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Game Informations Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition (Switch) Developer: Monolith Soft Publisher: Nintendo Released: May 29, 2020 MSRP: $59.99 Someone over at Nintendo is looking out for Xenoblade Chronicles.For the uninitiated, from a distance Xenoblade might look like any other Japanese RPG, with colorful characters and a heartfelt if emotionally overwrought storyline. But there’s much here that makes it special, from the heart-to-heart scenes that give individual character relationships a greater chance to shine to the world itself, a land where people live on the back of the toes of giant sentient beings. One creature, Bionis, once did battle with other gigantic foes, but now smaller beings clash swords within the crevices and scars of a millennia-old battle. As the story wears on, the truth of the battles you fight and the world you’re fighting for is unraveled. Unlike many of its genre peers, Xenoblade really shines in how it’s played. Its world is open-ended, with each area feeling more of an impressive sprawl than the last. Even when areas are smaller, often impressive skyboxes and landscapes beyond make them feel more than they are. The first area of the game is a perfect example of the open-ended nature of Xenoblade Chronicles. In those first few hours players can happily just follow the icons on the map to quickly progress the main story, but it’s also easy to wander off into the world, tackling side quests, picking up items and simply exploring. Later, buffed up and impressive, you can come back and squash these enemies. Looking at all of this in 2020, ten years after the game’s original release, one has to wonder if elements of Xenoblade’s design later crept into The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild – which is naturally a huge compliment to pay. Once you enter into combat with the enemy, things again are a little deceptive looking.One of the largest determining factors of such releases is pretty simple: how good was the original game? For Xenoblade, Nintendo and Monolith Soft’s huge Wii RPG, the answer is favorable indeed. While thinking of the Wii probably first conjures up images of sports and fitness games, mini-game collections and Wii Remotes flung to shatter the screen of a brand new TV, Xenoblade is arguably one of the console’s most important and stand-out games. In fact, of everything Nintendo introduced in that era it is one of the most relevant today. Where other successes have faded, Xenoblade has a Smash character, two sequels including an excellent Switch entry, a 3DS port, and a feverish fan demand for another entry. . Yes, the resolution and framerate are limited here (504p-720p docked, 30FPS respectively), but everything looks breathtaking on a pure aesthetic level. Performance is going to be a sticking point for some, especially around the resolution, which is adaptive. It can vary wildly, and when things get particularly busy it can limbo surprisingly low – but honestly, I haven’t found the performance to be inadequate at all. This is a better-looking and better-performing version of the game than either of the previous versions. It’s true that Monolith Soft probably could’ve squeezed even better performance out of this version of the game had they not done so many smaller upgrades to its visuals. Speaking of combat, Xenoblade is like a mix of action and RPG sensibilities. You auto-attack, but slowly walk around an arena akin to the Tales series, choosing abilities from a horizontal bar. The key is that the choices and order matter somewhat, as you can hit positional attacks from beside or behind an enemy for extra damage, or combo state changes off one another for temporary crowd control. Although it'll take you some time to really understand aggro management (so you can actually activate said positionals when the enemy isn't focused on you), all of this is communicated through very helpful tutorials. In fact, Xenoblade prides itself on accessibility, with a "story catch-up" popup that's viewable at any time, a save-anywhere feature, fast travel, auto-quest turn-ins, transmogrification (read: cosmetic customization) and an ever-present optional casual or expert mode difficulty toggle. It's a great gateway JRPG. It does have its drawbacks though. Combat can feel very passive outside of boss fights, going through the same motions for "optimal" combos to save time and clear trash for experience. While Xenoblade is littered with hundreds of quests, many of them are "collect two bones" or "kill [x] enemies" — garden variety opening MMO stuff — which can get tiring. The AI (you can't control all three party members at once, just the lead) can also still act stupidly and you can't fine-tune their strategies.While it has the look of an action RPG, the DNA strands that make up Xenoblade are perhaps more closely related to tactical and turn-based RPGs, where it’s all about using the right moves at the right time. While you do rack up combos through chain attacks, it’s more about picking the right sequence of attacks to force an enemy error, or stack up different status effects in order to topple or stun a foe. Some compare the rhythm to that of an MMO, where characters will actively tank while others kite around the rear of the enemy to execute moves that dish out big damage. In other ways it resembles the excellent Final Fantasy 12, but with more of a focus on executing moves directly than complicated AI routines.The flow of combat is determined, of course, by additional depth in the menus. You can have three party members at any given time, and each party member can equip a range of arts, the special skills you trigger to deal the most damage. Your party and arts composition will massively change the way combat is approached. This mesh of interlocking systems make Xenoblade one of the most satisfying RPGs of the last decade for sheer potential around mechanical experimentation and exploitation.There’s not much to drag the game down, to be honest – some dodgy voice over, a story that takes a little too long to get going… stuff that, in the grand scheme of things, is pretty inconsequential. In the end, Xenoblade is a triumph, and in this sense it’s perhaps no surprise it went on to become a thriving new franchise for Nintendo. So, that’s Xenoblade: one of the best RPGs of its time, and a shining beacon in the Japanese RPG world released at a time when that particular sub-genre was struggling. It holds up well – so what of the remaster? The original Xenoblade is excellent, then, but Definitive Edition wouldn’t be worth much if it wasn’t a solid version of the game. The good news: it is. Across the internet some fans have been arguing about if this is technically a remake or a remaster, as under the hood it’s apparently more like an all-new version of the game. To be honest, the quality that is displayed here is so faithful and close to an idealized version of the original that I think it’s fairer to call it a remaster. I dunno; argue about it in the comments. Yes, the combat system still isn't perfect. But here's the big reason why people love Xenoblade Chronicles to this day: the highly emotional world and its characters. It has plenty of pure heart, a constant upbeat attitude, a beautiful soundtrack and a