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Platforms:Stadia Developers:Q-Games Publishers:Q-Games Release Date:March 1, 2021 In an era when Hades can win IGN’s Game of The Year award for reinventing the roguelike wheel, and more straightforward games like Dead Cells remain fun after countless runs, PixelJunk Raiders is a major disappointment. Despite a distinct visual style reminiscent of trippy synthwave albums or Moebius paintings, PixelJunk Raiders (perhaps the final Google Stadia exclusive) fails to distinguish itself from the competition in any meaningful way. It does put forth some inventive ideas, but at the same time stumbles over the basics too much for them to matter. As a fresh-faced bounty hunter, it’s your job to rescue a bunch of desert-dwelling aliens from squid-faced baddies. But beaming down there in the flesh would be stupid, so you’ve got a limited number of digital avatars to complete your mission. It’s a thin setup, but certainly a familiar one. Unfortunately, it doesn’t really go anywhere, and you’ll often hear the same lines from your swarthy mentor congratulating you on nabbing some treasure. At first glance, PixelJunk Raiders (which bears no meaningful connection to the long-running PixelJunk franchise other than that it’s from the same development team) makes a great first impression. The randomly generated alien worlds you beam down to are awash in a mix of brightly colored, clearly defined landscapes that practically pop off the screen when bathed in moon or sunlight. Massive deserts give way to lush forests and strange alien architecture, and I was intrigued when I first discovered an underground bunker buried among the sand. A solid synth soundtrack helps keep things feeling “alien.” Giant stone pillars draw your attention skyward, where the faint outlines of other planets and moons remind you of just how small you are. Though each map is pretty massive, giant space cubes and plumes of smoke above each major location help to keep you from getting too lost. Once you get a bit closer to the action, things fall apart. Each town you come across looks almost identical, save for the layout of the buildings. Raiders wants to give you the impression these kind aliens had a somewhat bustling community, but the drab exteriors and cookie-cutter market stalls, pottery, and interiors do anything but. It doesn’t help that the rooftops of most towns – where a lot of powerups and other important items end up – are just barely out of reach of your triple-jump, requiring you to either find a small ladder on the side of a wall or use the wildly inaccurate super jump while ducking and weaving around enemies. Finding enough survivors to rescue can be a chore unto itself. Though Raiders makes it clear how many survivors are in each location and highlights survivors you’ve already seen while being busy fighting aliens, I often found myself having to circle settlements multiple times and dig through various identical buildings to find the last one I was missing. And if you were expecting the act of rescuing these kindly folks to be interesting, witnessing the same animation of grateful relief each time makes it feel like you’re rescuing a bunch of Chuck E Cheese animatronic characters. That’s if you can even rescue them in the first place, since having even one enemy nearby will block you from completing the interaction, and you’ll be forced to search around for that little jerk in the same laborious way. The same sense of repetition applies to all of PixelJunk Raiders’ other locations, including forests and alien cities that climb a hundred yards into the sky. From afar, they’re initially tantalizing, but once you get deeper in and realize how repetitious the scenery is (and how enemies might get stuck between trees or within a force field, making them harder to find and kill), it quickly loses its luster. The same goes for underground bunkers that follow a painfully similar layout and offer relatively meager rewards. The only bright spot of exploration was when a plume of smoke occasionally led not to another flat, dull town but what appeared to be the deadly aftermath of a battle between a few other bounty hunters like myself and three giant humanoid enemies. While the prospect of a mysterious encounter fueled my imagination, and stumbling upon it felt like a truly one-of-a-kind chance, it ultimately never led to anything meaningful. Combat misses the mark as well: your battles with enemy aliens big and small feel a mile wide and an inch deep, and it’s where most of PixelJunk Raiders’ issues rear their ugly heads. Given its roguelike nature, I was willing to forgive Raiders for being remarkably punishing right out of the gate. At the start of a mission your bounty hunter is equipped with little more than their fists, three lives, and a health bar that gets wiped out in about as many hits. In theory, this encourages you to explore the desert wastes and open up ancient vases or loot enemy bodies for swords, daggers, hammers, or shields. In practice, you're more often just collecting gems that don’t immediately serve any purpose. Actual weapons are notably harder to find, and unless you select a specific perk, you end up losing everything upon your painfully sudden death. The weapons themselves are hardly distinguishable from one another. All swords, no matter how fancy, result in the same flurry of strikes, and two-handed hammers seem to stun enemies a little better but aren’t much more useful. When you add in the fact that they’re so fragile that they lose 1% durability for every strike, it’s even worse. If you weren’t into weapons breaking in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, you’re going to absolutely hate it here. space rescue adventure from Kyoto’s inimitable Q-Games, PixelJunk Raiders has the bones of a great action game. Its mix of planetary exploration, scavenging and alien-killing is unusual enough to make an impression; the art style, which lands somewhere between a 90s anime and the cover of an old science-fiction novel, is glorious; its planets are beautiful; the retro-futuristic vibe is refreshing and colourful. Unfortunately I just haven’t had any fun playing it. Dropped on to a planet where you must rescue disappointingly static alien civilians from squid-like invaders who’ve taken over their citadels, the first thing to do is forage for weapons and blueprints for useful gadgets. Scanning the horizon for the telltale smoke-plume of a crashed ship, buildings or ruins leads to loot and currency – but if you die, as I often did, you lose it all. Several times I respawned on a planet stripped bare of resources; faced with the prospect of trying to pummel aliens to death with my bare fists to grind out enough currency to open a locked door, it was usually easier to just restart the whole mission. Raiders’ combat is fun and bouncy but a little imprecise, which would be excusable if the penalties for failure weren’t so harsh. It looks like an arcade game, and it’s structured that way, with randomly generated missions that give you a fresh challenge each time, but it is oddly sluggish in the hands. Getting around its planetary microcosms takes too long, despite a cool rocket-jump that propels you across the surface. Enemies respawn unpredictably. Everything is slowed down by having to trawl around looking for weapons or collecting gems that you need to open doors and chests. These ought to be snappy 10-minute rescue missions, not drawn-out ordeals. PixelJunk Raiders’ combat is not exactly a tower defense, and not quite aggressive Dark Souls swordplay, but a poor mishmash of the two that combines fairly standard melee fighting with setting traps for enemies. You can lock onto a target, although I found doing so to be stifling due to how it restricts your movement, and you’ll trade swings with them before their obvious wind up finishes and they slash you. One on one, it’s relatively mundane stuff, rushing to deplete their health bar before they can take a sizeable chunk of yours. When contending with groups it’s far more difficult, especially once long-range and bigger enemies get added to the mix. It’s a decent variety (my favorite being the Wild Wild West saw blades that pop up out of the sand and try to mow you down) but once you figure out their one or two tricks, combat rarely manages to surprise. A floaty sense of movement (which is only aggravated if your internet connection stutters) kept it from ever feeling like I was growing as a fighter. I found setting traps to be a slightly more effective, yet equally frustrating approach. Mines are effective at wiping out groups of smaller enemies, or putting a serious dent in larger ones, but kiting enemies into them is a dull and frustrating experience, made even worse by the fact that it’s hard to gauge how far away you need to be to avoid getting caught in your own blast. Also, once they’re gone, they’re gone, including a mistakenly placed mine you dropped in the heat of battle. Imprints – digital clones of various enemy types that fight for you – are similarly useless. They’re okay at distracting a few enemy grunts with physical or elemental damage, but it’s rarely enough to thin out the larger horde that’s constantly, relentlessly chasing you down. Other items let you jump high into the air or launch a giant area-of-effect attack after defeating enough enemies. It gives combat a little bit of an extra flair, letting you ground-pound downwards into an enemy’s skull or fully banish a giant back to its dimension, but only when it works as intended... which isn’t often enough. Traversing Pixeljunk Raiders without a weapon is teeth-clenchingly frustrating, not least because our nameless avatar has all the CQC talents of a dead goldfish. An enemy you can slice down in two whacks of a sword may require five or six punches from your bare fists, and those blows aren't easy to get in when there's five or six - often more - other foes all swarming to your position and hoping to take you down. Worse still, it's very possible that some worlds have no weapons in them whatsoever; after all, them's the breaks when you play roguelikes. This means that to complete a level and retain the gear and treasures you've gathered once your weapon has been destroyed, battles dissolve into slow, meandering rounds of strafe-punch-strafe-ouch-strafe-run-aways that don't feel challenging as much as they feel grossly unfair. To balance this, developer Q-Games employs Stadia's incredibly neat State Share feature. Players can snap a screenshot, share it, and invite other players to hop in and play it, too (well, providing they own the game, of course). The more generous souls may even take it a step further and drop down a load of weapons or Imprints - one-use special abilities that are like the Merc's Perks but can be carried around with you - about the place to help you out. And that's great, right? Community spirit and cooperation is baked right in. Only trouble is, there's no way of loading up one of these State Shares from within the game - I've only found them via a fantastic spreadsheet shared by the fine folks at Reddit - and beyond a cursory mention early on, the game does nothing to remind you, either. This means that in the opening hours when your inventory is sparse - or whenever there's a precipitous difficulty hike - players are going to struggle to get through each mission intact, possibly because the game needs you to collaborate with others in a way it hasn't clearly communicated to you nor implemented in-game. There's more; Alien DNA that can be spliced with your own. Unlockable skills and upgrades that let you permanently upgrade your life and stamina meters. It's all window-dressing, though, and adds little extra flavour to Raiders' bland bones. Yes, it's a game that demands you explore before you charge head-first into a fight, and yes, when you find your rhythm - not to mention build up a decent weapon cache - the gameplay loop can be curiously hypnotic. Right now, though, it's simply not enough to redress the repetitive gameplay and brutal learning curve. ---------------- There Is Not System For The Game She Work & Run Only in Nintendo Switch & Ps4 ---------------- Video :

