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information: SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS : Windows : MINIMUM: Supported OS:Microsoft® Windows® /XP/Vista DirectX Version:DirectX 9.0c (included) or higher Processor:Intel Pentium 4 2.4 GHz or Athlon 64 +2800 (Intel Pentium 4 3.0 GHz or AMD Athlon 64 +3000 recommended). Athlon XP series, such as the Athlon XP +2400, is not supported Graphics:NVIDIA GeForce 6600 or ATI Radeon 9800 or better (NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GTX or ATI Radeon X1950 XT or better recommended) Memory:1 GB RAM (2 GB RAM recommended) Sound:DirectX version 9.0c-compatible sound card Hard Drive:15 GB Free Mac OS X: MINIMUM: OS: OS X 10.8, 10.9, 10.10 Processor: Intel Core i5 Memory: 4 GB of RAM Graphics: nVidia GeForce GT 650m (1440x900), AMD Radeon HD 6750M (1440x900) or Intel HD 5000 (1366x768) Hard Drive: 14.25 GB free space The Witcher: Enhanced Edition is a great role-playing game. Developer CD Projekt has corrected almost all of the problems that made the original something of a flawed gem. Butchered English dialogue has been rewritten and expanded upon, removing the nonsensical lines that made the plot something of a guessing game last year. Engine performance has been dramatically improved across the board, so the game runs smoother on moderate systems, and you no longer have time to read a magazine while waiting for levels to load. Character models have been dramatically enhanced, removing a fair number of the unrealistic features that made the original game come off as somewhat cartoonish in spots. A pair of new stand-alone adventures has been added to bulk up gameplay outside of the main storyline. Just about everything seems more solid and stable, from the smooth-as-glass combat mechanics to the speedier interface. And, best of all, these gameplay enhancements are freely available to download for those who purchased the original game last year. Core gameplay is more polished than revamped, so in some cases, you have to look pretty closely to tell the difference between old and new. You still play the lank-haired Geralt of Rivia, a monster-killing mercenary known as a witcher who travels a medieval fantasy kingdom in search of jobs. Basically, you're a battlemage who can freely switch between using a pair of great big swords to slay fantasy-game beasties and firing off spells with elemental magic signs. Basic melee attacks are handled through the left mouse button, with you timing your clicks to string sword strokes together into big-damage combos. If you run four such attacks together, Geralt becomes a whirling dervish capable of slicing his foes to ribbons. Each sword can also be wielded in strong, quick, and group styles, allowing you to tailor attacks depending on what sort of opponents you happen to be facing. Spells are cast by mapping elemental signs to the right mouse button. Much of this magic is generic to fantasy RPG gaming. For instance, you'll launch fireballs, you'll throw up a protective shield, and you can charm enemies into doing your bidding. None of the spells are all that involved or time-intensive, so you can readily hack and slash with one button and launch fireballs with the other. Character development is equally clear-cut and carried over unchanged from the original Witcher. Skills are purchased and buffed with bronze, silver, or gold talent coins earned every time you level up. These abilities allow you to increase Geralt's basic chance to hit, damage done, along with adding special effects, such as stunning opponents or causing them crippling pain. Nobody's reinvented the wheel here, although there is a broad range of abilities to choose from that let you specialize in various areas. You can roll all of your coins into spells and turn into kind of a wannabe sorcerer. You can go for strong sword skills and become a melee brawler. Or you can do the jack-of-all-trades thing and spread your abilities across the spectrum of choices. Geralt remains a sword-twirling fighter first and foremost no matter what you do, although you can at least tweak his talents to favor preferred combat methods. Where this enhanced Witcher takes a welcome turn is with its story and presentation. Although the plot of the first game was a remarkably mature tale that ditched traditional black-and-white RPG morality for a gray universe, the story was sloppily adapted from its original Polish. In it, you took the lesser-of-two-evils approach and found a common cause with rapists and murderers. A bizarre decision to cut back the English dialogue preserved only chopped-up portions of the full script, leaving plot points hard to understand and cut-off conversations in midstream. All those issues have been corrected here. Thousands of lines of English dialogue have been rerecorded, fully fleshing out the storyline and removing the awkwardness of the original game. The English translation has been gone over with a fine-toothed comb to get rid of some jarring word choices from last year. The game is still a lot more modern sounding than some would probably like, throwing around F-bombs and curse words in ways that just don't seem to fit with swords and sorcery. But at least the script has been smoothed out and given a unified voice. Any way you look at it, this is a huge improvement over the first Witcher, which veered wildly between formal D&D-speak and New Jack City. Visuals have also been renovated, albeit not as dramatically as the script. The original Witcher looked pretty good in the first place, so there wasn't as much room for improvement here. The big changes come with the color palette, which has been made more vibrant while keeping the game's overall grim and gray atmosphere. Spell effects--particularly the fire-based Igni sign ones--practically flow right off the screen now. Basic background colors for such things as foliage and clothing have also been given more pop. Character art has been given an overhaul, while facial and body features that didn't pass muster last year have been given a once-over with additional details. Although some non-player character faces still appear almost mannequin-like, particularly common village peasants and streetwalkers, major characters now have a more realistic range of expressions. There are also more facial types, so you're not running into the same people over and over again. Geralt was pretty nimble last year, but now he twirls his swords and jumps around like an acrobat. Best of all, these improvements have no effect on game performance. This new Witcher actually runs a lot faster than the old one. Loading times have been slashed, and there are no more combat slowdowns, frame-rate hitches, or pauses to bring up the interface. That said, the new visuals are not perfect. Clipping is still a minor issue at times. Background scenery, such as shrubs and trees, still acts too much like walls. The game still pauses for a couple of seconds after enemies are killed, making you wait a moment before being able to loot a corpse. The camera now also tends to cut characters out of the frame during conversations, an unintended side effect of having characters move around more while talking to liven up dialogue scenes that were awfully static last year. So you're treated to gabfests where the speaker's head is cut off, completely out of the picture off to the left, blocked by a door, or constantly moving in and out of sight. Thankfully, these camera quirks aren't too common and are limited to talking scenes where you don't need to see everyone's faces. The Witcher: Enhanced Edition also doesn't get off to a very good start. A common problem with Windows XP systems causes the game to crash on start-up due to conflicts with audio drivers. This issue can generally be fixed in short order by turning down or shutting off sound acceleration or by downloading new audio files to swap out the troublesome ones that came on the game disc. But still, this is no way for a game to reintroduce itself. Technical issues with the initial release of The Witcher led to this redone version being made in the first place, so it's more than a bit disappointing to hit major crashes before you can even get the game up and running. Much of the brand new content also leaves a bit to be desired. The two new stand-alone Geralt adventures purport to give a better look into the witcher's earlier career, but they're too inconsequential to be all that engrossing and too reliant on familiar locations from the main storyline. Even rooms are reused here. The Price of Neutrality gets off to a great start with a story about a princess who may or may not be cursed, but then, it peters out and ends abruptly after about two hours. Side Effects is merely a collection of mundane quests where Geralt has to run all over Vizima doing odd jobs to raise 2,000 orens to pay off a debt owed to his bard pal Dandelion. There are enough choices in the latter adventure to give it some moderate replay value, although you do little aside from play errand boy. Other extra goodies are more worthwhile. The box includes a number of collectible items, such as a game guide; a CD soundtrack of the game's fantastically atmospheric background tunes, plus some "inspired by" tracks; a behind-the-scenes DVD; and a paper map, along with the Djinni game editor for modders. Many of these extras are also available to download from the game's official Website if you choose to get the Enhanced Edition digitally. Barring the initial installation bugs, this is what The Witcher should have been last year. While the original game was an undeniably very good RPG epic with one of the most authentically adult storylines to ever grace the genre, this overhauled edition has turned that near-classic into a near-masterpiece.

