic, and least fun out of the four sports, and is mainly useful for scouting out new ski runs and enjoying the scenery at a leisurely pace. So I played my way, and had a good time… until I hit a point near the end where I was short on XP to unlock the final peak and had to go back and run through all of those paragliding challenges I’d skipped. So it’s really: “Play Your Way Unless You Want to Finish the Game.” Carving down the Matterhorn on a snowboard is intense and engaging. The main element that’s painfully missing from Steep is any kind of stat-based rider customization or progression. While there are hundreds of cosmetic items to unlock, none of them actually change how you ride. XP only serves to unlock new areas, not progress your character or gear, so the board you spawn onto the mountain at Level 1 with feels exactly like the one you unlock for getting a gold medal in the hardest race. Even if Ubisoft wanted to keep the emphasis on player skill, it would have been awesome to unlock some side-grade options, like wider or narrower boards with different handling or the ability to tweak little stuff like binding tightness for different events. Just about everything else Steep does, thankfully, it does really well. Carving down the Matterhorn on a snowboard is intense, engaging, and at times blister-inducingly frantic. Diving from a hot air balloon to glide across glaciers in a wingsuit competes with any superhero game for speed-induced adrenaline. Skiing feels very accurate in that, like real life, I am not any good at it and always end up going backwards at worrying speeds. At high velocity, I always felt my board/skis/wingsuit did what I wanted it to, but the controls can be fiddly and frustrating when you’re trying to slow down and reorient yourself. It usually took me several tries wiggling the thumbsticks around semi-randomly to get back going forwards again once I’d ended up facing the other way. The Alps look gorgeous on both the PS4 and a high-end PC with a GTX 1070, though level of detail tricks can sometimes be a little too obvious when you look closely at distant terrain. One of the best things about it is the dynamic terrain deformation, which allows you to leave ruts in the powder as you blast down the slopes. It’s detailed enough that you can see the trail from each individual ski and pole separately. If and when I eventually bit it on a big jump, the area where my head skidded through a snowbank remained clearly identifiable. The map is just awe-inspiringly gargantuan. The map is also just awe-inspiringly gargantuan – it can take a good 15 minutes at full clip to board or ski from its highest summit to the furthest edge, and that’s if you take a relatively direct route. It’s also filled with a massive number of different terrain types, even though they all fall roughly within the theme of “frozen water on big rocks.” There are jagged ice fields, gradual slopes, sheer rock faces, castle ruins, and quaint resort villages to explore across the handful of mountains, each of which is based on a real-world equivalent (though some creative liberties are taken, such as putting them so close together). While there’s not much of a storyline to be found, Steep does feature special challenges called Mountain Stories that range from an intimidating plummet down a ruined bobsled track, to a downright goofy hunt through a forest for a singing tree. Along those same lines, in the grandiose introductory cutscenes you see when you unlock a new peak, each of the major mountains is given a distinctive personality and a human voice. Ortles is inspirational and speaks in a slow, grandfatherly manner, while Aiguille Verte sounds like she’s going to hide in the back seat of your car and murder you. It comes across as slightly unnecessary, but I couldn’t help but chuckle at the charming absurdity of the concept from time to time. It was certainly a nice break from being reminded that Red Bull™ and GoPro™ wanted to see my sick moves at the next The North Face™ Invitational, which is the other kind of storytelling Steep regularly engages in. One of the flagship features of Steep is its multiplayer integration, in which other players will dynamically appear in your instance of the Alps and allow you to easily group up with them and compete in any of the challenges (which also have global leaderboards). There’s also a system for sharing recordings of your best runs, which can be replayed in a variety of camera modes. They’re the kind of features that don’t do much for me, honestly, since I’m more of a solo player in this type of game. But they’re likely to spawn some po[CENSORED]r clips on Reddit from people who are far better at virtual snowboarding than I’ll ever be, and that’ll give Steep some extended life. To its credit, none of these multiplayer integrations came across as intrusive or annoying. All the sharing and grouping functionality can be easily ignored if, like me, you just want to be left alone in the cold. Verdict I enjoyed just about every minute I spent playing Steep. Grandiose, attractive environments serving as the backdrop to varied, intense challenges are enough on their own to make this wintry playground somewhere I was always delighted to go back to and spend more time in - a feeling I still have even after finishing the bulk of the content, though the lack of mechanical customization and progression makes it harder to find reasons to return. Likewise, the core snowboarding and skiing events are enjoyable enough to easily forgive mediocre elements, like the slow and sleepy paragliding mode, that feel like needless gimmicks. I just wish the latter weren’t mandatory. Steep Recommended Requirements CPU: Intel Core i7 3770K at 3.5 GHz or AMD FX-8350 at 4.0 GHz CPU SPEED: Info RAM: 8 GB OS: Windows 7 SP1 or Windows 8.1 or Windows 10(64bit versions) VIDEO CARD: GeForce GTX 970 or Radeon R9 390 PIXEL SHADER: 5.1 VERTEX SHADER: 5.1 DEDICATED VIDEO RAM: 4096 MB

Civil rights groups slam Facebook, call for ad boycott Six civil rights groups are calling on businesses to stop advertising on Facebook in July as part of a campaign called #StopHateforProfit, which is geared toward getting the social network to do more to combat hate speech and misinformation. The Anti-Defamation League, the NAACP, Sleeping Giants, Colors of Change, Free Press and Common Sense said Wednesday that boycotting advertising on Facebook will put pressure on the platform to use its $70 billion in annual advertising revenue to support people who are targets of racism and hate and to increase safety for private groups on the site. "We have long seen how Facebook has allowed some of the worst elements of society into our homes and our lives. When this hate spreads online it causes tremendous harm and also becomes permissible offline," Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt said in a press release. "Our organizations have tried individually and collectively to push Facebook to make their platforms safer, but they have repeatedly failed to take meaningful action. We hope this campaign finally shows Facebook how much their users and their advertisers want them to make serious changes for the better." More than 55 percent of Facebook users reported experiencing hate and harassment on the platform, according to the ADL's survey of Americans using social media. The rights groups say Facebook has allowed content that could incite violence against protesters who are fighting for racial justice in the wake of the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade, Ahmaud Arbery and Rayshard Brooks. Facebook faced criticism for not removing a protest-related post by President Donald Trump that advocacy groups and even the company's own employees said could incite violence. Trump included the controversial phrase "when the looting starts, the shooting starts" in the social media post. Twitter obscured Trump's tweet with a notice that says the post violates its rules against "glorifying violence" but that also includes a button that lets users click through to read the tweet. Facebook didn't take action against Trump's post because the company determined it didn't violate its rules. Facebook also included Breitbart News, a far-right site, as a "trusted" source in its news service, and right-wing news and opinion site The Daily Caller is one of the company's fact-checking partners. Facebook didn't take action against misinformation from Trump about mail-in ballots, and the groups say the social network has "turned a blind eye to blatant voter suppression." "Let's send Facebook a powerful message: Your profits will never be worth promoting hate, bigotry, racism, antisemitism and violence," the StopHateforProfit campaign's website says. The groups' list of recommendations for Facebook include creating a separate "moderation pipeline" for hate speech; allowing users who've been targeted with hate or harassment to speak directly to a Facebook employee; and removing all ads that contain hate speech or misinformation. In a press call Wednesday, Facebook Vice President of Global Affairs and Communications Nick Clegg said the company doesn't allow hate speech on its platform. Facebook removed nearly 10 million posts for violating its rules against hate speech in the last quarter, he said, and most were taken down before users reported them. The social network relies on a mix of human reviewers and technology to moderate content, but detecting hate speech can be challenging because machines have to understand the cultural context of words. "Of course, we would like to do even better than that," Clegg said. "We need to do more. We need to move faster, but we are making significant progress." Trump's false claims about mail-in ballots didn't violate the company's rules against voter suppression because his comments were directed at state authorities and he was engaged in a debate about mail-in voting, as opposed to discouraging people from voting, Clegg said. The campaign to boycott Facebook advertising came a day after the company announced it would allow some users in the US to turn off political advertising. The social network is also trying to help 4 million people register to vote and launched a new online hub for voter information.

