Archived News:
Monday, Jul 13, 2020
Skull & Bones Reportedly Rebooted [6:08 pm ET] – Share – 8 Comments
Ubisoft has not yet made its annual
announcement that they are
delaying Skull & Bones, but
VGC has an unconfirmed report that the open-world, pirate-themed sailing
game is being rebooted to a "live" game model rather than a premium game. They attribute this to "development sources speaking under the condition of anonymity." They add that "one person with knowledge of its development" tells them social and "live
storytelling" elements in Fortnite are the inspiration for this new direction. They
also say the reboot resulted in Elisabeth Pellen taking over as the game's
creative director, replacing Justin Farren, who's now with Wargaming. VGC says
Ubisoft declined to comment on their story.
Steam Labs Turns One; Steam Community Recommendations Launch [6:08 pm ET] – Share – Post a Comment
Valve has officially launched
Steam
Community Recommendations which will showcase helpful reviews on the
Steam homepage.
This began as one of their Steam
Labs experiments, and their announcement notes that this program is now
one-year old. Here's a
post recapping the first year of Steam Labs, and here's the short
form:
This July marks the one-year anniversary of Steam Labs, a project we launched last year with three experiments and big ambitions to improve Steam through public experimentation and iteration. We are celebrating with the official release of Community Recommendations, introduced to Steam via Labs.
Steam Labs is a place to explore the potential for new and improved versions of Steam, and the most valuable part of that process is you. (Yes you, in the back with the lab coat! And the rest of you, too.)
We've put together a bit more background on what we've learned in Labs during the past year: How it led us to ship four experiments, shelve two, and continue to design and refine even more along the way, as we look ahead to the future.
In all, we couldn't have done it without YOU! (Yes, still YOU!) So thank you for being a part of it, and here's to another year of Steam Labs!
Kill It With Fire Next Month; New Demo This Week [6:08 pm ET] – Share – 4 Comments
Publisher tinyBuild and developer Casey Donnellan Games announce an August 13th
release date for Kill It With Fire, their game of extreme spider extermination.
They also say we can expect a second demo for the game on Friday with the
release of Kill It With Fire: HEATWAVE
on Steam. If you missed the release of their first demo, Kill It With Fire:
Ignition, back in April, you can still pick
that up
on Steam as well. Here's a new
Release Date Trailer
and here's word:
The spider is a mankind’s most ancient and deadly nemesis. As a licensed Kill It With Fire exterminator, it’s time to fight back! Gather your arsenal and pursue the eight-legged menace on a journey across suburbia.Continue here to read the full story.
To defeat spiders you must exploit their one weakness: FIRE. Or bullets. Or explosions, throwing stars, gettin’ smushed by stuff... pretty much anything, really. But that doesn’t mean it’ll be easy – first you’ve gotta find the spiders. Use state-of-the-art arachnid tracking technology to pinpoint your quarry’s location among hundreds of potential hiding spots - then, torch everything and smash the spider with a frying pan after it runs out. It’s the only way to be sure.
On Sale [6:08 pm ET] – Share – Post a Comment
*Blue's News may receive a commission on sales of this item
Evening Patches [6:08 pm ET] – Share – Post a Comment
Evening Consolidation [6:08 pm ET] – Share – Post a Comment
- Xbox Series X Games List - Rumored and Confirmed.
- FAR CRY 6 Is Now Available For Digital Pre-order And Pre-download On Xbox One.
- Assassin's Creed Valhalla Is Now Available For Digital Pre-order And Pre-download On Xbox One.
- Microsoft Flight Simulator Is Now Available For Digital Pre-order And Pre-download On Windows 10.
- Watch Dogs: Legion Is Now Available For Digital Pre-order And Pre-download On Xbox One.
- Carrion Is Now Available For Digital Pre-order And Pre-download On Xbox One.
- UFC 4 Is Now Available For Digital Pre-order And Pre-download On Xbox One.
- One Dog Story Is Now Available For Xbox One.
- Sword Art Online Alicization Lycoris Available Now on Xbox One.
- Xbox Insider Release Notes - Alpha Skip-Ahead (2008.200711-0000).
Evening Metaverse [6:08 pm ET] – Share – 18 Comments
- Phil Spencer: “I don't have any regrets about Mixer.”
- Twitch pulls Black Lives Matter video after criticism from Black creators.
- Twitch unbans Trump after two-week suspension for ‘hateful conduct.’
- New album of Overwatch music hits streaming services today, new composer Q&A.
- Bitcoin is now harder to mine than ever before - so is it still worth it?
Evening Tech Bits [6:08 pm ET] – Share – Post a Comment
- AMD Ryzen 7 3700X Drops to Record-Low $260, Includes Free Assassin's Creed Valhalla.
- Bottleneck for U.S. Coronavirus Response: The Fax Machine. Thanks Slashdot via Ant.
