Spry Fox

When the game designers at Spry Fox named their latest puzzle game after Robert Frost’s most famous poem, we didn’t expect much depth or inspiration from the source material. Frankly, Frost’s The Road Not Taken, while sweet and lyrical, hides little under the surface to work with, particularly from a gaming perspective. Pick between one of two roads? Even text adventures gave players the choice of north, south, east, or west.

Thankfully, the game’s title is misleading, at least at first blush. Road Not Taken’s hand-drawn world and puzzly play rarely boil down to obvious, binary choices. The game revolves around a really refreshing spin on the well-trodden “match three” puzzle genre (which is to be expected from the designers who pulled off a similar, stellar feat in 2010’s Triple Town).

But there’s a point to the game’s name. As players get a feel for RNT’s pace—with randomly generated puzzles, a constant flow of new things to interact with, and heavily ramping difficulty—they slowly come to grips with the game’s very difficult core. Not in terms of how hard or clever the game is, mind you, but the fact that this is a puzzle game about death, disappointment, and family. Spry Fox treats that somber quality with elegance and simplicity, meaning the game is a wonder to play, but rarely do puzzle games (Tetris, Candy Crush) include death as a major feature. RNT stands out because of how it embraces that design choice, a fact that really makes all the difference.

Sprint owner SoftBank has been talking about buying T-Mobile US for months, but is reportedly abandoning the plan because US regulators would likely object.

The Wall Street Journal reported today that SoftBank is giving up after "decid[ing] it simply would be too difficult to win approval from regulators." The report quoted the usual "people familiar with the matter." Sprint CEO Dan Hesse is also expected to be replaced tomorrow. The new CEO will be Marcelo Claure of Brightstar, according to Re/code.

We asked Sprint if it is ending its pursuit of T-Mobile, but a spokesperson declined to comment.

Apple and Samsung have agreed to drop their patent lawsuits against each other in every jurisdiction but one: the US. The two companies have sued each other in Australia, Japan, South Korea, Germany, Netherlands, the UK, France, and Italy; and all these cases are being dropped without being settled and without any cross-licensing agreements being negotiated. The companies disclosed the change in legal strategy in a joint e-mail.

This leaves the US as the sole battleground between the smartphone giants. Juries in the US awarded Apple $120 million in May this year and $900 million in 2013 (reducing a $1.05 billion award from the previous year).

This move is the latest de-escalation in the smartphone patent wars. Apple and Google settled in May this year, ending all smartphone patent litigation between those companies. Apple and Samsung also dropped their appeals of an International Trade Commission case in June.

Summer continues to be the season that separates the gaming projects that will actually see a holiday 2014 release and those that will inevitably be pushed into the next year for slightly more development time. Cooperative shooter Evolve joined the latter group today when publisher 2K announced in an earnings call that the anticipated shooter is being pushed back from a planned October 21, 2014 release to February 2015. No specific reason was given for the delay.

Developed by Left 4 Dead studio Turtle Rock, Evolve sees four players with unique capabilities teaming up to take on a single, human-controlled beast, who evolves new abilities by eating local flora and fauna. The unique take on the usual team-based shooter dynamics impressed our previewer earlier this year, and the game has continued to shine at trade show demos since then. Just this weekend, 2K conducted a closed alpha test of the game on PC, and the title will also be available on PS4 and Xbox One.

This news follows a recently announced delay for Battlefield: Hardline, which publisher EA pushed back from October 21 to "early 2015." If the persistent delays of holiday games in the past two years is any indication, they might not be alone by the time October finally comes around.

It's been about 20 years since Mark Hamill first graced PC screens as Colonel Christopher Blair in Origin System's Wing Commander III: Heart of the Tiger. If you've somehow gone this whole time without experiencing his performance, now's your chance to rectify that. EA is currently offering the game completely free on its Origin digital distribution service.

WC3 is part of EA's ongoing "On the House" promotion, which started off with Battlefield 3 in June and The Sims 2: Ultimate in July, with the promise of new free titles to come regularly in the future. Though the price is time-limited, those who download the game during the sale will have access to it through Origin indefinitely.

Wing Commander III usually sells for just $5 on Origin and is currently available for $6 DRM-free from GOG, so this isn't exactly the world's biggest video game sale. Still, there can be a big difference between "free" and "a few bucks," especially when it comes to a retro PC classic that every sci-fi fan should experience.

The Robert E. Coyle Federal Courthouse in Fresno is the site of a significant portion of the nation's laser strike cases.

Cyrus Farivar

On Monday, a federal court in Central California sentenced a 26-year-old to one year and nine months in prison for firing two different laser pointers at a Kern County Sheriff’s Office helicopter over a six month period in 2013.

The man, Brett Lee Scott of Buttonwillow, took a plea deal with federal prosecutors according to a May 5, 2014 court filing. Scott explained his actions by saying that he was “bored.”

It may seem like a silly thing, but laser strikes against planes, helicopters, and other aerial vehicles have become an increasing epidemic nationwide. Since the FBI began keeping track in 2005, there have been more than 17,000 laser strikes—one-fifth (3,960) in 2013 alone. During the first three months of 2014, the FBI reported an average of 9.5 incidents daily.