HARDKERNEL, makers of the Raspberry Pi alternative ODROID boards have announced an upgrade to the ODROID-H2, an Intel Celeron based single board computer. The ODROID-H2+ has a surprising amount of power in a board measuring only 110x110x43mm. Specifications Intel Celeron J4115 Gemini Lake quad core CPU 1.8 GHz, turbo to 2.3 GHz. Intel UHD Graphics 600 up to 700 MHz Dual-channel SO-DIMM Memory DDR4-PC19200 (2400MT/s) supporting up to 32GB RAM M.2 PCIe 2.0 x4 slot for one NVMe storage, 2x SATA 3.0 ports, eMMC flash support HDMI 2.0 up to 4K (4096×2160) @ 60 Hz DisplayPort 1.2 up to 4K (4096×2160) @ 60 Hz Dual 2.5 Gigabit Ethernet (RJ45) via RTL8125B chipset 24-pin header with I2C, UART (3.3V), USB2.0 and HDMI CEC signals 14V to 20V DC power input The Intel Celeron J4115 may not be a powerhouse but it does provide a decent desktop experience or as the basis for a low power home server setup. The RAM choice, fast 2.5 Gigabit ports and the plethora of built in storage options mean that this is an all round great single board computer and desktop replacement. As the ODROID-H2+ is basically a small format x86 board, it is compatible with Windows 10 and many Linux distributions including Ubuntu 20.04. Dual 4K 60Hz outputs is a welcome feature, the nearest competitor is the Raspberry Pi 4, which can output 4K and 60Hz to a single output and 4K 30Hz to dual outputs. A 24 pin peripheral expansion port header offers basic GPIO access, limited to I2C and UART. There is an additional 16Port I2C GPIO Board which can be used to offer more GPIO access. From the starting price of $119 we need to add the cost of RAM and storage, which can easily add another $100 so when thinking about purchasing the ODROID-H2+ it would be wise to factor in these costs versus other single board computers. If you need a little more power than what the Raspberry Pi can offer, then the ODROID-H2+ should be on your list.

2020 Bentley Bentayga facelift previewed in leaked images Premium SUV will receive a subtle exterior refresh and new interior technology in line with the Flying Spur Bentley will update its best-selling model, the Bentayga SUV, to bring it into line with its latest models for 2020 – and new images posted online give us an idea of what to expect from the overhaul. Pictures posted to Instagram by user Wilco Blok appear to have been taken from a launch brochure and partly reveal the Bentayga's refreshed styling and new-look interior. At the front, the Bentayga retains its prominent grille but receives a reconfigured headlight design to match the firm's new Continental and Flying Spur - both of which were launched after the Bentayga arrived in 2016 - and a reshaped bumper with new, straight-edged lower air intakes topped with the same mesh design as the grille. The rear-end design has not been leaked, but previously spotted test mules showed that the brake lights have been reshaped and expanded, while the current model's deep numberplate recess looks to have been brought forward. Changes to the interior look to be similarly subtle. The new images show off a new centre console design and reshaped instrument cluster, but more significant is the removal of physical buttons at the side of the infotainment screen. The current car's infotainment system is often criticised for feeling out of date next to cheaper siblings from Audi and Porsche, so the latest system from the Continental GT and Flying Spur looks to have been introduced, while the range of active safety technology should advance, too. The flagship W12 engine is expected to receive upgrades to boost efficiency, but don't expect anything dramatic across the rest of the range. The V8 is relatively new, too, and the six-cylinder plug-in hybrid model still isn't on sale after a lengthy delay. Question marks remain over the diesel model, which was officially axed from the firm's line-up in 2018. A change in attitude towards the fuel was blamed for its removal at the time, but since then, sibling brand Audi has introduced several large-capacity S-badged diesel models to its range.

Game Informations : Developer: Yuke's, Visual Concepts Publishers : 2K Games Platforms : PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Microsoft Windows Initial release date: 22 octobre 2019 WWE 2K20 is a mess. The pro wrestling series has never been known for its polish, but this year, just about every issue that has plagued WWE 2K is even worse. It’s bursting at the seams with bugs; many of its character models look even uglier than they already did last year; the lighting effects glitch constantly; there are virtually no noteworthy improvements to the actual wrestling, which feels woefully outdated at this point; its biggest new feature, the 2K Originals, is locked behind DLC and isn’t playable at launch; the MyCareer mode retains all of the same problems as last year but with none of the charm; and, perhaps worst of all, the collision detection and targeting is somehow way worse than ever before. It’s not worse than the completely unmitigated disaster that was the Switch version of WWE 2K18, but WWE 2K20 is nonetheless a Braun Strowman-sized step back for the series. OurCareer Last year’s WWE 2K19 was a major turning point in the series when it came to the marquee single-player mode, MyCareer, which offered a lengthy, fully voiced campaign with a decent story, strong acting from the lead characters, and great support from actual WWE Superstars. It wasn’t a complete stone cold stunner by any means, but it laid the foundation of what could be a great story mode going forward. But of course, like so much else in WWE 2K20, the attempt to build off that foundation misses the mark. The story revolves around both the hotheaded Red and her best friend Tre, who… well, he’s a complete idiot who compulsively needs to turn literally every sentence he speaks into an insufferably bad joke. Neither is as likable as Buzz or Cole from last year. Wrestling is often corny, but here it’s just relentless, like a Gatling gun of bad gags and one-liners. Like so much else in WWE 2K20, this year's new MyCareer story misses the mark. Their journey plays out over the course of 18 chapters as Red and Tre reminisce on their careers while being inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame. Everything is framed as a literal “To-Do List” that Tre and Red maintain, including tasks that range from typical WWE goals like “Win the Royal Rumble,” to bizarrely specific ones like “Wrestle in a Crybaby Match.” You cross them off the list one by one, covering everything from their earliest years wrestling on the indie scene to their big break at NXT, and even their literal dream matches. It’s a nice way to frame MyCareer that avoids a complete retread of WWE 2K19, but inside that framework is an incredibly dull story. It takes way too long for Red and Tre to make it to the WWE, and both the subplots involving the secrets that Tre and Red hold from each other and the rivalry between Red and her childhood bully fall completely flat. That’s not to say that it’s completely devoid of high points. Samoa Joe in particular turns in an incredibly entertaining performance that’s on par with some of his best work on WWE TV, and the few instances in which the writers are able to indulge in a little bit of fantasy also results in some of the most creative and fun moments the series has seen. These are too few and far between to lift the campaign out of its rut, though. The same character-progression issues that hamstrung last year’s MyCareer are present as well. There are still loot boxes that frustratingly restrict the gear and moves you can equip on your created characters, primarily to whatever you randomly pull. Thankfully you can only buy them with Virtual Currency and not real money, so WWE 2K20 at least sidesteps the firestorm that’s engulfed NBA 2K20. You can also use VC to buy individual items à la carte, but they’re unreasonably expensive considering how many moves and items of clothing you can customize. As an example, a purely cosmetic jacket that I got for one of my characters’ entrances cost 12,000 VC. That’s almost half of what you’re given in the MyCareer Kickstart, which is a pre-order bonus! Remember too that you now have two characters to customize. It’s so obnoxious that I honestly gave up on customization entirely at a certain point and just stuck with what I had for the remainder of the campaign. The way you get skills and attributes isn’t much better. You start off your career extremely weak, but as you win matches you’ll earn points to spend on a gigantic skill tree. Annoyingly, you can’t see what’s coming up until you unlock an adjacent hex, making it hard to plan a build for your character in advance and work toward the attributes you