Spring breakers are flocking to Florida this year amid a prolonged coronavirus pandemic to take advantage of its sunny beaches and rapid reopening guidelines, photos and videos show. It comes as some colleges are cutting back or canceling their spring breaks amid fears that vacation partying could lead to subsequent outbreaks on their campuses. People walk on the beach on March 04, 2021 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. College students have begun to arrive in the South Florida area for the annual spring break ritual. City officials are anticipating a large spring break crowd as the coronavirus pandemic continues. They are advising people to wear masks if they cannot social distance. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images) People walk on the beach on March 04, 2021 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. College students have begun to arrive in the South Florida area for the annual spring break ritual. City officials are anticipating a large spring break crowd as the coronavirus pandemic continues. They are advising people to wear masks if they cannot social distance. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images) (Getty Images) University of California, Davis is offering students $75 to choose a "staycation" instead of traveling. Texas A&M University scaled down to just a three-day weekend. And the University of Alabama canceled spring break altogether. But many students, eager to get outside after nearly a year of pandemic lockdowns, are packing up and heading to the beach. "Life is normal – with a mask," said a health care worker from Palm Beach, where there is still a county-level mask mandate. People walk near the beach on March 04, 2021 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. College students have begun to arrive in the South Florida area for the annual spring break ritual. City officials are anticipating a large spring break crowd as the coronavirus pandemic continues. They are advising people to wear masks if they cannot social distance. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images) People walk near the beach on March 04, 2021 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. College students have begun to arrive in the South Florida area for the annual spring break ritual. City officials are anticipating a large spring break crowd as the coronavirus pandemic continues. They are advising people to wear masks if they cannot social distance. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images) (Getty Images) Andrew Cohen, co-owner of a party boat charter service, said he was nearly booked for the rest of the month in both Tampa and Fort Lauderdale. "A lot of them are coming down from the colder states," he told the Associated Press. "And they were just sick of being cooped up for the year." Despite the Sunshine State’s relaxed health guidelines and aggressive reopening plan, Centers for Disease Control of Prevention reports indicate coronavirus cases and deaths have declined between Jan. 1 and March 10. The state has also vaccinated more than 4 million residents, including more than 2.6 million senior citizens, according to state officials. The state’s po[CENSORED]tion is about 21.5 million. Still, the CDC lists the majority of Florida counties as having a "high" risk for community transmission. The rest are either "substantial" or "moderate." None of the state’s counties carry a "low" risk rating. And it remains a hotspot for coronavirus infection, with the fourth-highest death toll of any state, behind California, New York and Texas.

