#will this change when this pc becomed mine and only mine? remains to be seen

[fly-sky-high-bug-games]

Dude. Play Paper Mario the Thousand Year Door. It is just...SO GOOD.

I have no doubt, it's just not on my wishlist of games I wanna try personally. Turn based combat can be fun but it's not the most exciting gameplay for me.

I think I watched this specific paper mario game (unsure tho, again, not familiar with mario games, i'm a old sonic fan at heart) streamed by my friend years back and what I can remember from it is fun dialogue and character interaction. I remember Peach was cool but I would not be able to tell you why, it's been way too long and my memory sucks xD

[keyofjetwolf]

Fly Into the Sun

Besides “The Amelia Earhart Story” being INCREDIBLY RUDE, I do love when BoJack takes a step away from its main storyline to focus on a character center. The Princess Carolyn episodes, especially, I find tend to have interesting storytelling mechanics, and while this one was much more straightforward than “Ruthie” (which legit fucked with me a little bit), this one had some interesting things to say in ways I wouldn’t have expected a story to use.

The episode title is always a good hint for where to start with what a story is about, and here we have “The Amelia Earhart Story”. It’s clearly an inspiration for young Princess Carolyn, as she’s watched the thing so much she can quote it.

It seems wonderful and inspirational, on the surface. The dramatic tale of Amelia Earhart believing in herself and achieving her dream to fly her plane into the sun. So heartwarming! Princess Carolyn is inspired to pursue her goals and never let anyone sway her!

Only wait, hold up. Fly into the sun? There’s nothing metaphorical about this, they’re talking literally flying a biplane into the motherfucking sun, WHAT ABOUT ANY OF THIS IS A GOOD IDEA?? 

None of it. None of it actually matters, none of this means ANYTHING, and the show itself wastes no time in undercutting the exact premise it’s building around.

It’s not THIS story that’s captivated little Princess Carolyn, it’s just what happens to be there. It’s the only story she has, so it’s what she latches onto. The heart of this episode, the lovely visual on which we end, it’s all just window dressing. Nothing about any of it actually changes the Princess Carolyn at the core of it all.

Which brings us to the part that I think is a GLORIOUS method of tying all this together: tape.

No, seriously, hear me out.

“The Amelia Earhart Story” video tape is beginning to wear out, it’s been watched so much. It’s a thin premise, becoming thinner the more Princess Carolyn tries to experience it. That’s Princess Carolyn’s LIFE, it’s the idea of herself that she’s written and filmed and plays again and again and again. The success story, the woman who can have it all, a career that insists on her attention 24/7, and now also a baby, who will need her another 24/7, both of which she can handle on her own, built from nothing but her own fire and gumption and can-do attitude. And she’s watched this story of herself, this VHS tape, so much she can recite it, so much she’s wearing the damned thing out.

BUT WAIT THERE’S MORE

When she gets knocked up by the rich son of the family they housekeep for, her mother is THRILLED. This is their ticket out (not PC’s, THEIRS), and sure enough, the patriarch of the family promises everything Mama Carolyn said he would.

It sounds awful. Her entire life is spelled out in terrifying specifics, and you can see the joyless path stretching before her on into the horizon. (It strikes a particular chord when you consider what we’ve already seen of BoJack’s parents, but then, I think parenthood -- or perhaps more accurately the things we pass on from one generation to the next -- is a major theme of the show.) 

Then there’s this:

AND I ACTUALLY GASPED A LITTLE IT’S SO FUCKING BRILLIANT

I mean, also it’s just objectively funny, and puts an amazing pin in the idea that there’s really no such thing as security and that this intense plotted path of one’s life is the most ridiculous fucking idea because life’s gonna life all over you. When Princess Carolyn goes home, it’s to two houses in ruin, just one is a greater volume of trash than the other.

But it’s coming back to tape again. Something so prevalent and central to a way of life at one time, but which was absolutely never going to last, however things seemed. A physical item that, through simple, intended use, would stretch and warp and by its very nature cannot remain as it was created. The more you use it, the more you destroy it.

That’s the ultimate fragility of Princess Carolyn’s dream to have it all. It’s a stretched premise on a warping video. She NEEDS that second tape to watch.

SIDEBAR: I love how they brought in Jaime Pressly as the voice of Sadie, and gave her the bedazzling thing. “My Name is Earl” was a show I never expected to like, but really did. BUT ALSO ON THE BEDAZZLING THING. That, too, is a masterful touch for Princess Carolyn, who can recognize the beautiful and well-made NEW thing that’s come from building on something old and discarded, but doesn’t for a second stop to consider it for herself.

THE DISCARDED THING IS THE LIFE YOU CAN REALISTICALLY HAVE PC BEDAZZLE YOURSELF GIRL

And while I feel I could keep mining things out of “The Amelia Earhart Story”, Holligay is about to leap across our desks and throttle me if I don’t move to “Free Churro”, SO. I’ll conclude with this absolutely brilliant fucking line from the titular video. on Amelia finally taking her flight into the sun.

Want more than to achieve your dream simply because it’s the dream you always envisioned for yourself. Don’t wear out the tape, Princess Carolyn.

[brain-leakage-blog]

Running Castlevania with Old School D&D, Part 5

This is part of a continuing series. For part one, click here. For part two, click here. For part three, click here. And for part four, click here.

While the previous posts in this series have mainly been concerned with showing how to adapt Lamentations of the Flame Princess' various character classes to Castlevania-appropriate archetypes, this post will handle the setting of Transylvania itself. And while I dipped into Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse and Symphony of the Night to build a D&D style adventuring party with, neither game really offers much in the way of setting material outside the castle.

For that, I'm going to go back a little farther into the franchise's history, to the much-maligned proto-Metroidvania, Castlevania II: Simon's Quest.    

Please, hold all torches and pitchforks until the end.

Just a brief side note: If I really were to run a Castlevania-themed campaign for a group of PC's, I'd probably lean heavily on Simon's Quest to do it with. While the 8-bit NES wasn't quite up to the developers' ambitions, the game has some good bones to build off of. 

I would probably have the players roll up original characters, with at least one being the next heir to the Belmont line. I'd have the game take place a few years after one of the "major" Dracula battles outlined in the main series, and have the Belmont player character's relative be suffering from the same curse Simon did: The wounds taken in his battle against Dracula are not healing. He is slowly dying. As his condition worsens, he has visions of becoming a creature of the night. A fortune-teller reveals the truth. If he dies before the next full moon, he will become a vessel for Dracula to be re-born, stronger than ever. The only way to lift the curse is to bring Dracula's spirit back into its previous body. But Dracula's minions have scattered his remains, to ensure that his curse will run its course. 

Honestly, the only major difference in the set-up would be that the "cursed" Belmont wouldn't be accompanying the PCs. I'd hole him up in the basement of a church, surrounded by garlic and crosses, with monks praying over him day and night. It would then be up to the group of relatively green and inexperienced adventurers to run a desperate race against the clock, with only minimal guidance from their mentor. 

(I'd also make sure that the enemy kidnapped the cursed Belmont as the night of the full moon approached, giving the PC's one more thing to worry about. But that's just me...)

Anyway, there are a few resources I'd recommend using here. First and foremost is A Guide to Transylvania, which I mentioned back in my Alucard post. The PDF is available on DriveThruRPG for about eight bucks. The crunch inside is AD&D 2e specific, but everything else is system agnostic. This book details everything from Transylvanian history, to peasant superstitions, to secret societies. No other supplement will help you fill in the details of the Transylvanian countryside as well as this one.

The second (more expensive) resource is the current D&D 5e Curse of Strahd campaign book, which is an update and expansion of the original Ravenloft module. Why this one instead of the (many) older ones? First, it's widely available in hardcopy. And while I'm not completely in love with what I've seen of 5e's rules, you just can't deny that Wizards of the Coast puts out a high quality product these days. This thing will survive some wear and tear at the table. Second (and more importantly), it maps out and expands the land of Barovia far beyond what the older editions did. 

The third (completely free) resource is the Transylvania map that appeared in the old NES Game Atlas. A high-quality scan is available here at castlevaniadungeon.net.  

The simplest, easiest way to take care of mapping the Transylvania countryside is just to use the foldout map that comes with Curse of Strahd and swap out the names. For example, swap out the starting village of Jova from Simon's Quest with the Village of Barovia from Curse of Strahd. Swap out Yomi—the nearly-abandoned town just outside Castlevania—with the destroyed village of Berez.

While this won't be 100% faithful to the geography on the Castlevania map, enough of the landmarks in Simon's Quest have a rough Barovian equivalent to make it work. Below are some suggestions, with corresponding map and page references.

Castlevania Location / Barovia Location / Curse of Strahd Foldout Map Location / Curse of Strahd Page Reference

Town of Jova (Area 1) / Village of Barovia / Location E / Page 40 - 48

Town of Aljiba (Area 16) / Village of Valliki / Location N / Page 95 - 124

Yuba Lake (Area 14) / Lake Zarovich / Location L / Page 38

Town of Veros (Area 6) / Village of Krezk / Location S / Page 143 - 156

Town of Yomi (Area 48) / Ruins of Berez / Location U / Page 161 - 166

Laruba Mansion (Area 36) / Wachterhaus / N/A (Located in Vallaki) / Page 110 - 115

Brahm Mansion (Area 21) / Argynvostholt / Location Q / Page 129 - 142

That should be enough to get the idea. That said, I'd probably also swap out some of the obviously non-European names with some real-world Transylvanian ones. Targoviste for Aljiba, for example.

One pro to this approach is that it requires relatively little prep time, especially for an inexperienced DM. Curse of Strahd has plenty of fleshed-out NPCs, side-quests, and description boxes for just about every building and room, if you decide to use them. You can use the encounters, too. Stat conversions from 5e to LotFP are simple: Just use the closest equivalent monster from the free Basic Fantasy Roleplaying Game, and add two to the creature's Armor Class. Don't sweat the other details. 

Me? I probably wouldn't go that far. I'd probably just use the maps, crib or ad-lib all of the descriptions from the Transylvania Guide, and wing it with the NPCs and encounters. Similarities aside, Castlevania and Ravenloft are two different properties, with two entirely different feels to them. Relying too heavily on the published material just means you're playing Curse of Strahd. Which is okay. But it isn't Castlevania.

Which, of course, leaves open the question of Castlevania itself. 

The Castle Ravenloft layout in Curse of Strahd is unchanged from the original I:6 Ravenloft module. It makes a perfectly serviceable stand-in for Dracula's Castle, provided you're taking your inspiration from the first couple of games. But if you want something closer to the sprawling, changing, living embodiment of Chaos featured in Symphony of the Night and most of the later games, you'd be better off creating your own funhouse-style Mega-dungeon. As with anything, which you choose will depend heavily on your group, their preferences, and their play style. 

Before I close this installment out—and since I'm already mining Castlevania II for ideas—I'm going to give some sample stats for that game's two Boss monsters. For Carmilla, I used the Basic Fantasy Roleplaying Game version of the Vampire, with almost no modifications. For Death, I re-skinned the BFRPG Lich, added a bunch of Hit Dice, and swapped out his spell casting for a handful of specific, spell-like abilities.

If neither one seems challenging enough, both are easy enough to scale up in power. After all, when it comes to "end game" content, you're bound to have a pretty high level party. Watching them effortlessly steamroll the final bosses would be sort of anticlimactic. If that's a concern, my personal preference is to creatively choose the location for the encounter.

Instead of meeting Carmilla in her vampire lair right away, why not have the PC's encounter her at a masquerade ball, using the powers of her enchanted mask to appear as one of the living? Force them to use roleplaying and guile to maneuver her to a place they can fight her without harming innocents. What about having the PC's run into Death on the grounds of an old battlefield or cemetery? He could raise dozens of allies among the dead, forcing even the most powerful group of PCs into a pitched battle for survival.  

Granted, if you're planning to use Castlevania II as your template, you could always just let the PC's walk right by them with no consequence...

(Note: the Lamentations of the Flame Princess rules assume ascending armor class and a base, unarmored AC of 12. If using these creatures with a system that has a base AC of 10, simply subtract 2.)  

CARMILLA

Alignment: Chaotic

Armor Class: 21

Hit Dice: 9 (attack bonus +8)

No. of Attacks: 1 weapon or special

Damage: 1d8, or by weapon, or special

Movement: 40' or 60' (fly)

No. Appearing: 1 (Unique)

Save as: Lvl 9 Fighter

Morale: 11

Treasure Type: Special

XP: 1,225

Beautiful, vain, and cruel, the aristocratic vampire Carmilla is one of Dracula's most ambitious servants. Famous for her inventive and sadistic tortures, she is best known for bathing in the blood of young women. She possesses Carmilla's Mask, a powerful, cursed artifact.

Like all vampires, Carmilla casts no shadow and no reflection. She cannot cross running water, and may not enter another's home unless invited. She cannot tolerate the strong odor of garlic, and will recoil from a mirror or from a cross presented with conviction (for more information on these weaknesses, see the Vampire, p. 124 of the Basic Fantasy Roleplaying Game). 