want. Each skill tree is laid out differently depending on the wrestling style you choose at the start of the mode, so high fliers will unlock hexes that improve their aerial related skills much earlier, while a strong style specialist will unlock hexes that improve their strikes, which is at least a nice way to differentiate the skill and attribute distribution of the different wrestling styles. But it all feels unsatisfying because, just like last year, the stat increases each skill unlocks are so specific and so minor that the difference is almost imperceptible unless you bank a bunch of points and go on a big spending spree, which there is no beneficial reason to ever do. Botchamania Outside of MyCareer, very few things have changed – and of those that have, even fewer are for the better. There’s a new Showcase mode that takes you through the story of WWE’s Women’s Revolution by letting you relive key matches in the careers of the Four Horsewomen: Becky Lynch, Charlotte, Sasha Banks, and Bayley. While it’s wonderful that such an important event in women’s wrestling is getting this spotlight, WWE 2K20 still hasn’t fixed the underlying issue from last year’s Showcase: individual matches take far too long, and there are no mid-match checkpoints. It is soul crushing to be 20 minutes in only to fail because an AI pinned another opponent in a fatal fourway while you were outside completing an extremely specific objective. I’m not salty. Very few things have changed – and of those that have, even fewer are for the better. Beyond that, the changes are a grab-bag of tweaks that often do more harm than good. Default controls have been changed in odd ways for seemingly no reason; new promo lines and cutscenes have been added to Universe mode, along with a bunch of other minor aesthetic/gameplay/character changes that might be exciting if it was a free patch for WWE 2K19; Create-a-Belt is no longer available, reportedly to be patched in later; and there’s a couple of wild new Paybacks that wrestlers can equip to gain supernatural buffs, like the ability to turn the lights off and teleport behind your opponent, Undertaker style. But the biggest difference is just how sloppy the actual wrestling feels to control. WWE 2K games have had years that were relatively light on new features before, but they’ve always been able to get by because the wrestling itself has been consistently solid thanks to seven years of iteration and improvement. But with 2K20, the wrestling is actually significantly worse than before, and that’s the worst possible mistake it could make. Targeting feels terrible, leading to more frustrating whiffs than ever before; enemy AI flip-flops between being dumb to the point of just walking into the ropes for 10 seconds and being a literal machine that effortlessly reverses every finisher you throw its way; weapons miss when they feel like they should hit and hit when it feels like they should miss; and limbs and objects clip through each other constantly. None of these issues are entirely new, but they happen much more frequently in 2K20 than in prior years. Call the Exterminator Then there are the bugs.Over the course of my playtime, I have encountered: Characters being completely invisible in cutscenes. Constant lighting-related glitches, including one scene where my characters were covered in shadows the whole time. Stairs sinking into the mat after powerbombing a wrestler onto them, causing a nightmarish scenario where the stairs then try to erupt through the mat. Bianca Belair’s hair turning into what can only be described as a petrified snake. Becky Lynch’s Backlash attire turning into an abomination in the character editor mode. A hard crash whenever I try to remove Kane’s mask in the editor. Commentary getting moves wrong, incorrectly stating a match is for a title or when it’s not, on top of the other usual narration woes that WWE 2K fans are all too familiar with at this point. The main title screen getting super laggy and chugging to about 15-20 FPS, which was only fixed by a restart. Luke Harper's entrance music is a 5 second loop that plays over his Bludgeon Brothers music. Just in general, so many crashes. The WWE 2K games have always been pretty buggy, but 2K20 is well beyond what should be acceptable for a $60 game. The frequent crashes make it extremely discouraging to want to start it up again, and while some of the glitches that happen mid-match can be entertaining in their own way, they also are frequent enough that they quickly lose their charm. There’s a paid post release DLC plan for WWE 2K20 in the form of the episodic 2K Originals. The first, called “Bump in the Night,” is free for those who pre-ordered 2K20, but was still not available to play at the time of this review. Included in the “Bump in the Night” episode is the hotly anticipated “Fiend” alter ego for Bray Wyatt, along with a host of monster-themed superstar skins. It actually does look really cool, which is all the more puzzling that it wasn’t included with the base game by default, especially considering how devoid of new content WWE 2K20 is without it. It’s especially disappointing considering that The Fiend is by far the hottest thing going in WWE right now, and to have him locked behind a pre-order pay wall feels pretty bad. Verdict WWE 2K19 looked like it stopped the downward trend for the series, but WWE 2K20 doubles back, breaks its ankle, and tumbles down the slope. Fundamental parts that felt totally fine in WWE 2K19 now feel clumsy, the impressive roster of 238 superstars is all but meaningless when a majority of them look like they crawled out of a PS2-era wrestling game, and while 2K20’s MyCareer mode offers a better wrestling story mode than most previous WWE 2K games, that’s a low bar to clear – it’s still saddled with bad progression and a plodding pace. This is a mess that 2K needs to clean up in a hurry. WWE 2K20 Recommended Requirements CPU: Intel Core i7 3770 / AMD FX-8350 CPU SPEED: info RAM: 8 GB OS: 64-bit: Windows 10 (latest updates) VIDEO CARD: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 / AMD Radeon R9 290X PIXEL SHADER: 5.1 VERTEX SHADER: 5.1 SOUND CARD: DirectX 9.0c Compatible sound card FREE DISK SPACE: 50 GB DEDICATED VIDEO RAM: 4096 MB

You made what you are required to as a journalist member ! You got my PRO

Regardless to your few topics you made in our project but you still have some good activities in teamspeak . Try to post some topics daily in different sections ( Devils Club ) categories ! I do not vote to reject you , i can give you my support when i see that you deserve it ! At the moment i prefer to make you in pending until you post some new topics related to our project . Pro for adding in pending list !

2021 Skoda Kodiaq vRS prototype previews design tweaks Sporty version of Skoda's flagship seven-seater spotted with redesigned front end and test rig for new powertrain Skoda is set to update its Kodiaq large SUV after nearly three years on sale, and a camouflaged prototype of the top-rung vRS variant appears to have been spotted testing ahead of an anticipated reveal later this year. The mule wears similar camouflage to a prototype of the standard Kodiaq seen last year, but its red brake calipers, larger brake discs, twin exhaust outlets and sports alloy wheels give it away as a member of Skoda's vRS performance line-up. Following in the footsteps of the updated Superb flagship, the Kodiaq is set to receive similarly subtle styling tweaks and an interior technology upgrade. Heavy camouflaging to the front and rear ends suggests the most obvious visual changes will come in the form of redesigned bumpers and light units, with Skoda’s trademark grille design carried over from the outgoing model. New features for the 2020 Kodiaq are likely to include the matrix LED headlights already seen on the new Superb, along with advanced driver aids such as predictive cruise control. Both prototypes spotted so far have been towing what appears to be a dynamometer, suggesting the planned introduction of a new powertrain. The refreshed Superb was revealed last year and is available for the first time with a plug-in hybrid option. That system is also expected to make its way into the Kodiaq in due course. With a 154bhp 1.4-litre turbocharged petrol engine mated to a 114bhp electric motor, PHEV variants of the new Superb are capable of 34 miles of pure electric range and a likely 7.4sec 0-62mph time. The Kodiaq would not be able to match these figures due to its extra weight, but it shouldn’t be too far off. More likely in this prototype’s instance, and given the lack of a grille-mounted charging port, is that it is running the revised 2.0 TDI Evo diesel engine first seen fitted to the new Volkswagen Passat.