Is the new Land Rover Defender 110 simply too small for your family? Well, Land Rover is working hard on a solution to bring us the three-row Defender 130 which will have seating up to eight. Now you can bring most of the team to soccer practice while driving through the woods to get there with ease. Until we see the real thing next year this render is our best look at the Defender 130. The new Land Rover Defender has taken the world by storm making friends and impressing doubters around the world. Due to current demand, the Defender 110 is the only Defender model you can reliably purchase at a Land Rover dealership with the more niche three-door Defender 90 following soon. For customers looking for even more passenger space, Land Rover will soon debut the Defender 130 to round out their off-road capable SUV lineup. Based on internal documents from Land Rover we can expect a Defender 130 to hit dealerships early next year. With the recent addition of a V8 Defender and plug-in hybrid variant, we expect even more niche models to diversify the appeal of the Defender. There are even rumors of a pick-up truck version of the Defender and based on the growing demand for trucks it seems like a great idea to us. Gallery: Upcoming Land Rover Defender 130 Rendered As Family Friendly Off-Roader Upcoming Land Rover Defender 130 Rendered As Family Friendly Off-Roader 2 Photos The upcoming Defender 130 will be based on the current Defender 110 frame and add length to the rear of the SUV after the back axel rather than expand the SUVs wheelbase. This will allow Land Rover to cut the development and tooling costs required to build this new model. We expect the Defender 130 to offer all of the same drivetrains found on smaller Defenders. This means you can have everything from a supercharged V8 to a hybrid 4-cylinder. Thanks to this variety Lander Rover can build the perfect Defender for your needs.

Home Secretary Priti Patel has called for an "external view" of decisions taken regarding the policing of a vigil in memory of Sarah Everard on Saturday. London Mayor Sadiq Khan also wants an independent investigation of Met Police actions at the event on Clapham Common. The police have been criticised after they were seen handcuffing women and leading them away. Ms Patel said she had read a report from police chief Cressida Dick, but "questions still need to be answered". The home secretary added she would ask Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary to look into the matter. Mr Khan said he too had spoken to Dame Cressida at a meeting in City Hall on Sunday, but added: "I am not satisfied with the explanation they have provided." "I will now be asking Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary [HMIC] to conduct a full independent investigation of events yesterday evening and in previous days. I am also asking the Independent Office for Police Conduct [IOPC] to investigate the actions of police officers yesterday evening." Several hundred people gathered on Clapham Common on Saturday evening to pay tribute to 33-year-old - whose death has prompted a public debate over women's safety - despite Covid restrictions. The official vigil had been called off earlier in the day after organisers said the force had failed to "constructively engage" on how it could be held in a Covid-secure way. Organisers Reclaim These Streets had urged mourners to light candles and shine other lights on their doorsteps at 21:30 GMT - to coincide with the time Ms Everard was last seen on 3 March. How a woman's death sparked UK soul-searching How many attacks on women are there? One video posted online from the vigil at Clapham Common showed officers removing women who were standing by the bandstand. Cries of "shame on you" and "let them go" could be heard from onlookers. The video showed them being put in a police van and driven away. Jamie Klingler, from Reclaim These Streets, which had been organising the official vigil, said the event would have been "a lot safer" if it had been held officially, adding the group had 50 stewards who were "trained and ready to go". Police said four arrests were made at the vigil to "protect people's safety". "We told the Met that it was going to be worse if we didn't have the organisation that we already had planned that was Covid-safe," she said. The group added in a statement that it was asking Dame Cressida "to meet us urgently" to explain the actions taken by police. The Met defended its response to the vigil, saying it was the "only responsible thing to do" to ensure public safety. But the force added that a review will be carried out to see if "lessons can be learned". A woman at the gathering in Clapham Common hold a sign that reads: "Killed by the system we're told protects" image captionDame Cressida Dick joined police officers at Clapham Common earlier in the week as part of reassurance patrols Home Office minister Victoria Atkins told the BBC's Andrew Marr Show the scenes were "incredibly upsetting", adding that it was "right" the force "explain their actions - both to the democratically elected politicians and the public". She told Sky News the government hopes to be "hearing explanations" from Dame Cressida "in the hours and days to come". Asked whether the Met Police commissioner should leave her post, Ms Atkins added: "I really, really want to support the home secretary in her request to have a report from Cressida. "The police have got a tough job in policing the coronavirus pandemic more generally at the moment." Labour's shadow domestic violence minister, Jess Phillips, said the force had "got it wrong at every single turn". She told the BBC's Andrew Marr Show: "There are a million ways that could have been organised, but the police put their foot down before they put their boot in and at every stage they made the wrong call." Sadiq Khan, the Labour Mayor of London, said the scenes were "unacceptable" and that he was "urgently seeking an explanation" from the commissioner. Victims Commissioner for England and Wales Dame Vera Baird QC said there was no real prospect of police successfully intervening in the crowd in Clapham on Saturday night, describing the circling of the bandstand as "quasi military". Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said the scenes were "deeply disturbing", while Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey has called for Commissioner Dame Cressida to resign. Conservative MP Caroline Nokes, who chairs the Commons Women and Equalities Select Committee, tweeted.: "In this country we police by consent - not by trampling the tributes to a woman who was murdered and dragging other women to the ground. Badly misjudged by #metpolice."

VideoCardz has just leaked renders of one of PowerColor's new Hellhound series graphics card. As it's pretty straightforward, the Radeon RX 6700 XT Hellhound is based on AMD's latest Radeon RX 6700 XT and designed to contend with the best graphics cards on the market. For the Radeon RX 6700 XT Hellhound, PowerColor is experimenting with a black and blue theme. The graphics card arrives with a dual-slot black cooler that employs a trio of cooling fans with translucent fan blades. PowerColor even dipped the bracket in black paint, which is a nice finishing touch on the vendor's part. The cooling fans feature blue lighting, but it's uncertain if the RGB palette is available or not. The Radeon RX 6700 XT Hellhound also incorporates a full-cover backplate that has the new Hellhound logo. The cutout on the backplate should help with heat dissipation. The clock speeds for the Radeon RX 6700 XT Hellhound remain a mystery. Given the tier of the Hellhound series, it should come with lower operating clocks than PowerColor's other higher tier models, such as the Liquid Devil, Red Devil or Red Dragon family of graphics cards. The Radeon RX 6700 XT Hellhound may be using a custom PCB as the PCIe power connector layout is different from AMD's reference design. The vanilla Radeon RX 6700 XT utilizes one 6-pin and one 8-pin PCIe power connector. The Radeon RX 6700 XT Hellhound, on the other hand, resorts to two 8-pin PCIe power connectors, which also insinuate a strong factory overclock. The display outputs on the Radeon RX 6700 XT Hellhound fall in line with the reference design though. You get access to one HDMI 2.1 port and three DisplayPort 1.4a outputs with DSC support. The Radeon RX 6700 XT will have its official coming out party on March 18 so we should know pricing for the Radeon RX 6700 XT Hellhound in the upcoming days. For reference, the Radeon RX 6700 XT will start at $479. Taking into account the amount of customization on the Radeon RX 6700 XT Hellhound, it'll probably carry a small premium.