France continues to evacuate Corona users to less protected areas and abroad, to ease pressure on overcrowded hospital centers, especially in Paris and its suburbs. The country crossed the threshold of 3,500 deaths due to the device that confused the world, after recording 499 new deaths in 24 hours, with one death every three minutes. France, which has crossed the 3,500 deaths threshold of the newly arrived Corona, continued on Wednesday to evacuate casualties to relieve hospitals in the more crowded areas. For the first time, cases are transported by two high-speed trains equipped with the necessary medical equipment, from the Paris area and its suburbs "Ile de France" towards Brittany. In the Parisian region, medical students are rapidly training in nursing care to support hospitals. But they need appropriate protective equipment to be able to start working. Three months after the WHO launched its first obscure warning of pulmonary infections in China, France on Tuesday registered a record new rise in the number of deaths from corona, amounting to 499 deaths in 24 hours, a death every three minutes. According to the latest official toll, the epidemic claimed the lives of 3,523 people in the country. The number of patients in the recovery departments doubled during the week and six on Tuesday evening, 5565 (+458). The number of deaths in France exceeds the death toll in China (3305). However, many experts consider that the official numbers in China are much less than the reality, based on the large number of jars that contain the ashes of the dead and whom the families received. Unprecedented situation " "This situation is completely unprecedented in the history of French medicine," said Director-General of Health Jerome Salomon at his daily press conference. A third of the number of deaths in France was recorded in the "Ile de France" region, where the virus was spreading after it hit the east of the country. In order to alleviate pressure-stricken hospitals while the epidemic has not reached its climax, 36 patients will be transported from hospitals in the Parisian region on Wednesday, on board two trainers equipped with medical equipment from Paris to Brittany, according to the authorities. It is Professor Salomon to the train transportation remains "complicated" so the patients are "monitored all the way by a whole team of the resuscitation department. It is a very large and very reliable operation." Since the first such operation on March 18, Salomon said, "288 patients have been transferred to areas facing less pressure and this number is likely to increase in the coming days and weeks." Evacuation to bring towards the outside Also in eastern France, hospitals were filled. On Tuesday evening, 21 transfers were taking place from the east to Luxembourg, Germany and Switzerland, according to the Director-General of Health. That is the Health Authority of the Far East, which is confident of its capabilities, considering that it should witness a decrease in the number of cases of Covid-19 being transferred to the hospital in the second part of April. With the aim of avoiding exhausting the capabilities of the corpses due to the corona death rate and relieving funeral organizers, the government granted exemptions from the funeral law, allowing the funeral service to be postponed until six months, especially for families who wish to do so. Christophe Castaner said that the police have conducted 5.8 million observations since the isolation began in France, warning the French against any attempt to leave for the spring break. This is because the French must have a permit to leave their homes, because it is determined by their need to either buy their needs or work or for a health reason.

information: SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS : Windows /Mac OS X /SteamOS + Linux Windows : MINIMUM: OS: Windows 7 or above (64-bit Operating System Required) Processor: Intel Core i3-2100 (3.1GHz) or AMD Phenom X4 945 (3.0GHz) Memory: 4 GB RAM Graphics: Nvidia GeForce GTX 650 2GB or AMD Radeon HD 7770 2GB DirectX: Version 11 Storage: 14 GB available space Additional Notes: Please note that 32-bit operating systems will not be supported Mac OS X : MINIMUM: OS: macOS 10.15 Processor: 2.0Ghz Intel Core i5-6360U Memory: 4 GB RAM Graphics: 2GB NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680MX, 2GB AMD Radeon R9 M290, Intel Iris 540 Graphics or better (see notes for more details) Storage: 42 GB available space Additional Notes: The game is officially supported on the following Macs. To check your Mac model and when it was released, select About This Mac from the Apple menu on your menu bar: --- * All 13" MacBook Pros released since 2016 * All 15" MacBook Pros released since Late 2013 with a 2.3GHz i5 processor or better (1) * All 13" MacBook Airs released since 2018 * All Mac minis released since 2018 * All 21.5" iMacs released since 2017 * All 27" iMacs released since Late 2014 (2) * All 27" iMac Pros released since Late 2017 * All Mac Pros released since Late 2013 ——— (1) Mid-2015 models with an AMD R9 M370X graphics card are not supported (2) Late 2013 models with a 2GB Nvidia GeForce GTX 775M or 4GB Nvidia GeForce GTX 780M graphics card are also supported (2) Late 2012 models with a 2GB Nvidia GeForce GTX 680M graphics card are also supported Please note for your computer to meet the minimum requirements it must match or better all elements of the listed spec. For more detailed specifications check the Feral website. ——— The following Macs are capable of running the game but do not consistently meet the standards required for official support: * All 15" MacBook Pros released since Late 2013 * All 21.5" iMacs released since Late 2013 with a 2.3GHz processor or better (1) ——— (1) Models with an Nvidia 750M graphics card are not supported SteamOS + Linux MINIMUM: OS: Ubuntu 18.04 64-bit Processor: 3.4GHz Intel Core i3-4130 Memory: 4 GB RAM Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680 2GB or AMD Radeon R9 380 4GB Storage: 42 GB available space Additional Notes: * Requires Vulkan * NVIDIA requires 430.14 or newer drivers. * AMD requires Mesa 19.1.2 or newer. * Intel GPUs are not supported. Life Is Strange 2's most compelling moments revolve around the unconditional love between Sean and Daniel Diaz. The road from Seattle to Puerto Lobos has been a long one, but watching the brothers adapt and ultimately thrive together regardless of their circumstances is a satisfying constant within the series so far. Enter Episode 4, where Sean finds himself alone in a hospital bed just a day away from being sent to a juvenile detention facility for something he didn't do. While the central plot stumbles with some overwrought villains and an uninspiring environment to explore, Sean's genuine characterization and relationships with nuanced characters continue to elevate the narrative. His singular drive to find and rescue his brother propels him, and you, forward in the chaotic penultimate episode of Life Is Strange 2. Reality comes crashing down right out the gate in stark contrast to last episode's trundling pace. The ramifications of the brothers' fatal encounter with a Seattle police officer have caught up with them, but the more pressing issue is Daniel's absence. This is as much a problem for Sean as it is for the dynamicity of the plot. With Daniel taking a backseat, his character development takes a hit, and the episode's interactivity suffers from your inability to use his powers. Additionally, there's less general decision-making, and there are only rare occasions where problem-solving is required, which is a shame for the puzzling-inclined. As expected, Episode 4 pulls on the heartstrings just as much as its predecessors. One encounter features Sean facing off against an angry racist landowner, demanding to know why Sean is parked on his property. What transpires is unsettling and heartbreaking. Sean once again has to choose between his safety and his self-respect, and either decision will result in him screaming as he speeds away with tears streaming down his face. It's a heart-wrenching moment, made all the more painful by the consistently stellar voice acting of Gonzalo Martin. This event is followed by one where you must make a choice: trust a truck driver to give you a ride or continue Sean's painful trek on foot. The choice is inevitably informed by Sean's fractured trust in people, which you find yourself sharing as a result of his immensely sympathetic character. Life Is Strange 2 continues its theme of the best and worst of humanity living side by side. The grander implications of racism, politics, and what's to be done about either aren't questions the game attempts to answer (nor should it)--but seeing the impact on someone trapped in a hostile and divided world continues to be an illuminating and empathy-inducing experience. While these plot moments are strong, the central storyline revolves around an evangelical cult that Daniel has become caught up in. The figures who head up the church--a mani[CENSORED]tive, science-averse Reverend and her brainwashed muscle--are irritating and two-dimensional. The cult plotpoint feels oddly out of place from the road trip you've been taking so far, and it's over almost as soon as it