Game Informations : Developer: Ubisoft Montréal, Ubisoft Québec, Ubisoft Singapour Publishers : Ubisoft Platforms : PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Microsoft Windows , Nitendo Switch Initial release date: 2 octobre 2018 Ironically for a game set in ancient Greece, Assassin’s Creed Odyssey is anything but Spartan. This epic-scale action-roleplaying game shines as a grand adventure through a magnificent and beautiful open world on a scale we’ve rarely seen. With so few compromises between quantity and quality, Odyssey vaults over its predecessors to become the most impressive game in the history of the series. Assassin’s Creed Odyssey begins more than 2,400 years ago at the onset of the Peloponnesian war: a decades-long struggle between Athens and Sparta for dominion over the ancient Greek world. It’s a fitting period to explore that’s rife with social and political intrigue, full-scale warfare on land and sea, and a tangible air of myth and legend. And after an astonishing 60-plus hours of galloping, sailing, and slicing through that historical-fiction sandbox, it’s easy to see why it was worth fighting so hard over. Odyssey’s world is the biggest and most vibrantly colorful of the series. Odyssey’s world is the biggest and most vibrantly colorful of the series. Even though much of its playground is blanketed in the fickle blue waters of the Aegean sea, its playable acreage is immense and rivaled only by its sheer jaw-dropping beauty. Greece is a stunning series of picturesque locales: white-stone isles, eternally autumnal forests, sun-blasted desert islands, an endless expanse of beach, alabaster cities defended by titanic statues of bronze and stone, and the inviting, rolling waves of the open sea. These beautiful scenes explode into life thanks to a lighting system that still causes me to stop and snap a picture even all these hours later. Of course, as with virtually all grand-scale game worlds, flaws lurk just under the surface. They range from minor immersion-breaking hiccups like draw distance that never seems to be quite far enough to capture the view, textures that arrive moments too late, or slightly off-sync audio, to the more severe: getting terminally stuck on geometry, finding an unlootable lootable item, or having your tamed beast become untamed when you die and reload – which may very well cause you to die and reload again if you happen to have had a tamed bear. Bugs like these were annoying, sure, but not quite frequent enough to sour me on exploring what has become one of my favorite open-world maps ever. For the first time in an Assassin’s Creed game we get a choice of whether to play exclusively as a man or a woman: siblings Alexios and Kassandra. True, as far as the story’s concerned they’re effectively the same character, but even though they’re superficial there are some meaningful differences. Namely, Kassandra’s voice acting is generally more consistently well done than that of her brother. These protagonists are easily the most flexible characters in any Assassin’s Creed game to date. For that matter, accents and voice delivery throughout Odyssey are hit or miss, usually falling somewhere between good and outright scenery-chewing, especially when it comes to no-name NPCs who sound like someone who’d watched My Big Fat Greek Wedding once before being asked to do an impersonation. But the facial animation of the marquee characters is superb, and you can sense the subtle disgust or confusion on the face of Alexios or Kassandra without them having to say a word. These protagonists are easily the most flexible characters in any Assassin’s Creed game to date when it comes to their personalities. As a mercenary, my Alexios was free to be whoever I decided he should be. A merc with a conscious, a one-track-mind horn dog, or a ruthless murdering psychopath – there are no wrong answers, but there were definitely consequences to the decisions I chose. Most dialogue decisions usually don’t carry much meaning outside of whether your character is an upstanding person or a total dick. For example, a desperate fisherwoman pleads to find her husband she fears was overtaken by pirates: I could agree to help find him for the sake of love and reconciliation and all the brownie points, or tell her I don’t work for free and watch her hopes dashed to pieces like the body of her former spouse upon the rocks. But some of those choices do affect the greater world around you: varied side missions become available according to your deeds, and certain characters could live or die – all the way through to the multiple possible endings. I never felt like I screwed myself out of something I wanted to do, but I had the freedom to be who I wanted to be. I had the freedom to be who I wanted to be. Who I wanted to be was someone who’s often too lazy or self-assured to hide his murderous ways, which put me in conflict with Odyssey’s new notoriety system. It’s a simple, common-sense approach: the more crimes you commit, the more likely it is that someone in the world puts a bounty on your head, and then a relentless cadre of procedurally named mercenaries begin to hunt and track you down. While I initially found the mercs who were sicced on me to be little more than loot pinatas, as I leveled up the generic names and descriptors – like Ilona the Agile (who was admittedly quite agile until I sunk her vessel and she drowned in the Aegean) – began to get more bombastic and threatening. For example, Mariah the Glimmering dogged me throughout my level-30s and her flaming spear and voracious pet lion worked in tandem to skewer or maul me into sweet oblivion on multiple occasions. I eventually just started running away when she had tracked me down, before finally ending her reign of terror some ten levels later. Sure, the loot wasn’t great, but it was worth it. The mercenaries sent to kill me eventaully earned my respect With a high enough bounty, this endless procession of relentless pursuers began to show up in force to complicate matters while I was in the middle of sieging a fort – and before I could finish fighting one another would join, eager to hunt my head for coin. Then another, then another, and soon I had to choose between battling five headhunters while I tried to complete my objective in a defended fort, or turn tail and run. They eventually earned my respect, and I appreciate the chaotic X-factor they bring to Odyssey. Rising through their ranks to gain the attention of their legendary warriors is a fun meta-game in and of itself. Similarly, the nation struggle system allows you to help the war effort for either Sparta or Athens in each region. By destroying supplies, pillaging war chests, or deposing a national leader, you’ll trigger a conquest battle. While these huge melee or naval battles are thoroughly excellent combat scenarios and reward you with some good loot, they mean disappointingly little to the story. Regardless of whether you’re attacking or defending, which side you join, or who ultimately wins, the war machine keeps turning. Eventually, I got to a point where I was able to weaken a region and trigger a conquest battle rather quickly, which made these mini-wars effectively farmable. That sucks some of the grandeur out of them, but seeing a hundred soldiers, captains, and mercenaries locked in combat is always a sight to behold. Weapons behave just differently enough for meaningful nuance. Odyssey continues what Origins started last year, moving combat to a free-flowing dance of light and heavy attacks. The weapons are swords, daggers, axes, maces, spears, and staves, all of which behave just differently enough for meaningful nuance. In the heat of battle, it’s an easy-to-grasp system of slashes and skills, and I’m still picking fights just for the joy of it – especially against improbable odds, like the Greek legends of old. There’s a staggering amount of equipment to find, upgrade, and engrave with powerful perks. Odyssey smartly offers you the chance to upgrade an old piece of gear to your level for a hefty fee, depending on its rarity. Thanks to that system, I didn’t have to say goodbye to my favorite sword and axe that I used throughout much of the adventure – but that attachment cost me a small fortune in resources to keep them up to date every few levels. But even if I didn’t always have the crafting materials or currency needed to upgrade my old reliable Spartan War Hero helmet to my current level, a constant stream of new viable gear continued to pour in, giving me options until I refilled my coffers. Leveling is a seamless experience, and though it predictably slows the higher you get, I never felt like I was spinning my wheels for an excessively long time before being rewarded. The real progression comes from Odyssey’s three distinct skill trees: Warrior (melee), Hunter (archery), and Assassin (stabby stab stab). Each holds powerful abilities that can devastate on the battlefield, and while I opted to turn Alexios into a killing machine by focusing almost entirely on the warrior tree I also dabbled in the others, enough to pick up Archer skills like the head-splitting Predator Shot and the Shadow Assassin ability that made silent kills more reliable. More than any other Assassin’s Creed before, I felt I could tailor my mercenary to my play style without making any real sacrifices. The Sparta Kick was the single most devastating and just plain fun weapon. Even when experimenting, every skill I chose felt worthwhile. Stripping shields from the hands of well-defended enemies, delivering brutally overpowered attacks, activating life-saving heals, and a multitude of craftable special arrows made me feel like I had the utility to handle a small army. But thanks to the murderous power of gravity, I found the Sparta Kick (a winking acknowledgement to Leonidas’ punting a foe off a cliff to his death in the movie 300) to be the single most devastating and just plain fun weapon in my arsenal for nearly half my playthrough. Naval warfare is the best it’s ever been in Assassin’s Creed. The other pillar of combat is naval warfare, which is the best it’s ever been in Assassin’s Creed. It’s that same familiar system of ramming, raining arrows and javelins on opposing vessels – both standard and of the fiery variety – and maneuvering to fend off retaliation. But this time around, your ship, the Adrestia, has much more excellent upgradeable options to buff out arrow damage, ramming damage, or durability at the cost of a ton of collectible resources. While those costs continue to rise, finally collecting enough to sink a point into a new upgrade instills a sense of real accomplishment. By the time I had finished the main story, I was annihilating mercenary vessels several levels higher than me because of the upgrades I chose, and I felt like I could handle just about anything the Aegean had to throw at me. But Odyssey’s thoughtful systems for upgrading mean even when you’re on land, the sea is ever-present, because you can always be working toward upgrading your ship. Nearly every enemy you encounter, from foot soldiers to Spartan generals, can be subdued and recruited to join your ship as a lieutenant in a way that’s reminiscent of Shadow of War’s army-building Nemesis system. It’s a smart sub-layer of optimization that not only adds customization, but kept me thinking about the Adrestia even while I was hundreds of miles inland. And of course, gliding across the glassy Aegean and charging headlong into an armada of pirates, Spartans, Athenians, or even helpless merchant vessels is something I relish even after so much time dominating Greece’s waters. Its straightforward family drama is unhindered by the tired Assassins versus Templars soap opera. While side missions and combat are abundant and fun, eventually you’ve got to move Odyssey’s main story forward. It’s enjoyable, with genuine moments of bare emotion that made me feel for those involved. Its straightforward family drama is unhindered by the tired Assassins versus Templars soap opera, which is thankfully all but entirely kicked to the curb this time. Instead, it comes up with enough twists and memorable side characters of its own to keep me invested. At the same time, Odyssey’s main story is padded with mission after mission of meaningless errands that make getting to those strong character moments a painstaking gauntlet of splintered tasks. Oftentimes the payoff of a major character reveal was dulled because I had to spend six hours chasing my