likable cast. Although the sequels have made mechanical strides, Shulk and his crew are timeless pillars in the pantheon of JRPG parties, and the mystique of walking on giant god bodies helps Xenoblade stand out among the pack. It's also still incredibly meaty if you need a new JRPG to sink your teeth into: whether you've kept up with the genre all these years or are a new (or lapsed) fan. Xenoblade is still 60-100 hours long, with optional challenge mode trials tacked onto the Switch re-release — all cleverly entwined with the lore. Of course, there's a bigger piece of content afoot. Alright, it's time to talk about the epilogue (without spoilers). After briefly recapping the ending in cinematic form (with little to no context), the new chapter picks up one year after the main story. Shulk and Melia crash-land on a new area (Bionus' Shoulder) and meet up with a pair of Pon friends that round out their melee/caster roles. The shoulder feels very familiar, but still lovely and lively, along with a new micro-villain to go along with the zone. It really is a fully-fledged side story, complete with returning voice actors and a more intimate narrative.Xenoblade Definitive Edition looks good docked, but because of the adaptive resolution and the sheer size of the game, I enjoyed it far more in handheld mode. The size of the screen hides the graphical imperfections brilliantly, and Xenoblade’s open-ended structure feels perfect for handheld play. You can drop in, explore and suspend the game at a moment’s notice, then pick up the story when you know you’ve got more time. In this sense, the game is perfect for Switch. Beyond the handling of the bread and butter of a Switch port, Definitive Edition offers a number of smaller quality of life additions that all add up to make the game a more comfortable experience. It is, by every measure, a definitive edition. That isn’t even all of it, though. There’s also an all-new chapter, Future Connected, a new story set a year after the events of the main game. You can play this right off the bat through the menu, or play it after seeing the main story again. It’s well over ten hours of new content, tying up loose ends from the original story while teasing out new details. The new story is an enjoyable experience, but without getting into spoilers it’s almost pointless to talk about here: it is simply more Xenoblade, delivered with a confidence and a finesse that suggests Monolith know just how good the base game is. When a classic is remastered, there is really only one mission: don’t mess it up. Monolith and Nintendo have admirably improved upon a Wii classic, delivering the one version of this game that people should now aim to play. It’s true that some of the original game design frustrations remain untouched and performance is solid but sadly not perfect. These things barely matter, though; Xenoblade Chronicles Definitive Edition is easily a must-own for any RPG fan with a Switch. The pared-down approach of Shulk and Melia at the helm is taken a bit further, as there's no skill trees in this completely separate save file, and the party combo attack system is simplified to a Pon army special attack (damage, healing or support). It all gives the epilogue a unique feel without "dumbing everything down." After all, you still start at level 60 all pumped up with all of your abilities (minus Shulk's power to see into the future), so you still need to keep track of everything you've earned so far and understand the fundamentals of comboing. The world itself is a lot more chill though, with a contained micro-map and a lot of optional stuff to do. Now, much of that includes uniform fetch quests, but they still facilitate some intimate moments with the cast. The Skies of Arcadia-esque "Pon crew" mechanic (Ponspectors, actually) is really flavorful, as you'll slowly add to your NPC party over time, buffing their combat prowess as you discover their whereabouts and ramp up progress for their massive optional quest. In the end, more Xenoblade Chronicles is a welcome sight. It's not going to change your mind on Xenoblade as a whole, but it's very on-brand, right down to the performances. It's fairly hefty as it'll take you 15-ish hours to do everything, including a few long questlines and world bosses. You also get a few small bonuses for the main game for finishing it (mostly in the form of challenges).Even if it didn't have an extra chapter to conquer, Xenoblade Chronicles Definitive Edition deserves a third release. The Switch version has united this modern classic with the TV mode of the Wii original and the fully portable nature of the New 3DS edition. It's truly definitive.It's funny to look back and remember when Xenoblade Chronicles struggled to hit western shelves during its original launch, and now Xenoblade is one of Nintendo’s larger franchises. When the original game did finally release worldwide, those who played it were treated to a brilliant RPG with a scale so massive that it pushed the Nintendo Wii to its absolute limits. It later was also one of the few titles made specifically for the New 3DS, and while the visuals took a serious hit I’ve always been impressed they were able to fit a game that massive on a portable system at all. Times have changed and hardware has significantly improved since then. Given the rise in po[CENSORED]rity with Smash Bros and Xenoblade Chronicles 2, Monolith Soft has decided to revisit the game that started their prosperous relationship with Nintendo in the form of Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition. This version of the game features an overhauled visual presentation, re-recorded and remixed music, new quality of life improvements, a brand new epilogue, and much more. I owned both previous releases of the game but never had a chance to fully finish either, so playing DE gives me an interesting perspective on this. Half of my time spent was catching up and marveling at how much the team improved the presentation, and the other half was being blindsided by one of my new favorite stories told in an RPG.The term “epic” has been watered down throughout the years due to po[CENSORED]r culture, but if there was only one piece of media I’d truly call epic, it’d be Xenoblade. The locations you travel through are all massive, with each subsequent one managing to surpass what came before it. What truly sells the idea of exploring the corpses of two giant gods are little touches you grow to appreciate on your journey. Seeing Mechonis looming in the distance right before reaching Gaur Plains is something I remember fondly, which perfectly fills the player in on the adventure they’re about to embark on with barely any dialogue needed. Xenoblade Chronicles Definitive Edition Minimum System Requirements CPU:Intel Core 2 Duo @ 2.0 GHz (or equivalent) RAM: 2 GB OS: Windows Vista/Windows 7 Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTS 240 (or equivalent) Hard Drive: 25 GB Xenoblade Chronicles Definitive Edition Recommended System Requirements CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo @ 2.8 GHz (or equivalent) RAM: 3 GB OS: Windows 7 Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 280 (or equivalent) Hard Drive: 25 GB

