Latest News - Page 1781

Another day, another data breach. Or at least that's what it feels like when you keep up with cyber-security news. This time its not really that surprising though, as a porn website had its entire data base freely open.

Condition:Black, a cyber-security and internet freedom firm discovered that a network of camgirl websites had exposed databases. The sites run by Barcelona-based VTS Media, include amateur.tv, webcampornoxxx.net, and placercams.com. While most of the users were found to be based in Europe, some data logins were found to be in the Untied States and around the world.

What kind of data was exposed? According to Techcrunch, the database contained a month-worth of daily logs, those logs included: Usernames, IP addresses, viewing habits, private chats, failed login attempts and even some details of sex workers. It isn't clear if the data base had been hacked and the data stolen, but since its discovery it has been locked down.

Hideo Kojima has sat down with BBC Radio 1 Newsbeat to shine a light on what caused him to make Death Stranding, and the events that have taken place on a global scale to result in him creating such a unique gaming experience.

According to the interview, Kojima has created Death Stranding to give gamers a visual representation of the disconnect that he believes has taken over the planet. Kojima says, "We may be connected through the internet more than ever, but what's happening is that people are attacking each other because we're so connected." Death Stranding is designed to make players think about that connection and disconnection ratio.

Throughout the interview, Kojima dives further into the events that caused him to design this game the way he did. Kojima talks about real-world controversial issues that are causing mass divide around the planet, "President Trump right now is building a wall. Then you have Brexit, where the UK is trying to leave, there are lots of walls and people thinking only about themselves in the world." He continues and says that players will use Norman Reedus' Sam Porter Bridges see save the world from this disconnection.

Microsoft Japan recently went through a trial of a 4-day work week, with the results of the experiment showing that there was a huge 40% increase in productivity.

The 40% increase in productivity was mostly through shorter, more efficient meetings which saw all 2300 staff at Microsoft Japan taking 5 Fridays off in a row with the same salary, and no days removed from their annual leave. Microsoft Japan named the project the "Work-Life Choice Challenge Summer 2019".

Microsoft Japan president and CEO Takuya Hirano said: "Work a short time, rest well and learn a lot. It's necessary to have an environment that allows you to feel your purpose in life and make a greater impact at work. I want employees to think about and experience how they can achieve the same results with 20 percent less working time".

Joker is scaring up some serious cash at the box office, with the darker DC movie reaching $934 million worldwide since its debut.

So far, the movie has made $300 million domestically in the US and $634 million in international box office sales. Given that WB spent just $70 million to make Joker (and say another $100 million in marketing) then the profits on the movie are actually far greater than even something like Avengers: Infinity War which had a $316 million budget and most likely $200-250 million.

Avengers: Infinity War was also the 4th most-expensive movie ever made, while Joker has a modest $70 million budget. This is a very big win for DC and I'm sure unexpected (at least at hitting $1 billion) when it has already beaten Wonder Woman which had a great reception, and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice which was drowning in controversy (I don't know why, it was great -- especially the Ultimate Edition). We won't even talk about Justice League, but I do talk about it with the Snyder Cut of Justice League chatter.

TSMC, or as they're officially known Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp., have announced they are building a new research and development center in Taiwan that will begin research into a material beyond silicon.

The new center is part of a shift away from the previous talks of TSMC building a new plant in the United States, with TSMC Chairman Mark Liu saying recently that the US government has been in contact with its customers about moving semiconductor manufacturing into the US because of the recent allegations of spy equipment infused into major systems and motherboards including SuperMicro by China.

TSMC boss Mark Liu added that production of chips in the US is "very difficult" due to its costs, following up that the manufacturing giant will build a new Bell Labs-like research and development center in Hsinchu, Taiwan -- where 8000 engineers will begin research into materials beyond silicon. How damn exciting is that.