tail through half the Greek world to reach it. Which is a shame, since those moments really solidify your mercenary character as a person, rather than a means to an end. But even after completing the main story, there’s still so much left to uncover that I’m nearly as overwhelmed with where to go and what to do next as I was when I started. The three main story pillars weave in and out of one another, but for a large chunk of the adventure you have access to quests from each, so there’s both a variety to choose from and meaningful things left to complete when you finish the main character’s family story. Whether I’m hunting down the remnants of the sinister Cult of Kosmos, tracking down relics that push the totally superficial present-day story forward, fighting mythological monsters, or hunting the great beasts of Greek legend, there’s a staggering amount of content left to discover. Verdict Assassin’s Creed Odyssey is a resounding achievement in world building, environment, and engaging gameplay with occasional problems throughout. Its incredible recreation of ancient Greece is something I’ll want to go back to long after I’ve finished its main story, and its excellent systems mesh together in a way that’s hard to beat. While there are definite rough edges, Odyssey sets a new bar for Assassin’s Creed games and holds its own in the eternal debate over the best open-world roleplaying games ever. Assassin's Creed Odyssey Recommended Requirements CPU: AMD FX-8350 @ 4.0 GHz, Ryzen 5 - 1400, Intel Core i7-3770 @ 3.5 GHz CPU SPEED: Info RAM: 8 GB OS: Windows 7 SP1, Windows 8.1, Windows 10 (64-bit versions only) VIDEO CARD: AMD Radeon R9 290 or NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 (4GB VRAM or more with Shader Model 5.0) or better PIXEL SHADER: 5.0 VERTEX SHADER: 5.0 SOUND CARD: Yes FREE DISK SPACE: 46 GB available hard drive space DEDICATED VIDEO RAM: 4096 MB

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Extreme E: the off-road race series trying to save the planet Developed by the founder of Formula E, outlandish new electric super-SUV series Extreme E is aiming to reinvent motorsport The whole concept of Extreme E is ludicrous. Utterly, utterly ludicrous. Consider: it’s a new series for lightweight electric off-road racers producing 536bhp and 679lb ft that will compete in a series of contests in five of the world’s most remote locations, spanning four continents. So far, a little unusual. The X Prix events will take the form of qualifying, semi-final and final sprints, staged on a two-lap run over on an off-road track around five miles in length. Teams of two – one male driver, one female – will take part, with a mid-race driver switch at the end of the lap. Okay, that’s quite odd. The five event locations have been selected because they’ve all been damaged by human activity and climate change, with the goal of the Extreme E organisers being to raise awareness of such issues and support sustainability projects to repair their environments for the future. These efforts to promote sustainability will be overseen by an expert independent panel of scientists, drawn from Cambridge and Oxford universities. Right, then. It’s getting crazy now. Anything else? Oh, yes: instead of flying to each location, the entire operation will be carried on a specially converted Royal Mail cargo ship that will double as a mobile environmental research laboratory. See? It’s absolutely ludicrous. It’s a concept that’s like no other motorsport championship previously conceived – and one that seemingly stretches the boundaries of credibility. So why should we be taking Extreme E seriously? Well, for starters, because the man who created it has a proven track record of pulling off the seemingly impossible. That man is Alejandro Agag, the 49-year-old Spanish politician-turned-businessman-turned-motorsport team boss and the founder of Formula E. While it’s now in its sixth season and supported by some of the world’s biggest car manufacturers, the basic concept of an electric single-seater championship met plenty of scepticism and doubt when Formula E was launched back in 2014. Many doubted it would even get to launch. And even when it did, some didn’t think it would survive. “Extreme E is only possible because of what happened with Formula E,” says Agag, who remains chairman of the single-seater series. “It has been motivation for me: people have questioned whether Extreme E can actually happen, but less than they did when we launched Formula E. It has been key to giving us energy, and we’ve gained credibility.” Extreme E was also shaped in part by Agag’s desire to create a series as far removed from Formula E as possible. “Formula E is based around single-seater racing cars,” he says, “so we wanted to do something based around road cars, and SUVs are an increasingly big market for manufacturers. “And Formula E was designed to take part inside cities, so we went to the other extreme and sought out the most remote locations possible.” Those five locations are key, with each based in a different environment – ocean, desert, glacier, arctic and rainforest – to showcase a range of ecological issues. While Formula E is designed to take electric cars to the public, Extreme E is about taking the public – virtually, at least – to the environment. “From the beginning, a real priority has been to base the project in science,” says Agag. “Of course Extreme E is a race, a car race. But we want to use it as an instrument to tell the story of what’s going on in some of the most damaged ecosystems on the planet.” That’s where the Scientific Committee comes in. Its four members will advise Extreme E bosses on how to minimise the environmental impact of the series, on research and education programmes and on legacy initiatives to support communities in each region visited. For example, for the ‘rainforest’ event in Brazil, Extreme E is working with a local project called The Nature Conservancy to restore several hundred hectares of the Amazon. Extreme E was also shaped in part by Agag’s desire to create a series as far removed from Formula E as possible. “Formula E is based around single-seater racing cars,” he says, “so we wanted to do something based around road cars, and SUVs are an increasingly big market for manufacturers. “And Formula E was designed to take part inside cities, so we went to the other extreme and sought out the most remote locations possible.” Those five locations are key, with each based in a different environment – ocean, desert, glacier, arctic and rainforest – to showcase a range of ecological issues. While Formula E is designed to take electric cars to the public, Extreme E is about taking the public – virtually, at least – to the environment. “From the beginning, a real priority has been to base the project in science,” says Agag. “Of course Extreme E is a race, a car race. But we want to use it as an instrument to tell the story of what’s going on in some of the most damaged ecosystems on the planet.” That’s where the Scientific Committee comes in. Its four members will advise Extreme E bosses on how to minimise the environmental impact of the series, on research and education programmes and on legacy initiatives to support communities in each region visited. For example, for the ‘rainforest’ event in Brazil, Extreme E is working with a local project called The Nature Conservancy to restore several hundred hectares of the Amazon. Of course, international shipping is a major contributor to environmental damage, and the RMS Saint Helena is powered by diesel engines. But Agag responds: “Any human activity has a carbon footprint. If you don’t want to create one, you need to stay in bed – and even doing that has a carbon footprint. “The aim is to minimise your carbon footprint, and using a ship will produce about a third of the emissions of flying. We’ve installed state-of-the-art filters to make the engines as clean as possible.” Extreme E’s remote locations means that its events won’t be open to spectators, which is another reason for scepticism. Formula E’s city races give it a high profile that has helped draw in major manufacturers, but it still struggles to attract substantial television audiences. So can Extreme E? “The interesting locations will get people to their screens to watch,” says Agag. “People will want to watch the locations, and that will be a big hook for fans. And when they do watch, we need to make sure we get a real race, and we need a competitive race with high performance – and the performance of these cars is huge and crazy.” As with Formula E, Extreme E will effectively start as a single-car formula, using what’s officially known as the Spark Odyssey 21. Built by French company Spark Racing Technology, which also makes Formula E chassis, it’s a bespoke 1650kg, four-wheel-drive machine built around a steel-alloy tubular frame. It has beefed-up double-wishbone suspension with 385mm of travel and Continental off-road tyres. A mid-mounted electric motor gives it a total output of 536bhp and 679lb ft for a 0-62mph time of 4.5sec; its top speed is limited to 124mph. Teams and manufacturers will be able to use their own bodywork so the racers can be linked to road-going SUVs. “They’re monsters,” says Agag. “They have power and acceleration that you’ve never seen before in an SUV. We had a couple of drivers who’ve done the Dakar Rally test the car, and they were in absolute shock afterwards. The power-to-weight ratio and handling are off the scale. They’re pure race cars. “We’re using the ultimate in Formula E technology. When we started Formula E, we were starting from scratch. For the first season, we looked at what we could do in terms of performance, but we put the focus on reliability: to ensure credibility, we needed cars to finish the race. Then we’ve slowly increased performance as the series has grown. But with Extreme E, we’re starting with six years of Formula E technology.” Extreme E also starts with the benefit of six years of Formula E credibility. When that championship started, the major questions surrounded the technology. Given the advances in EVs since 2014, that won’t be an issue for Extreme E; the questions for the new series concern its environmental message. Agag is aiming to draw interest from those with an interest in the environment who are new to motorsport, as well as general motorsport fans “who get a fix from any sort of combustion engine or EV competing”. He quips: “There will be hardcore petrolheads who will be impossible to win over, so why should we try?” But for those who do tune in? “Extreme E can grow into a valuable platform to raise awareness of environmental issues, which is the main target,” says Agag. “And it’s also going to become a really fun format that fans will want to watch. It’s the future of off-road racing.” It’s also, as we mentioned before, utterly ludicrous – and yet it’s absolutely worth taking seriously. X Prix events will run over two days, on an off-road course around five miles in length and marked out by a series of five or six ‘virtual’ gates that must be passed through. Each race will take place over two laps, with a driver swap required at the end of the first. The opening day will feature two qualifying rounds, each with two four-car races. That means the eight teams will each take part in two races, with the line-ups shuffled for the two qualifying rounds. The fastest four will progress to the first semi-final, with the bottom four competitors moving into the second semi-final – known as the 'crazy race'. The top three finishers from semi-final one will progress to the final, where they will be joined by the winner of the all-or-nothing 'crazy race'. Competitors can also benefit from the Hyperdrive feature, which will be offered in each race to the driver who perfoms the longest jump on the course's first crest. In a similar fashion to Formula E's fanboost, it will give that driver a temporary power boost. A number of drivers have signed up to an Extreme E drivers programme to show their interest in competing in the series. They include six-time world rally champion Sebastien Ogier, double DTM champion Timo Scheider, Formula E champion Lucas di Grassi, Le Mans winner and Formula E racer Andre Lotterer and W Series champion Jamie Chadwick. The first confirmed driver is Sara Price, a dirt bike champion and former X Games medallist who now runs in off-road desert truck racing. The 27-year-old Californian will compete for the Chip Ganassi Racing squad.