Carmilla is immune to Sleep, Charm, and Hold spells. If unarmed, she will treat her hands like claws, raking her target for 1d8 damage. When armed, her vampiric strength gives her an additional +3 to damage when using melee weapons. Her bite (though seldom used in combat) inflicts 1d3 damage, and drains one level of energy from her target for each round she continues to feed. Feeding places her in a vulnerable position, and she suffers a -5 to her Armor Class.

Victims reduced to 0 hit points by Carmilla's feeding die, and they will rise as vampires during the next sunset. These new vampires are permanently under Carmilla's control, and always act as if under a Charm spell.  

Carmilla can command common nocturnal creatures. Once per day, she can summon 10d10 rats, 5d4 giant rats, 10d10 bats, 3d6 giant bats, or 3d6 wolves. The creatures must be nearby to be summoned. Once called, they arrive in 2d6 rounds and obey her commands for 1 hour.  If she chooses, Carmilla can also assume the form of a giant bat or a giant wolf at will.

In addition to the above abilities, Carmilla also shares the common vampire's Charm gaze, which her victims can save vs Spell to resist. Unlike her more common brethren, Carmilla's charm is exceptionally powerful, imposing a -3 penalty rather than the standard -2. 

Carmilla cannot be harmed by non-magical weapons. Exposing her to direct sunlight for more than 1 round destroys her, and submerging her in running water causes her to lose 1/3 of her Hit Points per round for three rounds, with death occurring on the third round. Any other method of reducing her HP to 0 merely incapacitates her, causing her to fall into an apparently death-like state. But if her body is not exposed to sunlight, submerged in running water, or burned, she will begin to regenerate 1d8 hours later, at a rate of 1 hp per turn.

Carmilla's Mask (Artifact)

This artifact is a smooth, silver mask, closely resembling the kind commonly worn during masquerade balls. When the mask is placed onto a human or a dhampir, dozens of hollow, silver spikes appear in the inside, causing it to latch onto the victim's face, and inflicting 1d3 damage. Each round the victim is prevented from removing the mask, it drains 1 energy level, feeding as a vampire, until the victim is reduced to 0 Hit Points. Once dead, the victims do not rise as vampires.

If the mask is freshly fed, bloody tears will pool in the corner of its eyes, and for the next 1d12 hours it will convey several abilities on any vampire that wears it. While wearing the mask, the vampire casts both a shadow and a reflection. Garlic, holy symbols, and holy water have no effect. The vampire may enter any home with no invitation, cross running water, and even walk in the sunlight—although this last will still be uncomfortable. 

Additionally, victims of the vampire's Charm gaze suffer a further -2 penalty to their saving throw.  

DEATH

Alignment: Chaotic

Armor Class: 26

Hit Dice: 15 (attack bonus +10)

No. of Attacks: 1 touch, weapon.

Damage: 1d8 touch+drain, by weapon.

Movement: 30' or 60' (fly)

No. Appearing: 1 (Unique)

Save as: Lvl 15 Magic User or Cleric (use lower)

Morale: 11

Treasure Type: Special

XP: 3,150

Death is Dracula's top lieutenant. Fiercely loyal to his master, Death will fight to protect him at all costs. Death's actual nature is unknown, although he is believed to be an evil manifestation of pure Chaos. His physical form resembles that of the classical "Grim Reaper," a skeletal body wrapped in a tattered cloak. He carries Death's Scythe, an artifact-level magical weapon.

Upon first encountering Death, all intelligent, living creatures must save vs Spell or flee in terror for 2d6 rounds. Even on subsequent encounters, Death's gaze is terrifying. All creatures that meet it must make a save vs. Spell or be paralyzed with fright for 2d4 rounds. Dhampirs, due to their half-undead nature, get a +2 bonus to this check.

Death prefers to attack with his scythe when possible. If forced to make a physical attack, his touch causes 1d8 points of damage and drains 1d4 points of Constitution, while simultaneously healing him for the equivalent amount.

The Constitution loss is permanent. It can only be healed by the casting of a Restoration spell, at a rate of 1 point per casting. If a character's Constitution score falls to 0, he or she immediately dies, and rises the following round as a lesser wight. This creature is identical to the wight described on p. 126 of the Basic Fantasy Roleplaying Game, except its attack causes 1d4 points of damage and 1 point of Constitution loss. All characters killed and transformed into wights are considered permanently dead, and cannot be Raised. They may still be Reincarnated. 

Death is able to cast Speak With Dead, Animate Dead, and Raise Dead at will. And while he rarely feels the need to disguise himself, he is able to do so with the aid of Polymorph Self. Additionally, Death is always treated as having an active True Seeing spell cast on his person. For purposes of spell duration and saving throws, Death's caster level is 20. 

Death is immune to all non-magical weapons. Like all skeletons, Death only takes half damage from bladed weapons, and only one point from arrows, bolts, or sling stones (plus any applicable magical bonus). Additionally, he is immune to Sleep, Charm, and Hold spells. Death cannot be turned by the cleric's Turn Undead spell.

Death cannot be permanently killed. When reduced to 0 Hit Points, Death's physical form is destroyed, and his spirit re-joins the primordial Chaos outside the world. After 1d10 months, Death will Reincarnate on the physical plane, although in a weakened form equivalent to a wraith (see Basic Fantasy Roleplaying Game, p. 127). He must then drain the equivalent life force of 2x his normal Hit Dice (a combined 30 levels) in order to regain his full strength and powers.    

Death's Scythe (+3 Great Weapon)

Like Death himself, Death's Scythe is believed to be an evil manifestation of Chaos. In combat, Death's Scythe delivers 1d10 damage, with an additional +3 magical damage bonus. On any natural attack roll of 18 or better, the target must save vs Magical Device or die instantly. Any mortal being who attempts to touch the handle of Death's Scythe must make the same saving throw, but at a -4 penalty.

3 times per day, Death's Scythe can create 1d3 Phantom Sickles. These are smaller, ghostly sickles that spin out towards their intended victim. The sickles last for 1d4 rounds, continuously attacking, and causing 1d6+1 damage per successful hit.

Creatures killed with Death's Scythe may not be Raised, but they may still be Reincarnated.

[aion-rsa]

Halo Infinite Multiplayer May Have Saved the Game

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It hasn’t been an easy journey for Halo Infinite. A disastrous campaign reveal last July that turned the game into a punchline on social media, a delayed launch, and high-profile departures behind the scenes at developer 343 Industries have been the headlines that have plagued the title for the past year, an incredibly tumultuous period that seemed to kill the hype for Xbox’s biggest release of 2021. To gamers who already felt burnt out on the franchise after the divisive Halo 5: Guardians, it seemed unlikely that this latest sequel would revitalize their excitement for the 20-year-old shooter series.

But all 343 needed to change the conversation was to put the game in players’ hands. A technical preview held from July 29 to Aug. 2 finally allowed fans (including this writer) to jump into Halo Infinite‘s multiplayer and get a feel for 343’s take on a faster Halo PvP experience that also hearkens back to the franchise’s roots as one of the foremost competitive console shooters. Despite offering only a snippet of the final product — three maps, a handful of weapons, and the first 20 tiers of a Battle Pass — the preview seems to have been a success, with many players immediately asking for more when the demo closed down on Monday.

The thought that the game that brought us “Craig” memes, and lots of whispers about its troubled development, would ever leave people asking for more seemed like wishful thinking a year ago, but 12 months is an eternity in the gaming world and 24-hour news cycle, and now Halo Infinite‘s fortunes seem to have changed (at least on social media) on the strength of the impressive tech preview.

Me now that the Tech Preview is over. #HaloInfinite #HaloInfiniteMP pic.twitter.com/zN8JBfNFBJ

— HCS Now (@HCS_Now) August 3, 2021

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

I put several hours into the preview myself, trying out the new maps — the entry-level Live Fire, the more vertical Recharge, and the action-packed Bazaar — and facing off against the surprisingly competent AI bot enemies with a team of three other players. My biggest takeaway is that matches feel much faster and kinetic, as you charge, slide, jump, or swing around the arenas, unleashing grenades and clips of the new MA40 Assault Rifle onto your enemies. Sprint, a controversial feature to some veteran Halo fans who feel the tweak to player movement robs the experience of a more classic feel, is back in Halo Infinite, upping the pace of matches to what one should expect from a modern shooter but not quite as high-speed as Call of Duty. It felt like a nice balance to me. Jumping felt suitably floaty, though, which should delight purists.

Opponents remain spongy in the classic Halo way, forcing you to use a combination of tactics in every encounter — jumping around the map while tossing grenades at the other team during a firefight feels as good as ever — a nice departure from the twitch Call of Duty gameplay that has largely become the norm of the genre. Like the best Halo games, Infinite still encourages you to get into players’ faces to land the killing blow, which proves to be incredibly hectic when in the tighter corners of Recharge or Live Fire. Weapons, grenades, and melee remain at the center of the Halo experience, with only the latter leaving some room for improvement. The melee mechanic felt sluggish or downright unresponsive at time. When landing that final elbow to your opponent’s head means the difference between life or death, that’s no good.

But that’s what the technical preview is for, and player feedback will hopefully help 343 iron out the kinks, especially with some of the weapons. While the Assault Rifle and the MK50 Sidekick pistol (a new version of the series’ classic magnum) felt like a winning loadout most of the time, the new Pulse Carbine and VK78 Commando rifle — both best at mid-range — packed less of a punch. One standout was the Skewer, a one-shot killing machine that impales your enemies as long as you time the shot just right. In fact, some may end up calling this launcher overpowered, but at least it spawns after a cooldown, which means the playing field won’t be full of them during the match. And what else can I say about my beloved Needler except that it’s still so very good to charge into battle with it like an absolute badass.

My favorite of the three maps was Bazaar, an Earth-set map that will delight Halo 2 players with fond memories of the New Mombasa sections. While teams start at the opposite side of the map, all lanes lead to the map’s central market, where you’ll have to fight over the high ground as well as the power-ups and weapons scattered in the area. While you’ll be able to snatch up Drop Walls — new deployable cover that will remind you of Halo 3‘s Bubble Shield, minus the 360-degree protection — almost from the start on the match, you’ll have to wait to get your hands on spawning Overshields and active camo, which trigger a cooldown after each use. And when they spawn, you’ll have to rush to snatch them up before the enemy team does.

One piece of equipment you’ll definitely want to get your hands on is the brand-new Grappleshot, the grappling hook first teased in last year’s gameplay demo. It is perhaps the biggest game changer to the multiplayer experience, as you can use the Grappleshot to quickly swing around a map like the multi-level Recharge and surprise your enemies from above, or simply to pick up weapons from a distance. Players bothered by how sprinting changes the pacing of Halo may also have a few complaints about the Grappleshot, although I found it added another plenty of interesting options to the way you attack, especially once you learn how to launch yourself at your opponents by grappling onto them.

Just how easy it’ll be to ambush skilled player-controlled enemies with the Grappleshot remains to be seen but don’t dismiss the bot AI, either. These bots are impressive, intelligent enough to flank you or chase you down a lane, and adapt incredibly well to each situation, switching between grenades and melee in a remarkably organic way. They also became more savage as the weekend went on, with 343 turning up the bot difficulty a bit each day. By Sunday, these bots were actually winning matches. There was also a short PvP Social Slayer test period on Sunday that I didn’t have a chance to participate in, but I never got bored of the PvE opponents, which is a good sign for the Brutes, Elites, and Grunts in the story campaign. If they’re as intelligent as the harder difficulty bots in this technical preview, expect a formidable challenge.

For the first time since last July, I’m actually excited for Halo Infinite, a sentiment echoed by other fans on Twitter over the weekend, and I can’t wait to play more of the game’s free-to-play multiplayer when it launches later this fall. (Yes, “free-to-play” does mean there will be in-game purchases and Battle Passes with rewards featuring plenty of cosmetic items to customize your armor, weapons, vehicles, etc., but I didn’t spent too much time with the customization beyond checking out the shader system, which definitely feels like a downgrade from just being able to color your armor however the hell you want.)

But there’s still so much to see from the game, especially the controversial campaign mode demoed last year. While the technical preview was never about the campaign, it accidentally revealed quite a bit about the mode. Leaked story spoilers found by dataminers within the technical preview’s files have received a polarized reception at best, with some fans already writing off the plot while others are keeping a more open mind until the final product is released.

The entire Halo Infinite campaign has now leaked. I looked at the leaks. All I am going to say is: LOL

— DreamcastGuy (@DreamcastGuy) August 2, 2021

I've read the Halo Infinite leaks, very happy with the campaign, although I have some nitpicks. Obviously it isn't the full experience, so I will reserve judgement for launch.

— Ibibo (@DatIbby) July 31, 2021

not spoiling anything, but if the leaks are true, Halo Infinite's campaign should be at most $50.

— Solar the Halo Alf (@flip_solar) August 3, 2021

There has been campaign leaks that were data mined from the pre-release multi-player and they say it's really good. Halo infinite, it's story doesn't have to be perfect, but it just has to be good. Enough to bring in new fans, and bring back old ones back into the fold.

— Solomon Orenstein (@Sorenstein901) July 31, 2021

Are story spoilers enough to really tank the game after such an excellent showing last weekend? Remember that The Last of Us Part II, arguably the biggest release of the PlayStation 4 era, had its entire story leaked a month before its eventual launch, and it still became the third best-selling PlayStation game of all time, discourse about the story notwithstanding. Like with the multiplayer, the best way to judge Halo Infinite‘s story will be to play it for yourself.