- Polycraft Team Wins DARPA Grant To Lay Groundwork for Smarter AI.
- Analog Devices To Buy Maxim Integrated.
- IronDeskProject. Thanks Hypothermia.
Evening Safety Dance [6:07 pm ET] – Share – Post a Comment
Thanks Ant.
- Remote working: This free tool tests how good your security really is.
- EFF Launches Searchable Database of Police Agencies and the Tech Tools They Use to Spy on Communities. Thanks DSLReports.
- Should you delete TikTok? Here’s everything you need to weigh the real privacy risks. Thanks RedEye9.
- Hacker breaches security firm in act of revenge.
- Vulnerability Summary for the Week of July 6, 2020 - CISA.
- Google Meet adds zoombombing protection for education customers.
etc., etc. [6:07 pm ET] – Share – 2 Comments
Into the Black [6:07 pm ET] – Share – 8 Comments
Last Link of the Day:
Snowpiercer Season 2
Teaser Promo. Let the Sean Bean death pool begin!
Obituary: Nicole Thea, 24-year-old YouTube star, dies along with unborn child. Thanks JDreyer.
Obituary: Nicole Thea, 24-year-old YouTube star, dies along with unborn child. Thanks JDreyer.
Watch Dogs 2 Make-Up Giveaway [10:14 am ET] – Share – 16 Comments
Perhaps due to overwhelming demand, it was impossible for most users to access
their Ubisoft accounts yesterday during the
Ubisoft Forward event.
Since this prevented qualifying for
the promised
Watch Dogs 2 giveaway, they have set up
this page
where anyone with a Ubisoft account can collect a free copy of the open-world
hacking sequel along with all the other rewards they announced for watching the
stream. Simply log in and the game will be added to your library. Word is:
Thank you for tuning in to Ubisoft Forward!
After registering you will soon receive your free PC copy of Watch Dogs 2 in your Uplay PC library. The other in-game rewards will soon await you directly in the related games.
Void where prohibited by law or regulation. Participants must be 18 or older at the time of entry. Ubisoft may offer alternative giveaways, when necessary
Microsoft Flight Simulator Next Month [10:14 am ET] – Share – 42 Comments
Microsoft is now offering preorders of Microsoft Flight Simulator
on the
Xbox Website, saying the new installment of the series will take off for
Windows 10 on August 18th. The game is also coming to
Xbox Game Pass for PC (Beta).
This comes as a Standard Edition with 20 planes and 30 airports, a Deluxe
Edition that adds five more aircraft and five more airports, or a Premium Deluxe
Edition with 10 additional planes and 10 additional airports. Here's a new
Pre-Order Launch Trailer
and here are
some details along with the minimum system requirements:
We have been thrilled and humbled by the support and dedication that has fueled the Flight Sim community for the past 38 years. Since the launch of the very first Microsoft Flight Simulator in 1982, we knew it was finally the right time to develop the next-generation version of Microsoft Flight Simulator. We have the right tools, technology, partners and hardware to release the most realistic and authentic flight simulator to date. Microsoft Flight Simulator features include:Continue here to read the full story.
Death Stranding Reviews [10:14 am ET] – Share – 24 Comments
Here's the PC Launch
Trailer for Death Stranding (aka DEATH STRANDING) in advance of
tomorrow's release of the PC edition of Hideo Kojima's walking simulator. To
pave the way, here's a roundup of the reviews that are starting to pop up:
- How Death Stranding PC delivers on Kojima Productions' original vision • Eurogamer.net.
- Death Stranding PC Review - I'm still stranding better than I ever did - GameRevolution.
- Death Stranding PC Review - GameWatcher.
- Death Stranding Review - IGN.
- Death Stranding review - PC Gamer.
- Death Stranding PC review – hiking the post-apocalypse - PCGamesN.
- Death Stranding (for PC) Review - PCMag.
- Death Stranding review: Is it worth the hype? - Polygon.
- Death Stranding is worth playing again on PC - The Verge.
- Death Stranding PC Review - Uniting the World, One Strand at the Time - Wccftech.
The Tideshell Keeper Announced [10:13 am ET] – Share – Post a Comment
The Tideshell Keeper is a point-and-click adventure coming to
Steam
in Q1 2022. This includes an unusual twist as one element of the game involves
learning a new language. This is shown off along with other gameplay in
this trailer. Here's a
bit:
After listening to her grandma's mad stories about the coming of a giant wave, Noon, takes her submarine fishing. Unfortunately, she gets her submarine stuck underneath a drifting city and finds herself helplessly lost at sea in an attempt to find her way back to home. Noon discovers that there might be more to her grandmother's rambling tale about destruction and tidal waves and that she might have the only key to stopping the destruction, a mythical tideshell.Continue here to read the full story.
Follow Noon as she travels through a thousand year old thunderstorm, visits a dried out lake in a desert where fish still swim at Night, and explores a sunken city that drifts with the currents.