Game informations Gorn (PC, PlayStation VR [reviewed on a PS4 Pro]) Developer: Free Life, Games 24 Bit Publisher: Devolver Digital Released: July 18, 2019 (PC), May 19, 2020 (PlayStation VR) MSRP: $ 19.99 Gorn is one of those games you can describe in just a few words. It's a VR beat-'em-up where you engage gormless gladiators in a bloody fight to the death. That's kind of it, really, but that simple concept makes for a more engaging experience than you might think. One of virtual reality's first success stories on PC systems, it's finally out on PlayStation VR, and it's easy to see why people like it. Armed with a pair of Move controllers, you'll enter each stage with set weapons and waves of enemies to kill. There's little story or context to worry about; you're a warrior, and it's your job to entertain your king (and some giant floating heads) in over-the-top battles within a colosseum. It's just an excuse for you to wield deadly weaponry and beat, bash, slash, and stab each foe in brutal fashion. There are some occasional controller-tracking issues, but on the whole it works well. With mostly melee weapons like maces, flails, axes, swords, and spears, playing Gorn is as simple as swinging your arms around. Each weapon has a cartoon-like wobble to it, which pairs well with the visual style, but it also lends each blow a kinetic feel. When you land a hit on an enemy, it strikes with cathartic force. Combined with gnarly audiovisual feedback, you'll feel very powerful in the arena (you can turn the blood off, if you'd prefer to beat up piñatas). Frankly, it's a great stress reliever, and not a bad workout.Few virtual reality games have made me sweat as much as Gorn, a cartoonish, maniacal, relentlessly hands-on gladiatorial combat game from Broforce creator Free Lives and very on-brand publisher Devolver Digital. Every time I take the PSVR headset off, I'm physically exhausted. I'm spent. Right now, as I'm typing, my arms are noodles. They ached yesterday, they ached today, and they're gonna ache tomorrow. I get so focused that I don't even realize how sore I am until it's too late. If you're a PlayStation VR owner, you too can know the pain that follows a hard-fought victory against hordes of meaty men who will stop at nothing – and I mean nothing – to clobber you to bits. Gorn has been cracking PC VR players up for years, but it's only now becoming available to the PS4 po[CENSORED]ce.I thought Gorn would be mindless in a "smack everything until it stops moving" sorta way – and when you're caught up in a free-for-all with several other gladiators, it can be – but there's depth. If you're struck even once, you'll have to race to finish a kill before you bleed out, and when your foes are armored up, that's much easier said than done. I felt like I really had to land hits strategically. It's funny how surprisingly threatening these silly muscle men can feel in the game. I'll be the first to admit that they look wonky as hell when you don't have a headset on, but in the virtual arenas of Gorn, when a few dudes are booking it toward you, your fight-or-flight response is bound to kick in. Other weapon types are trickier. A bow and arrows is a little fiddly to use but very satisfying when you hit your target, and throwing knives rely on your own ability to chuck things accurately, so results will vary. Wrist-mounted crossbows are fun to use but take a long time to wind up, and the game doesn't do a good job of telling you how to use them. Then there are two-handed weapons. These suffer most from any tracking troubles and are generally harder to wield effectively. That said, when you successfully smash an oversized hammer down on an opponent's head, or send one flying into a spiked wall with a staff, they can be some of the game's most entertaining weapons. It might sound like you can get through the game simply flailing about like a madman, but there are ways the game forces you to be a little more careful than that. Many gladiators emerge wearing pieces of armour, which bladed weaponry will struggle with. You'll either have to strike exposed areas or use blunt weapons to bash armour off. You can also block incoming attacks, and shields are great for countering archers. Gorn is mostly a silly way of letting you carve up an army of goons, but occasionally it asks you for a hint of strategy. If you're hit, though, strategy may quickly go out the window. Taking damage is merciless; your vision turns red, and you have just a few precious seconds to kill someone or it's game over. Checkpointing is relatively forgiving, but getting hit puts you in panic mode, and you're not really given enough time to fight back. It's not impossible, but it is frustrating to die from one strike when enemies often require several blows to the head -- possibly more depending on how armoured they are.The main point I want to get across is that Gorn is (probably) more interesting than you're expecting based on a gut-reaction glance. I think that's fair to say. VR gaming has seen so many by-the-numbers arena fighters and shooting galleries that lack ambition and only offer surface-level fun at best. It'd be easy to write this off as another one of those titles without looking any closer. Don't be too hasty! Gorn isn't exactly revelatory – especially not as the medium reaches new heights with substantial narrative games like Half-Life: Alyx – but it is a joyful reminder of just how entertaining interactions can be in a virtual setting. Gorn's wow factor is found in its absurd weapons, not its structure or story. You might have a shield in one hand and a morning star in another. Or you might prefer a ranged approach: either a two-handed bow (that you semi-realistically draw and release) or a wrist-mounted crossbow. Of course, the hammer has its uses too – it's great for smashing armor plating – and there's something to be said about swinging a massive two-handed flail over your head like a maniac. The weapon list only gets wackier as you barrel through the main-story levels, all of which are constantly giving you new playthings. By the end, you'll have fended off snarling badgers, yanked soldiers' arms off with clamping crab claws, and sliced and diced with extendable Wolverine claws. Locomotion can also make things a little tricky. You get about by holding one arm in front of you, holding the Move button, and pulling your arm back. Rinse repeat to "walk", and use a couple of face buttons to turn in increments. It works well enough and allows you to navigate the arena freely, but it takes some getting used to and is definitely on the fiddly side. Fortunately, you don't need to move an awful lot during each stage. Levels throw waves of warriors at you, and most of them will beeline towards you. After defeating enough enemies, a free-for-all will start, and this is when opponents will target each other unless you happen to be closest. After all that, each stage ends with a boss fight. These guys look intimidating, but in truth can go down pretty fast. Achilles, for instance, is armoured head to toe -- aside from his left foot. You know what to do. There aren't many levels to play through, but they have optional objectives to encourage you to return, and an Endless mode pits you against as many baddies as you can handle. Playing each stage unlocks the weapons it introduces for use in custom battles too, so it's worth going through everything to ensure you have all the toys to