Halo Infinite multiplayer will launch as a free-to-play experience that anyone can jump into regardless of whether they’ve bought the full package containing the campaign, so the PvP won’t really live or die by its campaign, no matter its quality. Ultimately, the campaign is a discussion for another day, and judging solely what I’ve played of the game’s multiplayer, I think there’s finally plenty to be excited about in this new chapter of Halo.

Halo Infinite is coming to Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, PC, and Xbox Game Pass later this year.

The post Halo Infinite Multiplayer May Have Saved the Game appeared first on Den of Geek.

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[loadmaple347]

Alien Storm Crack

Pick a war any war, and you can pretty much guarantee that it has been done to death on PC already. Well, OK then, the number of games featuring the Tet Offensive or Rorke’s Drift have been pretty thin on the ground, and despite the potential carnage, Passchendaele hasn’t seen much in the way of in-game footage, but generally, wherever there is war, us PC gamers are willing to fight. Just so long as the odds are stacked heavily in our favour.

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So it’s a little strange when you consider that the Gulf War has taken so long to reach our monitors. If there is one thing you can guarantee in a war action game it’s a high ratio body count and they don’t come any higher than the six week Desert Storm operation - according to 'official’ figures Iraqi forces managed to kill about 150 of the Coalition forces, with a few more notched up by the US. However, according to US Central Command, 100,000 Iraqi soldiers were killed, while close to half a million others were either wounded, taken prisoner or were courting execution for desertion. Shocking figures indeed, but no more impressive than your typical PC game. Serious Sam can take out 100,000 screaming headless zombies in the time it takes George Bush Sr to call his boy and say: 'You go get ’em, son.'

Hot Potato

Of course, the main reason we haven’t had a Gulf War action game until now is because it was and still remains a contentious war, one that whether it was necessary or not, certainly gave EastEnders a battle in the ratings war. Still, wars are soon forgotten, and when Conflict: Desert Storm was conceived (the game, not the TV show), the world’s peacekeeping armies had moved through Somalia, the Balkans and East Timor. The time seemed right. Then came September 11, Operation Enduring Freedom, and George Bush’s thinly veiled desire to finish what his father had started in Iraq.

Consequently, Conflict: Desert Storm has become something of an interactive hot potato. Publisher SCi is of course no stranger to controversy after three Carmageddon titles, although they’re at pains to express the game has 'nothing to do whatsoever with September 11 or the war in Afghanistan'.

Friendly Fire

The game we are concerned with today is far less controversial than you might I imagine, considering current events.

As with most PC games it offers a S more sanitised version of history based loosely on actual operations. Those of you expecting the Cold War realism of Operation Flashpoint may be a little disappointed. Desert Storm is an action game through and through, one that measures health out of a hundred, where you play the good guys, kill the bad guys and get to run across lots of sand. Burning oil fields, friendly fire, Gulf War Syndrome and NBC suits are all off the menu.

'It’s a game not a simulation,' says Jim Bambra, MD of Pivotal Games. 'We’ve drawn extensively on events in the Gulf War, but we’re not creating a soldier sim. Instead, we've gone for a fun-based game that allows you to take a few hits before being knocked out.'Certainly the PC could do with some light relief. Action games with a contemporary setting have exclusively been aimed more towards the hardcore, while the more arcade-like Delta Force series hasn’t delivered all it could have done. I for one am relieved, although since we saw more of Kate Adie than anyone else on the battlefield, it will be strange reliving the conflict without reporters bringing up the rear.

'Actually, during the Kuwait City mission a news helicopter buzzes you,' says Jim. 'You can see the cameraman filming you as you fight your way across the highway. Later, at the end of the game, the media are interviewing one of the characters you’ve rescued earlier on in the game.'

Sure enough, as I played through beta code a couple of days later, a helicopter flew over my squad. Needless to say they never filed their next report. You can’t have nosy media types exposing the cream of Britain’s fighting few, after all.

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Who Dares Wins

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Yes, you read that right; Britain’s fighting few. In what is something of a first, certainly in living memory, Desert Storm allows you to play either as Delta Force or the SAS. Of course the game isn’t much different whichever nationality you choose to control, but having led hundreds of virtual American soldiers to their doom, it makes a refreshing change to be able to do the same to your own countrymen.

'The most obvious difference is the character uniforms and voices,' adds Jim, 'but each set of characters has different levels of specialist skills. All the SAS guys have one skill level as a medic, while only one of the Delta Force characters has medic skill, but he starts at level 3.'It would be interesting to see how Delta Force and the SAS would square up to each other in the game, but in reality, the way the skills have been handed out to the troops is pretty realistic. For example the SAS are very adept at everything; each soldier is familiar with most weapons and can patch up a wounded colleague. US special forces on the other hand are much more specialised to the point where a medic wouldn’t only be able to perform minor surgery, he could offer counselling as well.

'We’ve used Cameron Spence as our military adviser,' adds Jim. 'Cameron is the author of Sabre Squadron and an exSAS trooper who fought behind enemy lines in the Gulf War. It’s been great having him on the team as he has first-hand knowledge of the weapons, tactics, and the environment in which the game is based.'Well that’s alright then.

Storm Troopers

Setting the game behind enemy lines makes a lot of sense, especially since the actual ground war in the desert only lasted a couple of days. By the time the tanks rolled across the Saudi border, the job of the special forces was all but done. For them the conflict lasted for weeks rather than hours and was rather more taxing than taking thousands of prisoners.

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'The mission objectives are varied,' says Jim. 'From blowing up bridges, rescuing prisoners of war from Baghdad, escorting the Emir of Kuwait to safety, all the way up to full-blown military attacks on enemy positions. In 'Cavalry Charge’ you have to take out mobile anti-aircraft defences and then call in the A10 Tankbusters to take out the emplaced enemy armour. Plus, we have classic Scud hunting missions, and wetop it all off with a deep insertion into Iraq to take out a high-ranking Iraqi general in his heavily guarded fortress.' To help you in your mission of course are the members of your highly-trained squad. Up to four soldiers will be in action at any one time and like Red Storm’s recent Ghost Recon, switching between your troops and issuing commands on the fly is a thankfully simple affair.

'The order system is very elegant,' says Jim. 'It’s all done in the game world with no recourse to planning maps or complex in-game editors. You can tell the other men to follow you, go to any position you can see in the game world, get them to crouch, crawl, fire at will or set up ambushes.'

'Each character complements the others,' he adds. 'Success depends on using the characters as a team with the sniper and heavy weapons guys being used to cover the others as they advance. Once the front guys are in position, the heavy weapons and sniper guy can be quickly called up or moved into new positions using the order system.'

A Real Hummer

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It wouldn’t be much of a game without an array of real-world weaponry, most of which we’re all well acquainted with through Counter-Strike and other games and mods; M16 with M203 grenade launcher, Barrett Light 50, M60, AK-47, MP5 - the lot. Moreover there are mines, grenades, mounted machine guns, Stinger missiles and the option to call in artillery or air strikes. Best of all your specialists can hop into Humvees and M2 APCs and drive around. Of course the Iraqis have hardware of their own, so racing through the desert isn’t something you do too often.

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While the version of the game we played had very impressive team Al, that of the enemy was rather static. They throw grenades, run from yours and even try to outflank you, but finding cover seems something of a problem. Of course we have a few months to go until release, by which time we will have played the multiplayer side of things (you can join up as Russian Spetsnaz or Iraqi Republican Guard). Maybe Pivotal will even sneak in a Sadam Vs Bush minigame. Controversial certainly, but it would be fun.

Desert Siege

Alien Storm Rom

While there is a place for a game like Desert Storm, its biggest problem is its release so soon after the Ghost Recon add-on Desert Siege. Despite being set in near-future East Africa, Desert Siege is a fantastic expansion to a great game. Desert Storm itself shares many similarities with Ghost Recon' the four-man squad, the environment and the realtime tactics. Desert Storm certainly has its work cut out and worryingly Pivotal doesn’t seem to have played it. Leaving aside Ghost Recon, there are many other realistic shooters out there or on the way -Counter-Strike: Condition Zero and Raven Shield are two that spring to mind -prompting us to fear that Desert Storm may be a game too far.

'If shooters don’t evolve, then yes, PC gamers will get sick of them,' says Jim. 'But Conflict: Desert Storm is primarily a third-person game, not a first-person shooter. This makes it play very differently from other FPSs. It’s also very tactical with each of the characters performing a different role, and to succeed, you have to use the characters as a team. With Conflict: Desert Storm we’re offering something very different.'

Whether it’ll be different enough, we’ll have to wait and see. One thing’s for sure, with so many realistic teambased games setting themselves in fictional conflicts, the fact that Desert Storm has a very real setting will be a big draw. For me, until we get to go over the top and across the bog of the Somme, the desert will do just fine.

How Real Is Conflict Desert Storm?

Just how real is Conflict: Desert Storm compared to the real war in the desert? Well it’s certainly the case that we’d rather play Desert Storm than have been in Desert Storm. While in the game you have to worry about being shot in the face by an Iraqi bullet, in reality, as a Brit, you had a greater chance of being shot in the back by an American one. Then of course there was the extreme heat, the dust and lack of water. The only extremes you face in front of a PC are tiredness, obesity and incontinence. Just be glad Conflict: Desert Storm is a game. If you want the real experience, put on a gimp suit, turn up the central heating, set your PC in front of a treadmill and gaffer tape mobile phones to your ears to simulate the effect of being in constant contact with depleted uranium. If you don’t expire with ten minutes, you surely will within ten years.

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[Spoiler Alert!!!!!!] Random speculations about Merlin/Harry in Kingsman

Rumours have been circulating around that the character Merlin from KTSS would be portrayed as non-heterosexual in Kingsman: The Golden Circle, the sequel to Matthew Vaughn’s much acclaimed adaptation of Mark Millar’s comic series.

Spoiler alert, this has not proved true in said sequel. However, as someone who never boards the ship that is Merlin/Galahad, oddly enough, I somehow walked out of the cinema more convinced than ever that Merlin/Galahad now stands a greater chance of turning canon (should FOX opt for, say, a third sequel to the series). This post is not concerned as much about commenting on the film as about sharing my speculations. If someone else agrees with some of the points discussed, great to know; if not, it’d still be helpful to be acquainted with different perspectives.

1.     Merlin does stand a chance of surviving that landmine.

We have seen at least one picture taken behind the scene of the amazing actor Mark Strong with green-screen legs, in full Scottish formal attire, the only one likely occasion for this being Eggsy’s wedding. Creating tragic premise and motivation for revenge by convincing the protagonists, falsely, that someone they care about is killed off by the antagonists has been applied millions of times in recent-year Hollywood blockbusters, Marvel Studios’ The Avengers and Thor: The Dark World AND Kingsman: The Secret Service to list but a few.

2.     Harry Hart’s sexual orientation, like Merlin’s, is one among the many loose ends yet to be tied up.

What’s worth paying attention to is that nearly ALL of the few lines about Harry’s sexuality in the two films are playing with the idea that he gives a stereotypically queer impression to strangers. In KTSS, we have one of the thugs assuming that Harry is looking for a rent boy; Harry tells the lady in South Glade Mission Church that he is having an affair out of wedlock with his boyfriend, mostly making it up to annoy her, yes, but that does not necessarily mean that EVERYTHING in that punchline is made-up. This time, in KTGC, we have one scene echoing the Black Prince Pub fight in the first, with one of the local thugs hurling even more outrageous insults at Harry, all about him looking gay. And oh if you don’t mind me over-interpreting that brief exchange he has with Elton—I’ve asked a friend about whether that’s to be interpreted as a full-on parallel (with very subtle innuendo) to Eggsy’s encounter with Tilde in the first film, and both of us think that it’s a possibility. None of them are statements to be taken seriously by the audience, sure, but at least should Harry turn out to be non-heterosexual, I think most of the reasonable audience will not be surprised because of all the half-serious punchlines building up to that. Moreover, in both of the pub fight scenes, supposedly iconic of the KSM films now, Harry snaps and delivers that 3M line precisely when they take the insults on his sexuality way too far. I doubt if they make any hints on Harry’s sexuality on purpose, and it would be equally perfectly logical that Harry would stay without romantic interactions with any character throughout the whole series, but, once again, should Harry Hart ends up together with Merlin, the audience may not be so surprised.