begins. Aside from serving as the impetus for some great character-building moments for Sean, it feels like a pitstop we didn't need to take, bringing the narrative progress to an unnecessary halt. The episode shines brightest in its well-written interactions between fascinating characters. These explore themes of independence, family, religion, and fear with the deft touch we've come to expect from the series so far. While many lack context, these interactions are delivered beautifully, and what they inform about the central characters is worth the bizarre circumstances that brought them about. One hugely important character drops into the story suddenly and without any kind of foreshadowing, for example. They kick off an important emotional turning point for Sean, but it's borne out of such an absurd situation that the moment doesn't carry as much weight as it would have under more sensible circumstances. The result is a series of truly engrossing conversations without the interlocking threads to weave them seamlessly into an equally engrossing larger narrative. Unlike from the villains, the new characters and their backstories are compelling and authentic. This is also because the impact of choice takes a backseat--there is only one major moment this episode that will change as a result of your decisions in the story so far. This is equally delightful and frustrating. While only be able to make choices within the framework of how Sean would act can be disappointing, it ultimately allows the characters and their personalities to shine more, and that makes for a better story overall. Life Is Strange 2 illustrates how self-interest can trump family values, good people make bad choices, and no matter how you feel about someone, you can't control the person they are doomed or destined to be as a result of their choices. That goes not just for people around Sean, but Sean himself. It's a palpable and universal message that Life Is Strange 2 continues to convincingly deliver on a mechanical and thematic level. The supernatural collides with reality under the guise of radical religion in a way that feels too cliche, but spending more time with Sean and his confidants remains a delight. Whether you're heading into the final episode in much the same place you were at the beginning--or under the chilling implications of a certain late game choice--watching Daniel wrap his arms around Sean in either circumstance exemplifies what makes the series work so well. Your Sean can be kind or standoffish, thieving or righteous, but your actions don't change the love and adoration between the Diaz brothers--and that love is still the heart and soul of Life Is Strange 2

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As the coronavirus pandemic continues to spread across France, funeral home directors face the delicate task of protecting their staff while supporting grieving families, all while the country remains in lockdown. Over the last two weeks, Baptiste Santilly, director of the funeral home that bears his name, has recorded a 40% increase in the number of burials that his firm has dealt with. "We've handled 26 cases directly linked to COVID-19, which is huge compared to the total number of deaths," he told FRANCE 24. As France tackles its worst health crisis in a century, funeral counsellors, porters, embalmers – who prepare the bodies before burial – and crematorium operators now find themselves on the frontline of the pandemic. However, funeral directors are increasingly concerned by new measures for preparing bodies and a lack of necessary protective equipment for staff. End to immediate coffin closing "It's madness," admits Franck Vasseur, director of the funeral home L'Autre Rive (The Other Bank), which has two branches, in Paris and Lyon. Vasseur’s company, like many others, is trying to cope with a significant increase in burials linked to COVID-19. "It's an evolving situation," he says, referring to the latest sti[CENSORED]tions about the necessary sanitary conditions for funerals of coronavirus-related deaths. Until March 24, the recommendations from the French High Council for Public Health (HCSP) were led by a concern for safety first. There was to be no mortuary preparation of the body, no presentation of the deceased to the family and an immediate closure of the coffin. These strict instructions have now been somewhat relaxed. Embalming is now permitted to take place and family members are allowed to see their deceased relatives. The rules were relaxed because the HCSP claimed that potential transmission of the virus was reduced after a patient's death. "Relatives can now see the face of the deceased person in the hospital, mortuary or funeral room, if they respect the barrier measures", the HSCP said in a press release. In practice, however, many professionals in the funeral sector are refusing to comply. "We're totally opposed to it because otherwise, in a week's time, there won't be any more staff to bury people," says Vasseur. He explains that his company's policy will still be that of immediate burial (without presenting the body to the family) with the coffin deposited directly in a funeral home while awaiting the funeral. Santilly has chosen to follow the same policy. "I won't change my way of doing things," says the funeral director, who has nine agencies in the Île-de-France region and the neighbouring Oise department, where the main cluster of French cases first emerged. "I want to look after my employees because we don't really know whether a body remains highly infectious or is less so than when the patient was alive," he continues. ‘We live in fear every day’ Funeral directors are also struggling to protect their already under-equipped staff to limit the spread of the virus. "We believe that our staff are not receiving sufficient protection because this is not considered to be a medical profession," says Vasseur. "We have absolutely nothing. We have three lousy masks, but we are a team of five and we have to constantly engage with the public." Funeral workers are not on the list for “priority" access to masks. "It's quite distressing," agrees Santilly. "Normally when we go to collect someone who has died from COVID-19, we wear special equipment: a protective suit, a hat, a mask, glasses and plastic overshoes. But it's very difficult to get hold of these and we don't have enough equipment. I just hope the state will make things available to us very soon.” Since their work involves direct and prolonged contact with the deceased, many embalmers have also demanded their right to refuse to practise. "They don't even want to intervene to remove pacemakers, which is normally a compulsory procedure for cremation or burial," adds Santilly. But he says he supports this refusal because he wants to protect his employees. His company has also put in place a number of additional measures to safeguard customers and employees, including gloves, disposable pens and plastic screens between clients and staff. "At the moment, we receive quite a few families who have been in contact with a person who has died from COVID-19 or who are themselves infected," he explains. "We live in fear every day." Moreover, the two funeral homes contacted by FRANCE 24 said that appointments at their agencies are limited to three people (two family members of the deceased and a funeral counsellor). This has now been reduced to just one family member if it is the funeral of someone who has died from COVID-19. It’s a necessary but nevertheless difficult measure, according to Vasseur. "It's tricky to have to force people to stay outside." ‘Maintaining empathy is complicated’ All of these restrictions also apply to the cremation and burial procedures. "It's not possible to have a ceremony at the crematorium, only technical acts can be performed there now. The coffin is placed in the crematorium and the cremation takes place without the family's presence," explains Vasseur. Churches, for their part, have limited the number of people who can attend religious ceremonies to 20 and insist that social distancing measures be respected in a bid to avoid infections. Cemeteries adhere to the same policy, where the number of people allowed to visit is often capped at ten. All of these measures further complicate the long grieving process that families go through when they lose a loved one. In recent weeks, of the 65 funerals handled by his company, Santilly says he has seen about 20 without any family attending at all. "Either people were already infected themselves or they were too afraid to leave their homes," he explains. To try to help people feel that they can still be present at such a critical family moment, Santilly has begun filming the funerals to reassure families that everything went well. The funeral companies admit it can be difficult to maintain a human element to their services in these troubled times. "No funeral assistant is ready for this," says Santilly. "We must respect security measures, social distancing... Of course there is still empathy, but it's very complicated." "We're under stress. It's a lot of work, but we're doing everything we can to do it correctly," agrees Vasseur. "It's our job," he says. "And it's not just about putting people in a box and closing it."