play with.A large part of that oh-shit panic stems from the unusual movement system. You'll need two PlayStation Move controllers for Gorn – not just for two-handed weapons, but for simply walking around, too. Imagine stretching your arm out, holding your thumb down on the big Move button in the middle of the controller, and then pulling your arm close to your chest. Picture it again, except faster. Again and again. Now in reverse. That's how you move. In other words, it's as if you're grabbing hold of the world and pulling yourself forward (or pushing backward) to dip in and out of harm's way. (This is the part where I remind you that Gorn is a good way to get your heart pumping.) Left and right camera turns are performed with the face buttons (you can pick between 45-degree, 90-degree, and smooth turns), and you'll use the trigger-like T buttons to either make fists or hold items. It's a lot to keep track of, I know. For the most part – basically up until near the end – it's manageable. The PlayStation Camera does a surprisingly okay job of tracking the Move controllers when it comes to swinging weapons and firing projectiles. It felt accurate enough. That said, it struggles to keep up with frantic rapid-fire attacks, and the intensive movement system is less than ideal, to put it mildly.During the final few levels, it seemed like the aging tech couldn't quite keep up with what the game was asking me to do, and as a result, some of the gaps between checkpoints felt way too long. I had my share of frustrating moments, especially while facing bosses with highly specific weak-points. Still, I'd recommend it, flaws and all. Unavoidable controller constraints aside, I enjoyed my time overall. Gorn is up there with Superhot as a flashy intro-to-VR experience for people who don't have their own setup at home. It's something you can boot up in a group setting and share a bunch of laughs over. Granted, it's a super violent game in which limbs are lobbed off left and right, but there is a candy-spewing Piñata Mode, so kids can get in on the bloodlust. I appreciate that all-ages concession. Beyond the several-hour-long level-based campaign, there's an endless survival challenge and a custom arena with all kinds of options including a god mode, slow-mo, weapon toggles, and more. Even though the PC version is unquestionably the ideal way to play Gorn, the PlayStation VR port is commendable, and I'm happy it exists. It won't blow you away – especially not in 2020 – but it's worth adding to your VR library the next time you want to let off some steam. Invite a few pals over. System Requirements (Minimum) CPU: Intel i5-4590 SPEED CPU: Information RAM: 8 GB OS: Windows 10 VIDEO CARD: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 PIXEL SHIKERTI: 5.1 SHADER VERTEX: 5.1 Free risk space: 2 GB RAM VIDEO DEDICATED: 4096 MB System Requirements (Recomended) CPU: Intel i7-4770 SPEED CPU: Info RAM: 16 GB OS: Windows 10 VIDEO CARD: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Ti PIXEL SHADER: 5.1 VERTEX SHADER: 5.1 FREE DISK SPACE: 2 GB DEDICATED VIDEO RAM: 6144 MB

Your Nickname:eXeCuToR Your Problem:when i connect to csbd it need to make some things like verificate if you are human or robot Screenshot: 1-https://postimg.cc/YLMKJPpQ 2-https://postimg.cc/svf1W6pB

Black holes aren't stationary in space; in fact, they can be quite active in their movements. But because they are completely dark and can't be observed directly, they're not easy to study. Scientists have finally figured out the precise timing of a complicated dance between two enormous black holes, revealing hidden details about the physical characteristics of these mysterious cosmic objects. The OJ 287 galaxy hosts one of the largest black holes ever found, with over 18 billion times the mass of our Sun. Orbiting this behemoth is another black hole with about 150 million times the Sun's mass. Twice every 12 years, the smaller black hole crashes through the enormous disk of gas surrounding its larger companion, creating a flash of light brighter than a trillion stars -- brighter, even, than the entire Milky Way galaxy. The light takes 3.5 billion years to reach Earth. But the smaller black hole's orbit is oblong, not circular, and it's irregular: It shifts position with each loop around the bigger black hole and is tilted relative to the disk of gas. When the smaller black hole crashes through the disk, it creates two expanding bubbles of hot gas that move away from the disk in opposite directions, and in less than 48 hours the system appears to quadruple in brightness. Because of the irregular orbit, the black hole collides with the disk at different times during each 12-year orbit. Sometimes the flares appear as little as one year apart; other times, as much as 10 years apart. Attempts to model the orbit and predict when the flares would occur took decades, but in 2010, scientists created a model that could predict their occurrence to within about one to three weeks. They demonstrated that their model was correct by predicting the appearance of a flare in December 2015 to within three weeks. Then, in 2018, a group of scientists led by Lankeswar Dey, a graduate student at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research in Mumbai, India, published a paper with an even more detailed model they claimed would be able to predict the timing of future flares to within four hours. In a new study published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters, those scientists report that their accurate prediction of a flare that occurred on July 31, 2019, confirms the model is correct. The observation of that flare almost didn't happen. Because OJ 287 was on the opposite side of the Sun from Earth, out of view of all telescopes on the ground and in Earth orbit, the black hole wouldn't come back into view of those telescopes until early September, long after the flare had faded. But the system was within view of NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, which the agency retired in January 2020. After 16 years of operations, the spacecraft's orbit had placed it 158 million miles (254 million kilometers) from Earth, or more than 600 times the distance between Earth and the Moon. From this vantage point, Spitzer could observe the system from July 31 (the same day the flare was expected to appear) to early September, when OJ 287 would become observable to telescopes on Earth. "When I first checked the visibility of OJ 287, I was shocked to find that it became visible to Spitzer right on the day when the next flare was predicted to occur," said Seppo Laine, an associate staff scientist at Caltech/IPAC in Pasadena, California, who oversaw Spitzer's observations of the system. "It was extremely fortunate that we would be able to capture the peak of this flare with Spitzer, because no other human-made instruments were capable of achieving this feat at that specific point in time." Ripples in Space Scientists regularly model the orbits of small objects in our solar system, like a comet looping around the Sun, taking into account the factors that will most significantly influence their motion. For that comet, the Sun's gravity is usually the dominant force, but the gravitational pull of nearby planets can change its path, too. Determining the motion of two enormous