3.     There is clearly a parallel between Harry and Eggsy as characters.

We see it from the water-test. We see it from the fact that their relationship in KTGC is kind of a reverse of what they are like in the first film, one protecting and taking care of the other. In KTSS, Eggsy, as someone new to the Kingsman, learns from Harry Hart and makes that learning a pivotal reason for his own character development: Harry gets him out of the mess, introduces him to the prospective of becoming a spy, rebukes him when he gives up, and remains the one character Eggys strives not to disappoint. In KTGC, however, we see that the roles of the one who guides and the one guided reversed: when they meet, amnesiac Harry with only his younger memory is the one knowing nothing about Kingsman, while Eggsy, current Agent Galahad, tries to bring him back; Harry’s reaction to the water test, the way they film it and the way this scene is presented somehow repeatedly hints on subtler parallels between Eggsy and Harry’s younger self (he reaches for the ceiling, looks at the door, probably thinks about the one-way mirror as the camera suggests, all just as Eggsy does it in the first film, all except that he does not break the mirror). It may or may not be a coincidence that the stake is so high when they bring in the puppy test in both films, the first with Eggsy unwilling to shoot JB and Harry subsequently getting mad at him, the second with Eggsy threatening and Harry panicking before the conflict resolves when Harry regains his memory. The point is that, if we are to go on with the parallels, does that mean Harry will probably learn something new from Eggsy as well? Can it be something about having personal connections? Perhaps Harry learns from Eggsy that there is nothing wrong with having significant connections with others and end up with someone? That remains a plausible way to round up the character parallels.

4.     Should Harry have a major change of mind, there is a reason provided.

We see the interactions between Merlin and Harry when the former steps on the mine. We see emotional eye contacts and infrequent attempts to mention their old days as colleagues. If Harry is going to opt for some significant personal connection and giving up the isolationist lifestyle he’s been having for decades, Merlin’s return may just make it click in. If Merlin’s ‘my favourite singer’ and Harry’s reply are to be altered, should the two characters end up together, that doesn’t sound too implausible.

But again, while there are positive speculations, there are things pointing to a negative answer.

Merlin may survive the mine and make a surprise return, should they have another sequel, yes, but would that still be that much of a surprise? Filming something and putting it into the next film, killing off a beloved character and then bring said character back have been done once (aka the table etiquette scene filmed during KTSS, and the return of Harry Hart), and it is questionable whether they’d be so bold to do it twice. They do give the impression of not complying with clichés and normal expectations, but the return of Merlin can make this a plot pattern iconic to the KSM series.

My guess would be that at least one of Merlin and Roxy may stand a chance of returning should they be up for a third sequel, and either is likely to be gladly welcomed. Both? BETTER. So basically it’s a kind of mixed feelings here: if either Merlin or Roxy is going to return, it’d be hard to decide which one the audience wants more; both are killed off in ways too similar to be faked twice; I hate sounding like a PC police, but M. V.’s portrayals of female characters in KTGC are not the most plausible, if Roxy’s to return and redeem the film in this aspect, it’d be fantastic. But in sum it’s perhaps impossible for fans to decide which of the two is loved more, should it comes to decide between them.

There is no conclusion to this piece of random babbling. I forgot what I’m talking about three paragraphs in.

[theliterateape]

Star Wars: The Last Jedi — Ripped From the Gen X Nostalgia Train

By Don Hall

“This is not going to go the way you think.” — Luke Skywalker

WARNING: Major Spoilers Ahead

I am of the Generation who made Star Wars the franchise it has become. I saw the first film (now called Episode IV: A New Hope and sitting in the actually fourth spot chronologically) when I was 12 years old in Phoenix, Arizona, and saw it subsequently 25 times that summer. The saga of Luke and Leia and Han and Darth Vader was and is a part of the fabric of my own narrative. I once posited that the cut-off for age on whom I could date was anyone too young to have seen the first Star Wars in the theater, which was a great idea. Until I met my wife who wasn't born until three years later (but is still a huge Star Wars fan).

Luke Skywalker and his George Bailey beginnings of thwarted dreams and whiney frustrations being thrust into an epic mentorship with the misanthropic Obi-Wan Kenobi—a Jedi Master so broken by the failures of his religion and failure as a mentor to a previous student that he chose to exile himself on a desert planet—spoke to me as a kid. The rogue Han Solo. The heroic and snarky Process Leia. The idea that there is a Force that surrounds us, containing both Light and Dark within each of us, was compelling and affirming to a boy who understood the paradox of wanting to be Good but also wanting to be Bad.

Twelve years old. Twenty-five times in the theater as this was long before even Betamax and certainly before cable TV. Star Wars is as a much a part of me as my puberty, a cloak in my coming of age story, a pop culture anchor that has helped me to see where I'd like my place in all of this to be. It's mine so don't fuck with it.

Lucas almost lost me, however, with the midichlorians.

The idea that only the elite could harness control of the Force, that one needed to be born into that power smacked of Monarchy, of Catholicism, of the stripe of Patriarchy so embedded into our culture and trumpeted most vocally by the Republican Party, seemed wrong. The story of Luke was one of an ordinary kid (like me!) who, with the right training, could become greater than his desert-bound destiny. Now, with Anakin's virgin birth (WTF?) and the legacy of genetic inheritance, only those of a specific lineage could do it.

Yes, The Phantom Menace tries to explain that midichlorians are symbiont beings within all of us but the message is clear: only those born with more of them can truly do all the cool Jedi shit.

With Johnson's The Last Jedi, this myth is upturned. Not just upturned but gleefully burned down like a tree protecting my precious cultural touchstones being torched by an old friend. Johnson revisits the concepts behind the Force and Luke—now a Jedi Master so broken by the failures of his religion and failure as a mentor to a previous student that he chose to exile himself on a water planet—gives Rey the 1970s New Age version of it sans the genetic hogwash. 

We find out later in the film the answer of who Rey's parents are—to the Big Question of Abrams' The Force Awakens. Fans during the two years in between have gone rabid speculating and, I'll confess, I really wanted her to be Leia's daughter. The fact that her parents were drunks, simple traders who didn’t care about her, even as she trains under the legendary Luke Skywalker is jarring and wonderful. This flips the narrative from a saga of a Royal Family to a larger, more egalitarian story. 

Yes, the fanboys will rail against the truth of this as it is Kylo who tells her but the look on her face says that she knew it all along and why would he lie about that and, like all fanboys, as I have embraced the smashing of my action figures from Nostalgia Lane, I want it to be true.

It suddenly opens everything back up and rightly concludes with a single shot of a poor, slave boy with a broom subtly using the Force to simply pull the broom to his hand. It is the single most hopeful image of the entire series of movies—this enslaved boy on a casino planet created to cater to the 1 percent (arms dealers, no less) who has the same control of the Force as a Skywalker.

We of Gen X don't all like this change. I was thrown off by so many of the tropes of the existing canon being subverted: Poe Dameron (our new Han Solo replacement) is a bit of an asshole and wrong over and over again, the slicer portrayed by Benicio Del Toro seems to be a Lando stand-in but he does not have a heart of gold and betrays Finn and Rose without a last minute conversion to nobility, Snoke is not the Big Bad and is snuffed out so quickly as to indicate that all of the fan-based speculation was as unimportant as Snoke now appears to be.

This is a Star Wars rooted in the idea that we of Gen X failed to beat the Empire. That our delusion of ourselves is not reflected in our feelings of exceptionalism. Rey and Kylo Ren and Poe and Finn are the Millennials we failed and it is now their story, their fight, their destiny.

With Trump in the Big Seat and the GOP sitting in the majority of Congress, with open racists and misogynists coming out of the woodwork like stormtroopers and First Order acolytes, it is obvious we might have destroyed the Death Star but these fuckers keep coming back because the Force has an equal balance of Dark and Light.

We elected our own Luke Skywalker in Barack Obama and, despite his belief in the Light, he failed.

We now have Rey who wields the Force with a rage-filled scream and a ferocity that flies in the face of all the teachings of Yoda and Kenobi. We now have Finn, so confused and earnest in his hatred of the First Order that he goes on a suicide run to destroy a big gun. We have Poe who, in his distrust of those in command and arrogant belief in his own flawed judgment, foments a mutiny within the Rebel Alliance. We also have Rose with her simple belief that we win by saving those we love instead of destroying those we hate. It's a messy sort of hope but one that recognizes that this fight between Dark and Light is never truly over.

I have been accused of "hand-wringing about PC culture" of late and it's interesting that it took a sci-fi horse opera to punch a hole through my frustrations. Star Wars: The Last Jedi is a Star Wars for #Black Lives Matters and #MeToo and all the stridency with which I have come to be annoyed. The characters are more complicated, with recognizable failings and flaws, and not all of our heroes remain heroic.

And I love it. I can't wait to see what comes next.

[gamerszone2019-blog]

Destiny 2 Cross-Save Is Great, Once You Get It Working

New Post has been published on https://gamerszone.tn/destiny-2-cross-save-is-great-once-you-get-it-working/

Destiny 2 Cross-Save Is Great, Once You Get It Working

The much-anticipated ability to move your Destiny 2 progress between multiple platforms has finally arrived. Destiny 2 cross-save launched a couple of hours later than originally scheduled, but it is here–and it really does work as promised, provided you can get through the setup process in the first place.

Cross-save’s launch coincided with maintenance to Bungie.net. Bungie was forced to delay the launch several hours due to maintenance, which has now concluded.

As detailed in Bungie’s cross-save guide, you’ll have to connect each of your accounts and then authenticate them as truly being yours. This appears to be the stage at which most people are being tripped up. Several of us here at GameSpot found that authenticating one platform caused another to become undone. Repeatedly authenticating ultimately worked for me and allowed me to proceed–all platforms have to be authenticated before continuing–but others are still stuck on this step and are sometimes presented with “500” errors when authenticating.

Today’s maintenance has been extended as we investigate an issue with account authentication on https://t.co/4ucwiEYycJ, resulting in “500” errors for some players. Stand by for updates. If you encounter any other issues, please report to the Help forum: https://t.co/cOAIctERNC

— Bungie Help (@BungieHelp) August 21, 2019

Bungie has said it’s aware of these errors and is thus continuing the maintenance period. There’s no word on how soon this might be resolved, but more players continue to get in and presumably this is a temporary hitch that will soon be forgotten.

And that’s good news, because cross-save seems genuinely great. While it would have been nice to get cross-play (meaning you could play with those on other platforms regardless of you being on PS4, Xbox One, or PC), this is the next best thing. And this is arguably a superior option, setting aside the issue of needing to own content on each platform. As a longtime console player, moving to the PC version almost feels like playing a completely new game. As great as the game looks on an Xbox One X, the 60+ FPS framerate on PC is a sight to behold, and the speed with which Pursuits and other menu screens load is a massive quality-of-life improvement. And luckily, from what I’ve been able to experience so far, progress does seem to transfer seamlessly. I earned some gear and completed a bounty on PC and was then able to boot up my Xbox One and cash in that bounty and dismantle the gear with no apparent delay.

To its credit, Bungie tries to make it clear what you own on each platform

The one key downside to cross-save is that it requires you to own the game on every platform you want to be able to play on–and it makes things rather complicated. Things will change a bit later this year, as Bungie will be releasing Destiny 2: New Light, a free-to-play version that includes the base game and its early DLC expansion. Additionally, Destiny 2: Shadowkeep will launch as a standalone expansion, so you could in theory just buy that on your secondary platforms and play that new content. But going with New Light or Shadowkeep would preclude you from accessing, say, Forsaken’s Raid or Black Armory’s Forges–though gear you earned from those activities on your main platform(s) is still usable. Further complicating matters is that the PC version of Destiny is moving from Blizzard’s Battle.net to Steam later this year. If you want to dive into Destiny 2 cross-save without any restrictions right now, your only option is to buy a bundle of all currently available content on Battle.net, and then transition to Steam later. Furthermore, you can only spend Silver–the game’s premium currency–on the system you purchased it on.

Confusion over what you can access aside, there are sure to be some quirks that pop up. For instance, a friend of mine found that he was able to claim certain bounties on Xbox One before jumping over to PC, where he doesn’t own Forsaken, and also claim replacement bounties. That’s hardly going to upend the balance of the game, though it remains to be seen if players discover any more impactful loopholes.