Train carriages at New Delhi station India is to convert another 500 railway carriages to create 8,000 more beds for coronavirus patients in Delhi, amid a surge in infections. Home Minister Amit Shah announced a package of new emergency measures for the capital, including a rapid increase in testing for Covid-19. Nursing homes will also be requisitioned. He met Delhi's Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal to address the crisis. India's daily number of confirmed new cases has reached almost 12,000. The total number of 320,922 officially confirmed cases puts India fourth in the world - after the US, Brazil and Russia - in the pandemic. The death toll in India stands at 9,195, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University from official sources. The Hindustan Times reports that Delhi is the third worst-hit state in India after Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu. It reports that Delhi's bed capacity across private and government hospitals for Covid-19 patients stands at 9,698, of which 4,248 beds are vacant. How India’s railways are joining the Covid-19 fight Why this state has India's highest mortality rate 'Our home turned into a Covid-19 hospital overnight' Why is India reopening amid a spike in virus cases? Mr Kejriwal's government plans to use 40 hotels and 77 banquet halls as makeshift hospitals. India began converting railway carriages into quarantine or isolation wards in April, when large parts of the railway network were suspended owing to the pandemic. Coronavirus: Death and despair for migrants on Indian roads Last month the national government announced plans to end a national lockdown that began on 25 March. Road and plane traffic increased as restrictions started to ease, and many businesses and workplaces reopened. Markets are crowded again. The lockdown has imposed huge economic costs on India, throwing millions of people out of work, especially migrant workers in precarious, meagrely-paid jobs. Food supply chains were also put at risk.

Game Informations : Developer: Irrational Games, 2k Marin, Blind Squirrel Games, 2K Australia, Digital Extremes Publishers : 2K Games Platforms : PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Microsoft Windows Initial release date: 13 septembre 2016 Stepping back into Rapture after an extended time away felt like coming home in BioShock: The Collection . Bringing together the trilogy of games and all of their respective DLC, The Collection offers the best opportunity for newcomers to dive into some of the most memorable first-person shooters of the last generation. Longtime fans of lighthouses, Big Daddys, and plasmids, on the other hand, will find uneven rewards across the three games. IGN gave BioShock a 9.7 upon its original release, calling it “one of those monumental experiences you’ll never forget.” And that memorable exploration of objectivism and utopian ideals wrapped in a collapsed Art Deco underwater city remains an impactful one. What struck me most about starting up the original BioShock as part of The Collection was just how evocative the introduction remains. The original BioShock receives the most noticeable visual upgrade — Rapture looks as beautiful and haunting as I remembered the 2007 version appearing in my head. Sure, even with the visual polish it can’t quite stand up to some of the detailed worlds being produced today, but Rapture’s dank, collapsing corridors are still a wonder to behold based on their style if not their technology. As an experienced BioShock player back for more I’ve searched every nook and cranny of that underwater city several times before, and yet I still found myself scouring corners once again because there’s now a new incentive to explore all of Rapture: an unlockable director’s commentary video series called “Imagining BioShock.” The multi-part series, found via film reels hidden in Rapture, is the only major content addition to any game in The Collection, but it’s a good one because we get to watch Irrational Games’ Creative Director Ken Levine and Animation Director Shawn Robertson breaking down the original BioShock from its initial conception to the final product. After that cohesive and entertaining look back it’s disappointing that neither BioShock 2 nor BioShock Infinite have any new content at all. It’s disappointing that neither BioShock 2 nor BioShock Infinite have any new content at all. Speaking of those two sequels, BioShock 2 (which IGN originally gave a 9.1 in 2010) has a more subtle visual update. It’s mostly seen in the improved lighting of the still-crumbling Rapture so the difference isn’t as stark as BioShock 1’s revamped textures. It still plays well, though – while the plot feels like a retread of the themes and concepts that made the first such an intriguing story, the smart changes to gameplay (dual-wielding plasmids and weapons seems like a revelation when compared to the first game) and focus on wave-based combat during certain scenarios are a welcome upgrade. In fact, the biggest change to BioShock 2 in The Collection is that it lacks its multiplayer this time around. Though it worked surprisingly well for a tacked-on multiplayer mode of that era in the original version, its absence isn’t a deal breaker in a collection focused on strong single-player experiences. (Note that the Uncharted series’ Nathan Drake Collection also dropped the old multiplayer modes — this may be a trend.) BioShock Infinite (which IGN gave a 9.4 in 2013), meanwhile, is a more modern game to begin with, so the only perceptible change to the Collection version as compared to the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 edition is the higher resolution, better texture quality, and smoother 60 frames per second frame rate that finally matches the PC version. The beautiful floating citadel remains picturesque and bright, which is a welcome change after two go-arounds submerged in the depths of the ocean. But as a returning visitor, Infinite’s beauty is less immediately striking than it was, and the lack of upgrades or new content left me less motivated to explore. With that said, Infinite and its fantastic Burial at Sea parts 1 and 2 expansions still feel like the ambitious follow-up the original BioShock needed. Not all of its twists and turns work, and the middle section can still be a slog to work through (the Lady Comstock battle will forever be a pain). Yet Infinite’s world is still one imbued with a sense of wonder that remains worthy of playing through. Verdict As a veteran returning to play through the three games of BioShock: The Collection is a pleasure, but it’s a bit disappointing to watch the updates and behind-the-scenes content to each entry gradually decline. The original BioShock receives the greatest overhaul and flourishes with new textures and lighting that bring it almost up to modern standards, and a Ken Levine retrospective, while BioShock Infinite is essentially the PC version Of course the ideas and gameplay presented and executed in all three are as memorable as they were when first released, and anyone who missed them a decade ago should definitely consider rectifying that. If you intend to play one of these fascinating and fun adventures for the first time or the tenth, the BioShock Collection is the best way to go about it. BioShock The Collection Recommended Requirements CPU: Info CPU SPEED: 3GHz Quad-Core Processor RAM: 8 GB OS: Windows 7 Service Pack 1 64-bit. Platform Update for Windows 7 SP1 and Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 VIDEO CARD: 2GB ATI Radeon HD 7970, 2GB NVIDIA GeForce GTX 770 or better PIXEL SHADER: 5.0 VERTEX SHADER: 5.0 SOUND CARD: Yes FREE DISK SPACE: BioShock 25GB; BioShock 2 25GB; BioShock Infinite 30GB; Total for all three games 80GB DEDICATED VIDEO RAM: 2048 MB

Daniel Ricciardo on F1's future, Hamilton's success and how to win He may be known as the cheeriest driver in F1, but behind that persona lies a will of steel and unshakeable self-confidence Daniel Ricciardo, 30, has started 171 Formula 1 races, scoring seven wins, 29 podiums, three pole positions and 13 fastest laps. Lewis Hamilton, 35, has started 250 F1 races, scoring six world championships, 84 wins, 151 podiums, 88 pole positions and 47 fastest laps. Yet Ricciardo is modestly but forcefully unequivocal. “There are rarely unicorns in sport,” he says. “There’s always a small handful of people who have the talent to win on any given day, and our sport is no different. I believe there’s a group of us at the top tier, and I believe I and a handful of others, in the same car, could have given him a run for those titles.” On the day we speak, Ricciardo is a Renault driver through and through, kicking his heels at home in Australia at the curtailed current season and rumoured to be earning £26.5 million per year, which gives an insight into how highly the team valued him when they signed him from Red Bull in 2019. As you read this, he remains a Renault driver but now has a contract signed and sealed to move to McLaren for 2021. His retainer is likely to be substantially lower, albeit a result of market forces rather than undoubtedly disappointing results over the past 12 months for a man who sets out his stall as a potential world champion. So how good is Ricciardo, and will his move to McLaren – likened disparagingly by one football fan as the equivalent of moving from Arsenal to Tottenham Hotspur in that it takes him from one potential top-of-the-midfield team to another – be enough to convert his own self-belief into the kind of results that separate the good from the great? On the one hand, Ricciardo’s move to Renault has done far more for his bank balance than his reputation, with the team losing performance last year compared with 2018. He was seen off by Red Bull team-mate Max Verstappen in 2018 and, if you want to be really mean (but factual), was outscored three seasons prior by the soon-to-be sacked