Information: Price: $49.99 SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS MINIMUM: Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system OS: Windows 7 SP1, Windows 8.1 or Windows 10 (64-bit versions) Processor: Intel Core i5 (3rd Generation) or AMD FX Series processor (or equivalents) Memory: 6 GB RAM Graphics: nVidia GTX 650Ti 1GB or AMD Radeon HD 7770 (or equivalents) DirectX: Version 11 Network: Broadband Internet connection Storage: 20 GB available space Sound Card: DirectX Compatible Sound Card with latest drivers Additional Notes: Network connection required for cloud saves and multiplayer. The fifth and latest in the long-running Age of Wonders series is the first to trade in the staple high fantasy setting for a sleek and shiny sci-fi theme. Despite the change of scenery, it remains true to its roots, delivering a very good hybrid between turn-based tactics and 4X strategy game that is at its best when it focuses on people--both the people you meet and the people you send to war. 4X strategy games tend to present the lands they ask their players to explore, expand, exploit, and exterminate as uninhabited. It's common to begin a new game with a settler unit and the implicit promise that this is a world yet to be settled. It's there for the taking. The colonialist fantasy extends to indigenous po[CENSORED]tions, if they exist at all, being treated as incidental. At best they are neutral props without any ambition of their own; at worst they are nothing more than vermin to be eradicated. Age of Wonders: Planetfall offers a different perspective. Instead of conquering a new world, you are returning home ages after a calamity drove your ancestors away. There is still war to be had, there are still peoples to displace--this remains a 4X game in the Sid Meier tradition. But in the light narrative touch of a quest system that gives voice and purpose to everyone you meet, there are moments of reconnection and rediscovery. In a sense it becomes a 5X game, allowing you to exhume and reclaim traces of your civilization's history. This emphasis on archaeology is more prevalent in the surprisingly substantial campaign mode than in the randomly-rolled maps of the scenario mode. The 13 campaign missions, which let you play as all six of the game's half-dozen factions, are peppered with scripted story beats that succeed in fleshing out the history of and relations between the various civilizations. Visit a foreign colony and you might trigger a conversation between your commander and another faction leader in which you're asked to perform a quest to gain their favor. Later you might encounter a third faction who promises you some vital insight into your own objectives in return for betraying the friendship you recently forged. Such choices are fraught. Each faction, even the minor indigenous ones, is busy cultivating relationships with the others, and it soon becomes clear that every new decision you make will ripple out and meaningfully affect your standing in the world. The random scenario mode can't rely on the scripted story of the campaign, but each procedurally generated map still supports the same dynamic quest system. One faction might task you with helping them complete some important research, while another urges you to hunt down a pack of troublesome enemies pillaging their lands. Such quests not only keep you engaged with interfactional diplomacy but also serve to provide clear motivation for exploring new areas and expanding your borders in specific directions. Regardless of whether you opt for the campaign or a scenario, you begin with a single settlement and gradually take over adjacent sectors to secure access to their resources. You build military units to go to war or to protect your newly acquired holdings. You colonize unclaimed sectors and upgrade them to specialize in supplying your colony with food, energy, research, or production. You have to get your head around the unintuitive sci-fi names of many technologies, structures, and units, but hover the mouse over Kinetic Force Mani[CENSORED]tion to bring up the tooltip and you quickly realize it simply means "Better Guns." Indeed, it's all fairly straightforward for anyone who has played Civilization or dabbled in the strategic layer of a Total War, though sometimes it does feel like expansion decisions are not really choices at all. When faced with the prospect of expanding into one of two possible sectors, you're always going to pick the one that receives bonus production from its quarry over the one that offers no bonuses of any kind. Occasionally you'll have to weigh the benefits of one resource over another, but they aren't genuine either/or choices--they're more akin to whether you need that food-rich river sector now or whether you want it a little bit later. Among the structures you can build with a colony, there's also a disappointing lack of variety. Most of what you can construct are incremental upgrades that boost resource production while unique buildings, like the world wonders in Civilization, or anything that truly changes your style of play (rather than merely accelerating it) are felt only in their absence. More interesting decisions arrive in combat. Armies can contain up to six units and are lead by a hero unit commander. When two or more hostile armies meet on the world map, combat is resolved via a remarkably full-feature XCOM-style tactical battle. Every unit can move individually, take partial or full cover, attack in melee or at range, and call upon a number of specialized abilities. The range of options at your disposal here is dizzying. Each unit can be outfitted with primary and secondary weapons and up to three ability mods earned through quest rewards or unlocked on the tech tree. You can apply a template to all units of the same class, so that newly recruited infantry, for example, will all have increased accuracy and healing. But if you're like me, you'll enjoy rolling up your sleeves to customize every single unit in your army. Adding to the complexity, hero units can learn skills that not only enhance their own abilities but confer buffs to the units they lead. I loved having the authority to develop specialized armies. In my current game, I have one army composed of snipers led by a commander who uses mind control debuffs and a second army focused around a melee tank supported by defensive grunts who can throw down portable cover anywhere on the battlefield. The degree of customization allowed is both flexible and powerful. This sort of specialization matters because you can bring multiple armies into the same fight--and indeed, it becomes essential as you encounter tougher armies into the mid- and late-game. Any army on the world map that is situated adjacent to the hex where combat is initiated will be drawn into the conflict. Thus, a huge part of the tactical considerations at work here comes from maneuvering your troops to outnumber the enemy. Combat can be auto-resolved, allowing you to either watch the AI simulate the tactical battle or skip straight to the outcome, but doing so results in unnecessary losses in all but the most lopsided contests. Overall, Age of Wonders: Planetfall is a robust package for 4X players who want to test themselves against a more in-depth combat system than is typically found in the genre. It suffers a little from its sci-fi setting making things just that little bit harder to relate to than, say, actual human history, but it compensates by creating a cast of fictional alien civilizations that are worth getting to know. It might not quite feel like home at first, but you'll quickly settle in.

