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The pandemic and rise of remote working have contributed to a swing in public opinion that could see collaboration tools displace email as the communication method of choice, new research suggests. According to a report from Slack, based on a survey of 3,000 remote employees, a large proportion of workers (40%) would now rather go without email than their favorite collaboration tools. Half of UK IT decision-makers, meanwhile, believe an alternative form of digital communication will replace email within the next three years. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Slack’s research found that the shift in opinion is founded on various inadequacies inherent to email, which recently celebrated its 50th anniversary. Check out our list of the best productivity software out there We've built a list of the best video conferencing services right now Here's our list of the best office software available The greatest problem users face has to do with the time it takes to manage their email inbox. Estimates based on the survey data suggest collaboration tools could save users 81 minutes per day on average, or 6.8 hours per working week. Collaboration revolution The rise of collaboration services was underway long before the pandemic, but the disruption to ways of working has only accelerated the trend, making tools such as Zoom, Microsoft Teams and Slack into household names. Although vaccine rollouts may soon pave the way for a return to the office, collaboration tools appear to have lodged themselves firmly at the heart of business communication. Of the respondents that had never used a collaboration platform before the pandemic, 78% said they will continue to do so once “normal” work resumes. One of the main advantages of collaboration tools is the ability to build closer relationships with fellow employees, and even between people that may never meet in person. The report also claims these services help virtually all users cultivate a healthier relationship with superiors. A major factor at play is the reputation of email as a serious and clinical form of communication. Of the Slack users surveyed, the majority (54%) said they reserve informal chat for collaboration platforms, while 80% said they would choose to send a joke or GIF over Slack rather than email. “Although it remains the default option among some more traditional firms, the pandemic has brought the truth about email to light: it is an archaic and ineffective means of workplace communication,” Stuart Templeton, Head of UK at Slack, told TechRadar Pro.

The Walking Dead: Survivors is a new mobile survival game based on the po[CENSORED]r franchise, which sees players gathering resources and recruiting Survivors to help fortify their stronghold. Announced earlier this year, players won't have to wait too long to get into Survivors, with the game releasing on April 12. While The Walking Dead exploded in po[CENSORED]rity thanks to AMC's 10-season TV show, the new mobile game is based on the original comics rather than the TV adaptation. Developer Elex has announced that the pre-registration period for the game has nevertheless been a successful one, with over 1.5 million players registering interest across iOS and Android. Now Playing: Norman Reedus Announces Walking Dead Collaboration With State Of Survival The titular Survivors are key to the game, with the player encountering and recruiting various characters from the comics who will help fortify their defenses. While the developer has promised that over 80 Survivors will eventually be present in the game, it's unclear how many of them will be present at launch besides the five that have been announced by name-- Rick, Glenn, Beta, and Hershel. Other characters previously announced for the game include Maya, Vayne, and Dwight. Each Survivor has different abilities, which are grouped into two categories as either Combat or Development characters. Rick, for example, is a Combat Survivor who is "focused on fighting off walkers," according to a details revealed in a press release. "He wields a rifle, an axe and his skills increase damage." Hershel, on the other hand, is listed as "a Development Survivor who is a medic. He wields a rifle and he increases Healing Speed and hospital capacity while reducing healing cost." Sadly, despite its official license, gameplay videos from the Survivors beta that have been posted online look fairly underwhelming, with little to differentiate it from other base-building zombie survival mobile games beyond the familiar skin. The Walking Dead: Survivors will release on April 12 for iOS and Android. You can pre-register your interest prior to the release on the game's official website. Got a news tip or want to contact us directly? Email news@gamespot.com Leave Blank View Comments (0) The Walking Dead Mobile Death Stranding Did Very Well On PC, Earning $27 Million Kojima's game was able to attract a big PC audience despite launching first on PS4. By Gabe Gurwin on April 7, 2021 at 5:24AM PDT Comments GameSpot Newsletters Get the latest gaming news, reviews, and deals sent to your inbox, FREE! Email Address Death Stranding first found success as a PS4 exclusive, but the game has evidently done very well on PC, as well. Publisher 505 Games' parent organization Digital Bros has shared the game's impressive revenue figures in its latest financial report, and it dwarfs the company's other games. For the year ending December 31, 2020, Death Stranding managed to earn more than €23 million, which is over $27 million. This is despite the game only releasing in July of that year, and put it significantly above the company's other major AAA games like Control and Ghostrunner for the year. Now Playing: Death Stranding - Exclusive PC Features Trailer However, Control actually performed slightly better back when it came to PC in 2019, making slightly more money in a shorter amount of time. The difference is that Control released on PC at the same time as other platforms, meaning those who wanted to play the game on PC could do so right out of the gate. With Death Stranding, hardcore fans needed to get it on PS4 if they wanted to play right away, reducing their need to get it again when it did come to PC. PC was Digital Bros' biggest digital platform in 2020, and it wasn't even close. It was responsible for more than 66% of its total digital revenue that year, with the PlayStation, Xbox, and Nintendo platforms only adding up to about 28% in total. It remains to be seen what's next for Hideo Kojima and his team. One big change for the next game will be its composer, as veteran Kojima Productions composer Ludvig Forssell left the company in March following a 10-year stint that included work on Death Stranding and Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain.

There's a hairy situation brewing at the White House. High-profile dog experts are speaking out about what they believe is really causing President Biden's dog Major to act out after he reportedly bit two people at the White House in recent weeks, according to a report. Cesar Millan, known for the Emmy-nominated television series, "Dog Whisperer with Cesar Millan," described the White House environment as "a place full of tension." He says the problem doesn't lie with Major, but the situation and people the dog is surrounded by. An aide walks the Bidens' dog Major on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, D.C., on March 29, 2021. (Getty Images) "It’s not the dog," he told Politico. "What Major is saying is that he doesn’t feel safe yet. And if he doesn’t feel safe, he can’t trust. And if he can’t trust, he can’t feel calm." Professional dog trainer Larry Krohn says the dogs' behavior, whether it's good or bad, is created in the environment that the canine lives in. "Where it spends its time. The people it spends its time with," he said. Krohn added that behavior comes out of fear and insecurities, which he says is typical in the German shepherd breed -- like Major, "especially when it’s not a well-bred dog." "And you can’t punish that out of a dog ... you can’t treat that out of a dog," he said, according to Politico. "You have to change the mindset of the dog to where they feel comfortable and confident in their own skin and they trust the people around them." The series of biting incidents started in March when Major, 3, sank his teeth into a Secret Service employee, who required attention from the White House medical unit. White House press secretary Jen Psaki referred to that incident as "minor." After the first bite occurred, Major and Biden's seemingly less rambunctious, older German Shepherd, Champ, 13, were sent to Wilmington, Delaware, to be looked after by a family friend. They later returned to the White House, reports said. During an interview with "Good Morning America," Biden said Major was going home and he "didn't banish him to home." "We have a dogsitter there -- a friend who takes him. And -- but you turn a corner and there's -- there's two people I don't know at all. And, you know, and they move -- and he moves to protect. But he is -- he's a sweet dog," Biden said. "85 percent of the people there love him. He just -- all he does is lick them and wag his tail." But late last month, Major bit an employee on the White House South Lawn, who then required medical attention. First lady Jill Biden’s press secretary Michael de Rosa confirmed the "nip" in a statement to Fox News. "Major is still adjusting to his new surroundings and he nipped someone while on a walk. Out of an abundance of caution, the individual was seen by WHMU [White House medical unit] and then returned to work without injury." CNN first reported the bite, adding the employee worked for the National Park Service. Celebrity animal trainer Joel Silverman referenced Biden's "Good Morning America" interview and suggested that "nobody is looking at this thing from the very beginning as a serious thing." "When the dog bites one time, it’s something people need to take a look at," Silverman told Politico. "When you have the owner — I don’t care if you’re the president of the United States or you’re just an average dog trainer like myself — if you are answering a question and blowing off an issue about the biting, that’s a problem. That’s a red flag."