Source : Gamesport

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By Geoffrey A. Fowler | The Washington Post Columnist You open your browser to look at the web. Do you know who is looking back at you? Over a recent week of web surfing, I peered under the hood of Google Chrome and found it brought along a few thousand friends. Shopping, news and even government sites quietly tagged my browser to let ad and data companies ride shotgun while I clicked around the web. This was made possible by the web’s biggest snoop of all: Google. Seen from the inside, its Chrome browser looks a lot like surveillance software. Lately I’ve been investigating the secret life of my data, running experiments to see what technology really is up to under the cover of privacy policies that nobody reads. It turns out, having the world’s biggest advertising company make the most-popular web browser was about as smart as letting kids run a candy shop. It made me decide to ditch Chrome for a new version of nonprofit Mozilla’s Firefox, which has default privacy protections. Switching involved less inconvenience than you might imagine. My tests of Chrome versus Firefox unearthed a personal data caper of absurd proportions. In a week of web surfing on my desktop, I discovered 11,189 requests for tracker “cookies” that Chrome would have ushered right onto my computer, but were automatically blocked by Firefox. These little files are the hooks that data firms, including Google itself, use to follow what websites you visit so they can build profiles of your interests, income and personality. Chrome welcomed trackers even at websites you’d think would be private. I watched Aetna and the Federal Student Aid website set cookies for Facebook and Google. They surreptitiously told the data giants every time I pulled up the insurance and loan service’s log-in pages. And that’s not the half of it. Look in the upper right corner of your Chrome browser. See a picture or a name in the circle? If so, you’re logged in to the browser, and Google might be tapping into your web activity to target ads. Don’t recall signing in? I didn’t, either. Chrome recently started doing that automatically when you use Gmail. Chrome is even sneakier on your phone. If you use Android, Chrome sends Google your location every time you conduct a search. (If you turn off location sharing it still sends your coordinates out, just with less accuracy.) Firefox isn’t perfect – it still defaults searches to Google and permits some other tracking. But it doesn’t share browsing data with Mozilla, which isn’t in the data-collection business. At a minimum, web snooping can be annoying. Cookies are how a pair of pants you look at in one site end up following you around in ads elsewhere. More fundamentally, your web history – like the color of your underpants – ain’t nobody’s business but your own. Letting anyone collect that data leaves it ripe for abuse by bullies, spies and hackers. Google’s product managers told me in an interview that Chrome prioritizes privacy choices and controls, and they’re working on new ones for cookies. But they also said they have to get the right balance with a “healthy web ecosystem” (read: ad business). Firefox’s product managers told me they don’t see privacy as an “option” relegated to controls. They’ve launched a war on surveillance, starting this month with “enhanced tracking protection” that blocks nosy cookies by default on new Firefox installations. But to succeed, first Firefox has to convince people to care enough to overcome the inertia of switching. It’s a tale of two browsers – and the diverging interests of the companies that make them. The cookie fight A decade ago, Chrome and Firefox were taking on Microsoft’s lumbering giant Internet Explorer. The upstart Chrome solved real problems for consumers, making the web safer and faster. Today it dominates more than half the market. Lately, however, many of us have realized that our privacy is also a major concern on the web – and Chrome’s interests no longer always seem aligned with our own. That’s most visible in the fight over cookies. These code snippets can do some helpful things, like remembering the contents of your shopping cart. But now many cookies belong to data companies, which use them to tag your browser so they can follow your path like crumbs in the proverbial forest. They’re everywhere – one study found third-party tracking cookies on 92 percent of websites. The Washington Post website has about 40 tracker cookies, average for a news site, which the company said in a statement are used to deliver better-targeted ads and track ad performance. You’ll also find them on sites without ads: Both Aetna and the FSA service said the cookies on their sites help measure their own external marketing campaigns. The blame for this mess belongs to the entire advertising, publishing and tech industries. But what responsibility does a browser have in protecting us from code that isn’t doing much more than spying? In 2015, Mozilla debuted a version of Firefox that included anti-tracking tech, turned on only in its “private” browsing mode. After years of testing and tweaking, that’s what it activated this month on all websites. This isn’t about blocking ads – those still come through. Rather, Firefox is parsing cookies to decide which ones to keep for critical site functions and which ones to block for spying. Apple’s Safari browser, used on iPhones, also began applying “intelligent tracking protection” to cookies in 2017, using an algorithm to decide which ones were bad. Chrome, so far, remains open to all cookies by default. Last month, Google announced a new effort to force third-party cookies to better self-identify, and said we can expect new controls for them after it rolls out. But it wouldn’t offer a timeline or say whether it would default to stopping trackers. I’m not holding my breath. Google itself, through its Doubleclick and other ad businesses, is the No. 1 cookie maker – the Mrs. Fields of the web. It’s hard to imagine Chrome ever cutting off Google’s moneymaker. “Cookies play a role in user privacy, but a narrow focus on cookies obscures the broader privacy discussion because it’s just one way in which users can be tracked across sites,” said Ben Galbraith, Chrome’s director of product management. “This is a complex problem, and simple, blunt cookie blocking solutions force tracking into more opaque practices.” There are other tracking techniques – and the privacy arms race will get harder. But saying things are too complicated is also a way of not doing anything. “Our viewpoint is to deal with the biggest problem first, but anticipate where the ecosystem will shift and work on protecting against those things as well,” said Peter Dolanjski, Firefox’s product lead. Both Google and Mozilla said they’re working on fighting “fingerprinting,” a way to sniff out other markers in your computer. Firefox is already testing its capabilities, and plans to activate them soon. Making the switch Choosing a browser is no longer just about speed and convenience – it’s also about data defaults. It’s true that Google usually obtains consent before gathering data, and offers a lot of knobs you can adjust to opt out of tracking and targeted advertising. But its controls often feel like a shell game that results in us sharing more personal data. Get breaking news and alerts with our free mobile app. Get it from the Apple app store or the Google Play store. I felt hoodwinked when Google quietly began signing Gmail users into Chrome last fall. Google says the Chrome shift didn’t cause anybody’s browsing history to be “synced” unless they specifically opted in – but I found mine was being sent Google, and don’t recall ever asking for extra surveillance. (You can turn off the Gmail auto-login by searching “Gmail” in Chrome settings and switching off “Allow Chrome sign-in.”) After the sign-in shift, Johns Hopkins professor Matthew Green made waves in the computer science world when he blogged he was done with Chrome. “I lost faith,” he told me. “It only takes a few tiny changes to make it very privacy unfriendly.” There are ways to defang Chrome, which is much more complicated than just using “Incognito Mode.” But it’s much easier to switch to a browser not owned by an advertising company. Like Green, I’ve chosen Firefox, which works across phones, tablets, PCs and Macs. Apple’s Safari is also a good option on Macs, iPhones and iPads, and the niche Brave browser goes even further in trying to jam the ad-tech industry. What does switching to Firefox cost you? It’s free, and downloading a different browser is much simpler than changing phones. In 2017, Mozilla launched a new version of Firefox called Quantum that made it considerably faster. In my tests, it has felt almost as fast as Chrome, though benchmark tests have found it can be slower in some contexts. Firefox says it’s better about managing memory if you use lots and lots of tabs. Switching means you’ll have to move your bookmarks, and Firefox offers tools to help. Shifting passwords is easy if you use a password manager. And most browser add-ons are available, though it’s possible you won’t find your favorite. Mozilla has challenges to overcome. Among privacy advocates, the nonprofit is known for caution. It took a year longer than Apple to make cookie blocking a default. And as a nonprofit, it earns money when people make searches in the browser and click on ads – which means its biggest source of income is Google. Mozilla’s CEO says the company is exploring new paid privacy services to diversify its income. Its biggest risk is that Firefox might someday run out of steam in its battle with the Chrome behemoth. Even though it’s the No. 2 desktop browser, with about 10 percent of the market, major sites could decide to drop support, leaving Firefox scrambling. If you care about privacy, let’s hope for another David and Goliath outcome.

[tylerbiard]

Y and Z

Do you guys remember when analysts, insiders, and marketers were trying to “crack” the Millennials (Gen Y)?  It wasn’t even that long ago when articles on figuring out how to connect with my generation were vogue.  My dad even attended a conference on how to integrate Millennials into the workforce, circa 2010.  It still happens from time to time, but now, things are shifting towards figuring out my successor, Gen Z.  Makes sense, I guess, considering they’re almost as large as the Millennials and the Boomers, and despite the oldest members being 21 (born in 1996), people haven’t really been looking at the differences between those my age and those born a decade later, largely because they’ve often been lumped in with Millennials.

I’m towards the tail end of the Millennials (born in ‘93), and so I have some friends that are at the beginning of Gen Z, but overall, my friends tend to be Millennials, both younger and older.  In some regards, I find more similarities with early Gen Z members than older Millennials, but altogether, I’d say my affinities are definitely more with the Millennials than Gen Z.  That’s not a slight against Gen Z, rather just a noted difference, which will probably become blurred as we all get older anyways.  Going back to school well past when most people do also puts into perspective a bit of the difference; many of my classmates in first year courses were fresh outta high school (born in ‘98) and it does make me wonder where things are headed as Gen Z grows and matures, and where the generation follows it takes us as a society.

With the Millennials, Boomers and Gen Xers had to learn how to professionally work with a generation that grew up with the Internet in its infancy, with a generation that was given so much from its parents, including growing up being told we’re each our own “special snowflake” and that we should reach for the stars, and so long as we got a degree -- any degree -- we’d be happy.  We were considered idealistic, liberal, and tech-savvy.

Well, now, everyone’s used to it, and perhaps because Gen Z is also very tech-savvy and educated and grew up being given participation ribbons, nobody sought out the difference until more recently.  But there are differences.  Gen Z is more conservative apparently (I don’t see it in terms of social issues), more into “branding” oneself and generally more consumerist.  Gen Z is also way more immersed in digital technology than I ever was growing up.  I remember into junior high knowing people who still didn’t have Internet or a cell phone; I can’t see that really happening now except in extreme scenarios.  Furthermore, they grew up with high speed internet, not that dial up shit I had. 

I’m still one to prefer browsing on a stationary, desktop computer, rather than on my phone.  The phone is often more handy when I’m out, but if I have a choice, I’ll always go for the computer.  Which is partly why I loathe mobile-specific social media for not being more browser-friendly.  Being a photographer is no doubt an influence here, as I like being able to view visual media on a larger screen.  But I also grew up with desktops, and was used to having to physically go home to chat with people on MSN, and when I was out, I was basically disconnected.  I had a cell phone, sure, but I wasn’t texting on it (which was expensive) or browsing the ‘Net on it (which was even more expensive).  None of that happened until I got a Blackberry in 12th grade.  Millennials grew up around the PC; Generation Z grew up around iPads and iPhones.  Apparently, on average, Generation Z does not value time offline, while I personally value being disconnected on occasion (not permanently -- I’m not that much of a luddite).  I know when I’ve spent too much time in front of screens.

Gen Z is also more visual.  Well, I’m a photographer, so I’m naturally a very visual person, so this works for me on some level.  And as a Millennial, I’m not unaware of short attention spans among my cohort.  As digital technology continues to make inroads, it only makes sense that attention spans continue to wane.  But even still, I’m here, writing long blog posts and I enjoy photoblogs which are more long-form as well.  They aren’t easily digestable, though, which is why there are less viewers.  It makes sense that social media, then, has moved towards less politicized, more mobile and visually-orientated platforms like Snapchat and Instagram, while Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr are waning, especially among Gen Z.  I’m not too happy about that, to be honest.  I find value in political discourse and believe that if we don’t fight for rights we may as well not have them.   You’re not getting discourse if you’re busy posting aesthetic selfies on Snapchat.  It seems like youth (including Millennials) have kinda accepted things as they are, and, perhaps due to overstimulation, are a bit fatigued at all the information out there, and so there is a certain sense of complacency.  The general mood of memes seems to be “yeah, the world is shit, I’ve accepted it doesn’t make sense and therefore I’m gonna shitpost rather than do anything about it.”  Maybe I’m reading into it too much but I’ve seen others corroborate this mindset.  It’s quite a different mentality from 7 years ago, when Twitter was at peak, which is all about discourse, often political.  I don’t think the interface of many websites now helps, which bombard you with ads and offers before you can see anything.

It’s a bit early to say, as the youngest Gen Zers are between 0 and 7, depending on who you ask, but I hope one thing that Gen Z and its parents (mostly Gen X) learn from the Millennials is regarding education.  It seems like the eldest members of Z were brought up with the same ideas as us, though.  I hope that they realize that it is important still to follow what you’re passionate about and you do need to find something of a career that you will enjoy, but I hope that there is more of a practicality about it.  My generation was told we’d be set as long as we had a degree -- any degree -- and I can tell you that that simply isn’t the case.  It isn’t that there are “worthless” degrees, but that there are degrees which require you to market yourself harder than if you got an Engineering degree and then becoming an Engineer.  I already know a few older Millennials who went down that path, and are or have gone back to school later for something more practical yet still enjoyable.  Academia works for certain fields, certainly, and the program I’m in is practical, but we’ve flooded universities too much because we’ve imbibed the idea that we need a degree to succeed, which is utter poppycock.  A lot of people in university would be better suited to a technical school or a diploma of some sort, which often yield great success without having to pay back a mountain of student loans.  I don’t know if Gen Z will learn this, as I know parents of Gen Z kids who’ve really imbibed the post-secondary ideal as much, if not more, than the Millennial’s parents.

I guess if you’re reading between the lines, I’m a bit sardonic about the future.  It’s nothing to do with Millennials or Gen Z specifically, as we’re both products of the time we grew up in.  A friend of mine joked that I was “born too late” and, considering how slow I sometimes I am with accepting technological trends and how much I like late 20th century pop culture, maybe he’s got a point.  But it’s always easy to romanticize the past.  The ‘50s were great, if you don’t factor in how close we were to nuclear annihilation or how discriminatory the hegemony was.  Furthermore, I’ve definitely become far more aware of things due to being able to access the Internet than if I grew up in an earlier time.  Despite the overstimulation, I think we can take for granted how much more aware we are able to be now; friction of distance has been reduced to rubble.  Also, my earlier comments about Gen Z favouring visual, favouring mobile, really apply to us all.  Millennials have orientated towards these formats, as well as older generations.  It definitely seems like my grandparents are more into their smartphone than they ever were Windows 98.  It’s just Gen Z is the generation that has no basis of comparison to a pre-mobile era, just like Millennials can’t compare to a pre-Internet age (except maybe some of our eldest members), and both have an influence on their respective generation.