black holes is much more complex. Scientists must account for factors that might not noticeably impact smaller objects; chief among them are something called gravitational waves. Einstein's theory of general relativity describes gravity as the warping of space by an object's mass. When an object moves through space, the distortions turn into waves. Einstein predicted the existence of gravitational waves in 1916, but they weren't observed directly until 2015 by the Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory (LIGO). The larger an object's mass, the larger and more energetic the gravitational waves it creates. In the OJ 287 system, scientists expect the gravitational waves to be so large that they can carry enough energy away from the system to measurably alter the smaller black hole's orbit -- and therefore timing of the flares. While previous studies of OJ 287 have accounted for gravitational waves, the 2018 model is the most detailed yet. By incorporating information gathered from LIGO's detections of gravitational waves, it refines the window in which a flare is expected to occur to just 1 1/2 days. To further refine the prediction of the flares to just four hours, the scientists folded in details about the larger black hole's physical characteristics. Specifically, the new model incorporates something called the "no-hair" theorem of black holes. Published in the 1960s by a group of physicists that included Stephen Hawking, the theorem makes a prediction about the nature of black hole "surfaces." While black holes don't have true surfaces, scientists know there is a boundary around them beyond which nothing -- not even light -- can escape. Some ideas posit that the outer edge, called the event horizon, could be bumpy or irregular, but the no-hair theorem posits that the "surface" has no such features, not even hair (the theorem's name was a joke). In other words, if one were to cut the black hole down the middle along its rotational axis, the surface would be symmetric. (The Earth's rotational axis is almost perfectly aligned with its North and South Poles. If you cut the planet in half along that axis and compared the two halves, you would find that our planet is mostly symmetric, though features like oceans and mountains create some small variations between the halves.) Finding Symmetry In the 1970s, Caltech professor emeritus Kip Thorne described how this scenario -- a satellite orbiting a massive black hole -- could potentially reveal whether the black hole's surface was smooth or bumpy. By correctly anticipating the smaller black hole's orbit with such precision, the new model supports the no-hair theorem, meaning our basic understanding of these incredibly strange cosmic objects is correct. The OJ 287 system, in other words, supports the idea that black hole surfaces are symmetric along their rotational axes. So how does the smoothness of the massive black hole's surface impact the timing of the smaller black hole's orbit? That orbit is determined mostly by the mass of the larger black hole. If it grew more massive or shed some of its heft, that would change the size of smaller black hole's orbit. But the distribution of mass matters as well. A massive bulge on one side of the larger black hole would distort the space around it differently than if the black hole were symmetric. That would then alter the smaller black hole's path as it orbits its companion and measurably change the timing of the black hole's collision with the disk on that particular orbit. "It is important to black hole scientists that we prove or disprove the no-hair theorem. Without it, we cannot trust that black holes as envisaged by Hawking and others exist at all," said Mauri Valtonen, an astrophysicist at University of Turku in Finland and a coauthor on the paper. Spitzer science data continues to be analyzed by the science community via the Spitzer data archive located at the Infrared Science Archive housed at IPAC at Caltech in Pasadena. JPL managed Spitzer mission operations for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. Science operations were conducted at the Spitzer Science Center at IPAC at Caltech. Spacecraft operations were based at Lockheed Martin Space in Littleton, Colorado. Caltech manages JPL for NASA.

Apple will begin manufacturing its own processors for the next generation of computers, Bloomberg news reported Thursday. Apple's long-rumored transition from Intel to ARM-based processors is expected to start with a lower-priced Mac in 2021.The new processors will utilize the design of the A14 system-on-a-chip that will power the next generation iPhone. The A-series ARM-based processors already used in iPhones and iPads have improved so much that they now exceed benchmark performance grades of Intel processors used in current Apple Macs. The new 5 nanometer A14 processor is expected to offer significant improvements in chip speed and performance, according to the report. It can pack up to 80 percent more transistors than the 7nm A13 chip powering the iPhone 11. Apple's new processors will have 12 cores to handle differing power demands. Eight cores, codenamed Firestorm, will handle performance-intensive tasks, while four energy-preserving cores, codenamed Icestorm, will be assigned to lower-power assignments. For comparison, the current iPad Pro has four cores for high-performance tasks and four for actions requiring lower power. Apple is reportedly exploring production of processors with more than 12 cores. The new processor is expected to be used first in a lower-end laptop. ARM processors have shown improvements in efficiency and generate less heat than Intel processors, but they still can't outperform Intel processors powering higher-end MacBook Pros, iMacs and Mac Pro desktops. The move to use its own processors, to be manufactured by Apple's partner Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., comes after years of concern over Intel's inability to more quickly generate processor upgrades. With a line of processors and components sharing Apple DNA, the house that Steve Jobs built can strengthen its own ecosystem of apps and hardware. It should also permit for quicker turnaround on improvements and upgrades. Lower costs for consumers, too, are likely. For Intel, the news was not unexpected, but still stirred concern. "This news has negative longer-term implications for Intel, in-line with our concerns around Intel's future market share," Brad Gastwirth, chief technology strategist at Wedbush Securities, explained in a report to investors. Intel shares declined up to 2.2 percent on Thursday. It was in 2005 that Apple Co-founder Steve Jobs and Intel Chief Executive Officer Paul Otellini jointly announced the first Macs with Intel processors. The decision led to impressive achievements such as the first Mac Pro in 2006, the MacBook Air in 2010 and the McBook Pro in 2012. The Bloomberg report stated that the new processor is one of three new ones to be unveiled in the near future. The project is part of Apple's Kalamata intitative to expand on the A14 system-on-a-chip that is the brain behind the iPhone 12 and next year's iPad versions. The new processors will include graphics processing units designed by Apple. The report also stated the new Mac computers will continue to run on MacOS rather than iOS.

