Beneath a Steel Sky was one of the first video games to give non-playable characters (NPCs) a schedule. They would wander around a scene. By 2020 standards, that’s a feature you see in almost every game, but in 1994 it was groundbreaking. This time around, Revolution has developed AI the studio claims makes NPCs willful and motivated. The system allows for “interesting” and “emergent” solutions to gameplay puzzles, according to Revolution.
It also appears the sequel maintains its predecessor’s sometimes silly and zany tone. Beyond being a must-play in a genre that includes heavyweights like The Secret of Monkey Island, Beneath a Steel Sky was a big deal in 1994 for uniting the talents of Charles Cecil and Dave Gibbons. Gibbons is best known for collaborating with Alan Moore on Watchmen, while Cecil is the co-founder of Revolution Software. Besides Beneath a Steel Sky, the studio is best known for its work on the Broken Sword series. Both Cecil and Gibbons worked on Beyond a Steel Sky.
Apple Arcade costs $5 per month. A subscription allows you to play the game (and many others) on iOS, tvOS and macOS. If you haven’t played Beneath a Steel Sky, you can grab a free copy on GOG. A remastered version of the game is also available on iOS for $3.
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Amazon is making it easier to buy a small tablet that still has gobs of storage for apps and videos. The retailer is selling the current-generation iPad mini with 256GB of storage for $50 off, bringing the WiFi-only version down to $499 while the WiFi + Cellular model has dipped to $629. Given that each comes with a modest 64GB of space in their base configurations, this might be your best chance in a while to future-proof your storage without paying the usual premium.
She also talks about how Hattie McDaniel, the first Black person to win an Oscar for her role as Mammy in the film, wasn’t allowed to sit with her cast members. The film’s other Black actors weren’t allowed to attend the movie’s premiere with everyone else due to Georgia’s Jim Crow segregation laws, as well.
Aside from Stewart’s introduction, HBO Max also attached an hour-long recording of a panel discussion entitled “The Complicated Legacy of Gone With the Wind” to the film. The panel discussion took place at the TCM Classic Film Festival in April 2019 and was moderated by author and historian Donald Bogle.
HBO Max pulled down Gone with the Wind in the middle of widespread protests against racism and police violence in the US. That was also after 12 Years A Slave screenwriter John Ridley called for its temporary removal until it can be reintroduced “with other films that give a more broad-based and complete picture of what slavery and the Confederacy truly were.”
So much for the familiar blue button, right? — Richard
Astronomers are puzzled by a mysterious dead star
It’s either the heaviest neutron star or the lightest black hole.
Alex Andrix
Last year, an array of antennas in the US and Italy detected some odd gravitational waves. The readings indicated that an object with a mass 2.6 times that of the sun was gobbled up by a black hole, 780 million years ago. That’s strange, because very few objects with that mass should be able to exist. According to a paper in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, scientists aren’t sure if the object was the heaviest neutron star ever detected or an extremely light black hole. Er, what? Continue reading.
Fujifilm X-T4 review: The best APS-C mirrorless camera, for a price
A lot of money gets you a lot of camera.
Engadget
The X-T3 was already the best APS-C mirrorless camera available. But with the X-T4 and several key new features, most notably in-body stabilization and a fully articulating screen, Fujfilm has bested itself again.
Sure, it still has the same 26.1-megapixel sensor, image quality and video features as before, but those are still best in class. Now, feature for feature, it beats any other APS-C camera by miles. The X-T4’s only drawbacks are some extra bulk, good-but-not-great autofocus and, most importantly, the price tag: $1,700. Continue reading.
Ford sets 2050 target for carbon neutrality
It’s the latest company to announce its green intentions.
Ford has announced its plans to become carbon neutral by 2050, and to do so will focus on three main areas: vehicle use, its supply base and its company facilities — all of which account for around 95 percent of its CO2 emissions.
The pledge builds on the company’s existing aim of powering all of its manufacturing plants with 100 percent locally sourced energy by 2035. It’s also committed to investing more than $11.5 billion in electric vehicles through 2022. As the climate crisis intensifies, every major brand worth its salt has made similar declarations. Shell, BP, Delta and Formula 1 are just some of the companies that have committed to carbon neutrality in recent times. Microsoft, meanwhile, has plans to go one further and become carbon negative. Continue reading.