Platforms: PC (Mar 26, 2020) PlayStation 4 (Mar 26, 2020) Xbox One (Jun 25, 2020) control, which I called Great in my 2019 review ahead of its win as IGN’s Game of the Year, left me the way most memorable games should: satisfied with its self-contained story, but wanting more from its universe. Its first major DLC expansion, The Foundation, does just that yet again. It excels at being as weird and wonderful as the base game, but it’s certainly more of what I loved rather than something totally new. Not that that’s a bad thing. The Foundation’s story sticks wonderfully true to Control’s ending, which is great because it’s available instantly upon completing the campaign. Jesse Faden is now acting head of the Bureau… and life goes on. She has a job to do and more problems to tackle, but of course these problems just happen to be of the extradimensional variety. Despite quelling the Hiss’ spread at large, the very foundation of the Oldest House is at stake, and Jesse’s new adventure mostly trades in the stark workplace minimalism for a cavernous underground tunnel system that is no less ominous. The grays and... other shades of gray of the Bureau are replaced by bright-beige rock walls and mounds of red sand pulled straight out of Star Wars: The Last Jedi’s Crait. Even if there’s only so much you can do with the limited color palette, the Foundation’s aesthetic never wears out its welcome or becomes so same-y enough that it gets confusing to navigate. And developer Remedy finds plenty of reason to incorporate both the Bureau and the Astral Plane in surprising ways I won’t spoil. But their inclusion feels earned and only deepens the connection of this new location to the world I’d already grown to love. And it all looks stunning, especially running on a high-end PC that allowed the ominous, ray-traced lighting of Control’s world to truly shine. The Foundation’s more organic setting allows Remedy to play around with scope, producing some pretty impressive, imposing abysses. I looked into a handful of depths of total black or skylights of brilliant white and often wondered just how big this location might be. Beneath the Surface Thankfully, The Foundation retains Control’s penchant for superb writing and fascinating world-building, even if its cast of characters isn’t quite as large. Again and again, The Foundation pulled off the neat trick of answering questions I didn’t even know I had, but that only served to make me love this world even more. Who knew the mystery of who created the Bureau’s power cores could be so interesting? Remedy did, and its consistent insights into the Oldest House proved to be just as gratifying. The Foundation’s four to five-hour story also challenges some of the storytelling norms I accepted in Control’s main campaign. Jesse and the Board are now at odds with one another, complicating the relationship of Board and Director by showing a more vulnerable side of the Board. The ominous, monolithic figurehead is more fragile, both literally and emotionally, in The Foundation than I’d ever imagined. Seeing how Jesse responds to that is frequently a treat; she’s both more confident after everything she’s gone through, but also more at home in this world than ever, which is a significant about-face from her initial mistrust of it. Control's Extra Update Alongside The Foundation, Remedy is releasing a free update patch for all players, regardless of whether they buy the DLC. Control’s aesthetically cool but mechanically annoying map has been given some much-needed improvements in readability, the welcome option to reallocate Jesse’s ability points has been added, and a brand-new ability called Shield Rush that takes the momentum of the defensive Shield move and turns it into a full-force attack on a nearby enemy. Shield became a heavily used ability for me in the late game, so I’m glad to see it get a bit more of an offensive use without making the ability too overpowered. Not that it needed much more help, but I think after my time with The Foundation, Control’s moveset has solidified itself as my favorite, and coolest, group of powers Remedy has produced for a game so far. Earth Shattering At the heart of Jesse’s objective is tackling four challenges to help root out the Hiss from the Foundation. Those challenges often feature combat gauntlets replete with a new type of Hiss that’s invaded the Oldest House. Wielding axes they can toss and use for close-ranged combat, these Hiss are a worthy addition to the limited enemy lineup of the base game. They share some behaviors in common with Control’s aerial enemies, which forced me to keep Jesse nimble and frequently moving and/or in mobile shield cover to have a hope of surviving. A pair of new abilities reflects her new level of experience, and the order in which you get them is your choice. The real demonstrable change that choice makes is which of the objectives you tackle first, but either way you’ll be taking them all on. One power lets you destroy crystals growing in the environment blocking your path, while the other lets you grow these same crystals in other locations to create platforms or, better yet, impale the Hiss to dust. I definitely leaned toward using the latter because of its dual purposes, as the real benefit to breaking crystals comes down to picking up a few extra gun and personal mods hidden around the environment and I never felt like it was being stingy with those anyway. Taken together, though, these crystal powers offer a nice bit of variety to making your way through the large-scale environments, and Remedy even finds a nice way of tying in the impact of Jesse getting the second ability into her relationship with the Board. Nearly everything felt like it mattered in the world of Control, and that continues to be true with the DLC. Similarly, The Foundation’s best and worst bits often echo what worked and what didn’t in the original Control. A deeper understanding of the Bureau, and this new location, comes from locating all the hidden collectibles filled with eclectic, funny writing. And the optional Altered Item encounters are once again some of the most unexpected delights around, offering unique twists on boss fights and combat arenas in ways that make me wish there were another dozen to tackle. Meanwhile, occasional slowdown still occurs when the action gets too heated and enemies are filling the screen, but on a high-end PC those moments were rare. Verdict By The Foundation’s end, I didn’t come away with a seismic shift in my feelings on Control. It continues to nail what worked in the base campaign, adding more of what first captivated my attention. In trusting Remedy to take me down corridors I didn’t expect to walk, I received a few new, fun powers, some wacky side challenges, and world-building that offers satisfying answers and intriguing questions that have me eager to return yet again to its world.

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Information: Platforms: Nintendo Switch/Playstation 4/Xbox One/Microsoft Windows Type: Role-shift strategy MINIMUM: Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system OS: Windows 7 / 8 / 8.1 / 10 Processor: Intel Core i3-2100 / AMD Phenom II X4 965 or equivalent Memory: 6 GB RAM Graphics: GeForce GTX 550 Ti / Intel HD 620 / Radeon HD 5770 DirectX: Version 11 Storage: 35 GB available space Additional Notes: Online connection required for Multiplayer The isometric turn-based tactical combat system may look outwardly similar to other games in the same genre--action points, cover, and overwatch will be familiar concepts--but there are also many unique intricacies to internalize, and it will take some time to learn due to a large number of options available when it comes to completing objectives. Going in loud and hard is a viable option, and Phantom Doctrine even features an exciting room-breaching mechanic. But it is far more rewarding to use stealth tactics due to the wealth of strategies available. You can send in a couple of disguised spies and do everything underneath the enemy's nose; you can use your supports to help scout out an optimal path, snipe troublesome minions, or send in a smoke grenade as a distraction; you can silently eliminate everyone and hide the bodies before anyone notices; you can even send in sleeper agents to do your dirty work for you. You can also choose to sacrifice some of your mission time to conduct a reconnaissance run, which will place you in a much better position during the subsequent mission since it opens up the options of strategically placed support agents and disguises. But if you find yourself in a time-sensitive position, then no support options will be available and the margins of error are much narrower. While you can still complete missions in whatever manner you see fit, a single false move can carry greater consequences to your campaign, compared to the relatively leniency that proper preparation and contingencies can give you. Should a mission go sideways, hard decisions must be made, such as whether to leave an agent behind and risk them getting captured, or trying to evacuate everyone at the risk of no one surviving. These field missions are exciting because Phantom Doctrine manages to balance many complex, variable mechanics with a welcome flexibility in tactical decision-making, making it satisfying to play, characteristically distinct, and thematically appropriate. The base- and character-building elements of Phantom Doctrine are just as well realized as the combat systems. These utilize a familiar ant farm-style perspective that splits your base into distinct areas, such as a workshop and analytics department and interrogation rooms, all of which are available to upgrade through the course of the campaign. The most noteworthy room, however, is the intelligence boardroom. Here, Phantom Doctrine takes the well-known investigative trope of "corkboard covered with photos and strings” and turns it into an enjoyable minigame. As your agents uncover intelligence and find secret files from missions and informants, everything will be collected and pinned to a corkboard, requiring you to decipher the procedurally-generated clues in order to unlock bonuses or progress the narrative. It's the perfect mechanical expression to amplify Phantom Doctrine's espionage themes, and figuring out how a collection of clues relate to one another by linking them all together with yarn is immensely satisfying. However, don't think that your corkboards and HQ are entirely safe from harm. Enemy spies are constantly looking for you during more macro-oriented strategy sections, and if you send your spies to participate in more attention-grabbing activities, you risk your location being discovered. If found out, you'll be forced to relocate your entire base of operations and be set back in your campaign, or be hit with an ambush. It's a compelling consideration that keeps you cautious and thinking twice about every move you make. As a senior agent, you're also in charge of hiring, training, and assigning jobs around the globe to your fellow spies. The character-leveling system is deep, and it requires careful strategic planning to build and grow a team of agents while making sure you have access to a wide range of skills and abilities that can be applied across various mission types. You will also occasionally need to make executive decisions that can affect a fellow agent's relationship with you, for better or worse. They may be caught in a tough situation abroad and you're given the choice to leave them, dedicate some resources to help them, or launch an all-out rescue. Depending on your choice, the agent may become more loyal to you, go AWOL, or even defect. But the game will also sometimes throw unexpected events at you that occur beyond your control, such as a spy that you've employed for a majority of your campaign game revealing themselves to be a double agent the whole time. More shockingly, there's the potential to discover that one of your best spies is a brainwashed sleeper agent in the midst of battle, and have them turn against your team. Traitorous surprises can happen procedurally in addition to being part of the plot, and they brutally emphasize the Cold War paranoia that Phantom Doctrine conveys, creating genuinely upsetting, but incredibly effective, moments. While all-encompassing paranoia is perfectly encapsulated in Phantom Doctrine's mechanics, writing, and voice acting, the visual presentation leaves much to be desired. Cutscenes are sparse, and still images are the primary narrative delivery device, but neither is particularly easy on the eyes. The cutscenes are drab, and while the still images fare a little better, most are unimaginative. The most egregiously noticeable elements are the character models, which all look unnatural and outdated, and the monotonous location design which makes most places look unremarkable and virtually identical. In spite of the lackluster visuals, Phantom Doctrine succeeds in making an incredible impression with its intricate and engaging mechanics. There is a lot to admire, with a single-player campaign taking about 40 hours to complete, full of varied and interesting mainline missions and procedurally-generated side content. The ability to play as either a CIA, KGB, or Mossad agent (the latter unlocked after one complete playthrough) also offers the tantalizing prospect of different narrative perspectives. Phantom Doctrine takes the familiar framework of isometric turn-based strategy and confidently repurposes it into a unique and satisfying experience. It wholly embodies the paranoia and tension of the 1980's Cold War setting in every aspect of its numerous gameplay systems, and completely immerses you in that all-encompassing state of mind.