It will be a good two years before the GMC Hummer EV SUV goes on sale, but we pretty much know everything about the electron-guzzling behemoth after its debut last weekend. That includes the less-powerful output from its three electric motors when compared to the Hummer EV truck that hit daylight in October last year. Of note, the Hummer EV supertruck produces a GM-estimated 1,000 horsepower (746 kilowatts) and dubious 11,500 pound-feet (15,592 Newton-meters) of torque. In comparison, the newly-revealed Hummer EV SUV makes only 830 hp (619 kW), but GMC said that the mentioned wheel torque stands. Gallery: 2024 GMC Hummer SUV 2024 GMC Hummer EV SUV Rear Why is it so? Apparently, it's all in the packaging. as explained by GMC Hummer EV chief engineer Al Oppenheiser in a media interview reported by Muscle Cars & Trucks. The Hummer EV SUV's wheelbase is 9 inches shorter than that of the truck's (20 inches shorter overall), which means there are fewer battery packs and modules fitted into the GM Ultium modular platform. And for EVs, fewer batteries means fewer electrons flowing into the motors, ergo, less power. With the GM Ultium modular platform, GMC had the choice to shoehorn the same number of battery packs and modules, "but that compromises cargo space and a flat load floor. We didn’t want to do that," Oppenheiser said. It's not like 830 hp is something to scoff at. Given the Hummer EV SUV's off-road capabilities, that figure should be more than enough. Besides, keeping the vehicle's overall length to a minimum has its advantages in terms of handling and maneuverability. "Frankly, we are not sorry that it’s only 830 horsepower. There aren’t many internal combustion engines that can say that," Oppenheiser added during the interview. Will there be a chance in the future to increase that power? Oppenheiser said that as technology progresses, battery modules may become smaller and more efficient, which would mean a possibility to improve the Hummer EV SUV's performance numbers.

North Korea has announced it will not take part in the Tokyo Olympics this year, saying the decision is to protect its athletes from Covid-19. The decision puts an end to South Korea's hopes of using the Games to engage with the North amid stalled cross-border talks. In 2018, both sides entered a joint team at the Winter Olympics which led to a series of historic summits. Pyongyang says it has no cases of the virus but experts say this is unlikely. The announcement makes North Korea the first major country to skip the delayed 2020 Games because of the pandemic. The event is due to begin on 23 July. This will be the first time North Korea misses a Summer Olympics since 1988, when it it boycotted the Seoul games during the Cold War. Hopes dashed The decision was made at a Olympic committee meeting on 25 March, according to a report by the state-run site Sports in the DPRK. North Korea has taken stringent measures against the virus since it broke out last year. It shut off its borders in late January and later quarantined hundreds of foreigners in its capital. Since early last year, trains and wagons have been forbidden to enter or leave North Korea, with most international passenger flights stopped as well. No international fans at Tokyo Olympics & Paralympics Kim Jong-un's sister to US: Don't 'cause a stink' There were hopes by South Korea's President Moon Jae-in that the games could be a catalyst for progress between both Koreas. That had been the case in 2018, when North Korea sent 22 athletes to the 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea, along with government officials, journalists and a 230-member cheering group. Among the contingent was North Korean leader Kim Jong-un's sister Kim Yo-jong - a move which helped it initiate diplomacy with South Korea and the US. Kim Yo Jong (R, the sister of the North Korean leader) shakes hand with South Korea"s President Moon Jae-in during the opening ceremony of the Pyeongchang 2018 Winter Olympic Games at the Pyeongchang Stadium on February 9, 2018. IMAGE COPYRIGHTEPA image captionAt the 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony, South Korean President Moon Jae-in (left) met Kim Yo-jong (right), sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un The talks that followed led to a series of historic, high-profile meetings between the North Korean leader and former US President Donald Trump. There were hopes for improved relations after the meetings, but nothing materialised and the atmosphere has since deteriorated. North and South Korea are technically still at war because no peace agreement was reached when the Korean War ended in 1953. Japan's Covid concerns Meanwhile, in Japan, an Olympic preparatory event was cancelled after Covid infections broke out at a training camp for the Japanese water polo team - with seven people testing positive for the virus. It comes after the announcement that the Osaka leg of the Olympic torch relay would be cancelled as infections in the city hit record highs. There have been growing concerns in Japan that more infectious strains of the virus could be driving a potential fourth wave of the virus in the country. You may also be interested in... Watch how a group of Russian diplomats and their families made an unusual exit out of North Korea on a hand-pushed rail trolley, due to strict Covid measures.

Asus is apparently preparing what could be the ultimate AMD gaming laptop. According to a CPU-Z posting, the new iteration of the ROG Strix G15 will arrive with a lethal combination of AMD's Ryzen 9 5900HX (Cezanne) processor and Radeon RX 6800M graphics cards. The unreleased laptop (via Tum_Apisak) sports the G513QY model number. Unless Asus is working on a new gaming laptop, the G513 corresponds to the brand's ROG Strix G15 G513, which was previously only available with discrete graphics options from Nvidia. For starters, the G513QY will be based on the flagship Ryzen 9 5900HX processor. Asus already offers the ROG Strix G15 with the aforementioned processor, though. The octa-core Zen 3 chip features a 3.3 GHz base clock and a 4.6 GHz boost clock. However, the Ryzen 9 5900HX supports overclocking and a cTDP up to 54W, so there is enough wiggle room for overclocking. In terms of discrete graphics, the G513QY will rely on the forthcoming Radeon RX 6800M, which is the mobile version of the Radeon RX 6800. AMD hasn't officially announced the mobile RDNA 2 (Big Navi) graphics cards yet, so the specifications are unknown. However, the CPU-Z submission points to the Radeon RX 6800M having up to 12GB of GDDR6 memory, only 4GB less than the desktop counterpart. Having an AMD processor and graphics card in the same device obviously brings benefits. The fusion will enable the G513QY to leverage AMD's SmartShift technology that balances the power between the processor and graphics card according to the workload. AMD touts a performance boost of up to 14% with SmartShift enabled. The technology debuted with Dell's G5 15 SE, so it's good to see other vendors going all-in with AMD. The Radeon RX 6800M will logically be the bell cow of the mobile RDNA 2 army. Assuming that AMD will replace every mobile RDNA 1 part with a RDNA 2equivalent, we could be seeing up to three more SKUs, such as the Radeon RX 6700M, RX 6600M and maybe even a RX 6500M. AMD hasn't given any clues when it will unleash its mobile RDNA 2 offerings so there’s nothing left to do but wait.

Microsoft is working on more bandwidth management and control features in Microsoft Teams that should help users with slower connections and devices. According to a recent entry in the Microsoft 365 roadmap, the new Roaming bandwidth control feature will add new functionality to the video conferencing platform to enable admins to specify dynamic bandwidth policies depending on the geographic location of the participants. Remote collaboration platforms such as Microsoft Teams have become the de facto means of communication for dispersed teams especially in the post pandemic remote-first work environment. The feature will be a great addition for teams that have members in environments with limited bandwidth. Check out our list of the best business webcams available We've built a list of the best headsets for conference calls And here’s our collection of the best powerline adapters Improved connectivity According to Microsoft, the new bandwidth control feature will put more bandwidth control features at the disposal of admins. They’ll, for instance, be able to relax bandwidth restrictions when the user is in a bandwidth constrained location. Notably Microsoft Teams is also working on another feature to further enable users to better manage their bandwidth when they tune into a Microsoft Teams session from slower connections. The Low Data mode for Microsoft Teams feature announced in March will allow users to earmark the amount of data that’s used for a Team’s session to ensure they don’t choke the network or rake up a huge bill while roaming. It’s reported that while the Low Data Mode will be rolled out anytime now, the Roaming bandwidth control feature will be rolled out next month in May 2021 and will be available in both the Teams desktop and web client.