Last month, we reported that Google has been internally testing a new feature that could significantly reduce memory usage on Windows 10. With Chrome 89, which is now available for download, the search giant has finally enabled ‘PartitionAlloc-everywhere’ support for its browser. Google has confirmed that Chrome 89 features better tab throttling, discard and better resource management with ‘PartitionAlloc-everywhere’. This feature is supposed to improve the way in which Google Chrome performs on Windows 10. According to Chromium commits, ‘PartitionAlloc-everywhere’ support allows the browser to reduce RAM usage, load webpages faster and offer improved processor power management. PartitionAlloc-everywhere feature comes with an advanced memory allocator to reduce memory usage of Chrome by up to 22% in the browser process. Likewise, Google says the update has reduced memory usage by 8% in the browser’s renderer, and 3% in the GPU. Google Chrome has also become 9% more responsive, thanks to the new tabs discarding improvements. Chrome 89 represents a minor drop in memory usage of foreground tabs as well. To reduce the memory usage of foreground tabs, Google Chrome will now discard the foreground tab automatically and reclaim up to 100MiB per tab, which could be more than 20% on some po[CENSORED]r sites. In addition to performance improvements, Chrome 89 for Windows 10 also comes with early support for the modern share UI, which could soon allow you to easily share webpages via other installed apps, such as Outlook and OneNote. You can even use the modern share feature to send webpages to nearby devices over Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. These changes are rolling out with Chrome 89 for Windows and Google is already testing additional improvements. Upcoming improvements For example, Google plans to purge thread cache periodically in child processes of Chrome. This happens on a per-process basis, which should improve the overall performance for GPU, rendering and utility.

Gnosia (Nintendo Switch) Developer: Petit Depot Publisher: Playism Released: March 4, 2021 MSRP: $24.99 Gnosia is a social deduction game similar to Mafia or Werewolf or, more recently, Among Us. However, unlike those titles, this is a single-player jaunt with role-playing elements and an overarching plot that ties the whole thing together. You're not just going to be playing one game of Mafia, but rather, many, many games that are presented as loops. Whether you win or lose, at the end of each game, everything will loop back to square one. To win, you have to deduce who among you is a Gnosia and convince your fellow humans to vote them into cold sleep. But there are obstacles to getting this done. First of all, Gnosia can lie their ass off whenever they feel like, and unlike the humans, they are well aware of who else within the group isn't who they say they are. If you find yourself at odds with a Gnosia and there are enough of them still around, it can be easy for them to send you to cold sleep and end your current loop. Or, if you survive the vote, they can just as easily kill you overnight as the Gnosia are wont to do. In the first few loops, it's just humans and Gnosia. As you advance further, more factors are added that complicate matters. The game introduces a few jobs for the passengers, the first of which is Engineer. After every vote, the Engineer can scan one member of the remaining crew to see if they're Gnosia or not. A little bit later, the Doctor role will be added to the mix and they can determine if the person sent to cold sleep was actually a person. There can only be one Engineer and one Doctor per loop, but Gnosia can lie and claim these roles for themselves. There is also a Gnosia-loving human who can illegitimately claim the roles too, as it's their dream to see all of humanity fall victim to these creatures. Then there is the bug, which is a wildcard that must be eliminated or it's game over. If you send all the Gnosia to cold sleep but don't exterminate the bug, it's considered a loss. You can eliminate this glitch in reality by voting it into cold storage or by scanning it as the Engineer. All of these elements combine to create an atmosphere of mistrust and doubt. If three people claim to be the Doctor, how do you know who to trust, or if you're in the role, how do you convince your fellow passengers that it's the others who are fake? Getting people on your side is a difficult task in the early hours of the game. Gnosia is an RPG, and as you play and survive, you'll gain XP you can use to increase different attributes that'll help you convince others, detect liars, and shroud yourself from suspicion. Before each vote, you'll have five opportunities to accuse or defend your fellow passengers. Anyone can throw out an accusation, and it's up to you to decide if you want to support their claim, deny it, or keep your mouth shut. If you survive the vote and make it through the night, you'll wake up the next morning and go through the process again. Once you've won, lost, died, or been sent to cold sleep, the loop resets. When this happens, everyone's role will shift, so each game is unique from the one that came before it. If any of that sounds appealing to you, that's great. I think the concept behind Gnosia is brilliant. I love the RPG elements, I love that you can actually see a difference in your persuasion abilities as you build up certain attributes, and, outside of one instance where the focus was unnecessarily put on a character's genitals, I love watching the interaction between passengers through each loop. Because everything resets after a win or loss, there is nobody you can routinely rely on. Somebody who teams up with you one loop may be a bug you have to eliminate in the next. However, there are consistencies throughout the game. Character attributes will not change from loop to loop. Gina will always tell the truth. Raqio will always be a formidable foe with strong logic skills. Shigemichi, who swears he's human but looks like he was autopsied at Area 51, will always have the back of people who have doubt cast upon them. Yukio will always be problematic as her strong persuasion abilities can easily convince passengers to follow her lead. If there is any character who can be considered a consistent ally, it's Setsu as they're the only one besides you who realizes they're stuck in a Groundhog Day situation and remembers details from loop to loop. Figuring out each of these characters and learning their backstories is at the heart of what drives Gnosia forward, but this information is drip-fed to players as everything in the game has an element of chance attached to it. Specific parameters have to be met for these story elements to appear. You can play through several loops without learning any new information, leaving you in sort of a progression purgatory. You do gain XP to help you survive, but when the game teases you with a particularly juicy bit of story, only to force you to go through multiple loops just to see where it leads, it can really take the wind out of its sails. Sure, each loop probably maxes out at about 15 minutes, but what happens when you have to go through nine separate loops just to gain a little bit of information to move things forward? Because that can happen at multiple points during your playthrough. For me, the most egregious example of this occurred in the back half of the game. I was instructed to speak with Raqio as they had pertinent information on a key item. A seemingly easy task made aggravating by the fact that for eight straight loops, they were either the first to be sent to cold storage, killed within the first two nights, or a Gnosia themself and therefore ineligible to advance the narrative. It's instances like this where the random nature of the social deduction genre collides headfirst with the draw of a strong narrative. The more I found out about this world and my fellow passengers, the more I wanted to know. But that knowledge was being kept from me by the powers of chance. Gnosia eventually introduces a system where you can set the parameters for each loop to most likely result in experiencing new story elements, but there are no guarantees you or your target will survive And honestly, that's fine for the first 50 or so loops as the game is still pretty fresh and exciting at that point. Up until then, I was still figuring out the best way to approach the different jobs I could have in each loop, making small inroads with each character's background, and having a blast turning the humans against one another when I took up the role of Gnosia or the bug. But when you're pushing loop 100 and Gina is asking you to help her make it through to the end of the game, only for her to immediately be sent to cold sleep the next day despite your best efforts, it can really grate the nerves. When you build up your charisma attribute and get seven passengers to agree with you that one of the other characters cannot be trusted, only to have nobody on the ship vote for them, it can really grate the nerves. When the game just arbitrarily decides to end because the universe doesn't like the fact you haven't revealed your role as an Engineer, it can really grate the nerves. None of these failures that are almost entirely outside my control would bother me so much if Gnosia wasn't as long as it is. What should be a 12- to 15-hour game has a runtime that can stretch up to 23 hours or more, and the gameplay and dialog are just too repetitive to be wholly enjoyable for that long. Don't get me wrong, I like this game. I would just like it a lot more if there was less of it. Ultimately, Gnosia is worth playing through to the end thanks to its strong narrative. The story goes in unexpected directions, and the revelations I learned along the way were compelling enough to push me past my frustrations. Make no mistake, I wanted to give up on this game multiple times. But every time I considered quitting, I'd start one last loop that would pull me right back in because all of the elements were in place for another bit of tasty narrative to reveal itself. The game takes place on a spaceship where beings called Gnosia aim to completely eradicate the crew. The crew are trying to do the same to the Gnosia, deducing who is infected and, consequently, what should be done about it. After debating over who is and isn’t Gnosia, team members vote for who they think the Gnosia is before sending them off into cold sleep for the rest of the round. There is a max of 15 players per round, with one to six players people being Gnosia. If you’ve ever played the Mafia or Werewolf group games, that’s essentially what you're getting here. In each round, there are several roles that you can take. Aside from being able to play as an infected, taking measures to fool other players, you can play roles such as a Doctor, an Engineer, a Guardian Angel, a Guard, and more. Other characters can also be regular crew members, without any sort of special powers, though they still participate in debates and voting. These special crew members have special abilities that help them gather important information from other members of the crew. For example, every morning, the Doctor can identify if the player voted into cold sleep the night before is actually a Gnosia or not. The Engineer, for example, can select one person to scan every night to see whether or not they’re Gnosia, reporting on their findings the following morning. Using the information you’ve gathered through these reports is vital to flushing out the enemy and surviving. You can choose to cover for or doubt certain characters based on what information you’ve obtained, and some crew members will back you up, while others will argue against you. Wildly accusing every member around you invites suspicion while keeping too quiet indicates you may be hiding something. However, there are also some extra twists that keep things even more interesting. Gnosia can falsely claim to be certain members playing individual roles. There can be several doctors or engineers playing at any given time, but which are the real ones and which are the Gnosia? In any round that has as Doctor and/or Engineer present, only one of each is real among those claiming those two roles. Picking between two, and in some cases three, crew members all claiming to be the same role adds immense tension to each round. And the pressure's on, because every night, the Gnosia can kill off one person, slowly whittling the crew down to nothing. --------------------------------------- There Is Not System Requirments at the game She Work Only at Nintendo ------------------------------------ Video :