Still, I’m not only curious how I’ll survive progress, but how society will as a whole.  America is in late empire, and there is no new Western power to take the helm like after Britain.  It’ll be interesting how that plays out for still-maturing Western countries like Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, but it seems like we’re shifting to a pre-Columbian paradigm dominated by the East.  As with any change, there’s uncertainty, although America will likely remain a major player in geopolitics for the long term, even if less hegemonic in scope.  I’m even more curious about what will become of us once those degrees we hammered thousands upon thousands of dollars on are rendered obsolete by AI.  Some say the singularity is nigh, some say it already happened and we were too busy tweeting to notice.  But I don’t think it has happened in the Kurzweilian sense, and once that happens, it’ll be interesting to see where things go.  If we can “survive” it, we’ll probably be better off.  But then there’s still climate change.  Maybe once we become a (hypothetical) Kardashev Type 1 civilization, we’ll have progressed towards not killing ourselves over differences and will have finally survived progress. 

But for now, I still have to live in a world ruled by filters and brands, all-the-while we became increasingly connected yet disconnected.  Maybe I’ll fuck off to Dawson City before having to bear the full front of our digital future.  Sounds nicer for someone unwilling to embrace digital advances like so many of my peers.  Then again, how different, really, is seeing a bunch of people, disparately glued to their phones, from seeing a different bunch of people glued to their books.  Despite being social animals, we’ve long desired our own “space” and privacy, at least in the Western world.

[weekendwarriorblog]

30 Minute Experiment: High School #30ME

Since Cuomo isn’t coming on until 12:30, let’s do this. 

Little not-so-secret about the subject of these 30 Minute Experiments (#30ME) is that while I do decide on a topic in advance, usually for the next day’s writing, very often (as is the case today), it’s just the first word or thought that pops into my head.  Don’t worry, I won’t be regaling you with stories from my own high school days because a.) They’re very boring and b.) I have forgotten most of that time, but maybe it seemed like a good follow-up to yesterday’s “Memory” topic BECAUSE I’ve put most of my high school days behind me. I say this now realizing that if I REALLY thought hard about my own high school days which were a very very long time ago now, I probably could remember bits and bobs. Like I know that I was fully into music in those days, and I was very much a denizen of Staples High School’s Building 4 where all the art, music and theater geeks spent the majority of their day. I was very lucky to be living in the artsy community of Westport, CT while growing up, although I was the only one of my three siblings who threw themselves fully into the arts, in my case, music.

But like I said, I’m not here to talk about my time in high school but just about high school as a concept. I’m not knocking education or anything based on my own experiences... like the fact that I deliberately failed junior English because I didn’t feel like writing about dolphins. Yes, I was a malcontent even in my younger days. It doesn’t just come with age.

I only was thinking about this idea of high school as a concept... and this is where I’ll bring movies into the discussion... is after watching Olivia Wilde’s Book Smart for the second or third time and realizing that high school really hasn’t changed much since my days. Sure, there’s more technology including smartphones and tablets and laptops, all being used even more these days with social distancing and home classes, but I feel like a lot of the general concepts have remained the same. There’s classes and cliques and certain people hang with others like them and jocks are supposed to act a certain way and studious academics act another way... and everyone is going through those difficult teenage years where you’re either overly confident about everything or perennially neurotic where you don’t know what to do with yourself, let alone someone of the opposite (or same) sex. 

Every once in a while, these days will pop up into the fading memory section of my brain and I’ll remember one or two things that have definitely stuck with me well into what I’d like to consider my adulthood.  But seeing new movies about high school like Book Smart or Greta Gerwig’s Lady Bird for that matter, I realize that while the generations might be younger and in different times, lots of the situations are the same. I mean, if you were to watch say Fast Times at Ridgemont High back-to-back with Book Smart, you might see how little has really changed even if everyone is as lot more PC and careful about who they antagonize or offend... and yet, you still hear about all sorts of cyber-bullying, fat-shaming, overt and less overt gay bashing and racism...  it’s all the same except the narrative has shifted.

Possibly a little bit of a tangent but like many, I reconnected with a lot of folks from high school thanks to Facebook, and I’ve even spent a bit of time with my former high school friends in person to realize that while many decades have past, we generally have the same shared interests that brought us together in high school. 

I’m constantly intrigued by the idea of life following art following life and I may have mentioned earlier in this pandemic how worried I was about people seeing a movie like Contagion and feeling that they need to follow suit and buy everything in stores because we’re heading to a situation where we’re all doomed. (I mean, at this point, I hope everyone realizes that as bad as things may be, this is not the case.) I’ve always wondered this about prison as well.. .not that I ever plan on spending time there... but I’ve seen a lot of prison shows (HBO’s Oz being a favorite that I need to binge-rewatch soon) and movies and then seeing how real-life prison differs from it but also has some of the same general distinctions. Were the creators of these shows/movies just really smart about their research and references to recreate what it’s really like... or are some of the men and women entering prison changing their behavior by what they may have previously seen in movies and shows about prison. (Note: I have a regular penpal in prison who has been very open with me about what life is really like in prison and it’s actually a lot more boring than most people might expect.)

It’s all about life vs. art and how one affects the other and in some ways, high school is a prison of a different sort, because we see these other shows and movies about high school life and maybe it looks far more glamorous than reality so we change ourselves and try to change our environment to match those visions of what we think high school should be. 

Oddly I haven’t talked much about this stuff with my nephews, one is already well into high school and one going through his last few years, but I do feel like they’re both way more together about high school. In that way, they’re more like their mother (my sister) than my brother or I, as neither of us had the greatest experiences in high school even if it helped to mold us in good and/or bad ways.

This is already becoming one of those #30MEs where I’m looking at my watch wondering how much more I’ll have to write about this subject, and right now I’m at 11 minutes... wonderful! :)

I’m glad there are younger filmmakers and TV showrunners who have graciously shared their own experiences from high school so that us older folk can see what it’s like now, although it does seem to contain a lot of the same neuroses I had even if mine have carried me well into my 30s and beyond. (It might be since I never went to actual college like so many of my own peers, but that’s probably a conversation for another #30ME down the road. It’s a VERY long story why I never went, and some might be surprised that part of it was... get this... that I wasn’t comfortable enough in my writing to write the essay required for most college applications. This is the guy writing for 30 minutes uninterrupted every day who can probably knock out 1,000 words without blinking.)

But back to high school... it’s something I sometimes wonder about and maybe I should be rewatching some of the great docs that have been made about the high school experience, but never fear. I will never write a movie about high school as it’s not something interesting enough for me to think about for more than 30 minutes at any given time. 

Maybe after writing this, it will be the last thought or words I have to say about high school, but make no mistake that it’s a time in everyone’s life that has forever defined them as hard as anyone tries to change things afterwards. I’ve never personally gone to any of my high school reunions, as easy as it might have been to jump on the Metro-North back to CT to do so. (My parents moved away from CT almost right after I moved to NYC and my sister went to school in Boston so it’s not like I would have somewhere to stay if I did go back.)

5 minutes left and I’m already regretting my choice of this topic, but part of the point of this experiment is to pick a topic and stick with it, even if it’s only for 30 minutes, and I’m definitely trying to stretch some time as I run out of things to say about “high school.”

Anyway, I guess the reason it’s today’s topic is because it was driven by yesterday’s topic of “memory” and how little I actually remember from my high school days... and maybe it’s better that I don’t remember stuff if it’s what’s driving where I’m at these days. Sure, I probably would have done some things different but I have no regrets as much as I tried to put that past behind me by moving to NYC and redefining if not completely reinventing myself. (It was actually funny when I would run into old Westport chums when I was working in the Sam Ash music department because it happened a few times but the internet and Email was still very early in those days, so it wasn’t like I stayed in touch with any of those friends after running into them years later.)

There’s probably no real lessons to be learned from today’s #30ME, and maybe this is just more of me doing a lot more freewheeling rambling than I normally do in one of these things, other than pushing myself to think more about the past than I generally care to. 

Yup, that’s pretty much all I have to say, and thankfully, it looks like my time is up... for today. Back tomorrow!

[aion-rsa]

Hitman 3 Review

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Much like the missions Agent 47 regularly undertakes, Hitman 3 is, in many ways, the most refined execution of IO Interactive’s stealth sandbox formula yet. The kill opportunities have never been more plentiful, the locations you execute them in no more engaging, yet even this can’t distract from the underlying sense of “been there, done that” present in this final chapter into the so-called World of Assassination trilogy. Taking down targets as creatively as possible is still a thrilling and often tense affair, providing you know when suiting up that this is very much an iteration of what’s come before (like a new season of a TV show) rather than a bold new direction for the series.

Picking up directly from where the previous game left off, Hitman 3 finds Agent 47, alongside his former colleague Lucas Grey and long-time handler Diana Burnwood, seeking revenge against a shady organisation known only as Providence. It’s a setup that sounds surprisingly nuanced in theory, but in actual fact the narrative here is quite bare bones and will leave first-time players incredibly confused. Thankfully, the plot is all just an excuse to jet Agent 47 off around the globe and offer some light context for the events that occur within the six new featured sandboxes.

These dazzling locations are, of course, what you come to a Hitman game for, and are ideal for letting loose with a fiber wire. Ranging from a traditional manor estate nestled in the British countryside to a luxurious seven-star Dubai hotel, all six (more like five and an epilogue) maps present their own thriving hubs of interaction and connectivity – with you being the perfect source of disruption. At first, the thought of infiltrating so many mechanisms working in tandem can seem daunting, but the mission stories system makes its grand return to help offset any risk of becoming overwhelmed.

Each mission story guides you to prompts laced throughout each level, which, when pursued, give you just a small taste of the kind of opportunities available to you. For example, one instance in an underground scientific facility in China lets you adopt the identity of a potential investor waiting on a tour – all in aid of gaining access to a computer core containing incriminating evidence. Similarly, the highly publicized Dartmoor mission allows Agent 47 to slip into the guise of a private detective, questioning each member of the Carlisle family about a mysterious murder while subtly plotting their own. From here, it’s just a matter of being patient and waiting for the perfect moment to strike.

You’ll quickly gain an intimate knowledge of each level’s layout, major players, and deadly tools just waiting to be utilized. Learning through experimentation will allow you become a better, more effective killer, and while each mission can realistically be beaten in a matter of minutes, only by exploring every nook and cranny do you stand a chance of completing every embedded discoverable feat – challenging yourself further in the objective-based Escalations mode. Needless to say, replaying locations is highly encouraged and where the true meat of the game lies.

Release Date: Jan. 20, 2021 Platforms: PC (reviewed), PS5, XSX, PS4, XBO, Switch, Stadia Developer: IO Interactive Publisher: IO Interactive Genre: Stealth

Hitman 3 is at its best when you’re mining it for clever scenarios, where your willingness to experiment with different outfits, entrance points, and makeshift weapons results in the oh-so satisfying death of the target. The core Hitman experience here remains largely the same, as mentioned, but Agent 47 has been kitted out with a few new tools this time around to make his efforts a bit slicker. The most meaningful is the inclusion of permanent shortcuts which, much like the addition of crowd blending in Hitman 2, grants you more options in terms of how you can approach levels.

No longer after performing a successful kill are you limited to just the exit routes IO Interactive has provided to you. Instead, your exploration of the various hubs is often rewarded with these permanent shortcuts, which can only be opened from one side initially before staying unlocked for future playthroughs in that area. It’s a subtle change, sure, yet you never know when extra access to a particular door, access point, or ladder will come in handy when trying to make a quick getaway after a job gone wrong.

Another small change is Agent 47’s camera, which he has equipped with him by default and can be used to remotely access locked areas or scope out views from a long distance. It’s not quite as game changing as, say, when Hitman forced you to consider whether targets could see Agent 47’s reflection in mirrors, but it’s a welcome innovation nevertheless that lets you further fulfill the spy fantasy. It’s just a shame that IO didn’t want to push the camera’s ability further. Imagine the chaos you could cause by hacking any available electronic items Watch Dogs-style when wanting to distract enemies.

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

As far as the value proposition goes, Hitman 3 axes the previous game’s 1v1 Ghost multiplayer but doubles down on the challenge-based rating system that invites you to improve your mastery level and climb the online leaderboards. The game also maintains the ability for players to import missions from prior entries. Fan-favorite locations like Sapienza, Miami, and others benefit from the improved visual fidelity now available on next-gen consoles, though the act of doing so gets very messy. For instance, owning the first season on PlayStation strangely doesn’t see those levels instantly transfer and requires you to purchase the Access Pass. That’s not the case for Hitman 2.  Then on PC, meanwhile, the game’s Epic exclusivity is already causing teething issues.

Hitman 3 doesn’t do too much to improve on its predecessors or the Hitman formula in general, choosing to instead emphasize the features and elements that always made the series great, while showing them off through some of the best and most intricately constructed maps the series has seen so far. It’ll surely take you tens of hours to fulfil every scenario, don every disguise, and pull off every creative kill, but a muddled story and only very minor improvements indicate that Agent 47 is just about ready to hang up his tie for a little while.

The post Hitman 3 Review appeared first on Den of Geek.

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[businessliveme]

By Looking Back at 2019, We Can Make Most Out of Next Data Decade in 2020

It’s hard to believe that we’ve started the year 2020 and that a very interesting decade has come to an end. With every end comes a new beginning and we view 2020 as the start of a more intelligent and connected world enabled by technology.