Record of Lodoss War-Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth- (PC) Developer: Why So Serious?, Team Ladybug Publisher: Why So Serious?, Playism Release: March 27th, 2021 MSRP: $19.99 I can’t claim to be intimately familiar with Record of Lodoss War, but then, it’s a little scarce in the West. It started out as a “replay” of a group’s Dungeons and Dragons campaign, then spun out in about a million directions. We previously only got one of the games on the Dreamcast, and, frankly, I’m not sure how this one happened. A lot of the media remained in Japan. Record of Lodoss War: Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth is an absolute mouthful of a game that Playism has bestowed upon us. What’s immediately fetching about it is its outward similarities to Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. Just look at it and tell me you don’t see it. The title character, Deedlit, has practically the same walking animation as Alucard. But mockery is the sincerest form of flattery! No, wait… If you’re like me, you’re probably wondering if you need to be familiar with the source material to enjoy Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth. Thankfully, no. The characters in the title largely consist of the cast of the franchise, so it might be interesting to recognize their faces, but there isn’t a whole lot of dialogue or exposition. Furthermore, it’s pretty obvious from early on that this is some sort of dream or hallucination that Deedlit is going through, so the plot is mostly isolated from the series at large. What plot there is can be understood without knowing the characters or their relationships. Deedlit loves Parn; that’s all you need to know and you’re told that within the context of the game. Really, there’s probably more here for fans of the explore-’em-up Castlevania titles. Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth feels a bit more linear than, say, Symphony of the Night, but it still subscribes to the interconnected world and light RPG mechanics. For equipment, you’re limited to bows and swords, but searching for secret areas also reveals new spells and power-ups. There aren’t any major optional areas to explore or deep secrets to be found beyond breaking a few walls. This might be a little confining for some, but I feel it fits the scope of the game. There’s a bit more of a mechanical feel to the entire game. The world is split up into six levels and the goal of each one is essentially to find the switch that opens each area’s locked doors and beat whatever bosses haunt its hallways. You could say that this fits with the game's theme of being an illusory labyrinth, but from a gameplay perspective, it’s a bit predictable. My biggest grievance is with the labyrinth itself. It never really deviates visually from being a, well, labyrinth. This area’s forestry, that one looks like a castle, this one has tech lines, that one is sandy. Dracula’s castle may have always had an incohesive appearance to it, but it seems like that was so the developers could play with visual diversity, and that just lacks here. It’s a good-looking game, to be sure, with excellent pixel art and animation, but it can be quite monotonous. Which means it’s probably a good thing that it’s also a rather short game; maybe just north of five hours. Again, it fits the game’s scope. Any longer than that and things would start feeling redundant, but it seems to know well how far to extend itself. It helps the game’s pacing, as you are never far from a save point, a new item, or even a boss. There isn’t much time wasted climbing “stairways” and dashing through corridors. The bestiary is mercifully limited, so you don’t have to learn new weaknesses every time the screen flips. That’s one novel idea that the game has in its quiver: every enemy has its own strengths and weaknesses that are visible once you deliver the first hit. You can regularly swap between fire and wind attacks, but there’s a slew of different elements available if you take the time to search out the game’s many spells. It’s not the deepest system, since you’re not doing much beyond selecting whatever spell the game tells you will be effective, but it does give you incentive to not just spam one single attack. Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth hits all the right notes; big bosses, harrowing platforming, and cool weapons. The music is fun, energetic, and varied between the six areas. The story, while not particularly deep or unique, progresses at a good clip and resolves in an extremely satisfying way. It’s also a bit on the easy side, but really, I never found any of the explore-’em-up Castlevanias to be difficult in the slightest, so it at least sticks close to its inspiration. Simply put, it’s a title that knows what it is and seems to hit all its targets with deadly precision. This results in a game that isn’t exactly transcendental, but is as solid as bedrock. Even if you’re not a fan of the Record of Lodoss War source material, it is worth a look. At the very least, it took me back to my days of binging on Castlevania’s Game Boy and DS titles, which I mean as a compliment. It may not be the freshest meal in the cafeteria, but it’s still a tasty dish at the right price. ------------------------------ System Requirments ------------------------------ CPU: Intel Core2 Duo or higher CPU SPEED: Info RAM: 2 GB OS: Windows 2000 / XP / Vista / 7 / 8 / 10 VIDEO CARD: Open GL compliant video card PIXEL SHADER: 2.0 VERTEX SHADER: 2.0 FREE DISK SPACE: 50 MB -------------------------------- Video Trailer

A Russian TV reporter found herself chasing a dog live on air last week after the audacious canine ripped her microphone out of her hands and scampered away while she was providing a weather update, according to reports. Mir TV anchor Elina Dashkueva sat wide-eyed in the studio for a moment as reporter Nadezhda Serezhkina ran after the golden retriever with the stolen equipment, Mediaite reported. Footage uploaded on social media shows the dog leap into the air to grab Serezhkina’s microphone during her live shot. "It looks like we have lost the connection to our correspondent," Dashkueva reportedly told viewers as the station pulled away from Serezhkina giving chase, according to Mediaite. "We will try to connect with her momentarily." Serezhkina and the apparently stray dog met up on camera later in the broadcast – this time in a planned appearance where she knelt next to the pooch who appeared much more docile. The reporter said no one was hurt in the incident but her "microphone took a bite or two." She added that Moscow’s warm spring weather is perfect for walking a dog, according to the Washington Examiner.

It has been more than a decade since Mercedes-Benz has stopped producing the venerable SLR McLaren, but the supercharged V8 coupe has never left some hearts. Case in point: Georgi Bozhkov, who imagines another SLR McLaren concept and posted unofficial renderings via his Behance page. While his previous work from last year showed us a modern version of the Mercedes-dominated design, Bozhkov's latest take on the front-engined supercar leans more on the McLaren side of things – and it has its engine positioned behind the seats. Take a look at the images below to know what we mean. Gallery: Modern Mercedes SLR McLaren Rendering By Georgi Bozhkov Modern Mercedes SLR McLaren Rendering By Georgi Bozhkov 7 Photos The rendering above shows the obvious – Bozhkov incorporated McLaren's design language in a front-engine layout (or so we thought). You can see the typical McLaren styling at the front fascia and headlights, while the roof scoop, which is available for production Macs via MSO and the Senna, has been added. This is our first clue that the engine on this rendering is at the rear, despite the long-hood-short-deck form. On the side, we can't deny that there's a Dodge Viper vibe going on in there but it would be hard to miss the signature slats by the front fenders, reminiscent of the original SLR McLaren. There are also Three-Pointed Star emblems above the slats, which are probably the only thing Mercedes in this car. At the back, further confirmation of a rear-engine layout can be seen on the slated engine cover and the exhaust pipes positioned high on the tail. This is one of McLaren's signature setup, with the exhaust outlets sitting next to the engine to shorten the piping, ergo, keeping the vehicle's overall weight down. If this whole long-hood, rear-engine form doesn't make sense for you, don't worry as this is only a figment of imagination. But hoping for the return of an SLR McLaren isn't a bad thing at all, so here's to that.

The former crown prince of Jordan is accused of trying to mobilise tribal leaders against the government, the country's deputy prime minister says. Prince Hamzah bin Hussein worked with "foreign entities" to destabilise the state, Ayman Safadi said. The prince had earlier released two videos to the BBC, claiming he was being held under house arrest. He denied conspiracy, but accused Jordan's leaders of corruption and incompetence. Sixteen people, including a former adviser to King Abdullah and another member of the royal family, were arrested on Saturday for allegedly threatening security. In his videos, Prince Hamzah, the king's half-brother, said he had been told he could not go out or communicate with people. The move is thought to follow a visit by the prince to tribal leaders, where he is said to have garnered some support. Prince Hamzah's message in full His mother, American-born Queen Noor, has said she is praying for what she called innocent victims of "wicked slander". What is the prince accused of? Responding to the fallout on Sunday, Mr Safadi said Prince Hamzah had used the videos to distort facts and incite empathy, according to the state news agency, Petra. He told a news conference that the prince had been liaising with foreign parties about destabilising the country and had been being monitored for some time. The prince is accused of seeking to mobilise "clan leaders" against the government. But the plot had been "nipped in the bud", Petra quoted the deputy PM as saying. Mr Safadi went on to allege that a man with links to foreign security services had offered Prince Hamzah's wife, Princess Basmah, a flight out of Jordan. He did not specify which foreign security service was apparently involved. Jordanian Prince Hamzah bin al-Hussein, president of the Royal Aero Sports Club of Jordan, carries a parachute during a media event to announce the launch of "Skydive Jordan", in the Wadi Rum desert in April 2011 IMAGE COPYRIGHTGETTY IMAGES image captionPrince Hamzah, pictured in 2011, is a keen sky-diver Mr Safadi said officials had tried to discourage the prince rather than take legal action against him, but that Prince Hamzah had "dealt with this request negatively". He noted that dialogue was ongoing. Regional powers including Egypt, Turkey, and Saudi Arabia have voiced support for King Abdullah in the wake of the operation. The United States, which is allied with Jordan in its campaign against the Islamic State (IS) group, described the monarch as a key partner who has its full support. What's behind this? Tensions within the royal household had been visible for some time, Jordanian journalist Rana Sweis told the BBC. "The former crown prince is also seen as po[CENSORED]r. He has a very candid resemblance to his father, King Hussein, and he is also very po[CENSORED]r with the local tribes," she said. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. View original tweet on Twitter 1px transparent line Jordan has few natural resources and its economy has been hit hard by the Covid-19 pandemic. It has also absorbed waves of refugees from the civil war in neighbouring Syria. However, high-level political arrests are rare. The country's powerful intelligence agency has gained extra powers since the pandemic began, drawing criticism from rights groups. Jordan's King Abdullah II, his wife Queen Rania, Queen Noor, mother of the groom, Crown Prince Hamzah, the groom, his bride Princess Noor, Sherif Asem bin-Nayef and his ex-wife Firouzeh Vokhshouri, parents of the bride, attend the royal wedding on May 27, 2004 in Amman, Jordan IMAGE COPYRIGHTGETTY IMAGES image captionKing Abdullah and his wife Queen Rania (pictured far right) attend the wedding ceremony of Prince Hamzah and his first wife Princess Noor (left) alongside Hamzah's mother Queen Noor (centre) in 2004 line Who is Prince Hamzah? The oldest son of the late King Hussein and his favourite wife Queen Noor, Prince Hamzah is a graduate of the UK's Harrow School and the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst. He also attended Harvard University in the US and has served in the Jordanian armed forces. He was named crown prince of Jordan in 1999 and was a favourite of King Hussein, who often described him in public as the "delight of my eye". However, he was seen as too young and inexperienced to be named successor at the time of King Hussein's death. Instead his older half-brother, Abdullah, ascended the throne and stripped Hamzah of the title of crown prince in 2004, giving it to his own son. The move was seen as a blow to Queen Noor, who had hoped to see her eldest son become king. Who else has been arrested? Others detained on Saturday include Bassem Awadallah, a former finance minister, and Sharif Hassan Bin Zaid, a member of the royal family. Mr Awadallah, an economist who was educated in the US, has been a confidant of the king and an influential force in Jordan's economic reforms. He has often found himself pitted against entrenched government bureaucracy resistant to his plans, observers say. No members of the armed forces were said to be among those detained over the alleged plot.

