Markku.lempinen

As amazing as Half-Life 2 was when it was first released in 2004, time has not been kind to the original release's graphics, which can look a bit flat and dated compared to modern PC games. Enter Romanian modder Filip Victor, who's ready to release the final version of a massive, Source engine-powered graphical update for the game on Steam for free tomorrow.

As shown in a slick comparison trailer and detailed in a PDF brochure, Half-Life 2: Update offers graphical improvements like high dynamic range lighting, improved fog and particle effects, world reflections, more detailed water rendering, improved background models, and other effects that just weren't feasible back in 2004. The update also fixes a number of animation and cut-scene-activation bugs that have persisted in the original release and adds optional fan commentary from a number of high-profile YouTube personalities.

Despite all the graphical changes, the update leaves the original gameplay, level design, character models, textures, and animations intact. "The goal of Half-Life 2: Update is to fix up, polish, and visually enhance Half-Life 2, without ever changing the 2004 original’s core gameplay, or time-tested style," Victor wrote in the update's brochure. "I wanted to ensure that the update was something that would be enduring, and worth the time it takes to play it. I hope that both newcomers and veterans of the Half-Life series will enjoy seeing the work that went into its creation."

We haven't even gotten a public build of Microsoft's new Project Spartan browser yet, but the company is already tweaking its browser strategy.

Windows 10 was always going to support both Spartan and Internet Explorer, and they were always going to be separate browsers. As originally conceived, both of them would be able to switch between the legacy Trident rendering engine and the new Edge rendering engine. Internet Explorer would remain more focused on legacy sites, though—it would retain compatibility with ActiveX plugins and third-party toolbars, features that Spartan is stripping out.

Now, an MSDN blog post says that Microsoft is making the Spartan and Internet Explorer split even more pronounced. Spartan will still get the Edge engine, but it will drop the legacy Trident rendering engine completely. Internet Explorer keeps Trident—and, crucially, its compatibility with sites designed for IE 5.5 or later—but it will no longer be able to use the new Edge engine. Microsoft says that including the new Edge engine in IE would introduce compatibility problems even without removing Trident. Now, if a site works in Internet Explorer 11 in Windows 7 or Windows 8.1, it's guaranteed to work exactly the same way in Internet Explorer 11 in Windows 10.

Making of “The Wright Brothers” (by John Thomas Daniels, 1903)

“The Wright Brothers” (by John Thomas Daniels, 1903)

Making of “Nessie” (by Marmaduke Wetherell, 1934)

Making of “Five Soldiers Silhouette at the Battle of Broodseinde” (by Ernest Brooks, 1917)

Making of “Tiananmen” (by Stuart Franklin, 1989)

Making of “AS11-40-5878″ (by Edwin Aldrin, 1969)

“AS11-40-5878″ (by Edwin Aldrin, 1969)

Making of “Lakehurst” (by Sam Shere, 1937)

Making of “The last photo of the Titanic afloat” (by Francis Browne, 1912)

“The last photo of the Titanic afloat” (by Francis Browne, 1912)

Making of “La cour du dumaine du Gras” (by Joseph Nicéphore Niépce, 1826)

“La cour du dumaine du Gras” (by Joseph Nicéphore Niépce, 1826)

Early yesterday morning, Microsoft's Terry Myerson surprised everyone—including, I think, Microsoft PR—by announcing that everyone would get a free upgrade to Windows 10, even users with pirated/non-genuine licenses. There was then a fairly long pause while Microsoft PR prepared a response.

First, a Microsoft spokesperson confirmed with ZDNet that, "the plan to allow free upgrades for non-genuine copies of Windows applies to all markets" worldwide, not just China. Then, early this morning—more than 24 hours after the original Reuters story went live—Microsoft PR sent out another statement. Here it is in full:

The consumer free upgrade offer for Windows 10 applies to qualified new and existing devices running Windows 7, Windows 8.1, and Windows Phone 8.1. Some editions are excluded from the consumer free upgrade—including Windows 7 Enterprise, Windows 8/8.1 Enterprise, and Windows RT/RT 8.1. Active Software Assurance customers in volume licensing have the benefit to upgrade to other Windows 10 enterprise offerings.

We have always been committed to ensuring that customers have the best Windows experience possible. With Windows 10, although non-Genuine PCs may be able to upgrade to Windows 10, the upgrade will not change the genuine state of the license. Non-Genuine Windows is not published by Microsoft. It is not properly licensed, or supported by Microsoft or a trusted partner. If a device was considered non-genuine or mislicensed prior to the upgrade, that device will continue to be considered non-genuine or mislicensed after the upgrade. According to industry experts, use of pirated software, including Non-Genuine Windows, results in a higher risk of malware, fraud (identity theft, credit card theft, etc), public exposure of your personal information, and a higher risk for poor performance or feature malfunctions.

That statement had one very confusing sentence: "If a device was considered non-genuine or mislicensed prior to the upgrade, that device will continue to be considered non-genuine or mislicensed after the upgrade." We reached out to Microsoft for clarification, to find out what it actually means to have a non-genuine copy of Windows 10. "We don’t have anything further to share outside of the statement at the moment."

The Federal Communications Commission last week released the full text of its Open Internet order, just in time for a series of Congressional hearings called by Republicans eager to chastise the FCC.

An FCC oversight meeting held this afternoon by the Senate Committee on Commerce began with committee Chairman John Thune (R-S.D.) expressing his disappointment in the three Democratic members of the FCC.

"Rather than exercising regulatory humility, the three majority commissioners chose to take the most radical, polarizing, and partisan path possible," Thune said. "Instead of working with me and my colleagues in the House and Senate on a bipartisan basis, to find a consensus, the three of you chose an option that I believe will only increase political, regulatory, and legal uncertainty, which will ultimately hurt average Internet users. Simply put, your actions jeopardize the open Internet that we are all seeking to protect."

The last time we checked in with Eric "Wingman" Peterson was August of 2014, where he was running Cloud Imperium Games’ Austin office and overseeing development on Star Citizen’s persistent universe. However, just a few months after that, Peterson left Cloud Imperium to develop his own game: a reboot of the mid-'90s first-person shooter game Descent.

Peterson has formed Descendent Studios, hired a development staff, and is currently overseeing a Kickstarter to pull together a minimum of $600,000 to finance development of the game, which is titled Descent Underground. Critically, Descent Underground has something that previous attempts to resurrect the Descent franchise have lacked: a licensing agreement with IP-holder Interplay.

Old name, new presentation

Descent was published by Interplay more than 20 years ago, in 1994. The first-person shooter developed by Parallax Software had players zipping around underground in a series of cavernous (and sometimes claustrophobic) mines filled with mad killer robots. Players navigated the underground environment in a Pyro GX spacecraft, which led to the game’s main selling point: it wasn’t just a regular FPS, but one which offered "six degrees of freedom." In other words, you could move in any direction (X, Y, and Z) and turn in any direction (roll, pitch, yaw).