In the interest of learning from looking back, I revisited our 2019 predictions, some of which I am happy to report have come to fruition faster than others.

The implementation of 5G across the region is one such example. Many telecommunication providers in the region are already offering 5G connectivity to their customers, transforming experiences significantly. And who knows, we could also start hearing about 6G networks!

On the back of this, cities in the region are becoming more connected than ever, paving the way for Smart Cities and digital infrastructure that we predict will be thriving come 2030. And it will be a game-changer for industries such as healthcare and manufacturing, where data and information generated from the field can be quickly processed and analyzed in real-time, and then readily shared with those who need it.

All of this requires skilled talent and as we predicted, 2019 has seen a new generation of digital natives enter the workplace and organizations have begun to step up to modernize infrastructure, inspire employees and integrate the relevant applications will have an advantage over those that struggle with legacy systems, data deluge and workforces that are resistant to change.

Another prediction was about the data gold mine and the ‘Gold Rush’ in tech investment, with data valued as a primary resource. In 2019, we saw the importance placed on data, leading to regulations are now being set to protect this valuable resource. Organizations are now addressing challenges of data management and analytics and leveraging their data to bring AI and machine-learning to life.

The region as we know it, is poised for the fourth industrial revolution. In fact, if you consider the UAE Vision 2021, Saudi Vision 2030 and Kuwait Vision 2035, the common theme is around developing digital economies of the future.

At the root of all this innovation and advancement are – you guessed it – massive amounts of data and compute power, and the capacity across edge, cloud and core data center infrastructure to put data through its paces.  With the amount of data coming our way in the next 10 years – we can only imagine what the world around us will look like in 2030, with apps and services helping us do and know things we haven’t even thought of yet!

2020 marks the beginning of what we at Dell Technologies are calling the Next Data Decade, and we are no doubt entering this era with new – and rather high – expectations of what technology can make possible for how we live, work, and play.

So, what new breakthroughs and technology trends will set the tone for what’s to come? Here are our top predictions for the year ahead.

2020 will be the year to simplify IT

This year we will see organizations accelerate their digital transformation by simplifying and automating their IT infrastructure and consolidating systems and services into holistic solutions that enable more control and fuel data automation.  All of this enables better, faster business outcomes that the innovation of the next decade will thrive on. 

Accelerated multi-cloud journeys to store and protect data

As 5G and edge deployments continue to rollout, organizations will expect more of their cloud and service providers, to ensure they have better data management and visibility, while also ensuring that their data remains accessible and secure. IDC has predicted that by 2021, over 90% of enterprises worldwide will rely on a mix of on-premises/dedicated private clouds, several public clouds, and legacy platforms to meet their infrastructure needs.[i]

Choose how you pay

In 2020, flexible consumption model and as-a-service options will accelerate rapidly as organizations seize the opportunity to transform.  As a result, they’ll be able to choose the right economic model for their business to take advantage of end-to-end IT solutions that enable data mobility and visibility and crunch even the most intensive AI and Machine Learning workloads when needed.

 ‘The Edge’ rapidly expands to the enterprise

2019 has showed us that the edge is everywhere around us and is only going to expand with enterprise organizations leading the way, delivering the IT infrastructure to support it. So, we will see new advancements in software-defined networking. Open networking solutions will also prevail over proprietary, as organizations recognize that the only way to successfully manage and secure data for the long haul is with the flexibility and agility that only open software defined networking can deliver.

Intelligent devices change the way we work and collaborate

A recent study by Gartner revealed that spending on disruptive technologies will increase. Artificial intelligence (AI) was seen as the primary game-changing technology in 2019 by 38 percent of GCC CIOs. Data analytics is second, identified by 22 percent of respondents.

Software applications that use AI and machine learning create systems that now know where and when to optimize power and compute based on your usage patterns. Over the next year, these advancements, will turn our PCs into even smarter companions. They’ll have the ability to optimize power and battery life for our most productive moments – and even become self-sufficient machines that can self-heal and self-advocate for repair – reducing the burden on the user and of course, reducing the number of IT incidents filed.

Innovating with integrity, sourcing sustainably

In 2018, members of the UAE’s Federal National Council passed a draft federal law on integrated waste management.  The law puts forward a variety of strategies that aim to achieve a national recycling rate of 75% of solid waste. Such laws prove that sustainable innovation will continue to take center stage, and Dell Technologies wants to ensure the impact we have in the world doesn’t come with a dangerous impact on the planet. Greater investments in reuse and recycling for closed-loop innovation will accelerate – hardware becoming smaller and more efficient and built with recycled and reclaimed goods.

To conclude:

Mohammed Amin, Senior Vice President, MERAT, Dell Technologies

As we enter 2020, I’m optimistic and excited about what the future holds. The steps our customers will take in the next year to get the most out of their data will enable new breakthroughs in technology that everyone will experience in some way – whether it’s a more powerful device, faster medical treatment, more accessible education, less waste and cleaner air.

And before we know it, we’ll be looking forward to what the following decade will have in store.

The post By Looking Back at 2019, We Can Make Most Out of Next Data Decade in 2020 appeared first on Businessliveme.com.

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[ufuel23265]

God Bless China - Why You Can Make More Money In China And Australia Than The USA

You may likewise review perusing a bulletin with data on who the world's greatest oil organizations were (allude to "Contribute News" August 2005) and how they spent their cash broadening into different ventures. The "good judgment" conviction that higher oil costs would make oil organizations go belly up, might be normally held... this doesn't imply that it is true....

Oil goes up, purchase more oil...

Huh? Since the article was composed, the cost of oil (and petroleum) has kept on ascending at a gigantic rate. The benefits of oil organizations have expanded drastically, as has their offer cost. Did you become tied up with any oil organizations? Costs on energizes and oils have ascended by 21%, so did we as a whole purchase 20% less oil? No, we purchased 18% MORE.

The oil organizations don't simply have us over a barrel; they have us more than a great many barrels a day... Did you become tied up with oil organizations yet?

See the Past, presently take a gander at the Now

Alright, so you have the message about the oil organizations. Like the dinosaurs that they uncover, these enormous juggernauts* will control the world for quite a while. Try not to battle it, become acclimated to it, and figure out how to benefit from it. In the event that you don't trust me, take a gander at what the significant venture directors are doing with their cash.

Which reserve chiefs are becoming tied up with oil organizations, and what amount would they say they are purchasing? It is safe to say that they are planning to get more cash-flow later on than they did for the current year? The reserve director's responsibility is to profit later on, so what are they doing now?

Reserve Manager -

What is in their Top Ten? (as at June 30th 2005)

Credit Suisse - Mortgages, telephone organizations and account organizations.

Barclays: - Total Fina Elf is number two, Exxon Mobil at seven.

Merril Lynch - Total Fina Elf is number two stock on their rundown additionally Platinum Royal Dutch Shell is number ten stock

UBS Global - Total Fina Elf is number 3, BP at number 10

Westpac Intl - Exxon Mobil number 1 stock held

BT USA - Exxon Mobil number 2

BT Global - Exxon Mobil number 1

BT European - Royal Dutch Shell number 1, Total Fina Elf number 3

Oil = Money

In the event that the oil organizations won't make gigantic billions of dollars worth of benefits in future years, at that point for what reason are the greatest and most brilliant reserve directors putting into the oil organizations? Maybe with all their cash and all their exploration, the significant oil organizations realize that significant oil organizations will keep on turning huge benefits. Maybe with the biggest reserve directors' cash and research, the store administrators have likewise arrived at a similar resolution: oil rises to cash.

Spare the trees: shoot a beaver...

Without a doubt, you can evade the pattern against the juggernauts*. You can put the entirety of your cash into stocks other than mining and oil. You can put into "new" regions such web stocks and bio-innovation. You can put into home loans and money organizations like Credit Suisse. You can put into eco-mindful, hereditarily unmodified, naturally reasonable horse feed eating, alpaca-accommodating, tree-embracing hippy stocks**.

It might make you feel better. It might even make you a dollar or two. A smart thought is to enhance your cash: - have some smiley, care-bear investments** and furthermore have a smidgen of venture into a portion of the "crush, plunder and wreck the earth" stocks.

Exxon/Mobil hurt a few penguins with a spilling oil-tanker. Fine, sell their offers, punch the CEO, or volunteer at Greenpeace.

Association Carbide upset a few people with dodgy sulfuric acid. Toss out your lights, toys and PCs or have a beneficial outcome.

At the point when I found that an auxiliary of BHP was mining uranium, I felt so terrible about it that I gave a portion of my BHP profits to my most loved charity***. Presently, BHP were not making uranium atomic weapons, it was for atomic vitality; and it was not BHP, only one of their associations.

I am not insane enough to sell the entirety of my BHP shares since a portion of their companions are somewhat earth threatening: - that would be senseless. In addition, I can do much more for nature by gifting a huge number of dollars to great motivations, than I can by binding myself to a bulldozer... Bulldozer. Well, that gives me another reason to utilize the expression "juggernaut"... ☺

Talking about huge amazing, substantial things without limitation or social still, small voice, we should view the world's greatest super power and biggest economy. Do you know what it's identity is? Do you feel that the appropriate response may change in future?

Live in the Now, Look to what's to come

Hello, I don't wish to be a scaremonger; you have the papers and blood and gore films to make you terrified. I simply wish to bring up a couple of things and make you "alert yet not frightened".

Question 1 Who on the planet utilizes the most oil?

Question 2 Where do the oil clients get the oil from?

Question 3 What are they arranged to do to keep it along these lines?

On the off chance that you replied, "USA", "The Middle East" and "start wars", you would be genuinely near reality... or then again reality, as it might have been, for a large portion of the only remaining century. Over the most recent couple of decades we have seen the USA utilizing the greater part of the world's oil, and sourcing it from the Middle Eastern nations. We have seen the USA engaged with clashes in Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Iraq (section two).

In later years, the measure of oil being utilized by China is on the ascent. Before long, your responses to the over three inquiries will be "China", "Africa", and "anything".

Be set up for an overall moving of the scales. For what reason does China source their oil from African nations and not Middle Eastern nations? Does the oil taste more pleasant? Does it last more? Is it less expensive? Or on the other hand does it just not get under the skin of the US government, as Africa isn't viewed as accepted US soil?

Anybody stepping around in the Kuwaiti oil-fields for a considerable length of time would in the long run upset the USA: see what befell poor old Saddam Hussein in 1991. Oh no, it happened again in 2003. The USA considers the To be East as their very own little vegetable fix. They let the cultivators have a couple of carrots to keep them upbeat, yet they don't care for any maverick bunnies encroaching, or any sign that another person needs to direct planting terms or economic situations. For more details you can visit at https://ufuel.co.za/

[scteonline]

Bitcoin: What Is It, and Is It Right for Your Business?