AMD has published a whitepaper on a potential security vulnerability that affects the company's latest Zen 3 processors. The side-channel exploit is similar to Spectre that affected a plethora of Intel processors three years ago. With Zen 3, AMD introduced a new technology called Predictive Store Forwarding (PSF), which helps improve code execution performance by predicting the relationship between loads and stores. In the majority of the cases, PSF's predictions are on the spot. However, there is still a slim chance that the prediction may not be accurate, which results in an incorrect CPU speculation. AMD's CPU architects have discovered that bad PSF speculation is equivalent to Spectre v4. Software that relies on isolation or "sandboxing" is highly at risk when it comes to incorrect speculation. AMD provided two scenarios where an incorrect PSF prediction can occur. "First, it is possible that the store/load pair had a dependency for a while but later stops having a dependency. This can occur if the address of either the store or load changes during the execution of the program." "The second source of incorrect PSF predictions can occur if there is an alias in the PSF predictor structure. The PSF predictor is designed to track stores/load pairs based on portions of their RIP. It is possible that a store/load pair which does have a dependency may alias in the predictor with another store/load pair which does not. This may result in incorrect speculation when the second store/load pair is executed." AMD concludes that Predictive Store Forwarding helps improve application performance, but also comes with security complications. Nevertheless, the chipmaker hasn't seen any code that's considered vulnerable to PSF misprediction nor are there any reported cases of such exploit. The security risk of Predictive Store Forwarding is low for most applications. The official recommendation from AMD is to leave the Predictive Store Forwarding enabled. Since it's a performance enhancement feature, we suspect that disabling PSF could bring a performance hit. Consumers who work with software that employs sandboxing and are alarmed about PSF have the choice to disable the PSF functionality. AMD recently proposed Linux patches that would disable Predictive Store Forwarding as well.

Microsoft is working on a new feature for its online ollaboration platform Teams that will help ensure the service performs consistently, irrespective of the user’s location. As per an entry to the product roadmap, a new roaming bandwidth control will allow admins to build bespoke bandwidth policies, based on the geographical location of each Teams user. “This allows admins to set more limited bandwidth controls for when users travel to remote or bandwidth constrained locations, and then relax limitations when they travel to a location with higher bandwidth capacity,” Microsoft explained. Here's our list of the best video conferencing services right now Check out our list of the best business webcams available We've built a list of the best headsets for conference calls The new feature is currently still under development, but is set to roll out for all Teams users by the end of May. Microsoft Teams update With the rise of remote working and exodus from major cities, IT teams have had to figure out how to deliver the same level of service to employees operating out of urban, suburban and rural areas. The disparity between the internet infrastructure covering these different regions is significant, with some staff having access to high-speed internet with plenty of bandwidth and others suffering all manner of connectivity issues. With the new Teams feature, however, admins will have a simple method of heading off potential performance issues, by dialling bandwidth limitations up or down depending on need. IT teams will initially have two settings at their disposal: AllowIPVideo and MediaBitRateKb. The former establishes whether the user’s video is enabled, while the latter determines the media bitrate for audio and video sharing in meetings. The phrasing of the roadmap entry suggests Microsoft intends to expand this range of options after the initial rollout is complete.

Platforms : PC, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One Developers : Artefacts Studio Publishers : Asmodee Digital Release Date : March 23, 2021 Considering how po[CENSORED]r the Cthulhu mythos has been in recent years, it’s a cosmic mystery why it took so long for the venerable Arkham Horror board game series to get its first video game adaption. That makes it even more of a shame that Arkham Horror: Mother’s Embrace gives it such a middling digital debut. Its particular take on Lovecraftian horror feels faithful in the details, but uninterested in challenging some of its own troubling preconceptions – or even being very scary. Couple that with soft ball puzzles and pushover combat encounters, and this dark ritual feels largely harmless. Mother’s Embrace is an adventure game structured like most Arkham-themed card or board games: you control a group of investigators who hop between Prohibition era locales like prestigious universities and old spooky buildings in search of clues. Solving the great mystery of a weird and wondrous force that threatens all of reality without being consumed by it yourself requires a balance of both physical and mental fortitude, but every move forces you to make tough choices that look to disrupt that balance – be it through bizarre mind breaking discoveries or brutal bone breaking confrontations. Your tale here is divided into “scenarios” focused on single locations and with a set of specific objectives, be it finding an old voodoo priest in New Orleans or investigating a mysterious murder in a fabulous mansion. In each of these chapters, you’ll stroll around the environment questioning the locals, collecting journals and notes, and investigating suspicious points of interest in order to piece together a solution to whatever problem brought you there in the first place. The overt nature of all these activities rarely makes you feel like you’re doing any actual detective work. You’ll find yourself simply stopping at every single highlighted area in hopes that it adds a clue to your notebook, making you more vacuum than gumshoe. It’s not quite as simple as hoarding everything you find, of course. Many of these interactions have more than one way to navigate them; should you pick the lock on a chest or should you break it? In each array of options, only one is correct. Choose poorly and you risk failing the task, punishing you with a tick on the Mythos Clock, which hangs in the top right corner as a mechanical manifestation of existential dread. After five ticks, the clock strikes midnight, and the Old Gods send you a stern message in the form of combat debuffs, forcing sanity skill checks on the spot, or stealing items out of your inventory, to name a few. This adds an element of risk to searching a new location, but the consequences were never harsh enough to dissuade me from always giving each c hoice a shot. Depending on the investigators in your party, you may not have to pay the cost of failing them at all. Each one has their own specialties – scientist Kate Winthrop excels when tasks involve searching, while Federal Agent Roland Banks knows his way around logic puzzles – and will drop a hint pointing towards the right answer when these complex interactions arise. Their strengths are best treated as random bonuses though, as there is no indication of the kinds of interactions you’ll encounter in any given area, and therefore no real way to plan a party composition around succeeding at them with any regularity. Where party organization really matters most is when the snooping stops and the shooting starts. The Baldur’s Gate 3-style turn-based tactical combat revolves around the various ways your sleuths can spend action points to take down foes like cultists and weird tentacle creatures. Guns, melee weapons, and magic come in amusing assortment of shapes and sizes, all of which require a certain amount of the five points each character gets per turn to use. This cost is dependent on the weapon each investigator is using, but also their proficiency with that weapon type. A gun that takes parapsychologist Agatha Crane four points to shoot only takes three for jazz trumpeter and apparent crack shot Jim Culliver, for example. Share Autoplay setting: On This didn’t affect my strategy going into most combat scenarios, though. So long as you have ammo, guns are usually the best option no matter the wielder. They do great damage from far enough away that the largely simplistic and dull enemies rarely pose a threat. Towards the end of the campaign, if you’re thoroughly checking every corner for possible goodies, you’ll have more consumable healing items and ammunition than you’d ever reasonably need against such unworthy opponents. The only real worry is instead the aforementioned Mythos Clock which ticks with every combat round, serving to make the rare tough encounter a bit more ferocious, but not enough to make them any more interesting. So with maintaining the body being a fairly simple task, managing sanity proved to be the biggest challenge in Mother’s Embrace. You take sanity checks on a majority of interactions you make, tests of your investigators’ mental fortitude that will harm their mind if they fail. Some of these checks seem reasonably disturbing, like coming across a dead body resting on a glyph drawn in its own blood. However, many of them instead stretch your suspension of disbelief a little too far – why would the fibers of my mind be fraying when I read that a body has gone missing from a graveyard in the newspaper? If any investigator’s sanity meter drops to zero then they gain a trauma, a debuff that cripples them permanently (or until you let them rest at your headquarters between scenarios). Each investigator has their own list of possible traumas, and as they pile up they can become real detriments. Those include things like a character having a lower chance to critical hit or even hurting themselves occasionally, making them more compelling threats than most of the other consequences in Mother’s Embrace. But while I cared about keeping them operational, I didn’t really care about the investigators themselves. The seven different starting options (and five more you meet along the way) are made up of largely one-note caricatures, be it the somber gravedigger Will Yorick or the sassy dilettante Jenny Barnes. They have a reliable stock of puns and one liners, reacting as you’d expect them to based on their jobs and backgrounds with few surprises to make them standout. But outside of the little blurb that accompanies them in their stat screens or exposition that they dump on you the first time you meet them, these characters have no real arcs or compelling motives. Which is WORSE for a Lovecraftian detective game to have? Answer See Results Bad combat Bad investigating The story itself is a rote Lovecraftian murder mystery, one that would have benefitted greatly by breaking away from some of the genre’s unfortunate trappings in more meaningful ways. Mother’s Embrace’s inclusion of black protagonists and major npcs despite the eponymous author’s noted disdain for most people of color is a welcome step forward, but not a big enough one to also include a less harmful depiction of mental health issues and those struggling with them. Its depiction of patients in asylums lacks nuance, reducing them to either blubbering husks or violent monsters with little in between, and only serves to further isolate people in the real world who may suffer from non-Old One related mental illness. Even when the story is at its most serviceable, all the gore and intrigue of its gruesome events are taken at face value, with almost no examination of its themes for something deeper or as a metaphor for the human condition, as the best Cthulhu stories usually do. But while the story itself is only skin deep, it at least looks great while telling it. Apart from some very generic animations both in combat and during exploration, the costumes and character designs really stand out and the use of color and lighting does a great job of setting the otherworldly mood, especially towards the end of its six or so hour adventure. You can replay Mother’s Embrace after your first playthrough with a new starting investigator as well, but there's not much reason to do so as nothing significant will change besides some dialogue. Arkham Horror: Mother’s Embrace is a passable translation of the mythos that board games, books, and graphic novels have been telling and retelling for decades, but stops just short of making it feel new or modern. That goes doubly for the repetitive and simple combat it throws at you between sections of uninspired “detective” work. So while I hoped this might sate my Lovecraftian hunger for an Arkham Horror video game, Mother’s Embr ace left that digital void disappointingly empty. ---------------------------------- System Requirments : --------------------------------- Minimum : CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E4700 2.6 GHz or AMD Phenom 9950 Quad Core 2.6 GHz RAM: 4 GB OS: Windows 7, 64-bit VIDEO CARD: 1GB ATI Radeon HD 5770, 1GB NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460 or better PIXEL SHADER: 5.0 VERTEX SHADER: 5.0 SOUND CARD: DirectX compatible sound card FREE DISK SPACE: 5 GB DEDICATED VIDEO RAM: 1024 MB ---------------------------------- Video Trailer :