Oh, you thought Intel's new Core i9-9900KS cost $500 or so... well, it does -- but if you want a pre-tested Core i9-9900KS that is guaranteed to hit 5.2GHz on all cores... then Silicon Lottery has just that, for $1200.

If you want the guaranteed 200MHz overclock on Intel's new Core i9-9900KS processor, then Silicon Lottery has a few of those golden samples that has maximum OC at all times. The regular Core i9-9900KS sits at a 4GHz base CPU clock, but Silicon Lottery offers 5GHz all-day (and all-night) long.

However, the regular 9900KS still hits 5GHz you just have to manually do it -- Silicon Lottery admits that "100% of the tested 9900KS" processors "were able to hit 5.0GHz or greater". However, Silicon Lottery has a bunch of golden sample chips that will be guaranteed to go from 5.0GHz to 5.1GHz (a 100MHz overclock) which costs $750. If you want all-day all-night at 5.2GHz, it's gonna cost you $1200.

Secretlab has just unveiled the world's first Overwatch-themed gaming chairs, just as Blizzard unveiled Overwatch 2. The two new chairs include an Overwatch-themed variant, and an even better-looking D.Va Edition gaming chair.

The new Secretlab D.Va Edition gaming chair comes in two variants itself, with the OMEGA D.Va Edition and the TITAN D.Va Edition with the big difference here being that the OMEGA version is a slim fit chair while the TITAN allows you to sit (like me) cross-legged when you're gaming.

Secretlab uses a gorgeous bubblegum-pink themed SoftWeave Fabric, with a bunch of D.Va's iconic in-game decals which are all over the wings of the chair. It seriously looks so good, and I can't wait to have one in my gaming station next to my huge D.Va statue.

Blizzard openly admits fault for the massive Hong Kong controversy it kicked off last month, and promises to "do better" in the future.

Amid pressures from the games industry, fans across the globe, and even the U.S. Congress and Senate, Blizzard President J. Allen Brack formally apologized and accepts all responsibility for the controversial banning of Hearthstone player Blitzchung.

"Blizzard had the opportunity to bring the world together in a tough Hearthstone esports moment about a month ago, but we did not. We moved too quickly in our decision making, and then to make matters worse, we were too slow to talk with all of you," Brack said in an opening statement during Blizzcon 2019's big ceremony.

Diablo IV can't be played offline on PC, Blizzard confirms, and the same could be true for consoles.

Now that Diablo IV is basically an MMO with a shared world with social hubs, PVP areas, and a huge connected world, Blizzard is transforming it into an online-only game with never-ending content. In a recent interview with PC Gamer, Diablo IV lead designer Joe Shely confirmed the news:

"There's a large, seamless, connected, and shared space in the world, going down into dungeons, being able to group with your friends, trading and PvP. We feel that the best way to experience that is in a world that is online."

Overwatch 2 was announced at Blizzcon 2019, and the leaks were right on the money: It's a sequel that ties directly with the first game.

Overwatch 2 is a bit confusing. For all intents and purposes, the sequel is a co-operative-based expansion to the original game. It's not really a sequel that resets everything from scratch. Blizzard isn't leaving original Overwatch players out, either. Even if you don't buy Overwatch 2, you'll still get all new characters added into the sequel and be able to play alongside Overwatch 2 gamers with full PVP cross-play. All progress, cosmetics, and rankings from Overwatch 1 also carry over to Overwatch 2.

Overwatch 2's main selling point is two new PVE modes: A campaign-based Story Mode and a survival-esque Hero Missions gametype. The new RPG-like progression system, which sees each hero leveling up with passive upgrades and talents to "supercharge their abilities in co-op play," is exclusive to the Hero Missions mode.

A new Rick and Morty advertisement has been released onto the official Adult Swim Facebook Page, it shows Rick and Morty investigating the Death Stranding.