After nine months in the womb of early access, Duskers has finally been born. Out it comes, snarling and writhing like the science fiction nightmare it is, covered in slime and engine oil. Congratulations, game developers! It’s beautiful. No, really, it is. And here’s Brendan to tell you why. Have you seen Alien? Who am I kidding, of course you’ve seen Alien. If you haven’t seen Alien, it’s probably because you are an Alien, and you live millions of light-years away, and you’re made of moss and haven’t developed eyes yet, or cinema. No, you’ve seen Alien because it’s essential. Well, I’m here to tell you that, as much as Alien is essential to any lover of sci-fi movies, Duskers is just as essential to any lover of sci-fi games. We’ve been looking for the Citizen Kane of videogames all these years, when really we should have been looking for the Ellen Ripley of videogames. Anyway, don’t worry, we’ve found her.Apart from the eerie whistle coming from the vents and the buzzing and beeping of the drones, it had been quiet for some time. I’d gathered scrap metal and fuel from the abandoned rooms and was all ready to head back until we heard an abrasive thud. Ethan, my gathering drone, headed to one of the rooms we’d yet to discover and heard the banging get louder and more constant, but found nothing out of the ordinary. A message popped up saying something was trying to break through one of the doors to the east of the supposed derelict ship. Suddenly, the mood changed and my heart was in my mouth; Abby, another of my drones was close to the room where the noise was coming from. I tried to pull her away, but something attacked her with great speed, instantly destroying her video link and functionality. The creature made its way through the ship and I couldn’t see it on the map, meaning I had to get the remaining two drones back on my ship as fast as possible. As I tried to recover Tommy (my third and final drone), the alien took it out. Ethan was a few rooms away from the airlock when the alien attacked him as well. Within a minute, all of my drones had been destroyed and my playthrough was over. Duskers is full of moments like this. One minute you can be scavenging and scanning a ship with extreme patience and precision, and the next you’ll frantically be trying to escape the threat of an unknown entity in a claustrophobic and frenzied panic. In Duskers, life has ceased to be and you must piece together what caused the end of existence. In each procedurally generated galaxy, you must travel to tons of abandoned spaceships searching for scrap metal and lost technology, along with fuel and information. Some ships will offer bite-sized narrative text from their commanders or inhabitants about what’s happened to them, providing just enough to keep you interested on what’s going on.Something is chewing through a door on the derelict space station Volgograd. I’ve been exploring the station room-by-room, for long minutes, with my fleet of drones, and so far it’s been a safe and worthwhile excursion. Now, though, I feel like I’ve overstayed my welcome. I quickly command my scouting drone to return to my docked dropship, but just as it speeds past the door that is being chewed through, I hear a loud beeping. My console informs me that my second drone, which is powering a generator, is being damaged by another something that has crept through an open air vent and spread across the room. There are no flashy visuals here, and there doesn’t need to be. You’re essentially playing the game through a 1980s PC: green text and a poorly powered monitor make the game feel more authentic – like the tech in the Alien films. In fact, the game manages to create the same kind of tension akin to those films and it works all the more better for it. When you’re sending your drones around the ships, the lighting is weak, and many of the areas are dark so when you bump into something unexpectedly, you panic and the instant fear hits every inch of your body. You control your drones solely with the keyboard through a command box and the arrow buttons (think command prompt and DOS). This also adds to the retro feel, making the mouse redundant and requiring quick fingers and a calm nerve for when things go bad (which they will, a lot). You can skip between the drones by pressing their assigned number and move them with the arrow keys. Each drone will have different abilities which you can assign to them back in your ship (more on this later). To execute an ability, you simply type it in; for example: when one of your drones has the generator ability and finds one without power, type in ‘generator’ and it gives power to a specific area of the ship. If you need to scan some of the rooms, type ‘motion’ and it will scan a couple of the rooms you’re close to. There are plenty of abilities in Duskers and each one will play a role in how successful you are on a mission, but sometimes the most vital abilities are absent when a new galaxy is generated for you. There are other commands you can input which help moving around quite a bit. By pressing ‘navigate 1 2 r1’, you can send drones 1 and 2 back to your ship (r1 = room 1). If you use a semicolon between commands, you’re able to link multiple commands together; ‘a1; remote; navigate 2 d12; navigate 3 r 3 interface; navigate 1 r11 gather’ will mean absolutely nothing to you now, but this chain of command will remotely power the ship whilst one of your droids hacks into its network and another picks up some fuel and scraps.I quickly drive my second drone away from the new biological alien threat, which disconnects the power supply, which means I can no longer remotely open and close doors in the station. My scouting drone is now trapped in the room it’s in, the one with the door that is about to give way to that something. My third drone, at least, can