The corn dogs at Disneyland Resort in California have found themselves in quite the pickle. Earlier this week, the Disney Parks Blog highlighted some of the new food and beverage options debuting at Disney World and Disneyland this April. But among news of "Soul"-inspired ice cream floats at Disney World’s EPCOT Center and boozy new options at Disneyland’s Blue Bayou restaurant, one particular offering raised quite a few of the readers’ eyebrows, if not yet their cholesterol levels. Behold the Pickle Corn Dog, the turducken of amusement-park foods. The Pickle Corn Dog, which can be found at Disneyland’s Blue Ribbon Corn Dogs Cart in Downtown Disney, is described as a "panko-crusted dill pickle corn dog served with a side of peanut butter." The Pickle Corn Dog, which can be found at Disneyland’s Blue Ribbon Corn Dogs Cart in Downtown Disney, is described as a corn dog" itself consists of a hollowed-out pickle stuffed with a hot dog, which is then dipped in cornbread batter, rolled in panko breading and deep-fried. Food bloggers quickly shared their own reviews of the sizable snack, with ratings ranging from "alright" to "pretty good." Reactions on social media, meanwhile, were mixed. "I would definitely try the pickle dog. But the peanut butter is a hard pass," wrote one Twitter user responding to a post shared by the Disney Food Blog, an independent website dedicated to the food options at Disney Parks. "I’d HAVE to at least try the peanut butter!" another replied. "Sometimes I really think there is a panel of people throwing darts a couple of food boards lately to see what they'll combine next," someone else theorized. "I can hear them all hysterically laughing from here." "I’m pretty sure this is a violation of the Geneva Convention," another added. The idea of a pickle-inclusive corn dog, however, is not entirely unique to the Disney Parks. As noted by a Twitter user, the Dilly Dog at the Globe Life Park, where the Texas Rangers play, has offered a similar item, albeit without the peanut butter dipping sauce. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP Disneyland’s Pickle Corn Dogs are currently available at the Blue Ribbon Corn Dogs Cart in Downtown Disney, which is currently operating with health and safety restrictions in place for guests. The dogs themselves are said to be priced at $13 apiece, or roughly double the cost of a doughnut grilled cheese sandwich at Disney Springs in Florida. Disneyland Resort in California is scheduled to reopen to guests on April 30 at limited capacity, with guests required to make reservations prior to arrival.

It feels unfair to categorize Bugatti in with any other automaker. It's as high-end and bespoke as one can get. The brand occupies six spots on our "Most Expensive Cars In The World" roundup – and the cheapest requires $3 million. So, it should be no surprise that prospective buyers and Bugatti enthusiasts get opportunities few of us will ever get to experience. One such event took the company to the Paris outskirts for a scenic test drive. "Passionates," as Bugatti calls them, had the chance to test drive two stunning models – the Chiron Sport and the Chiron Pur Sport. The company hosted the event at the Vaux-de-Cernay Abbey, which is about 50 kilometers (31 miles) outside Paris. The proximity to Paris is no accident. Bugatti recently inaugurated a new showroom in the City of Lights, where Ettore Bugatti established the brand's first showroom almost 100 years ago. Gallery: Bugatti Chiron Sport And Pur Sport Paris Test Drive Bugatti Chiron Sport And Pur Sport Paris Test Drive 28 Photos "After long abstinence and merely digital presentations, aficionados of our brand finally have the chance here to test and experience the two hyper sports cars," said Guy Caquelin, Regional Director Europe at Bugatti. The coronavirus pandemic did restrict in-person gatherings over the last year, making such events safe for everyone a challenge. The Chiron has spawned several variants and one-offs since its 2016 introduction, with each pushing the brand further. The Chiron Sport is no slouch, either, packing the potent quad-turbocharged W16 engine and gobs of horsepower, though Bugatti did focus on reducing its weight and stiffening the suspension. In 2020, the Chiron Pur Sport took an even bigger stance on improving the hypercar's handling. Bugatti revised the gearbox for a closer gear-ratio spread, reduced the weight even further, and made a handful of other changes to improve the car's lateral grip. Bugatti is limiting Pur Sport production to just 60 examples, too.

Italy has entered a strict three-day lockdown to try to prevent a surge in Covid-19 cases over Easter. All regions are now in the "red zone" - the highest tier of restrictions - as the country battles a third wave, with about 20,000 new cases a day. Non-essential movement is banned, but people are allowed to share an Easter meal at home with two other adults. Churches are also open, but worshippers are being told to attend services within their own regions. For the second year, Pope Francis will deliver his Easter message to an empty St Peter's Square. Following the holiday weekend, different regions will then remain in either "orange zone" or "red zone" restrictions until the end of the month. Italy's restrictions come as countries across Europe try to control a surge in cases of the virus, while struggling with a delayed vaccine rollout. More than 110,328 people in total have died of the coronavirus in Italy, and there have been 3.6 million confirmed infections. What is the situation in Italy? Just over a year after Italy became the first western nation to be hit by a coronavirus epidemic. In February 2020 people in many northern areas were told to stay at home and the lockdown was later extended to the rest of the country. Free movement was restored in June, but Italy is now facing a third wave of Covid-19. On 1 April, it registered 23,634 new cases and 501 deaths. Under the new lockdown measures, all non-essential shops are closed and cafes and restaurants are running a takeaway-only service. Lockdown in Italy - shopper in Milan IMAGE COPYRIGHTREUTERS image captionAll non-essential shops are shut Red zone restrictions normally mean all non-essential travel is banned, but over the Easter weekend an exception is being made to allow people to visit friends and relatives within their regions for a holiday meal. The Italian government also announced it was placing 70,000 extra police officers on surveillance nationwide, in order to enforce the lockdown rules. "This is not the time to lower our guard, and to let go of that sense of responsibility shown so far," Interior Minister Luciana Lamorgese told the newspaper Il Messaggero. "Because the progress recorded by the campaign for vaccines finally gives a glimpse of a different horizon that will allow us to gradually return to normal." What about elsewhere in Europe? On Friday, the World Health Organization (WHO) criticised Europe's "unacceptably slow" vaccine rollout, and said the situation in the region is now worse than it has been for several months. "Vaccines present our best way out of this pandemic... However, the rollout of these vaccines is unacceptably slow," WHO director for Europe Hans Kluge said in a statement. "We must speed up the process by ramping up manufacturing, reducing barriers to administering vaccines, and using every single vial we have in stock, now." In the meantime, as long as vaccine coverage remained low, he said EU countries would have to impose lockdowns and other measures to compensate for the delays. According to the WHO, only 10% of the nearly 900 million people in the region have had a single dose of coronavirus vaccine. French schools to close under third Covid lockdown Germany reverses plans for strict Easter lockdown Europe's vaccine rollout 'unacceptably slow' - WHO Earlier this week France, which is currently facing a peak of about 5,000 people in intensive care, announced it was entering a third national lockdown for at least three weeks. French schools are moving back to remote learning, and all non-essential shops have now closed. People are banned from travelling more than 10km (six miles) from home without good reason. And last month, German officials announced that the country would be placed in a strict Easter lockdown - only to reverse the decision just days later. German Chancellor Angela Merkel called the plan for a lockdown from 1 to 5 April a "mistake", and said she took "ultimate responsibility" for the U-turn.