information: System: Windows/macOS (OS X)/Linux System requirements Minimum : Processor (CPU) Intel Pentium 700 MHz 640x400, 32-bit color DirectX 8.0 compatible It would be remiss to talk about Mage's Initiation: Reign of the Elements without considering its overt inspiration: Quest for Glory, a series of Sierra games from the early '90s. Quest for Glory was an ambitious hybrid of point-and-click adventures and Dungeons & Dragons-inspired role-playing featuring multiple classes, real-time combat, comprehensive statistic-based character building that all affected and changed the way you approached the game's obstacles. It remains a concept very few games have directly replicated, but Mage's Initiation proudly embraces this influence at every turn and draws liberally from the Quest for Glory template. It feels like a spiritual successor in many ways, but while the fantasy adventure it creates is enjoyable in its own right, its attempts to execute Quest for Glory's RPG-inspired diversity in its different playstyles aren't as robust and meaningful as they might initially seem. Mage's Initiation follows D'arc, a teenager residing in a magic boarding school, as he faces his initiation to, well, become a mage. His big test requires him to overcome three major trials that ask him to deal with the mythic and fantastical, and along the way he hits some unexpected twists and uncovers a greater conspiracy. At the beginning of the game, you're given the opportunity to choose from four different mage classes, each focused around an element (fire, earth, wind, water) which will determine the selection of spells D'Arc will have at his disposal for both puzzle solving and combat. The path to overcoming the trials involves conversing with a diverse cast of characters, hunting for items and information, solving puzzles with logic and the environment, and fighting enemies with both force and wit. Much of what Mage's Initiation does is enjoyable without the context of its influences. It's a well-paced adventure game throwback with solid voice acting, an intriguing mystery, and satisfying puzzles. As someone whose formative years were defined by endless replays of Quest for Glory, it's exciting to see the game trade so heavily on nostalgia for those games. Almost every element of Mage's Initiation can be immediately identified as a connection to Sierra adventure games. The beautifully illustrated environments, character portraits, and interface perfectly evoke the aesthetic, most obviously. But there are also parallels like attempts at Quest for Glory's signature pun-heavy humor, exotic character archetypes, and unique dark fantasy atmosphere. There's also the blatantly anachronistic, maze-like structure of the wasteland and forest areas that encouraged me to draw my own real-life maps to get around--just like I did playing Quest for Glory as a kid. The issue with Mage's Initiation is that in a lot of cases, the clear ambitions to ape its source material don't reach the same meaningful depths of that source material, and as a result, the existence of some of these elements eventually feels like window dressing--whether you're aware of its influences or not. The aforementioned maze-like areas are fun to map out initially, but unlike Quest for Glory, you don't really need to internalize them because you don't have to navigate them regularly--key locations in Mage's Initiation are mostly clustered together in a straightforward manner. As a result, these environments feel strangely tacked on, an excessive obstacle you need to overcome to find a couple of quest items. In a similar fashion, the four classes provide some minor variations in how you solve puzzles, but few of them actually feel like fundamentally different approaches. For example, to find a way into a particular second story window, you can use the air mage's levitating spell, use the water mage's water jet to activate a water wheel to ride, or grow a vine to climb as an earth mage. But the fact that these solutions are all just spells activated in the same manner never made me feel like I was thinking in a drastically different way for each mage or using a different set of tools--merely changing the location I pointed the cursor. This aspect becomes especially apparent upon multiple playthroughs. Similarly, the classes' combat abilities fail to be fundamentally distinct. Each starts with comparable projectile attacks corresponding to their element, as well as defensive abilities that mitigate damage. None of these skills feel particularly unique in practice. Toward the end of the game, each class gets more powerful and varied spells, but their presence highlights another issue with combat: The high mana cost of these powerful skills rarely made using them feel worthwhile. I found it most effective to simply cast the low-cost basic projectiles repeatedly for basically all of the game's combat encounters, which rarely felt challenging or tense. This is due in part to the game's convenient auto-saving before any hostile encounter, which has the unfortunate effect of making it unnecessary to ever upgrade your character's constitution stat--I could just reload to the start of the encounter if I died. There are a few major branching paths and decisions that affect the outcome of your relationship with certain characters and events of the plot, but these aren't tied to your class. Many of the more devilish roadblock puzzles that need to be cleared before you can progress, while satisfying to solve, have the same solution in each playthrough. The major point of difference between the adventures is that each class has its own unique side quest, which are interesting, but they're completely optional, easily missed, and feel like an afterthought because of that. Some of the game's unique additions don't quite hit the mark, either. An entire economy of gems you can equip to augment your combat capabilities is initially interesting, but they're too bountiful, and easy to forget about because of the exploitable nature of combat. And for all the beautiful art in the game, there are a few key cutscenes that take a jarring deviation from the game's visual direction and a strange dip in quality, detracting from revelations they portray. I ultimately enjoyed my time following D'arc through his journey, and Mage's Initiation left me curious about the events still to come. It's an entertaining adventure game, but its ambitions to incorporate a meaningful diversity of role-playing options fall disappointingly flat and feel inconsequential. Mage's Initiation is a fair appropriation of a hybrid formula that I was happy to consume, but its shortcomings made me more eager to revisit the series that inspired it for another run-through.