Amazon Web Services customers now have an easy-to-use app-building tool at their disposal. The e-commerce giant has launched a fully managed service called Honeycode that allows AWS clients to build interactive mobile and web applications with no programming required. Honeycode has a simple visual application builder customers can use to, in Amazon’s words, “create applications that range in complexity from a task-tracking application for a small team to a project management system that manages a complex workflow for multiple teams or departments.”
The company is hoping that Honeycode can eliminate the need to resort to spreadsheets and emails to schedule events, create to-do—lists, track personnel progress and track content and inventory, among other business functions. Honeycode apps will make it easier for clients to sort, filter and link data together and will also give them way to create data dashboards that are updated in real-time. Clients don’t even have to worry about managing and maintaining any hardware or software — Amazon will take care of those.
“We are reviewing each case that has come to light as quickly as possible, while ensuring appropriate due diligence as we assess these serious allegations. We’ve prioritized the most severe cases and will begin issuing permanent suspensions in line with our findings immediately. In many of the cases, the alleged incident took place off Twitch, and we need more information to make a determination. In some cases we will need to report the case to the proper authorities who are better placed to conduct a more thorough investigation.”
Streamer JessyQuil put together a list containing many of the accusations posted publicly and anonymously against various streamers, as well as a Google spreadsheet with the accusations and any responses. Many streamers participated in or posted about a Twitch Blackout on Wednesday in an effort to push the service and its CEO Emmett Shear for a response.
A list of recently banned Twitch Partners on StreamerBans.com shows several names from the list, including BlessRNG, Wolv21, WarwitchTV and IAmSp00n. That also included removing a global emote the service had added for BlessRNG.
Responses from other streamers and the community of viewers pushing for changes noted this as a good start, but as the statement acknowledged, there is more that needs to be done.
An update on our investigations into the recent allegations of sexual abuse and harassment involving Twitch streamers and actions we’re taking. https://t.co/OLJzU9LEVU
The new game’s Steam page reveals little else. Its title is listed as Project A███████, though its Steam community page suggests its whole name is Project Ambrosio. The game’s Steam description reads, “██████████ new ███████ Sam Barlow ██ Half Mermaid █████████████ is ███████ ██████████ cinema ██ death.” In the “About This Game” section, the years 1968, 1971, 1999 and 2022 serve as headers to mostly blacked-out paragraphs, save for a few words. Even the game’s release year is partly obscured: 2███.
A few videos and pictures offer visual clues. Eerie video clips show what appears to be a close-up of a slithering snake, a burning structure and two legs extending from water; The latter of which is accompanied by unsettling music and chirping sounds. Pictures of a mask, window, gun, mirror and lips are labeled with seemingly random numbers.
We’ll see if Barlow offers us any more clues about Project A and its contents before its release date, whenever that may be.
NBCUniversal is quickly expanding the range of devices you can use to stream its Peacock service. Both LG Smart TVs and Vizio SmartCast sets will support Peacock when it reaches wider availability on July 15th, including the free, $5 Premium and $10 ad-free Premium tiers. The media giant didn’t name specific models, but offerings like this aren’t usually dependent on having the absolute latest set.
The Justice Department is levelling more accusations against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange — though not new charges. Officials have filed a superseding indictment against Assange that maintains the earlier 18 counts of computer intrusion and Espionage Act violations, but adds claims that he recruited hackers, including people from Anonymous and LulzSec.
Most notably, the DOJ alleges that Assange talked to a LulzSec leader (who’d already turned FBI informant) in 2012 and provided a list of hacking targets for a document sweep. He reportedly encouraged the LulzSec leader to target the CIA, NSA and New York Times, arguing that theses organizations’ hacked materials would be more “impactful,” according to the DOJ.
Instagram is determined to make its TikTok clone, Reels, more of a force to be reckoned with. It’s moving Reels to dedicated sections both in user profiles and (for public accounts) the Explore section, giving you an easier way to find those 15-second clips. It’s also expanding beyond the original Brazil audience to include creators in France and Germany. That’s far from the ubiquity that TikTok enjoys, but it’s clear Instagram is still building out the feature.
The company didn’t tell TechCrunch when it would bring Reels to the US or other countries, but did say it expected the wider availability to help with refining the experience.