In contrast with the buy-ditch-replace model most current laptops operate under, San Francisco-based startup Framework announced in late February that it wanted to create a laptop that was truly customizable, largely future-proof, and more eco-friendly. In the following weeks, its revealed more details about how it planned to achieve those goals, and today it announced the new Framework Community devoted to its project. Let's recap the basic specs: Framework's laptop is set to initially feature 11th Gen Intel Core processors and support up to 64GB of DDR4 memory as well as up to 4TB of storage via PCIe Gen 4 NVMe SSDs. It's also expected to have a 13.5-inch, 2256 x 1504 resolution display and an aluminum case that weighs less than 2.9 pounds (1.3kg). But the Framework laptop's primary appeal is its ability to reduce electronic waste, partly because it's set to be made from 50% recycled aluminum and up to 30% recycled plastic, and mostly because it's supposed to feature extensive customization that allows many of its components to be replaced individually through swappable modules. The company started to share more information about the Framework laptop's starting parts modules shortly after it was revealed. It started with the keyboard options, which is said to rely on fasteners that can be removed using the included screwdriver, and for which the company plans to sell replacements via the Framework Marketplace after launch. Framework said the keyboard will be available in at least 11 different languages and layouts this year. It also vowed to "continue to scale the options to cover the most common languages first and eventually every language that a keyboard layout exists for, including ones that have never previously been built into a laptop." Framework also plans to launch with two special edition keyboards: a "fully stealthed out matte black" option and a "unique crystal clear" option, neither of which feature any printing at all, which is exactly the kind of gimmick people appreciate until they forget where each key is. At least you'll be able to replace the keyboard easily, yeah? Framework Customizable Laptop (Image credit: Framework) The company then moved on to detailing the laptop's starter webcam, which is a custom 1080p 60fps camera developed in partnership with Partron. Framework said the camera will feature a 1/6" OmniVision OV2740 sensor, a "wide 80° diagonal f/2.0 four element lens" with a "blue glass IR filter," and a Realtek RTS5853 camera controller. All of those features are supposed to allow the camera to perform better in a variety of lighting conditions and at a higher resolution than most laptop webcams, many of which are still limited to 720p and struggle in less-than-ideal lighting. Framework also addressed privacy by including a hardware privacy switch in the camera. Framework Customizable Laptop (Image credit: Framework) Next came the mainboard options. Framework said it plans to offer mainboards equipped with Intel Core i5-1135G7, i7-1165G7, and i7-1185G7 processors to start. Those CPUs will be complemented by a 65 x 5.5mm cooling fan, dual 5mm heat pipes, and a copper fin pack said to enable 28W continuous processor load and up to 60W turbo.