Some cheater out there is about to get in trouble. Big time. There’s an old saying: "Hell hath no fury as a woman scorned." And that’s probably the case for some unknown husband in England, based on a series of mysterious flyers that have appeared around town. DATING COACH CLAIMS YOU CAN STILL 'FLIRT WITH YOUR EYES' IN A FACE MASK Residents of a neighborhood in Manchester, England, discovered a series of flyers posted around town concerning an unfaithful husband, The Sun reports. The flyers don’t say who the man is, and it’s currently unknown who posted them. It’s also unknown if the flyers were posted by a scorned lover or someone with inside information of the husband's alleged activities, and merely wanted to spread the word. Photos of the flyers have show the notices posted to walls and trees. One reads, "Do you cheat on your wife? Soon to be reveled (sic)." Another says, "Who’s cheating on the wife? Who’s about to get caught?" One of the flyers also claims to contain some of the letters in the cheater’s name, but stops short of revealing the entire thing. The anonymous author also appeared intent on suggesting the man lived on a specific street, as photos show multiple notices posted along the same series of trees, or stuck under car windshields. The target of the author's "unorthodox revenge" has yet to be identified, according to The Sun. Fox Nation

Singer Vehicle Design is taking its All-Terrain Competition Study (ACS) back to the drawing board after Porsche protested its design. A new CarScoops report has discovered that Porsche wasn’t pleased with Singer using the large “Porsche” lettering on the car. The publication earlier discovered that Singer had removed all traces of the car from its website and Facebook page. Porsche told the publication that it’s “glad to have a growing community” of enthusiasts; however, the company also noted that it has a “responsibility” to its customers to guarantee its products are “clearly and easily identified.” According to the report, it’s unclear if the design dispute is calling into question the molded Porsche side sills, the Porsche lettering graphics, or both. However, the badging could be another sticking point. Singer has yet to respond to CarScoop’s requests for comment and clarification. Gallery: Singer All-Terrain Competition Study Porsche 911 Safari Singer All-Terrain Competition Study Porsche 911 Safari Nose Up Beach 42 Photos The Singer ACS was a commissioned car for a customer who intended to race the high-riding machine. The extra ground clearance was just one of the Singer design touches made to the car, which also installed one of the car’s most interesting features – a unique front bumper with forward-extended mudguards. They’re designed to help keep water from splashing onto the hood. Chunky BF Goodrich tires, wrapped around 16-inch forged wheels, fit perfectly under the arched wheel wells. It sports an air-cooled, twin-turbocharged 3.6-liter flat-six engine making about 450 horsepower (336 kilowatts).