Name game: Far Cry® 5 Price: $12.75 Link store: https://www.gamersgate.com/DD-FAR-CRY-5-ROW-REL/far-cry-5 Offer ends up after X hours. 3 Days & 1h

With Italy and France suffering a setback Thursday as coronavirus death tolls and cases mounted, mirroring trends in Spain and the US, the number of infections worldwide topped the half-million mark even as more than a third of the world’s po[CENSORED]tion was under some form of lockdown, putting strains on the global economy. The human and economic toll of the lockdowns against the coronavirus mounted Thursday as India struggled to feed the multitudes, Italy shut down most of its industry, and a record-shattering 3.3 million Americans applied for unemployment benefits in a single week. As the number of deaths due to the infection climbed to about 23,000, the damage to people's livelihoods and their well-being from the effort to flatten the rising curve started to come into focus. In France, health authorities reported 365 new deaths from coronavirus on Thursday, taking the total to 1,696. The rise in the number of deaths represents a daily rise of 27 percent, a marked increase from the previous day with the country now in its second week of lockdown. This daily government tally only accounts for those dying in hospital, but authorities said they would soon be able to compile data on deaths in retirement homes, which is likely to result in a big increase in registered fatalities. Poor abandoned in Modi’s India In India, where Prime Minister Narendra Modi has ordered the country's 1.3 billion people to stay home, legions of poor were suddenly thrown out of work, and many families were left struggling for something to eat. “Our first concern is food, not the virus,” said Suresh Kumar, 60, a bicycle rickshaw rider in New Delhi whose family of six relies on his daily earnings of 300 rupees, or $4 (€3.6). “I don’t know how I will manage.” India has the world's second-highest number of people living in extreme poverty. Rickshaw drivers, produce peddlers, maids, day labourers and other low-wage workers form the backbone of the economy, and many live day to day on their pay and have no savings to fall back on.The Indian government announced a 1.7 trillion rupee ($22 billion, €20bn) economic stimulus package that will deliver monthly rations of grain and lentils to a staggering 800 million people. New York State the new hotspot Around the globe, the death toll stood at nearly 8,200 in Italy, more than 4,100 in Spain and over 1,000 in the US. New York State, the worst hotspot in the America, accounted for about 400 of the US deaths. Most of those were in New York City, where hospitals are getting swamped with patients. From New York's Fifth Avenue and London's Piccadilly Circus to the boulevards of Paris and the streets of Rome and Madrid, restaurants, hotels, airlines, giant chains and small shops are all shuttered, and factories across both continents have ground to a halt, as cities, states and entire countries have ordered the closing of nonessential businesses and instructed people to stay home. Companies in Europe are laying off workers at the fastest pace since 2009, according to surveys of business managers. And the US is bleeding jobs as well: The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits last week was nearly five times the old record, set in 1982. Dann Dykas, 37, of Portland, Oregon, was laid off from his job helping design and set up displays for trade shows. “Everything is so surreal," he said. "I can't even get an interview for another job, and we now have to worry more about being careful and taking care of ourselves.” In Georgia, 33-year-old Ian Smith was let go from his job at a wine bar and is working “side hustles” and relying on the generosity of friends. “On my worst days, it’s hopelessness, and on some of my better days, it’s ‘What possibility can I create in all of this?'” he said. “I can’t pretend that I always feel that, though.” Markets respond to US rescue package In a rare positive sign, stocks rallied on Wall Street for the third straight day after an unprecedented $2.2 trillion economic rescue package to help businesses, hospitals and ordinary Americans pull through the crisis cleared the Senate. The plan, which is expected to be voted on in the House on Friday, would dispense cheques of $1,200 (€1086) per adult and $500 (€452) per child. US President Donald Trump announced that federal officials are developing guidelines to rate counties by risk of virus spread, as he aims to ease the restrictions meant to slow the outbreak. The British government unveiled another relief effort, this time aimed at the gig economy, many of whose workers are facing financial ruin. The government will give the self-employed grants equal to 80 percent of their average monthly profits, up to £2,500 ($2,975, €2,760) per month. Africa catches up South Africa, with the most industrialised economy in Africa, headed into a three-week lockdown starting Friday. The country is already in recession, with an unemployment rate of 29 percent. While the coronavirus epidemic was slow to reach Africa, the number of cases and deaths have been rising, raising fears of how the continent, plagued by poverty and poor health infrastructure could cope with the crisis. At an unprecedented video conference Thursday, the leaders of the G20 grouping of major industrialised nations vowed to work together to confront the crisis. A statement at the end of the meeting mentioned an injection of US$5 trillion (€4.5tn) into the global economy, but no specific commitments were made.

Name game: Resident Evil 3 Price: $46.79 Link store: https://www.gamersgate.com/DD-RESIDENT-EVIL-3/resident-evil-3 Offer ends up after X hours.

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Information: Minimum system requirements: Windows 7 / 8 / 10 Processor:3.2 GHz Dual Core Memory:4 GB RAM Graphics:GeForce GTX 660, Radeon RX 460 or equivalent with 2 GB of video RAM DirectX:Version 11 Storage:8 GB available space Sound:DirectX compatible in Frostpunk's main campaign, you already know the stakes. A winter of biblical proportions has descended upon Industrial Revolution England, driving its citizens into the frozen unknowns to seek out life-giving generators. In The Last Autumn, you are in charge of making one of those very generators a reality--one that will hopefully save lives in the future. Winter lies in wait on the periphery, so you have to worry about new means of resource gathering, timed objectives, and social challenges rather than staving off the flu. It dresses the familiar gameplay elements of Frostpunk up differently, demanding a new type of strategic thinking that reinvigorates the already satisfying formula at its core. With the cold weather encroaching on Liverpool, you lead a handful of workers and engineers on an expedition to a cove on the edge of the country. Near-freezing sprays from the nearby ocean splash against treacherous rocky beaches, with only a small space to build upon peering through the thicket of trees outlining the coast. This limited space is immediately stressful--a massive generator needs to be built, resources around you already seem scarce, and the space you must work with doesn't allow for many placement mistakes. The odds are stacked against you from the start of Last Autumn's campaign, but some new tools provide reprieve in distinct ways. Instead of gathering resources from deposits around you, you can build new harbors on limited coastline spaces to collect what you need. You have to choose which spaces are dedicated to fishing for food and which others can be set up as large ports, allowing ships with stockpiles of wood, coal, or steel to dock and unload. Shipping resources in is only one part of the supply chain, too. With new depots staffed with workers, you can quickly supply your main city with resources nearly as fast as they're unloaded, which vastly improves upon having workers manually carry them from the docks. Each of these structures requires some of your more limited resources, though, making each micro-decision carry more weight than before. When each ingot of steel feels as precious as the last, you'll rarely find yourself overwhelmed as was the case in some previous scenarios, escalating the overall tension as a result. Other new structures are intrinsically tied to your new objective of building a central generator, each of which are used to build specific pieces of the giant contraption. You have a total of only 45 game days to achieve this goal, without any preparation time to make provisions for a stable resource supply line and citizen housing. It makes each of the four impending milestones immediately stressful, but it's all initially more confusing than it needs to be. The Last Autumn features the same useful tutorials from the main campaign to make picking up its new mechanics easy, but it doesn't do a good enough job surfacing the menus you can utilise to measure your progress towards the next milestone. It ultimately ruined my first run--I missed my first milestone without realizing that it even existed, making it impossible for me to hit subsequent ones on time before being fired. For all the good The Last Autumn does surfacing nearly every other facet of its new mechanics, it's frustrating that it takes some lost progress to truly understand its overall tempo. Once you come to grips with the time limits imposed on you, you can focus more on The Last Autumn's new Motivation meter, which joins the returning Discontent meter from previous scenarios. Each is fairly self-explanatory--the first one measures how much motivation your workers have to get the job done, while the other indicates how unhappy they are with their current living situation. Unlike previous campaigns, though, letting either one get too high or too low doesn't end your game. Instead, Motivation determines just how efficient