Platforms:PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, PC, Stadia, iPhone Developers:ZA/UM Publishers:ZA/UM Release Date:March 30, 2021 Like all good detective stories, what appears simple at first becomes so much more than that in Disco Elysium – and here it gets so, so much weirder, too. It takes the age-old mechanics of tabletop RPGs like Dungeons & Dragons and twists them in strange ways around a macabre tale of violence, poverty, and a society on the brink of collapse. Through sharply written dialogue and an expertly crafted world, it uses some unique game mechanics - such as debating against 24 different sections of your own brain - to create a story that will stay with me for a long time. And, somehow, it manages to make all of this fun and, surprisingly often, funny. Now with the addition of a fully voiced cast and even more side quests to embark on, The Final Cut makes an amazing game even better. The premise of Disco Elysium is straightforward: A body has been discovered, hanged from a looming tree in the backyard of a hostel, and it’s up to you to work out how it got there over the course of the 30-hour story. Everything that surrounds this core mystery is far from simple, however, not least being that you kick things off with an almighty dose of hangover-induced amnesia. You can’t even remember your name, let alone that you are a cop on a murder case. A part of your consciousness described as your ancient reptilian brain – which you literally engage in conversation with – attempts to persuade you to give up your quest even as your snivelling limbic system battles against it. As you stumble around your wrecked bedroom searching for remnants of your former self, it quickly becomes clear that this isn’t simply a whodunnit, but a journey that will challenge you to solve crises on both profoundly personal and societal levels. It’s a gorgeously designed isometric RPG that makes you think at every turn of its painterly streets. The first decision you have to make when booting up Disco Elysium is what kind of detective you wish to be: Intelligent (think Sherlock Holmes), Sensitive (think Dale Cooper from Twin Peaks), or Bruiser (think Marv from Sin City). Each determines the base stats for your nameless gumshoe and influences the decisions offered to you from the get-go, but they all offer an interesting way to play. For example, opening with the Intelligent build allows you to instantly decipher that you have woken in the city of Revachol as your high Encyclopedia skill level feeds you that knowledge. Begin with the Sensitive option, however, and you’ll have no idea where you are and will have to piece together that same information. The beauty of Disco Elysium’s skill system is that there’s always a reward for the choices you have made – a Sensitive might not know where he is, but he can start interrogating his necktie for clues. Yes, really. The beauty of Disco Elysium’s skill system is that there’s always a reward for the choices you have made. “ If that isn’t varied enough for you, you can build your own detective from the ground up instead. Your character sheet is made up of four distinct pillars: Intellect, Psyche, Physique, and Motorics. Each of these consists of six wonderfully strange skills (like Intellect’s Encyclopedia), which bring their own bonuses. Want to command respect from a member of the public? Spend points on Authority. How about intimidate a witness? Beef up your Physical Instrument total. Want to talk to that necktie? Start messing with the David Lynch-inspired Inland Empire measurement. These skills aren’t just passive ways of sending you down different paths; each one is a distinct voice in your detective’s head, represented in the dialogue window during conversations. With high Empathy you might get a voice telling you not to push too hard in a victim interrogation, but with high Half Light (a skill that allows your to interrogate suspects with more force) your brain might tell you to just punch them in the face. They’re as much in-game tips as they are a way to gate your progress. You earn another skill point for every 100 XP you gain, collected by checking off tasks from your quest list or by simply having conversations with people and uncovering new information. Leveling up does come fairly infrequently though, so you’ll have to really think about how you want to use them, but it never feels like you’re waiting too long for the next skill point however and feels just about right. Share Autoplay setting: On The upshot of all this skill management is that Disco Elysium plays like no other video game I’ve ever seen. Its closest analogue is perhaps the outstanding Divinity: Original Sin 2, if you replaced all of its turn-based combat with early-era LucasArts point-and-click scenarios. Puzzle-solving comes hand-in-hand with skill checks, which are interactions based on a combination of a dice roll and your stats. The higher your number for the requisite skill, the higher the percentage you have of rolling successfully. This mechanic is used to resolve everything from conversation options to jumps across ledges, and even violence. The upshot of all this skill management is that Disco Elysium plays like no other video game I’ve ever seen. Hold on though: there is no combat in Disco Elysium, not in the traditional sense anyway. Throwing a punch is a matter of willing your detective to do so, and the consequences are usually verbal rather than physical. For the most part, you’re armed with your (sometimes) silver tongue and a roll of the dice. Your choice of dialogue is often crucial to solving problems, not only when interacting with others, but with the many voices occupying your mind. It’s a truly fun way of dealing with exciting sequences and a welcome breath of fresh air compared to more action-oriented RPGs. I actually found talking my way through situations and building out my character sheet in Disco Elysium much more stimulating than the monotony of slicing down enemies with yet another +2 blade. Clothing positively and negatively affects your skills as well, which will be familiar to those acquainted with Bethesda RPGs. By putting on a replica hat worn by fictional detective Dick Mullen you can boost your Encyclopedia score by 1. Quick costume changes can come in handy when faced with a dice roll that looks too difficult at first glance. I once found myself confronted by a mural in an especially seedy part of town which required a substantial amount of Shivers – a skill that lets you “raise the hair on your neck” and “tune into the city” to decipher your environment. My character naturally had a low Shivers stat, but by putting on a pair of fancy shades and changing my jacket I soon had enough to make the percentage likelihood of my roll a tempting 72%. I went for it, got lucky, and swiftly changed back into my preferred getup. Share Autoplay setting: On These are the moments when a little lateral thought is needed, each one serving as a mini-puzzle where you try to build up your stats with what resides in your inventory. You can also boost yourself by consuming alcohol or taking drugs, such as speed. These temporarily boost a whole pillar of your character sheet for an in-game hour, but come at the expense of your health or morale. I never really felt that this came at much of a risk, however, so I ended up consuming narcotics with regularity in order to gain that welcome boost up over the fence. In truth, I never had to play around with my inventory very often and wished I had more reason to do so. I found myself sticking with the same outfit for large portions of the adventure and yearned at times for a bit more challenge. Luckily, Disco Elysium has such a strong central story driving it along that I ultimately didn’t miss the lack of difficulty. Other than increasing your skills, you can also spend points in your Thought Cabinet, a unique mechanic that turns abstract concepts like Communism, memories of favourite flavours, or just mistakenly thinking you’re a rockstar into a kind of mental inventory. It plays beautifully into the theme that half of the battle in Disco Elysium takes place in your mind. By internalizing a thought unlocked along your travels you can earn a variety of rewards attached to it. These vary from stat boosts to XP boosts and unique traits. They can also come with some major downsides, but part of the fun is not knowing what benefits you might get from ruminating on something like the “Volumetric Shit Compactor” for a while. For example, after seven hours gestating one thought called “The Wompty-Dompty Dom Centre”, I received a perk that gave me 10 XP every time I successfully used my Encyclopedia stat in conversation, but also lowered my Suggestion stat by two points because I’m a “pretentious wanker,” according to my own brain. It’s a wonderfully odd system, not least because each time you complete a thought a new and stunningly grotesque illustrative painting fills your screen, echoing Francisco Goya’s “Black Paintings” period – which is to say, they are laden with disturbing imagery reflecting a bleak outlook on humanity. On the Beat Society seems a concept long since forgotten in the city of Revachol, the once-proud capital of the world you wake up in. Martinaise, the district where you’ll spend most of your time, is an impoverished hub of anger and discontent, but it’s a captivating place to be. On the surface, no one appears happy here, perhaps apart from the few who grasp tightly onto power with a greedy fist. It’s a beautifully realised depiction of a firmly ugly place – you instantly get a sense of the world you’ll spend upwards of 30 hours trawling through; snow falls softly onto abandoned vehicles, crumbling, neglected architecture haunts the streets, and broken statues commemorating a long-fabled war serve as a reminder of what happened here. To deduce the stories the city has to tell (and there’s quite a few) you’ll have to be thorough, using all of your character’s faded detecting abilities as they slowly come back to him. Small, coloured information orbs are littered across the environment, inviting you to click on them all to squeeze every drop of knowledge out of the deeply layered world. Not everything will be relevant to your cause, but it will always be interesting. This is testament to the world that developer ZA/UM has created in Disco Elysium – rarely has a place sucked me in quite like the city of Revachol did. It ranks up there with the likes of The Witcher 3’s colourful Continent or Red Dead Redemption 2’s rugged West, despite taking place over a much smaller area. Disco Elysium: 19 Pieces of Concept Art The density of a game’s world can sometimes feel overwhelming, with maps dominated by icons and large areas of land beckoning to be explored. This is never the case with Disco Elysium; there’s lots to do, but it encourages you to take your time and absorb all the information you are being fed at your own pace. Whether you choose to take what you find at face value is for you to decide; You’re a detective, after all. You’ll probably want to click every prompt as well, and it’s hard to miss any due to the extremely useful ability to highlight any clickable item on the screen by holding Tab (something not uncommon to veterans of the adventure genre). Although sometimes deliberately obtuse in its dialogue and the way certain things are worded, crucially Disco Elysium never clouds what you’re meant to be doing. Tasks are clearly listed in the menu with a generous amount of hinting as to what you’re aiming to achieve; it’s an incredibly dense experience with my list of tasks quickly growing, but one I never felt bogged down in. Each new face is accompanied by a gorgeously painted portrait that looks as if it’s been stroked onto a canvas by a hopped-up Francis Bacon. “ Core to this is Disco Elysium’s varied cast of characters and the way their stories intertwine with both your own and that of the world they inhabit. Each new face is accompanied by a gorgeously painted portrait that looks as if it’s been stroked onto a canvas by a hopped-up Francis Bacon. Every one feels fully formed and it’s clear to see from a quick look at their face or a few sentences in their company what their background is. They range from Cuno, a foul-mouthed boy who finds pleasure in throwing rocks at your subject’s suspended corpse (he is, frankly, a little shit) to Evrart Claire, a slimy union boss who looks cut from the same cloth as Jabba the Hutt. It’s rare to meet a kind face in Revachol, which makes it all the more special when you actually find yourself connecting to someone and having a conversation that actually borders on the polite... ---------------------------------------- System Requirments ----------------------------------------- Minimum : CPU: Intel i5-7500 or AMD 1500 equivalent CPU SPEED: Info RAM: 4 GB OS: Windows 7/8/10 VIDEO CARD: Integrated Intel HD620 or equivalent PIXEL SHADER: 5.0 VERTEX SHADER: 5.0 FREE DISK SPACE: 22 GB ------------------------------------------ Recommended : CPU: Intel Core i7 or AMD 1800 equivalent CPU SPEED: Info RAM: 8 GB OS: Windows 7/8/10 VIDEO CARD: NVIDIA Geforce 1060 or equivalent PIXEL SHADER: 5.1 VERTEX SHADER: 5.1 FREE DISK SPACE: 22 GB DEDICATED VIDEO RAM: 3072 MB ------------------------------------------- Video Trailer :

Shoe designer Steve Madden has partnered with David’s Bridal for a new collection of wedding shoes. David’s Bridal announced the collaboration on social media Tuesday. "Megawatt sparkle you can't get anywhere else!" the wedding retailer wrote on Twitter. "Introducing @SteveMadden x DB, an exclusive new collection of dazzling shoes for your shining moment!" ‘VACCINE READY’: FASHION BRAND REVOLVE MOCKED FOR SHIRT SECTION The company’s tweet also included a video of Madden, who said: "Marriage is a triumph of hope over experience, a beautiful union between two people." "I had the most unbelievable wedding and it was a wonderful day," Madden adds in the clip. "I’ll never forget it." According to an announcement, the Steve Madden x DB shoes will be available in David’s Bridal stores, or on the company’s website. The collection appears to include three pairs of heels that each cost $89.95, according to the website. David's Bridal released a new line of wedding shoes in partnership with designer Steve Madden. The styles include an ivory wedge sandal with crisscross straps, a blush, strappy stiletto sandal and a rose gold, strappy block heel. The shoes are all "handcrafted in luxe materials and crystal embellishments," the announcement said. "We were so excited to team up with Steve Madden to bring this collection to life," Nancy Viall, David’s Bridal’s chief merchandising officer, said in a statement. "The authenticity and individuality that Steve Madden's designs offer aligns perfectly with our brand ethos." "We set out to provide our brides with on-trend pieces that make her feel beautiful, special and truly herself," Viall added.

There's a lot to like about the Bentley Bentayga Hybrid, but a commission from a Chinese creates an even more luxurious example of the PHEV crossover. The Mulliner division created this unique machine with a special exterior color and custom styling touches. Mulliner's customized Bentayga Hybrid uses the color green as the main styling inspiration. The shade represents purity, regeneration, hope, harmony, and growth in China. Gallery: Bentley Bentayga Hybrid One-Off Bentley Bentayga Hybrid One-Off Front Three-Quarters View 14 Photos This Bentley Bentayga Hybrid's body is the deep shade Viridian green originally from the EXP 10 Speed 6 concept. The paint has flecks of amber and gold in it. In the right light, Bentley says the color has light green and blue undertones. The luxury crossover rides on 22-inch wheels with a machined face and Viridian pockets. Cumbrian Green leather covers the cabin. The piano veneers are a matching color. The passenger side of the dashboard has a diamond-shaped overlapping silver metal overlay. Over 328 feet (100 meters) of bright white stitching covers areas like the door panels and seat backs. A pair of Mulliner-branded, crystal champagne flutes are located in a container in the back, and there's a cooler for keeping a bottle chilled. The recently refreshed Bentayga Hybrid uses a 3.0-liter V6 and electric motor with a total output of 443 horsepower (330 kilowatts) and 516 pound-feet (700 Newton-meters) of torque. It uses a 17.3 kilowatt-hour lithium battery that provides 31 miles (50 kilometers) of zero-emission range in the NEDC cycle. To promote efficient motoring, there's a pressure point in the throttle during EV motoring the identifies the point when the combustion engine would activate. The refresh brought interior tweaks like a revised digital instrument cluster and a 10.9-inch infotainment screen with standard wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. This unique Bentayga Hybrid will have a physical debut at the Shanghai Motor Show that will run from April 21 to 28. The Bentley Mulliner Personal Commissioning Guide lets customers like this person in China work with the company to create a more personalized vehicle than what's possible when just ordering from a dealer.