OK, so what's Bitcoin? It's not an actual coin, it's "cryptocurrency," a digital form of payment that is produced ("mined") by lots of people worldwide. It allows peer-to-peer transactions instantly, worldwide, for free or at very low cost. Bitcoin was invented after decades of research into cryptography by software developer, Satoshi Nakamoto (believed to be a pseudonym), who designed the algorithm and introduced it in 2009. His true identity remains a mystery. This currency is not backed by a tangible commodity (such as gold or silver); bitcoins are traded online which makes them a commodity in themselves. Bitcoin is an open-source product, accessible by anyone who is a user. All you need is an email address, Internet access, and money to get started. Where does it come from? Bitcoin is mined on a distributed computer network of users running specialized software; the network solves certain mathematical proofs, and searches for a particular data sequence ("block") that produces a particular pattern when the BTC algorithm is applied to it. A match produces a bitcoin. It's complex and time- and energy-consuming. Only 21 million bitcoins are ever to be mined (about 11 million are currently in circulation). The math problems the network computers solve get progressively more difficult to keep the mining operations and supply in check. This network also validates all the transactions through cryptography. How does Bitcoin work? Internet users transfer digital assets (bits) to each other on a network. There is no online bank; rather, Bitcoin has been described as an Internet-wide distributed ledger. Users buy Bitcoin with cash or by selling a product or service for Bitcoin. Bitcoin wallets store and use this digital currency. Users may sell out of this virtual ledger by trading their Bitcoin to someone else who wants in. Anyone can do this, anywhere in the world. There are smartphone apps for conducting mobile Bitcoin transactions and Bitcoin exchanges are populating the Internet. How is Bitcoin valued? Bitcoin is not held or controlled by a financial institution; it is completely decentralized. Unlike real-world money it cannot be devalued by governments or banks. Instead, Bitcoin's value lies simply in its acceptance between users as a form of payment and because its supply is finite. Its global currency values fluctuate according to supply and demand and market speculation; as more people create wallets and hold and spend bitcoins, and more businesses accept it, Bitcoin's value will rise. Banks are now trying to value Bitcoin and some investment websites predict the price of a bitcoin will be several thousand dollars in 2014. What are its benefits? There are benefits to consumers and merchants that want to use this payment option. 1. Fast transactions - Bitcoin is transferred instantly over the Internet. 2. No fees/low fees -- Unlike credit cards, Bitcoin can be used for free or very low fees. Without the centralized institution as middle man, there are no authorizations (and fees) required. This improves profit margins sales. 3. Eliminates fraud risk -Only the Bitcoin owner can send payment to the intended recipient, who is the only one who can receive it. The network knows the transfer has occurred and transactions are validated; they cannot be challenged or taken back. This is big for online merchants who are often subject to credit card processors' assessments of whether or not a transaction is fraudulent, or businesses that pay the high price of credit card chargebacks. 4. Data is secure -- As we have seen with recent hacks on national retailers' payment processing systems, the Internet is not always a secure place for private data. With Bitcoin, users do not give up private information. a. They have two keys - a public key that serves as the bitcoin address and a private key with personal data. b. Transactions are "signed" digitally by combining the public and private keys; a mathematical function is applied and a certificate is generated proving the user initiated the transaction. Digital signatures are unique to each transaction and cannot be re-used. c. The merchant/recipient never sees your secret information (name, number, physical address) so it's somewhat anonymous but it is traceable (to the bitcoin address on the public key). 5. Convenient payment system -- Merchants can use Bitcoin entirely as a payment system; they do not have to hold any Bitcoin currency since Bitcoin can be converted to dollars. Consumers or merchants can trade in and out of Bitcoin and other currencies at any time. 6. International payments - Bitcoin is used around the world; e-commerce merchants and service providers can easily accept international payments, which open up new potential marketplaces for them. 7. Easy to track -- The network tracks and permanently logs every transaction in the Bitcoin block chain (the database). In the case of possible wrongdoing, it is easier for law enforcement officials to trace these transactions. 8. Micropayments are possible - Bitcoins can be divided down to one one-hundred-millionth, so running small payments of a dollar or less becomes a free or near-free transaction. This could be a real boon for convenience stores, coffee shops, and subscription-based websites (videos, publications). Still a little confused? Here are a few examples of transactions: Bitcoin in the retail environment At checkout, the payer uses a smartphone app to scan a QR code with all the transaction information needed to transfer the bitcoin to the retailer. Tapping the "Confirm" button completes the transaction. If the user doesn't own any Bitcoin, the network converts dollars in his account into the digital currency. The retailer can convert that Bitcoin into dollars if it wants to, there were no or very low processing fees (instead of 2 to 3 percent), no hackers can steal personal consumer information, and there is no risk of fraud. Very slick. Bitcoins in hospitality Hotels can accept Bitcoin for room and dining payments on the premises for guests who wish to pay by Bitcoin using their mobile wallets, or PC-to-website to pay for a reservation online. A third-party BTC merchant processor can assist in handling the transactions which it clears over the Bitcoin network. These processing clients are installed on tablets at the establishments' front desk or in the restaurants for users with BTC smartphone apps. (These payment processors are also available for desktops, in retail POS systems, and integrated into foodservice POS systems.) No credit cards or money need to change hands. These cashless transactions are fast and the processor can convert bitcoins into currency and make a daily direct deposit into the establishment's bank account. It was announced in January 2014 that two Las Vegas hotel-casinos will accept Bitcoin payments at the front desk, in their restaurants, and in the gift shop. It sounds good - so what's the catch? Business owners should consider issues of participation, security and cost. • A relatively small number of ordinary consumers and merchants currently use or understand Bitcoin. However, adoption is increasing globally and tools and technologies are being developed to make participation easier. • It's the Internet, so hackers are threats to the exchanges. The Economist reported that a Bitcoin exchange was hacked in September 2013 and $250,000 in bitcoins was stolen from users' online vaults. Bitcoins can be stolen like other currency, so vigilant network, server and database security is paramount. • Users must carefully safeguard their bitcoin wallets which contain their private keys. Secure backups or printouts are crucial. • Bitcoin is not regulated or insured by the US government so there is no insurance for your account if the exchange goes out of business or is robbed by hackers. • Bitcoins are relatively expensive. Current rates and selling prices are available on the online exchanges. The virtual currency is not yet universal but it is gaining market awareness and acceptance. A business may decide to try Bitcoin to save on credit card and bank fees, as a customer convenience, or to see if it helps or hinders sales and profitability. Are you thinking about accepting Bitcoin? Do you already use it? Share your thoughts and experiences with us.

[hub-pub-bub]

You open your browser to look at the Web. Do you know who is looking back at you?

Over a recent week of Web surfing, I peered under the hood of Google Chrome and found it brought along a few thousand friends. Shopping, news and even government sites quietly tagged my browser to let ad and data companies ride shotgun while I clicked around the Web.

This was made possible by the Web’s biggest snoop of all: Google. Seen from the inside, its Chrome browser looks a lot like surveillance software.

Lately I’ve been investigating the secret life of my data, running experiments to see what technology really gets up to under the cover of privacy policies that nobody reads. It turns out, having the world’s biggest advertising company make the most popular Web browser was about as smart as letting kids run a candy shop.

It made me decide to ditch Chrome for a new version of nonprofit Mozilla’s Firefox, which has default privacy protections. Switching involved less inconvenience than you might imagine.

My tests of Chrome vs. Firefox unearthed a personal data caper of absurd proportions. In a week of Web surfing on my desktop, I discovered 11,189 requests for tracker “cookies” that Chrome would have ushered right onto my computer but were automatically blocked by Firefox. These little files are the hooks that data firms, including Google itself, use to follow what websites you visit so they can build profiles of your interests, income and personality.

Chrome welcomed trackers even at websites you would think would be private. I watched Aetna and the Federal Student Aid website set cookies for Facebook and Google. They surreptitiously told the data giants every time I pulled up the insurance and loan service’s log-in pages.

And that’s not the half of it.

Look in the upper right corner of your Chrome browser. See a picture or a name in the circle? If so, you’re logged in to the browser, and Google might be tapping into your Web activity to target ads. Don’t recall signing in? I didn’t, either. Chrome recently started doing that automatically when you use Gmail.

[It’s the middle of the night. Do you know who your iPhone is talking to?]

Chrome is even sneakier on your phone. If you use Android, Chrome sends Google your location every time you conduct a search. (If you turn off location sharing it still sends your coordinates out, just with less accuracy.)

Firefox isn’t perfect — it still defaults searches to Google and permits some other tracking. But it doesn’t share browsing data with Mozilla, which isn’t in the data-collection business.

At a minimum, Web snooping can be annoying. Cookies are how a pair of pants you look at in one site end up following you around in ads elsewhere. More fundamentally, your Web history — like the color of your underpants — ain’t nobody’s business but your own. Letting anyone collect that data leaves it ripe for abuse by bullies, spies and hackers.

Google’s product managers told me in an interview that Chrome prioritizes privacy choices and controls, and they’re working on new ones for cookies. But they also said they have to get the right balance with a “healthy Web ecosystem” (read: ad business).

Firefox’s product managers told me they don’t see privacy as an “option” relegated to controls. They’ve launched a war on surveillance, starting this month with “enhanced tracking protection” that blocks nosy cookies by default on new Firefox installations. But to succeed, first Firefox has to persuade people to care enough to overcome the inertia of switching.

It’s a tale of two browsers — and the diverging interests of the companies that make them

The Firefox Web browser, seen here on a Mac, gives users the option to sign in to sync bookmarks and login information, but doesn't send browsing data to maker Mozilla. (Geoffrey Fowler/The Washington Post)

The cookie fight

A decade ago, Chrome and Firefox were taking on Microsoft’s lumbering giant Internet Explorer. The upstart Chrome solved real problems for consumers, making the Web safer and faster. Today it dominates more than half the market.

Lately, however, many of us have realized that our privacy is also a major concern on the Web — and Chrome’s interests no longer always seem aligned with our own.

That’s most visible in the fight over cookies. These code snippets can do helpful things, like remembering the contents of your shopping cart. But now many cookies belong to data companies, which use them to tag your browser so they can follow your path like crumbs in the proverbial forest.

They’re everywhere — one study found third-party tracking cookies on 92 percent of websites. The Washington Post website has about 40 tracker cookies, average for a news site, which the company said in a statement are used to deliver better-targeted ads and track ad performance.

[Alexa has been eavesdropping on you this whole time]

You’ll also find them on sites without ads: Both Aetna and the FSA service said the cookies on their sites help measure their own external marketing campaigns.

The blame for this mess belongs to the entire advertising, publishing and tech industries. But what responsibility does a browser have in protecting us from code that isn’t doing much more than spying?

To see what cookies Firefox has blocked for a Web page, tap the shield icon, then "Blocking Tracker Cookies" to pull up a list. (Geoffrey Fowler/The Washington Post)

To see what cookies Firefox has blocked for a Web page, tap the shield icon, then "Blocking Tracker Cookies" to pull up a list. (Geoffrey Fowler/The Washington Post)

In 2015, Mozilla debuted a version of Firefox that included anti-tracking tech, turned on only in its “private” browsing mode. After years of testing and tweaking, that’s what it activated this month on all websites. This isn’t about blocking ads — those still come through. Rather, Firefox is parsing cookies to decide which ones to keep for critical site functions and which ones to block for spying.

Apple’s Safari browser, used on iPhones, also began applying “intelligent tracking protection” to cookies in 2017, using an algorithm to decide which ones were bad.

Chrome, so far, remains open to all cookies by default. Last month, Google announced a new effort to force third-party cookies to better self-identify, and said we can expect new controls for them after it rolls out. But it wouldn’t offer a timeline or say whether it would default to stopping trackers.

I’m not holding my breath. Google itself, through its Doubleclick and other ad businesses, is the No. 1 cookie maker — the Mrs. Fields of the Web. It’s hard to imagine Chrome ever cutting off Google’s moneymaker.

“Cookies play a role in user privacy, but a narrow focus on cookies obscures the broader privacy discussion because it’s just one way in which users can be tracked across sites,” said Ben Galbraith, Chrome’s director of product management. “This is a complex problem, and simple, blunt cookie blocking solutions force tracking into more opaque practices.”

[Ask our tech columnist a question]

There are other tracking techniques — and the privacy arms race will get harder. But saying things are too complicated is also a way of not doing anything.

“Our viewpoint is to deal with the biggest problem first, but anticipate where the ecosystem will shift and work on protecting against those things as well,” said Peter Dolanjski, Firefox’s product lead.

Both Google and Mozilla said they’re working on fighting “fingerprinting,” a way to sniff out other markers in your computer. Firefox is already testing its capabilities and plans to activate them soon.

Making the switch

Choosing a browser is no longer just about speed and convenience — it’s also about data defaults.

It’s true that Google usually obtains consent before gathering data, and offers a lot of knobs you can adjust to opt out of tracking and targeted advertising. But its controls often feel like a shell game that results in us sharing more personal data.

I felt hoodwinked when Google quietly began signing Gmail users into Chrome last fall. Google says the Chrome shift didn’t cause anybody’s browsing history to be “synced” unless they specifically opted in — but I found mine was being sent to Google and don’t recall ever asking for extra surveillance. (You can turn off the Gmail auto-login by searching “Gmail” in Chrome settings and switching off “Allow Chrome sign-in.”)

After the sign-in shift, Johns Hopkins associate professor Matthew Green made waves in the computer science world when he blogged he was done with Chrome. “I lost faith,” he told me. “It only takes a few tiny changes to make it very privacy unfriendly.”

When you use Chrome, signing into Gmail automatically logs in the browser to your Google account. When “sync” is also on, Google receives your browsing history. (Geoffrey Fowler/The Washington Post)

There are ways to defang Chrome, which is much more complicated than just using “Incognito Mode.” But it’s much easier to switch to a browser not owned by an advertising company.

Like Green, I’ve chosen Firefox, which works across phones, tablets, PCs and Macs. Apple’s Safari is also a good option on Macs, iPhones and iPads, and the niche Brave browser goes even further in trying to jam the ad-tech industry.

What does switching to Firefox cost you? It’s free, and downloading a different browser is much simpler than changing phones.

In 2017, Mozilla launched a new version of Firefox called Quantumthat made it considerably faster. In my tests, it has felt almost as fast as Chrome, though benchmark tests have found it can be slower in some contexts. Firefox says it’s better about managing memory if you use lots and lots of tabs.

Switching means you’ll have to move your bookmarks, and Firefox offers tools to help. Shifting passwords is easy if you use a password manager. And most browser add-ons are available, though it’s possible you won’t find your favorite.

Mozilla has challenges to overcome. Among privacy advocates, the nonprofit is known for caution. It took a year longer than Apple to make cookie blocking a default.

And as a nonprofit, it earns money when people make searches in the browser and click on ads — which means its biggest source of income is Google. Mozilla’s chief executive says the company is exploring new paid privacy services to diversify its income.

Its biggest risk is that Firefox might someday run out of steam in its battle with the Chrome behemoth. Even though it’s the No. 2 desktop browser, with about 10 percent of the market, major sites could decide to drop support, leaving Firefox scrambling.

If you care about privacy, let’s hope for another David and Goliath outcome.

Read more tech advice and analysis from Geoffrey A. Fowler:

Don’t smile for surveillance: Why airport face scans are a privacy trap

What’s new from Apple? ‘Dark Mode’ on iOS, the end of iTunes and privacy tweaks.

Help Desk: Stop online ‘sextortion,’ maximize laptop battery life and protect secret Word docs