Daniil Kvyat. On the other hand, this is a man who has won races on tracks as challenging as Monaco and Spa-Francorchamps, who beat four-time-world-champion team-mate Sebastian Vettel in 2014 and who is rated by many observers as the finest judge bar none of late, heavy braking from high speeds – a skill that has notably been key to many of his finest results. “I’m in that top group,” Ricciardo reiterates, albeit with the refreshing acknowledgement that he understands the difference between self-belief and hard results. “As far as talent or ability to push a car to the limit – the skill set – there are a few of us that can get there. But we need the right car, and then, for this group, the difference is less about speed and more about the ability to nail results race after race. On a given day, a few of us could win. Where you have to hand it to Lewis is that he does it time and time again. “What separates that little group, beyond the car, is the mental and physical ability to deal with everything this sport throws at you, week in, week out. It’s the days when your health isn’t so good, or you’re feeling a bit jet-lagged, or you’ve just had a bad week. If you can still get in the car and deliver on them, then you can be champion. “The point with Lewis – the point that makes him special – is that he has done that six times. Even if you argue he’s had the best equipment, that achievement is remarkable. To stay on himself year after year, to keep pushing himself, to take on the pressure of being the one we’re all hunting: that’s remarkable. For all my confidence – and I’m certain I could win a title against him – could I battle and beat him year after year? I don’t know. It’s some achievement, and it warrants respect.” In that context, Ricciardo also offers an interesting insight into the value of experience in F1; this should be his 10th season or part-season in the highest echelon of the sport, but he’s clear that his seat time makes him a better driver, not necessarily a faster one. “There’s an element of raw speed that you either have or you don’t,” he says. “That feeling, the sensitivity through your fingertips and bum, is either there from day one or it’s not. That’s maybe 90% of the make-up of a successful racing driver. I sometimes watch on-boards of myself from 10 years ago, and I rarely think I could do it faster today. “But that doesn’t mean you can’t improve. In fact, you should be improving, learning all the time. There are so many variables in this sport, from the car design to its set-up, the way the climate changes its behaviour, how tracks change characteristic over a weekend and so on. You have to learn how to adapt, how to drive fast across a broader spectrum of variables. A really successful driver has to learn to change their style to suit the conditions. I’m not sure that learning process should ever end for anyone who wants to be top of their game.” None of that escapes the fact that Ricciardo is likely to spend this year doing more learning than winning. Probably next year, too. He describes Renault’s pre-season testing as leaving the team “in a strong place for good points but certainly still a bit off the top three” and must recognise that, for all McLaren’s history and its 2021 switch to using the leading Mercedes engine, the team is unlikely to make the leap required to become a winner again when the regulations are so stable for the next two years, allowing today’s lead trio of Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull to preserve their advantages. As with Renault, podiums are probably a realistic goal. For now, Ricciardo is philosophical, but it seems reasonable that a man with his results and self-assurance can’t sit on the fringes for long. “I’m not the most patient person,” he accepts, “because I believe in myself. Age does bring patience; this is a sport of 20 drivers who can’t all be winning. But I’ve proved I can win races, and I don’t want Ricciardo endured a difficult first year with Renault to deny myself that feeling for much longer. It’s two years now since I won in Monaco, and I’m craving that feeling again. “All this time we have now is in some ways great – our bodies just don’t get the chance to be in one place, the same time zone, controlled diet and so on for any sustained amount of time normally – so there’s something to be said for it. But when the season gets going, I think it’s going to be very high-paced, with the following season following on pretty quickly afterwards. “I can train all I want. I have space out here in Australia to run different routes every day, test some buggies on the loose out in the woods to keep my reactions up and do all the gym work I can dream of, and even pools to cool off in, but ultimately it’s all towards the goal of going racing. “A good training session can work off some of the frustration, but it can’t get me back where I want to be: in the seat of a racing car. Until I’ve achieved my goals, that’s all I want to be doing.” Australia's other F1 race winners JACK BRABHAM Three world titles are enough to put ‘Black Jack’ into any all-time greats list. His achievements were made all the greater by the geographical challenges he faced as he forced himself into F1 and then on to title successes with Cooper. But of his three titles (1959, 1960 and 1966), it’s the last that elevates him further in most observers’ estimations, as it was achieved at the wheel of a car bearing both his name and, to a significant degree, engineering. Notably, two of his three sons – David and Gary – earned F1 seats, albeit with backmarker teams. ALAN JONES It’s hard to write the word ‘Australian’ without appending it with ‘no-nonsense’, and nobody typified that national characteristic more than Jones, who gelled with the equally straightforward (some might say pig-headed) and brilliant Frank Williams and Patrick Head to scoop the 1980 world championship. In an era of hardheaded racers, Jones was the hardest of them all – although his fallout with Williams partner Carlos Reutemann is sometimes blamed for the 1981 title slipping to Brabham’s Nelson Piquet. MARK WEBBER There are so many positives to write about Webber’s career… yet they’re all undone by his failure to become champion. Having forced his way through Europe’s racing ladder with very little in the way of funding, then into the Minardi F1 team against the odds, Webber found himself scrapping against indisputably favoured team-mate Sebastian Vettel for wins and titles. It looked to have fallen his way in 2010 but unravelled late in the year. Most drivers would love nine wins, 13 poles, 42 podiums and more than 1000 points, but it could have been much more.

The Australian man was reportedly arrested with methamphetamine in his luggage An Australian man has been sentenced to death in China for drug smuggling, the Australian government has confirmed. The man was named in Australian media as Karm or Cam Gilespie. He is believed to have been arrested at an airport in 2013 with 7.5kg (16 Ibs) of methamphetamine, also known as ice, in his luggage, the Sydney Morning Herald newspaper reports. Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said it was "deeply saddened to hear of the verdict". "Australia opposes the death penalty, in all circumstances for all people. We support the universal abolition of the death penalty and are committed to pursuing this goal through all the avenues available to us," it said in a statement. What's the background? Relations between China and Australia have been strained by trade disputes and mutual criticism during the coronavirus pandemic. Australia angered China by calling for an independent inquiry into the origins of the virus, first detected in the Chinese city of Wuhan late last year. China rejects calls for inquiry into virus origins Why China's rise exposes Australian vulnerabilities Beijing subsequently warned citizens against travelling to Australia, saying there had been a "significant increase" in racist attacks on Asian people, and told Chinese students to consider the risks of studying there. China has also banned Australia's beef imports and imposed tariffs on its barley. Prime Minister Scott Morrison said Australia would "never be intimidated by threats". Karm Gilespie is thought to have been arrested seven years ago while trying to board an international flight from Baiyun Airport in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou. Chinese media reports say the death sentence was announced by the Guangzhou Intermediate People's Court on 10 June. How often does China execute people? China refuses to disclose how many people it executes. Rights group Amnesty International believes thousands are killed every year. The sentence is carried out by lethal injection or by firing squad. At least a dozen foreigners have been executed for drug-related offences, and many more are on death row. One of the most high-profile cases involved British man Akmal Shaikh, who was executed in 2009 despite claims he was mentally ill and an appeal for clemency from the UK prime minister. Australians have been sentenced to death previously, including Bengali Sherrif in 2015. Sherrif was arrested at Guangzhou airport after trying to smuggle methamphetamine between China and Australia. At the time, Australia's public broadcaster said Sherrif's death sentence could be softened to life in prison after two years of good behaviour. Australia also expressed concern when Canadian citizen Robert Schellenberg was handed a death sentence in January 2019. Prosecutors allege that he tried to smuggle almost 227kg (500lb) of methamphetamine from Dalian, in northern China, to Australia. Schellenberg denied all charges and said he has been framed. Canadian's death sentence in China 'horrific', family says Simon Birmingham - who was then acting foreign minister and is now Australia's trade minister - said at the time that the country was "deeply concerned" by the case.