Morning Crowdfunding [10:13 am ET] – Share – Post a Comment
- Curse of the Sea Rats - An epic hand-drawn ratoidvania by PETOONS STUDIO — Kickstarter. Funded with €242,395 towards their €15,000 goal (1600%).
- MAGIN - narrative driven, deck building adventure RPG by The Rat Project — Kickstarter. "A beautiful handcrafted experience. Immerse yourself into a world of dark, fantasy tale." Playable demo available.
- Student Union, A Dark Romance Visual Novel by Visual Novel Village — Kickstarter. "A full-length Visual Novel and dark drama in which subtle choices make deep impacts." A playable demo is available.
Gatherings & Competitions [10:13 am ET] – Share – Post a Comment
Morning Tech Bits [10:13 am ET] – Share – Post a Comment
Thanks Neutronbeam.
- Nvidia is allegedly ceasing production of four Turing RTX 20-series GPUs in anticipation of next-gen ‘Ampere’ cards.
- Swedish tech company Tobii releases $229 eye tracker that may improve gamers' skills.
- HyperX Predator, Fury DDR4 RGB Memory Kits Hit 4,800 MHz and 256GB.
- Google makes a $10 billion bet on India.
- Incredible vinyl-like super SSDs could make hard disk drives obsolete.
- Google trains over 5,000 Cloud employees in ethical AI - Latest News - Gadgets Now.
- How to enable Windows 10's hidden features using Mach2.
- Linus Torvalds Wishes Intel's AVX-512 A Painful Death.
- HandyPad is a freeware text editor that supports autosave as you type.
Morning Safety Dance [10:13 am ET] – Share – Post a Comment
Morning Legal Briefs [10:13 am ET] – Share – Post a Comment
- Partner in an Alleged $722 Million Bitcoin Ponzi Pleads Guilty on Fraud Charges. Thanks Neutronbeam.
Game Reviews [10:13 am ET] – Share – 1 Comment
Hardware Reviews [10:13 am ET] – Share – Post a Comment
- Acer Chromebook Spin 713 review- Peak Chrome OS value - Android Police. Thanks Neutronbeam.
- AMD Ryzen 7 1700 CPU vs. Ryzen 3 3300X: GPU Scaling - TechSpot.
- Creative Sound Blaster Pro Gaming AE-5 Plus PCIe Sound Card Review - Nikk Tech.
- FSP CMT260 Case Review - APH Networks.
- Gigabyte G32QC Gaming Monitor Review- Class-Leading Contrast With 165 Hz And HDR - Tom's Hardware.
- Kioxia Exceria PLUS 2TB M.2 NVMe SSD review - Guru3D.
- ORICO SV100 Portable Solid State Drive Review - ThinkComputers.org.
- OWC Mercury Extreme Pro 6G 4TB SATA SSD Review - TweakTown.
- SilverStone PF360-ARGB AIO Cooler Review - The FPS Review.
- TerraMaster D2 Thunderbolt 3 2-bay DAS Review - TechPowerUp.
- Thermaltake Level 20 RS ARGB Case Review - OverClocked Inside.
Out of the Blue [10:13 am ET] – Share – 22 Comments
I finally ran out of propane in our first tank yesterday. The first time I used
it in the re-opened Manstovia was May 3rd, so that's 71 days on one fill-up. I
had no idea propane was so much more economical than charcoal! I'm guessing I
would have run through $100.00 worth of charcoal in the time I used $12.00 worth
of gas. That's pretty crazy. The changeover to the spare tank was easy, and I
didn't even ruin the hamburgers, so it all worked out very well.
Obituary: Actress Kelly Preston dies at 57.
Obituary: Elvis Presley's grandson Benjamin Keough dies at age 27.
Obituary: Actress Kelly Preston dies at 57.
Obituary: Elvis Presley's grandson Benjamin Keough dies at age 27.
Gassy Links
Thanks Ant and Neutronbeam.Breakfast Links
- My fiancé entire savings (which we both were saving for our wedding and honeymoon) to buy a gaming pc. Thanks Hypothermia.
- Sir Patrick Stewart marks 80th birthday with Shakespeare sonnet on Twitter. Happy birthday!
Stories
- Super-rich call for higher taxes on wealthy to pay for Covid-19 recovery. Thanks Simon.
- Five people injured in suspected electrocution on Arizona lake.
Science
Thanks Max.
- Astronomers Baffled by Mysterious Ring-Shaped Objects in Deep Space.
- Microscopy technique reveals nanoscale detail of coatings as they dry.
- Tainted Mouse Brains And A Minor Lab Accident Led To A Woman's Death.
Media
- TeslaCam Videos.
- Maned wolf in Brazil. Looks like someone crossed a dog with a deer. Thanks RedEye9.
- "Please scream in your heart." Are we having fun yet?
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