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has announced that fully vaccinated Americans can return to some sense of normalcy. Those who have received the required jabs can visit with other vaccinated people and some unvaccinated people, according to the new guidelines. People are considered protected two weeks after they take the final dose of their vaccine, the CDC said. Over 30 million Americans have been fully vaccinated thus far. Health officials announced the new safety guidelines at Monday's White House coronavirus task force briefing. The recommendations say fully vaccinated Americans can: Meet indoors with other fully vaccinated people without masks or social distancing Meet indoors with unvaccinated people from a single household, if they are at low risk for severe illness from the virus Skip testing or quarantine when exposed to Covid-19, unless symptoms appear "We've begun to describe what a world looks like as we move beyond Covid-19," senior adviser Andy Slavitt told reporters. "As more and more people get vaccinated… the list of activities will continue to grow." Those who are vaccinated are still required to follow other basic safety measures, like wearing masks and socially distancing in public as well as avoiding large crowds and travel. The guidelines also call for masking and distancing from those who are unvaccinated and who may be at an elevated risk of serious Covid-related complications. The US has seen a recent uptick in the number of jabs per day. Over 90m vaccines have been administered to date. The approval of the third vaccine, Johnson & Johnson's single-dose jab, has also helped boost supply. But health officials also warned that Covid-19 is still a serious concern. Coronavirus variants: The science explained Will vaccines work against the new variants? "Over 90% of the po[CENSORED]tion still has not been vaccinated," CDC Director Dr Rochelle Walensky said. "Our responsibility is to make sure, in the context of 60,000 new cases a day, that we protect those who are vulnerable." The US has reported over 29 million virus cases and 525,000 deaths. Dr Walensky added that the guidance will continue to be updated "as more people get vaccinated and science and evidence expands". Mr Slavitt said it was a "very hopeful morning but with continued warning signs for the future". Later on Monday, the White House announced that President Joe Biden will deliver his first primetime address this Thursday to mark one year under Covid-19 lockdown measures. Last week, Mr Biden said the US will have enough coronavirus vaccines for every adult by the end of May. Presentational grey line

MSI's new RTX 3060 Gaming X Trio is one of the coolest, yet strangest, Nvidia graphics cards we've ever seen. As discussed by YouTube channel BPS Customs, the card comes equipped with an RTX 3080 cooler. That allows this RTX 3060 to reach the lowest temperatures we've seen out of any factory-built Nvidia GPU in a very long time. Guru3D reports that the Gaming X Trio features a 1320Mhz Base Clock and a 1852MHz Boost frequency. (The base clock appears incorrect, as that's the reference base clock, but perhaps Nvidia changed the way it handles base clocks.) The more important boost clock nets you an additional 72MHz overclock relative to the reference card, which still seems tame when looking at the Gaming X Trio cooler. By way of comparison, the Asus ROG Strix OC variant features a 1882MHz boost clock, plus a higher power limit. There are benefits to going with modest specs and a massive cooler, of course. MSI RTX 3060 Gaming X Trio (Image credit: YouTube) With its beefy triple-fan cooler, BPS Customs reports a peak temperature of just 47C with the 3060 Gaming X Trio, and a fan speed of just 48%, all while running Cyberpunk 2077 at 4K resolution for over an hour. Even if other games or settings reach slightly higher temperatures, that's still a phenomenal result. Unfortunately, BPS Customs did not test any overclocking on the card whatsoever. Modern Nvidia GPUs scale very well when you keep temps very low, so we'd expect very good overclocking performance out of this card. That's assuming the restrictive power limit doesn't get in the way. MSI RTX 3060 Gaming X Trio (Image credit: YouTube) Regarding actual performance, BPS Customs compared the Gaming X Trio to the older RTX 2060 Super and RTX 1650 Super. On average the RTX 2060 Super was just 3-4% slower than the MSI RTX 3060. That's similar to what we saw in our RTX 3060 review, and suggests relatively unimpressive stock performance. But those thermals make up for some of that. But then there's the price. At $519 MSRP (yeah that's right: MSRP), the RTX 3060 Gaming X Trio is absurdly expensive. We'll have to see what actual street prices look like, and whether you can find one available for purchase. We all know that GPU prices are fantasy land right now, but that MSRP seems impossible to recommend under any normal circumstances.

The cybersecurity giant McAfee has announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to sell off its enterprise business to the private equity firm Symphony Technology Group (STG) in an all-cash transaction for $4bn. The sale comes just five months after McAfee went public on the Nasdaq and it plans to become a pure play consumer cybersecurity company going forward. According to McAfee, its enterprise business is a trusted partner for 86 percent of the Fortune 100 firms around the world and last year it brought in $1.3bn in net revenue. We've built a list of the best endpoint protection software available These are the best firewalls on the market Also check out our roundup of the best identity theft protection President and CEO of McAfee, Peter Leave provided further insight on the sale in a press release, saying: “STG is the right partner to continue strengthening our Enterprise business, and this outcome is a testament to the business’ industry-leading solutions and most notably to the outstanding contributions of our employees. This transaction will allow McAfee to singularly focus on our consumer business and to accelerate our strategy to be a leader in personal security for consumers.” In addition to repaying $1bn of its existing debt, McAfee also expects to use a portion of the proceeds of the sale to pay approximately $175m in customary transaction expenses and other one-time charges. The remaining $2.75bn will be distributed by the company's controlled subsidiary Foundation Technology Worldwide on a pro rata basis to all holders including McAfee Corp. Until closing, McAfee will continue to conduct and operate its enterprise business while STG and the enterprise business' leadership team work together to plan for a successful transition for the business, its employees and customers. The enterprise business will then be rebranded when the sale closes by the end of 2021 though it still subject to regulatory approval and closing conditions.

Players who haven't yet experienced the rebooted Tomb Raider trilogy will apparently be getting a new option very soon. Listed before being taken offline, the Tomb Raider Definitive Survivor Trilogy will bundle all three games together in one package. According to the Microsoft Store listing, which now gives you an error message, the bundle will be out on March 18. It contains Tomb Raider, Rise of the Tomb Raider, and Shadow of the Tomb Raider. All three games are also already available on PS4 and PC, though Rise of the Tomb Raider was initially not released on PlayStation, with Microsoft publishing the game and holding console exclusivity for nearly a year. Now Playing: 9 Minutes Of Shadow Of The Tomb Raider PS5 Gameplay The new Tomb Raider games essentially gave the series a clean slate, reimagining Lara Croft as a young archaeologist who gradually turns into a hardened survivalist--and killer--after an accident leaves her crew stranded on a remote island. These themes continue in the next two games, and it's unclear if this continuity will lead to a fourth game, but there is an anime-style series in the works. A film that essentially retells the story of the 2013 game was also produced with Alicia Vikander in the lead role, and a sequel to that is in the works. If you've played the game, you'll even recognize one scene as an almost shot-for-shot recreation. More recently, developer Crystal Dynamics has been busy with Marvel's Avengers, a game that has struggled to gain traction after launching last year. It was actually already working on the game by the time Shadow of the Tomb Raider came out, as it handed off the development of that game to Eidos Montreal.