your workers are at the jobs they're assigned to, while Discontent alters how likely they are to put down tools entirely and walk out on strikes. Keeping Motivation high and Discontent almost non-existent at first is easy, but as the impending winter approaches and the realities of your encroaching deadlines loom, unavoidable, scenario-specific modifiers to both make their upkeep a true challenge. Strikes are a new social aspect you'll need to contend with, going hand-in-hand with new metrics measuring the safety of workplaces in place of worrying about their overall temperature (given that winter hasn't yet arrived). Workplaces that are consistently dangerous and staffed with workers working either long or double shifts will quickly drive their occupants to down their tools and picket outside, forcing you to negotiate before returning to work. Worker requests will require you to pass new laws affecting either their work hours or living conditions, often demanding more resources from you or a tolerance for their slower pace of work in order to get them back into their factories and mills. The knock-on effects of these decisions can sometimes feel absent at first but come back around days later to haunt you, making each strike negotiation important to carefully consider. Even simply delaying your decision with handouts of rations often results in more strenuous demands from your workers, turning strikes into worthy headaches that compound the satisfyingly stressful symphony of systems present already. With new mechanics to contend with and different ways to approach Frostpunk's strategic formula, the new laws that it introduces make tackling both as morally challenging as ever. Your base set of laws returns from previous scenarios, but the branches that come with siding with either labor or your engineers expand on them extensively. In one of my successful runs I passed laws in the engineering path that allowed me to ship in prisoners for cheaper labor, while constructing oppressive security towers and multiple penitentiaries to keep everyone in line. The authoritarian approach didn't sit well with most citizens, but it made sense to grow my workforce rapidly without needing to worry too much about the needs of my new laborers. Eventually I unlocked an ability to turn regular citizens into criminals without trial, giving me the chance to boost efficiency in workplaces solely staffed by criminals as a result of their supposed disposability. None of these decisions are easy to make. Frostpunk has always made each of your decisions feel like choosing between two evils, and The Last Autumn maintains that. When shipping in criminals I was constantly reminded of how terrible some of their crimes were and how they might introduce problems to my other citizens if not policed correctly. But even introducing a growing security force presented issues. Empowered citizens imposed their authority incorrectly at times, which in one case drove one of my citizens to death after consistent harassment that I ignored so that my criminals could be kept in check. Seeing small stories like this emerge from decisions I made hours before was equal parts gut-wrenching and fascinating, encouraging me to explore new laws and regulations to see what effects they might have. Because bad Motivation or Discontent don't end a run and only the stress of missing deadlines to contend with, The Last Autumn allows for more flexibility in your strategy. It lets you stretch the boundaries of what its new laws offer, offering you the chance to drive forward with increasingly morally dubious decisions if all you're focused on is getting the job done. It doesn't come without consequence, though, especially when the cold arrives near the end of the run and introduces further restrictions on resource gathering as well as the familiar temperature monitoring in workplaces and citizen residences. By the end of my own run I was furiously converting citizens into criminals to increase my workforce without new shipments of workers coming in, exponentially increasing the size of my required security force too. The last few days felt like a battle of attrition--I wasn't allowed to let up on longer shifts but also incapable of dealing with the living needs of my po[CENSORED]tion without diverting resources from the work on the generator. Within just a few days nearly half my society had succumbed to illness and died, eventually allowing me to reach my goal but with hardly any of the people responsible for it alive to see the fruits of their labor. Outside of small stories that your decisions generate and influence, The Last Autumn does attempt to conclusively confront your choices by its conclusion. With the generator built and your citizens sent to the next site that needs work, you're presented predictions for how effective your generator might be and just how many citizens it could save in the future. Based on how many milestones you missed, how many concessions you had to make to get there, and the number of people you lost along the way, the hard-fought victory might be met with depressingly low odds of success in the long run. It stings to have that presented to you after making sacrifices for what you assumed would be a greater good, forcing you to reevaluate your overall strategy and try again for a better outcome. The Last Autumn demands a lot from you, but it's also a deeply engrossing evolution of the formula that Frostpunk is made up of, changing the core rules just enough to make all your previous strategies feel insufficient. Whether it's deciding on which resources to order and how to distribute them or which parts of your workforce to push just hard enough before they reach their breaking point, The Last Autumn maintains the morally challenging and consequence-riddled decision-making of the core game while giving you new laws to experiment with and master. It's a welcome return to an already fantastic strategy game that shouldn’t be glossed over.

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi ordered a "complete" lockdown for India's 1.3 billion people on Tuesday, warning that "many families will be destroyed forever" if the country didn't get to grips with its coronavirus outbreak in the next three weeks. Modi said the lockdown would start at midnight local time, would last for a minimum of 21 days, and would apply to all of India's 36 states and territories. "You have seen the worldwide situations arising from the coronavirus pandemic in the news. You have also seen how the most powerful nations have become helpless in the face of this pandemic," Modi said in a live televised address to the nation on Tuesday evening ahead of the deadline. India is the world's second most populous country and the fifth biggest economy, but so far, it has appeared to avoid the full hit of the pandemic. The country has confirmed 519 coronavirus cases, including 10 deaths and 39 patients who have been cured, according to the Ministry of Health. A number of Indian states have ordered lockdowns in the past few days, in an attempt to stop the virus from spreading. International borders have been shut to most travelers coming from the Europe. A protest against the country's Citizenship Amendment Act at Delhi's Shaheen Bagh was cleared by the police on Tuesday after the government prohibited all public gatherings in the city. Hundreds of women have been protesting at the site for months, expressing their solidarity with protesters who have been allegedly assaulted by police. Modi said that the measures are necessary to protect the po[CENSORED]tion, and referred to experience from other countries. "What the experts are saying is that social distancing is the only option to combat coronavirus. That is to remain apart from each other and stay confined to within your homes. There is no other way to remain safe from coronavirus. If we have to stop the spread, we have to break the cycle of infection," he said. "From 12 midnight today, the entire country will go under a complete lockdown to save India and for every Indian, there will be a total ban on venturing out of your homes. Therefore, I request you to remain wherever you are in this country," Modi added. Only essential services will be operational. These include water, electricity, health services, fire services, groceries and municipal services. All shops, commercial establishments, factories, workshops, offices, markets and places of worship will be closed and interstate buses and metros will be suspended. Construction activity will also be on a halt during this period. Modi said if the outbreak was not dealt with properly it could set the country back decades. "According to health experts, a minimum of 21 days is most crucial to break the cycle of infection. If we are not able to manage this pandemic in the next 21 days, the country and your family will be setback by 21 years. If we are not able to manage the next 21 days, then many families will be destroyed forever," Modi said. To soften the economic blow from the shutdown, the Indian government announced a number of measures on Tuesday. Deadlines to file tax returns have been extended by three months, charges on minimum bank balances have been waived and no fees will be charged for using other banks' ATMs. The threshold for invoking insolvency has been raised to $131,000 from $1,300, India's Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said at a news conference earlier on Tuesday. Separately, India's Labor Ministry has advised all territories to to help construction workers who are out of work because of the outbreak. The vast majority of the country's construction workers are considered as informal labor and earn their livelihood through daily wages. Around 35 million construction workers across the country are registered with construction welfare boards.

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