manually pry open doors, but before I can dispatch it to save my first drone, I’m informed an asteroid shower is imminent. This leisurely and lucrative mission has, in the blink of an eye, become a panicky race against time. This is the best part of Duskers, a survival strategy roguelike in which you pilot drones through procedurally generated derelict spaceships. It’s perfectly fun and satisfying when things are going your way, but when the shit hits the airlock, when your careful plans fall apart and you’re forced to think quickly, when a successful mission becomes a harrowing, scrambling nightmare, Duskers really shines.You begin with only a few days of fuel for your spaceship, three drones, and the news that an undefined catastrophe has resulted in a post-apocalyptic universe in which you may be the only human survivor. You dock with other ships and send in your drones to explore, scavenging for spare fuel, scrap metal, bits of information from corrupted ship’s logs, and even other drones you can repair and add to your fleet (or turn into scrap). You steer your drones one at a time using the arrow keys, and there’s also a console to enter commands into: ‘navigate 1 3 r4’, for instance, will auto-pilot drones 1 and 3 into room 4. Drones have slots for three modules, which give them different abilities. The gather module will allow a drone to harvest scrap and fuel, the generator module can supply power to doors, and so on. There are droppable lures and traps, motion sensors and scanning beacons, shields and mounted turrets, and a tow module for dragging disabled drones or upgrades back to your dropship. You can swap modules between drones before a mission, or even during one provided the drones are adjacent to one another. Naturally, you’re not alone. Enemies lurk unseen aboard the ships you visit. They might be automated ship defenses, a slowly creeping biological infestation, swarms of tiny robots, or a horrifyingly fast-moving alien entity that will pounce on and disable your drones in a split second. Sometimes, they’ll be all of the above: you never really know what you’re up against until you’re in the same room with it, at which point it’s often too late. Ship airlocks and doors can be opened and closed using simple console commands, provided they are powered by a generator. It’s a series of tense and spooky strategic challenges: keeping walls and closed doors between your drones and the enemies you’ve detected, herding or luring the dangerous entities around the ship, even trapping them in a room with an airlock and then opening it to suck them into space (along with whatever else is in the room).Duskers is a retro-futuristic science-fiction nightmare for anyone that fears being alone--and as best as you can tell, in this world, you are alone. You control your drones by typing into a command-line interface, watching from afar through sensors and cameras as they do your bidding. Duskers couples this control method with an art style that cohesively reinforces the game’s atmosphere, making the player and their physical keyboard an active part of the experience. The game is played from a first-person perspective, and presents itself entirely in-fiction. The primary interface is a 1:1 representation of a computer terminal on board your ship, which you directly mani[CENSORED]te with the physical keyboard on your desk. You never see a digital representation of your hands flying across a keyboard. There are zero layers of abstraction. When you sit down to play Duskers, you are the protagonist. This creates a huge amount of tension. Despite the fact that your drones are the ones facing danger directly, you know that if they're destroyed you won't be far behind. By depriving you the comfort of an avatar to control, each playthrough becomes a harrowing personal experience. Knowledge is power. Over the length of multiple playthroughs you’ll gain knowledge of the cataclysm that has seemingly stripped the universe of all human life bar your own. This knowledge comes in the form of small chunks of information taken from ship logs as you dock with them. Your own player knowledge increases in a similarly piecemeal fashion as you learn how drone and ship upgrades interact, increasing the power you wield over your surroundings.Duskers is a game of methodical exploration. In order to survive, you carefully expand your knowledge of each derelict ship you encounter by scanning rooms, dropping sensors, and when all else fails, simply opening doors and hoping the next room is safe. You start each playthrough with three drones, and a random assortment of drone upgrades. For your first playthrough the tutorial ensures that you have the Motion upgrade, which allows a drone to detect threats in adjacent rooms. This provides a huge amount of situational awareness, making it a tempting must-have. But what if on your next playthrough you don't have the motion upgrade? Or what if it breaks and you can't afford to repair it? Suddenly you're forced to discover new methods for exploring, building on the rules and lessons you've learned previously. Experimenting with new strategies and combinations of upgrades is a huge amount of fun, and mastering them is immensely satisfying. It’s rare to find a ship that isn’t crawling with at least one type of infestation. The first is a swarm of creatures that will take advantage of your every mistake, quickly turning your drones into piles of scrap metal. There are a number of different infestation types, but it would be a disservice to describe them in a review. Learning what an infestation is, how it behaves, and how to dispatch it is a central part of the risk and reward of Duskers. Infestations are terrifying at first encounter, but much like learning to master your upgrades, learning how to handle each infestation type is thoroughly rewarding.