A po[CENSORED]r party spot in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, is restricting who will be allowed in during the spring break season. On Friday, The Wharf Fort Lauderdale posted an announcement on social media, saying it won’t admit any out-of-state spring breakers under the age of 23. "During Spring Break season #WharfFTL will be 23+ for all guests with out-of-state ID," the announcement said. According to the South Florida Sun Sentinel, the venue had also posted a sign near the entrance on Friday night that says: "Must be 23+ to enter with out of state ID." The newspaper reported that The Wharf’s new policy is designed to avoid huge crowds and slow the spread of coronavirus. According to the venue’s Facebook post, "walk-ups are welcome," but reservations are recommended in order to get guaranteed admission. A po[CENSORED]r venue in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, announced Friday that it won’t admit out-of-state visitors younger than 23 during the spring break season. (iStock) A po[CENSORED]r venue in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, announced Friday that it won’t admit out-of-state visitors younger than 23 during the spring break season. (iStock) "Masks must be worn at all times while walking through common areas and when not eating or drinking," the post said. Emi Guerra, a co-owner of The Wharf, told the Sun-Sentinel that the bar would operate at 50-60% capacity. According to the newspaper, The Wharf closed "for months" in 2020 because of the pandemic and when it opened for just two days in November, it was cited by health officials a few times after pictures of the venue were posted online showing unmasked patrons who weren’t following social distancing rules. When it reopened in January, the venue had more coronavirus safety measures in place, including a single entrance and exit, and more distancing between seating areas, the Sun-Sentinel reported.

Ford is ready to unleash one of the Mustang Mach-E’s most important features. It’s no secret the all-electric Mustang Mach-E is a big step towards the future of mobility for Ford and soon select owners will start testing our Ford’s new over-the-air software update process. Now, you can have the latest software available for your Ford without the need to purchase a new vehicle. The Mustang Mach-E has quickly proven that Ford is capable of producing a very capable and appealing electric vehicle. During our testing we found the Mach-E to be a compelling rival to Tesla while offering customers a well-established brand like Ford with dealerships in every town across America. When Ford built the Mach-E one of the most exciting features wasn’t its impressive acceleration times or range but rather the ability to receive over-the-air software updates. Tesla pioneered this concept and has used it to keep its vehicles up to date with its latest software. Now legacy automakers like Ford include this feature on their EV’s and we’re about to get our first taste of its implementation. According to Ford Authority select Mustang Mach-E owners were invited to a beta program to test our Ford’s first over the air update of a consumer product. This strategy will allow Ford to work out any bugs before rolling out an update to all Mach-E owners in the future. Over the air, updates have exciting implications for Ford customers who will now have access to the latest software without the need to visit a dealership or purchase a new vehicle. Over-the-air updates will also be a big help in the future if they can prevent vehicle recalls or correct software faults.

Kubuntu Focus has started to offer Nvidia's GeForce RTX 30-series graphics processor with its Kubuntu GNU/Linux distribution-based M2 laptop aimed at gamers and performance-hungry professionals. Linux-based laptops are usually niche products for people with very specific requirements, so there aren't many configurations available. Yet, a few companies offer high-end notebooks with powerful hardware that can compete against their Windows-powered counterparts. Kubuntu Focus is one of the vendors that offers such machines. The Kubuntu Focus M2 notebook comes with a 15.6-inch 144Hz Full-HD display and Intel's Core i7-10875H (8C/16T, 2.30GHz/5.10GHz) processor that was first introduced last October, Liliputing recalls. At the time, the manufacturer only offered Nvidia's GeForce RTX 20-series graphics processors based on the Turing architecture with it since no mobile GeForce RTX 30-series GPUs featuring the Ampere architecture were available. Nvidia has launched its GeForce RTX 30-series graphics processors for notebooks, so now the Kubuntu Focus M2 comes with an option for RTX 3060, 3070, and 3080 GPUs. In fact, the base model now comes equipped with the Core i7-10875H CPU, the GeForce RTX 3060 GPU, 16GB of memory, and a 250GB SSD for $1,795. Kubuntu Focus' M2 is quite a powerful mobile workstation with plenty of options and rich connectivity, including a Wi-Fi 6 + Bluetooth adapter, a GbE port, a Thunderbolt 3 connector, three USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A connectors, two display outputs (one mini-DisplayPort 1.4 and one HDMI), a microSDXC card reader, and audio ports. The beefiest configuration with the Core i7-10875H, the GeForce RTX 3080, 64GB of DDR4, and 4TB of storage costs $4535. The Kubuntu Focus M2 seems to be the first Linux laptop with Nvidia's GeForce RTX 30-series graphics, but it will certainly not be the last one.

Using Microsoft Edge across different Windows 10 devices might have just got an added advantage over the likes of Google Chrome. A new feature should soon allow Microsoft Edge users to transfer links that they have copied or shared from a browser on one Windows 10 devices onto another. The new Shared Links feature looks to help those users who may need to send and receive a large number of links every day, but have trouble keeping track of exactly which link was which, and when they'll be needed again. These are the best anonymous browsers around today We've also rounded up the best password managers Secure your PC with the best antivirus software Shared Links "We send and receive a large number of links throughout our work weeks. However, when we actually need to use them, we may not remember what the link was called, where we last saw it, or whether we opened it at all," Microsoft noted in a blog post outlining the feature. "The current processes that users have to re-find their links can be difficult and time-consuming. Users spend time and energy trying to find links that have been shared with them and sometimes shared by themselves, looking in various apps, checking their email and chat messages, and sometimes by asking someone else to find or re-send the link to them." The company notes that the goal of the new feature is to, "Help users save time and effort by making links shared with/by user searchable in the history page of Edge Browser." Microsoft does already offer the Windows Cloud Clipboard tool to provide a similar service, but many users remain unaware of the functionality, so the company wants to build it directly into Edge. Now, users will be able to view and access the links they've shared, or had shared with them, on the History page in Microsoft Edge 0 - which will now get a new "Shared Links" tab. As it is part of the History section, users can go through their links using the search function, then quickly copy the links they need.

Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot's final DLC has been revealed, and after two episodes dedicated to storylines from the Dragon Ball Super anime series, this latest chapter of content is headed back in time to one of the franchise's classic original video animations. DLC 3 will take place in the future alternate timeline of the Android saga, set 13 years after Goku died from a heart virus and the rest of the anime's best fighters--and Yamcha--were killed by Androids 17 and 18. Only Gohan had survived the carnage, and along with Vegeta's son Trunks, he was preparing to finally destroy the Androids and end the devastation brought about by the duo. The cinematic trailer didn't reveal too much, but if it faithfully follows the storyline of the OVA, then it's best to not get too attached to seeing an adult Gohan battling the Androids while his protégé Trunks watches on. Some of these events can also be seen in the Game Boy Advance title Dragon Ball Z: The Legacy of Goku 2. Despite the name, you play as everyone from Trunks to Piccolo in the game. You can see the trailer below from Bandai Namco's Dragon Battle Hour event, embedded below at around one hour and four minutes into the stream: Trunks: The Warrior of Hope is currently scheduled for an early summer release and will also include a new cooking item that raises HP and melee defense in the game. Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot's previous DLC adapted the God of Destruction and Golden Frieza arcs from the Dragon Ball Super anime, unlocking the ability for players to transform into Super Saiyan God and Super Saiyan Blue versions of Goku and Vegeta. The game scored a 7/10 in our Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot review. "If you're looking for an enjoyable way to see the life and times of adult Goku through a new perspective, Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot will grant your wish," wrote critic Heidi Kemps.

On Friday, California updated its reopening guidelines, allowing Disneyland and other theme parks to reopen as soon as next month, according to an announcement from the state Department of Public Health. Theme parks -- as well as sports events and live performances with attendees -- will be allowed to reopen outdoors, with reduced capacity and "consistent masking," on April 1, the announcement said. However, venues will have to limit attendance to in-state visitors. Sports events and live performances will even have to limit attendance to regional visitors, depending on the county’s coronavirus case rates, according to the announcement. "With case rates and hospitalizations significantly lower, the arrival of three highly effective vaccines and targeted efforts aimed at vaccinating the most vulnerable communities, California can begin gradually and safely bringing back more activities, especially those that occur outdoors and where consistent masking is possible," Dr. Mark Ghaly, secretary of the California Health and Human Services Agency said in a statement. "Even with these changes, California retains some of the most robust public health protocols in the country." A Disneyland entrance is pictured in March 2020 after the park's first coronavirus closure. The park could reopen on April 1 if Orange County enters California's "Red tier." (AP Orange County and Los Angeles County -- where Disneyland and Universal Studios Hollywood are located -- are in the "Purple tier," which is the highest level, but are getting close to moving into the "Red tier," the station reported Thursday. If their counties are in the "Red tier" by April 1, theme parks will be allowed to open at 15% capacity. They can open at 25% capacity if they’re in the "Orange tier," or 35% capacity in the "Yellow tier," the announcement said. Disneyland Resort President Ken Potrock released a statement Friday after the state announced the updated guidelines.

An off-road-ready VW Amarok pickup truck could be on the horizon. In an interview with Motoring.com, Nick Reid, Volkswagen Australia’s commercial vehicle marketing and product manager hinted that VW Australia has plenty of room for a Ford Ranger Raptor competitor. With a growing appetite for off-road-ready trucks across the globe it only makes sense for VW to enter this exciting market segment. The VW Amarok truck is a mainstay on the roads of Australia where mid-sized trucks like this dominate the landscape. Its main competitors include the Ford Ranger, Toyota Hilux, and Nissan Navara. When selling a simple work truck or family-friendly hauler the VW Amarok is a solid product choice for a customer looking for a dependable diesel truck. Set your sights to off-road performance and the tables quickly turn. Ford offers its dirt-addicted clients the world-famous Ranger Raptor, which combines a heavy-duty suspension with exciting styling and unbeatable brand recognition. Nissan gives their customers the lesser-known Navara Warrior off-road truck and there are rumors of an off-road-focused Toyota Hilux. This quickly growing market segment could leave VW behind unless they get serious about transforming their Amarok into a genuine off-roader. Even if customers choose a lesser trim level, a halo trim for the Amarok could get more customers in the door and help build up its credibility as a tough truck. VW is working on a performance version of the Amarok called the W580. After this new model is launched VW will take a long hard look a what it would take to build an Amarok for off-roading. Let’s hope the rumors are true and we see a more off-road focused Amarok take on the likes of Ford Ranger Raptor and attempt to beat the gold standard in off-road capable trucks.

The US is expressing growing concern over a hack on Microsoft's Exchange email software that the tech company has blamed on China. "This is an active threat," White House press secretary Jen Psaki said on Friday. "Everyone running these servers - government, private sector, academia - needs to act now to patch them." Microsoft said hackers had used its mail server to attack their targets. It is reported that tens of thousands of US organisations may be impacted. The US has long accused the Chinese government of cyber-espionage, something Beijing denies. Ms Psaki told reporters that the White House was "concerned that there are a large number of victims" and said the vulnerabilities found in Microsoft's servers "could have far reaching impacts". What do we know about the hack? Microsoft executive Tom Burt revealed the breach in a blog post on Tuesday and announced updates to counter security flaws which he said had allowed hackers to gain access to Microsoft Exchange servers. Microsoft accuses China over email attacks Home working increases cyber-security fears Details released of Biden's first call with Xi The Microsoft Threat Intelligence Center (MSTIC) attributed the attacks with "high confidence" to a "state-sponsored threat actor" based in China which they named Hafnium. The tech giant said Hafnium had tried to steal information from groups such as infectious disease researchers, law firms, higher education institutions and defence contractors. A spokesman for the Chinese government told Reuters news agency that the country was not behind the hack. Beijing has repeatedly rejected US accusations of cyber-crime. More than 20,000 organisations have been compromised in the US with many more affected worldwide, Reuters reported. Brian Krebs, an industry expert and blogger, put the number higher - citing multiple security sources. "At least 30,000 organizations across the United States - including a significant number of small businesses, towns, cities and local governments - have over the past few days been hacked by an unusually aggressive Chinese cyber-espionage unit that's focused on stealing email from victim organizations," he wrote in a blog post. Mr Krebs warned attacks had "dramatically stepped up" since Microsoft's announcement. What is Microsoft doing? News of the breach prompted the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (Cisa) to release an emergency directive telling agencies and departments to take urgent action. Jake Sullivan, the White House National Security Adviser, has also urged network owners to download the security patches as soon as possible. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. View original tweet on Twitter 1px transparent line Microsoft has not confirmed the reported figures but said in a further statement on Friday that it was working closely with US government agencies. It told customers "the best protection" was "to apply updates as soon as possible across all impacted systems". However, it also said it was deploying some mitigation techniques designed to help those who are unable to upgrade quickly, but warned they were not "a remediation if your Exchange servers have already been compromised, nor are they full protection against attack". This is the eighth time in the past 12 months that Microsoft has publicly accused nation-state groups of targeting institutions critical to civil society. Microsoft said the attack was in no way related to the SolarWinds attack, which hit US government agencies late last year. Although Hafnium is based in China, it allegedly conducts its operations primarily from leased virtual private servers in the US, Microsoft said.