A court has been shown new police bodycam footage of George Floyd pleading with officers during his arrest, saying: "I'm not a bad guy." The video comes as the murder trial of ex-officer Derek Chauvin continues for a third day. In it, Mr Floyd is seen begging for police not to harm him. The footage also shows Mr Chauvin with his knee on Mr Floyd's neck for more than nine minutes. Mr Floyd's 2020 death sparked global protests over policing and racism. Mr Chauvin, 45, denies charges of murder and manslaughter. Defence lawyers have indicated they will argue that 46-year-old Mr Floyd died of an overdose and poor health, and the force used was reasonable. Observers of the trial say footage shown of Mr Floyd's actions before and during the arrest may be an attempt by prosecutors to deal with the allegation that drugs played a part in his death. What does the bodycam film show? The court has been shown footage from the body cameras belonging to officers Thomas Lane, J Alexander Kueng and Tou Thao. In Mr Lane's footage, Mr Floyd is seen being confronted by police. He begs them: "Please don't shoot me... I just lost my mom." Mr Floyd is handcuffed and continues to plead with Officers Lane and Kueng, saying he is not resisting them and "will do anything you tell me to". A scuffle occurs when police try to get Mr Floyd into a vehicle, and he starts crying and resisting while saying he is claustrophobic and has anxiety. Mr Chauvin and his partner Mr Thao arrive as the arrest goes on. As the police officers drag him out of the car and restrain him on the ground, Mr Floyd can be heard calling for his mother and telling his family members he loves them. Bystanders begin to shout at officers to check Mr Floyd's pulse and stop restraining him. The last 30 minutes of George Floyd's life The man accused of killing George Floyd The jurors who will decide Derek Chauvin's fate What did witnesses say on Wednesday? Shop employee Christopher Martin, 19, told the court he briefly interacted with Mr Floyd as a customer inside Cup Foods shortly before his arrest. He said Mr Floyd "appeared to be high" because he struggled to respond to a simple question, but he was lucid enough to able to hold a conversation. He described Mr Floyd as "friendly and approachable". In the shop's surveillance video, Mr Floyd can be seen laughing, talking to people, and walking around. Mr Martin told the jury he had sold Mr Floyd a packet of cigarettes, and received a counterfeit note as payment. Mr Martin described knowing the bill was fake by its colour and texture, but added that Mr Floyd "didn't seem to know it was a fake note". He said he had considered letting the shop deduct it from his wages instead of confronting Mr Floyd, but then decided to tell his manager. Another employee went on to call the police. 'I stay up at night apologising to George' Watching the Chauvin trial 'was hurtful' Mr Martin, who witnessed the arrest, said he felt "disbelief and guilt" because "if I'd have just not taken the bill, this could have been avoided". Charles McMillian, 61, was another witness who took the stand on Wednesday. Based on CCTV footage, Mr McMillian appears to have been the first bystander on the scene of Mr Floyd's arrest. He told the court he engaged in conversation with Mr Floyd, urging him to get into the police car. Mr McMillian said he remembers feeling "helpless" seeing the incident unfold. He can be heard on video telling Mr Chauvin: "Your knee on his neck, that's wrong man." As the court was shown footage of the arrest, Mr McMillian began to sob, and the judge called for a brief recess. What else has happened in the trial so far? In opening statements on Monday, Prosecutor Jerry Blackwell told the jury that Mr Chauvin had "betrayed his badge" by kneeling on Mr Floyd's neck, and using "excessive and unreasonable force" to detain him. Meanwhile, Mr Chauvin's lawyer Eric Nelson said the case was about the evidence, not about a "political or social cause". He said Mr Floyd had ingested drugs at the time of his arrest "in an effort to conceal them from the police", and suggested this had contributed to his death. Four young witnesses took to the stand on Tuesday. Darnella - the teenager whose film of Mr Floyd's death sparked global protests - said she "stays up apologising" to him for "not doing more". Bystanders watching the incident unfold on 25 May 2020 IMAGE COPYRIGHTCOURT TV image captionWitnesses: 1. Donald Williams. 2. Darnella. 3. Darnella's cousin. 4. Alissa. 5. Kalen. 6. Genevieve Hansen She told the court she had started filming on her phone because she "saw a man terrified, begging for his life". "It wasn't right - he was in pain," she said. One witness, Donald Williams II, who is trained in mixed martial arts, was questioned for more than an hour by the prosecution and defence on Monday and again on Tuesday. He told the court Mr Chauvin had used a dangerous technique called a "blood choke" and was moving his knee back and forth to increase the pressure on Mr Floyd's back and neck. He rejected defence suggestions that he and other bystanders' interactions with police had been threatening to the officers there.

Intel officially positions its Rocket Lake CPUs as the best CPUs for gaming today, yet like all desktop chips it will inevitably be used for a wide variety of applications. Nonetheless, Asus this week made a surprising move and introduced a small form-factor low-power desktop powered by Intel's latest Rocket Lake CPU. Measuring 175×175×42 mm, the Asus Mini PC PB62 can be equipped with Intel's Rocket Lake processor with up to eight cores as well as a 35W or 65W TDP, up to 64 GB of DDR4 memory, two M.2-2280 SSDs with a PCIe 3.0 and 4.0 x4 interface, and one 2.5-inch HDD. Since the Asus PB62 is even smaller than Apple's Mac Mini, it naturally cannot accommodate a discrete graphics card, so the owner will have to stick to Intel's UHD Graphics based on the Xe architecture. Gaming is arguably Intel's main focus when it comes to its latest Rocket Lake CPUs, but Asus positions its Mini PC PB62 primarily for business and commercial applications, such as office PCs, digital signage, point-of-sales, and vending machines. Asus (Image credit: ASUS) To address different requirements, Asus equipped its Mini PC PB62 with a plethora of connectivity technologies, including Intel's AX201 Wi-Fi 6 + Bluetooth 5 adapter, a GbE port, seven USB Type-A connectors (including USB 2.0, USB 3.2 Gen 1, USB 3.2 Gen 2), a USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-C port, two DisplayPort 1.2 outputs, audio connectors, and one configurable port (HDMI 2.0/VGA/COM/DisplayPort/LAN). Asus (Image credit: ASUS) Depending on exact configuration, the Asus Mini PC PB62 may come equipped with a 90W, 120W, or a 150W external PSU. Asus did not touch upon pricing of the Mini PC PB62.

he best website builder for portfolios will make it easy to publish and manage your photographs and other artwork online. BEST PORTFOLIO WEBSITE BUILDERS 1. Weebly 2. Cargo 3. IM Creator 4. Krop 5. Adobe Portfolio Read on for our detailed analysis of each website builder for portfolios Creating a new website is a lot easier than it used to be – rather than learning HTML and CSS, you can just click and drag with your mouse and have something very professional-looking on the internet in minutes, and portfolio website builders are no different. The increased use of this software online means you've got a selection of the website builders for portfolios to choose from. However, with so many great selection of tools to choose from, it can be difficult to pick out the best portfolio website builders from a crowd of so many. To help you narrow down your choice, we've picked five portfolio website builders that offer a good balance of price points and features. All of these website builders for portfolios offer simple ways of customizing your pages once they're online, so you can regularly change the look of your work, and make sure your talents are always being well promoted on the web. Here then are what we think are the best portfolio website builders. Top 3 website builder services -Relatively small choice of themes Weebly was first set up with the intention of making it easy to set up a portfolio of work online, and those origins stand it in good stead today, even as it has broadened its horizons to become more of a general website builder. If you don't mind a Weebly subdomain, some ads on your site, and a limit of 500MB storage, you can actually use it for free. While the choice of themes is relatively small, they're all fully customizable, and they all work on any size of screen, automatically reformatting to suit the display dimensions. Weebly has one of the most elegant and user-friendly website editor interfaces we've seen, so you can tweak your portfolio in exactly the way you want. One of the many areas where Weebly excels is in the way it calmly handles a lot of technical stuff quietly in the background: it gives you enhanced SSL security by default, and (on the paid options) advanced analytics for your website, plus the option to transfer over a domain name. If you want to get up and running quickly, would like to spend some – but not a lot – of time customizing your site, and need something that's going to be reliable and comprehensive, Weebly fits the bill. The fact that you can get started for free to see if you like it is an added bonus.