Game Informations : Developer: Mimimi Games Publishers : Nordic Games , THQ Platforms : PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Microsoft Windows Initial release date: 16 Juin 2020 While the Western genre may be synonymous with lighting-fast duels and run-and-gun shootouts, Desperados 3’s real-time tactical stealth missions are best played at a meticulous crawl. Slow and steady is the order of the day in this often fiercely challenging game of covert cowboys, so it’s just as well that Desperados 3 gives you a colourful gang of outlaws with unique and complementary skills, ever-changing mission parameters that encourage experimentation, and a diverse collection of sand-swept settings to sneak through. Desperados 3 is a Western that’s just as wily as it is wild, and should be firmly in the ironsights of anyone with the appetite for a serious stealth challenge. It’s entirely possible you’re not familiar with the Desperados series, considering the last instalment of the previously PC-only franchise – Desperados 2: Cooper’s Revenge – was released 14 years ago. It matters not, though, since Desperados 3 is a prequel to the original game and thus any prior knowledge of its plot or characters isn’t necessary for newcomers looking to saddle up. Desperados 3’s campaign serves as an origin story for main protagonist John Cooper, who stars in yet another tale of bitter revenge that spills its first blood on the rocks of Colorado and leaves a trail all the way down to the dustiest depths of New Mexico. It’s a violent tour through a series of vibrant and wonderfully detailed frontier settings. The plot may be more stock standard than an unmodified Winchester, but what makes the 30-hour journey of Desperados 3’s campaign so captivating is the camaraderie shared between its five playable characters. Their contextual banter as you make your way through each murderous mission really helps to define their individual personalities, making for an outlaw gang I was consistently happy to be at the reigns of. An early mission sees two characters make a bet to see who can claim the most scalps, and then with each subsequent kill you can hear them call out their running tallies like Gimli and Legolas in Lord of the Rings, which is just one of numerous nice little touches. Although it admittedly seems a little odd when these back-and-forths continue even when the characters are separated by large stretches of the map, almost as though they’ve been outfitted with walkie talkies by a time-traveling Doc Brown. The Magnificent Five Each member of your bloodthirsty brigade has their own specific skills and tools, and much of Desperados 3 is spent hiding in bushes for several minutes at a time trying to decide exactly which combination of them is required to systematically snuff out each area full of enemies. Cooper can toss coins to startle horses into kicking guards unconscious, Doc McCoy’s rifle can snipe enemies from afar, Hector’s shotgun blast can take out closely gathered troops all at once, and Kate can don a seductive disguise in order to divert an enemy’s gaze. These individual skills are typically best used in tandem, such as using Hector to lay down a bear trap behind some bushes and then getting the coquettish Kate to lure them into its gaping maw. Isabelle provides a supernatural spin on the otherwise fairly traditional stealth mechanics. Each character is consistently useful but by far the most valuable slayer in Desperados 3 is Isabelle. This voodoo priestess provides a supernatural spin on the otherwise fairly traditional stealth mechanics, largely by means of her ability to fire a blow dart into two enemies to link them together as a pair of walking voodoo dolls, whereby whatever fate befalls one is simultaneously inflicted upon the other. Tethering baddies together in this way leads to some truly inspired solutions for thinning out the enemy numbers, and I felt that Desperados 3 was really at its most flexible anytime Isabelle was placed by the story into my stealth squad of between one and five characters. It’s a slight shame she doesn’t actually join Cooper’s crew until roughly midway through the campaign, but when she does she reinvigorates the possibilities from then on out. All of the action plays out in real-time (this is not an XCOM-style game) but like developer Mimimi Games’ previous stealth-’em-up, 2016’s Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun, it features the ability to pause the action and plot out a sequence of moves for your squad before executing them all at once to make complex simultaneous action possible. Desperados 3 improves on that concept with some welcome extra features such as the ability to chain together a series of moves, like killing an enemy and then carrying and concealing their body, all in one action. Plotting and executing a synchronised attack from all angles so that multiple enemies are taken out and disposed of to clear an area of threats in one fell swoop without raising an alarm is consistently satisfying to perform. Red Dead Repetition Desperados 3’s automated assaults don’t make life too easy, though, because pulling off such graceful cowboy-killing choreography still requires a lot of rehearsals. Since every guard is dutifully watching another guard’s back, you’ll almost always be caught in the act if you simply sneak up to stab a lookout from behind. That leads to heck of a lot of trial and error should you wish to make your way through each mission without alerting the guards and having them call in reinforcements. Despite being a game about cowboys, Desperados 3 is not so much about being quick on the draw as it is about being quick on the quicksave, and it’s self-aware of its reliance on this system to the point that an obnoxious quicksave reminder prompt appears in the middle of the screen should you forget to register your progress for longer than a minute. (Thankfully, this can be disabled.) My progress through each Desperados 3 mission demanded more frequent reloading than a single-shot rifle, as I continued to repeatedly botch each enemy encounter until I could come up with an effective plan to attack the guards at the right time, in the right order, using the most appropriate abilities of my team. Certainly, in the midst of Desperados 3’s most challenging enemy outposts I felt like I was trapped in my own personal gunslinging Groundhog Day – but no matter how maddening the more difficult moments became, the sense of accomplishment I felt when I eventually overcame them was always immense. While it wasn’t always clear on my first, second, or umpteenth attempt, there was always a solution to be found to even the most complex of enemy equations, and I never felt like I had to rely on blind luck to get through any of its toughest scenarios. The occasional presence of environmental hazards also provided some welcome assistance, and I relished the moments I was able to indulge in some Agent 47-style underhandedness by dropping a church bell on a target or rigging a buzzsaw blade in a sawmill to literally cut off a well-armed enemy at the knees. Many missions also introduce strategy-altering twists to keep things fresh, such as the map that’s bisected by regular trains that forces you to time your kills on one side of the track when the sentries on the other side have their vision obscured by the passing train carriages. The last time I experienced Western epics with running times like these they were written and directed by Quentin Tarantino. But like a transcontinental train trip, Desperados 3’s story missions themselves are something of a long haul. In fact, each of the final two of the 16 missions on offer took me well over three hours to complete; the last time I experienced Western epics with running times like these they were written and directed by Quentin Tarantino. This is, for the most part, due to the heavily recursive nature of its gameplay and the sheer scale of its maps, but I suspect that a small percentage of my restarts were due to quirks with the context-sensitive controls. I played Desperados 3 on Xbox One, which binds multiple actions to the A button, and that often had me jumping off a rooftop when I intended to enter a door or pick up a body. This was a relatively minor annoyance in the scheme of things (what’s one more quick-reload, after all?) and by and large the controller-based setup works reliably enough, but certainly if I was dedicated enough to replay each mission to try and nail the optional speed run target times, I would only consider it with a mouse and keyboard on PC. Verdict Desperados 3 is an uncompromising tactical stealth game that tests your patience and rewards your willingness to experiment. Playing with a charming team of toy soldier-sized assassins in a series of deadly and detailed dioramas is tough and requires a lot of trial and error, but success is more rousing than a whiskey chaser. Dormant for 14 years, in Desperados 3 the series enjoys the most triumphant comeback in the Western genre since Clint Eastwood made Unforgiven. Desperados 3 Recommended Requirements CPU: 3.0 GHz Quad Core (Intel i5-750 / AMD Athlon X4 740) CPU SPEED: Info RAM: 12 GB OS: Windows 10 VIDEO CARD: Nvidia GTX 760, AMD Radeon HD 7870, 3GB PIXEL SHADER: 5.0 VERTEX SHADER: 5.0 FREE DISK SPACE: 20 GB DEDICATED VIDEO RAM: 3 GB