Enter the Gungeon is a game I should love. It’s a dungeon-crawling, bullet hell roguelike that has a whimsical soundtrack and great visuals. But all of this personality and style is undermined by conflicting concepts, and Enter the Gungeon's lasting appeal suffers for it. Ultimately, Enter the Gungeon is spoiled by how it fanatically adheres to the rules of all the genres it blends together. It’s a roguelike, meaning death in the Gungeon results in a complete loss of progress. There’s nothing particularly wrong with this--it prides itself on being a bullet hell shooter with steep difficulty spikes--but its insistence on stripping away all progress at the start of each run is oil to water when mixed with its focus on collecting zany items and weapons.There are a large number of weapons to discover and use, and these range from familiar firearms like shotguns and automatic rifles, to more absurd creations like a gun that shoots sharks. Likewise, there’s a massive number of items to be discovered, offering different stat bonuses and perks to be used in varying situations. The most powerful and unique weapons come with their own distinct animations and application, and figuring out the best way to use them during hectic combat situations is as fun as it is challenging. Opening each new chest in the dungeon evokes the same feeling of anticipation as opening a brand new pack of trading cards. What will you find? Will it be rare and awesome, or all too common? But there’s a catch here; the scales are tipped in favor of the player finding a more mundane or mediocre weapon a large percentage of the time. Strange as it is to say, there may be too many weapons in here. While some feature entertaining and quirky attributes, many feel like variations of your starting weapon with barely any major distinctions between them. They’ll get the job done, but it’s a letdown to discover a wicked laser gun one round and be saddled with a handful of slightly more powerful rifles for the next few. A bit of trimming down to make extraordinary weapons a more frequent drop would help to foster the “one more round” mentality found in great roguelikes.You eventually gain the ability to seed each dungeon with items and weapons, but you always have to start with the same wimpy load-out made up of so-so weapons and various character-specific items. It’s like playing Pokemon, but instead of adding new Pokemon to your team and using them at will throughout your journey, you’re constantly forced to begin again when you lose any battle, with only the Pokedex serving as proof of your discoveries. And whenever you have to start over, you’re more likely to find a slew of ordinary Rattatas or Zubats while only occasionally encountering something more notable. It’s a contentious combination. Enter the Gungeon’s fetishization of wacky guns and the meager drip feed exposure a player has to them begins to deliver diminishing returns. Having some amount of meaningful progression beyond filling up a log book with found items would help greatly, even if it was simply granting the player minor stat boosts or occasional upgrades. This conflict is unfortunate, because everything surrounding the core of Enter the Gungeon is great. Enemy types are as varied as the items themselves, each with their own particular attack patterns that eventually lead to an epic barrage of bullets to be dodged and countered. Well-balanced and finely tuned control mechanics--like a dodge roll with several frames of invincibility or bullet-wiping blank rounds--arm players with just enough options that they can successfully evade fire while doling out punishment in harrowing encounters, and each dungeon level has its own theme to keep the visuals fresh. Care has been placed in the smallest details, mixing retro-inspired pixelated artwork with more contemporary styles of visual feedback. Visually, Enter the Gungeon is stunning. Care has been placed in the smallest details, mixing its retro-inspired pixelated artwork with more contemporary styles of visual feedback. There’s tremendous impact to each of the on-screen actions. Books burst into clouds of loose pages when shot or kicked, explosions rattle rooms, and a generous color palette creates an interesting gothic fantasy/cartoon fusion that aligns with the game’s darkly humorous tone. When coupled with a pulsing, energetic soundtrack, Enter the Gungeon is an audiovisual treat. Its flaws elsewhere are all the more disappointing. So much care is apparent in its construction, but in its attempt to merge multiple genres and styles together, Enter the Gungeon’s most important elements--namely its roguelike flavors and massive offering of distinct weapons--don’t gel. It’s a game at odds with itself. Leave Blank.Enter The Gungeon has a gun fetish. The story revolves around a giant bullet and a gun that can kill the past. Enemies are mostly bullets, the end-of-level lift is a shell casing, the in-game art modelled around gun paraphernalia, Even the health bar models its hearts on bullets.Enter The Gungeon is the latest in a long line of top-down roguelike shooters. It takes its inspiration from genre standouts Nuclear Throne and Binding of Isaac, but also adds many other cool touches to make something that’s a blast to play, even if it doesn’t quite match the highs of its peers. From Binding of Isaac, it borrows the chaotic room-based structure, and the ridiculous boss battle blocking your path to the floors below. From Nuclear Throne, the mass of guns and power-ups, the ridiculous weapons and host of weird and wonderful enemies. READ NEXT ness-nintendo Nintendo Download list: 18th July 2013 (North America) Enter the Gungeon is a prime example of how reviewing a game can change over time. I first reviewed Enter the Gungeon for PC on another website – the game has been out for a long time now, so a lot of people know what the game offers – making writing about it a little harder as I want to offer something fresh. It’s a pseudo top-down roguelike shooter that grounds itself in features set out by The Binding of Isaac and Nuclear Throne. The base game has received many updates and has been featured on YouTube and Twitch for quite some time. So, there’s not really much that I can say about the game that’s new. This is a direct transfer of the latest PC release, including the new updates from the Supply Drop patch – which introduced new items, features and enemies. The game itself plays the same way on Switch that it does on other systems (with one difference I will come to), however, it does feel a little easier than it has previously. Dodging enemy fire with the dodgeroll system is still tight, the weapons are still very hit and miss depending on what you pick up and the enemies can still be bothersome. But, there feels like there’s a little leeway in the speed of bullet momentum and the enemies aren’t quite as accurate. This might be because of the elastic approach to updating a game on PC – things change often and I’m sure a future patch will tweak some of these aspects.Enter the Gungeon doesn’t just take cues from roguelikes that came before; yes, there’s a huge focus on repeated play that allows you to unlock new items and guns and it features the difficulty that usually accompanies such a game. For example, it took me about an hour to finish The Binding of Isaac for the first time; it was easily around 40 hours before I watched the credits roll here. Because Enter the Gungeon is a bullet hell shooter and accuracy with movement as well as shooting is key. And, of course, like all roguelikes, it depends on the build of your character. There are a few base characters to choose from; The Pilot, The Convict, The Hunter and The Marine – plus a couple to unlock, who change the game drastically. Each offers a different starting weapon and item that offers perks throughout play. The Hunter has a pistol and crossbow, but also a dog that will occasionally dig up keys, ammo and blanks, the latter is used to help clear rooms of bullets for a brief breather. The Pilot comes with a laser pistol, discounts in the shops and a lockpick that offers chances of opening a chest without a key. Add to this the hundreds of combinations of guns and perks unlocked along the way and the game becomes incredibly On one run you might not find anything of any worth in chests or shops, meaning that you’ll face off against a boss with just a starting weapon of low damage. On the flip-side, you could have a run that sees you running at a boss with an RPG, a Shotgun shell that fires guns or the ability to fly while wielding a rifle that fires magical bullets of ice, fire and poison. There might be a run where guns come up short, but defensive items are plenty. You might get to the third floor boss or right to the final boss, an enormous dragun that puts the term And there’s SO MUCH to do. New shops unlock as you discover people in the Gungeons. Challenge modes open up, boss rush rooms appear and secret routes make themselves available as you play. As with so many games of this ilk, no run is ever the same and players will be constantly striving for that perfect build that clicks and allows the game to be vanquished and the past to be erased – which is the primary aim of the title.