The ad shows Rick and Morty aimlessly walking around in Death Stranding, and as per usual the 4th wall is broken by Rick saying, "Alright look Morty, [Hideo] Kojima wants us to reconnect a fractured society and stop the death stranding." Rick then asks Morty what all the floating ghosts are around him and Morty explains that those ghosts are the "death stranding".

Morty then speaks out and says that they have been walking for awhile and that he's got this strange baby in a tube. Rick then says he has got an idea and begins to start shoving Morty thinking that the baby is some kind of upgrade triggered by pressure. After realizing that the baby isn't a pushable upgrade he then suggests to eat it, saying it could potentially "make us run faster or jump higher". Morty is then convinced and says "let's eat the baby".

Nintendo recently revealed their financial results and through this reveal the company let the public in on some extremely cool Super Mario Maker 2 statistics.

According to Nintendo's financial results, players have uploaded a staggering 8 million courses to date, and those very same courses have been played over 400 million times. This is a HUGE amount of play time considering Super Mario Maker 2 only launched back in June of this year.

Nintendo also said that the sales for the 13 weeks following the June release was 1.5x compared to past Super Mario Maker titles. If you are a Super Mario Maker 2 player and happened to be out of the loop as of late, Nintendo recently added a massive update to the title, bringing some epic multiplayer action. Check out more on that here.

TikTok's parent company could be in a little bit of trouble as an investigation has been opened up regarding its acquisition of Musical.ly.

According to a new report out of Reuters, the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) has begun to open up an investigation into ByteDance's acquisition of Musical.ly back in 2017. The acquisition for Musical.ly was for a whopping $1 billion, and the reason for the investigation is over U.S. concerns the Chinese owned company might be censoring politically sensitive content.

Reuters reports that CFIUS has reviewed the company acquisition, and found that TikTok did not seek proper clearance from the CFIUS. A TikTok spokesperson said, "While we cannot comment on ongoing regulatory processes, TikTok has made clear that we have no higher priority than earning the trust of users and regulators in the U.S. Part of that effort includes working with Congress and we are committed to doing so." The CFIUS also had a spokesperson who declined to reveal any details regarding the ongoing investigation.

When you think about robots that can move all by themselves, your first thought probably isn't robotic jumping cubes. Yet they are here, and moving quite easily.

Researchers out of MIT have shown of version 2.0 of what has been called the "M-Block", a self-assembling robotic cube that was first revealed back in 2013. The above video has been released to showcase how the blocks work, and from the video we learn that the cubes generate their own momentum with an internal flywheel, and use magnets to latch onto other block faces.

Each of the blocks also have a specific 'barcode-like' print located on their faces, this barcode can tell the blocks to follow a fixed path to accomplished desired tasks. MIT News says that researchers imagine that this kind of block technology will be used in industries such as inspection, gaming, manufacturing, health care and strangely enough, disaster response. A quote from MIT News is located in the entirety of this article.

The battle royale genre is extremely hard to break into, with already established titles such as Fortnite, Apex Legends and PUBG dominating the scene, developers have a hard time of entering the market with a new and popular title.

But what about pirates? Everyone loves pirates right? Well, Iceberg Interactive took the plunge off the gangplank, developed the title and made the announcement of a pirate-based battle royale called Blazing Sails. Blazing Sails was announced during the Paris Games Week and pits players against each other in a classic battle royale arena but the catch is ship-to-ship combat.

From the trailer, we can summarize that players will be able to customize their character and ship while also working together as a crew to operate and siege other players ships. Ultimately, players will be after that sweet booty, and judging from the trailer they will be able to acquire this booty from dead players, captured ships and chests. Iceberg Interactive are aiming for fast-paced naval battles through quick skirmish matches. According to the Steam page, Blazing Sails: Pirate Battle Royale will launch in early 2020.

Its a fantastic day for Spider-Man fans as it has now been officially confirmed that Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse will be getting a well-deserved sequel.

The news has come from Christopher Miller who was a co-producer with Phil Lord on the first film. Above we have the Tweet from Miller's official Twitter account and its captioned, "We're coming back. April 8, 2022". The Tweet shows a glitching Miles Morales Spider symbol, and the glitching seems to be the same of the reality tears that were a massive part of the first film.

This might not come as a massive surprise to hardcore Spider-Man fans, considering the first movies end credit scene of a new character voiced by Oscar Issac. While I won't get into any spoilers if you haven't seen the movie, I will though highly recommend the film to not only Spider-Man fans but also any comic book fans, as its one of the best comic book movies ever released.

BlizzCon 2019 - Blizzard Entertainment have teased World of Warcraft fans with a new gameplay trailer detailing all of the new features to arrive in the new coming expansion "Shadowlands".

Sylvanas has killed the Lich King and claimed his powers for her own. She has also opened up a portal to the afterlife where players will be taken for the next expansion. Above we have The Features Overview trailer which gives us a look at what to expect for the next expansion gameplay-wise.

Players will be introduced to four new zones: Revendreth, Ardenweald, Maldraxxus and Bastion. Firstly, game director Ion Hazzikostas explained at BlizzCon that Revendreth is "a land of Gothic spires and dark secrets" ruled by the Covenant Venthyr. Next, Ardenweald takes players to a "enchanted mystical forest" controlled by the Night Fae. Madraxxus is a stronghold for the Shadowlands military, controlled by Necrolord. Lastly, Bastion is ruled by Kyrian and the location is for the "ordered and purposeful" who are looking to "shed past burdens and seek virtue".

BlizzCon 2019 - Blizzard Entertainment have officially confirmed and showcased the next expansion to come to World of Warcraft, introducing World of Warcraft: Shadowlands.

Above we have the official cinematic trailer for Shadowlands where we see Sylvanas go toe-to-toe with the legendary Lich King. Sylvanas narrates the trailer as she explains that she believes the Lich King is a "usurper", saying "No king rules forever."

In the cinematic we see Sylvanas attack the Lich King and his army, using her arrows and quick moves Sylvanas seems to make quick work of the King. Before his demise, the Lich King warns Sylvanas "that power will be your prison", she replies after a brief pause, saying "This world is a prison. And I will set us all free." She then breaks the Lich King helmet in two opening a portal to the afterlife above Icecrown Citadel. World of Warcraft: Shadowlands will release sometime next year.

Blizzard had a huge surprise by announcing Overwatch 2 during its opening keynote at BlizzCon 2019, but news quickly broke and was confirmed that Overwatch 2 would also be coming to the Nintendo Switch.

It wasn't even that long ago that the original Overwatch hit the Nintendo Switch, but now that Overwatch 2 has been announced -- without a release date, we know it'll hit the PC, Xbox One, PS4, and the Nintendo Switch. No mobile Overwatch 2 for now folks, even with news that Apex Legends will be on new platforms (PlayStation 5 and Xbox Scarlett) as well as mobile in the near future.

Overwatch 2 will feature "significant engine upgrades" that are exclusive to the new game, but there are no details on what exactly we'll see on the Nintendo Switch version of OW2. We might see a very baked-down version of the suped-up engine for Overwatch 2 on the Nintendo Switch, but only time will tell with that.

So, Blizzard did something kinda big by announcing Overwatch 2 during its BlizzCon 2019 opening keynote, and while many big fans of the franchise (like myself, it's my most-played game of all time) are a little mixed about it... there are some good things inside.

First, Overwatch 2 has "significant engine upgrades" that usher in the ability of offering much bigger maps that will be perfect for the new co-op mode, new enemies and factions, and better graphics in Overwatch 2 than its predecessor, Overwatch.

Blizzard have made a complete overhaul of the Overwatch engine, with the PvE mode and graphics/engine changes totally exclusive to Overwatch 2. While more of the Overwatch + Overwatch 2 worlds are mixed, the graphics upgrade is solely exclusive to Overwatch 2.