It's likely been years since many of you have heard of Firewire and some readers likely never had the opportunity to use it. The Firewire interface was great back in the day and during the early period of digital video cameras, but modern versions of USB and Thunderbolt are far faster, allow longer cable distances, and numerous other advantages. While Firewire hasn't seen much activity in years and can be outpaced by USB 3.0 and beyond, there is a new Firewire subsystem maintainer for the Linux kernel and he intends to keep at it for the next six years...

Microsoft's president Brad Smith said the UK regulator's decision to prevent its acquisition of 'Call of Duty' maker Activision Blizzard "had shaken confidence" in Britain as a destination for tech businesses. From a report: The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), which operates independently from government, blocked the deal on Wednesday, saying it could hit competition in the nascent cloud gaming market. Microsoft hit back on Thursday, saying it was "probably the darkest day in our four decades in Britain" and sent the wrong message to the global tech industry about the UK. "If the government of the United Kingdom wants to bring in investment, if it wants to create jobs (...) it needs to look hard at the role of the CMA, the regulatory structure in the United Kingdom, this transaction, and the message that the United Kingdom has just said to the world," he told BBC radio. "We continue to believe that the UK has an extremely attractive tech sector and a growing games market," he said. "We will continue to engage proactively with Microsoft and other companies."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Previously on the Activision Blizzard merger, the deal was approved by South Africa, though other regions are in stark opposition. Today, we'll focus on the decision made by one of such opposers with the UK Competition and Market's Authority.  As this institution is the current branch that has motioned to ultimately shutter the deal.

There are two big reasons why this is even happening. First is a tweet that the CMA posted, revealing that they’re blocking the $69 billion merger on the basis of… cloud gaming. Certainly, an unexpected course of action considering that Sony’s barely touched the surface of cloud gaming, compared to Microsoft fully embracing the ideal. You can view the United Kingdom CMA’s tweet below.

We’ve prevented @Microsoft from purchasing @Activision over concerns the deal would damage competition in the #CloudGaming market, leading to less innovation and choice for UK #gamers. https://t.co/SdXt1rYAkZ pic.twitter.com/prWcDI7Evt

— Competition & Markets Authority (@CMAgovUK) April 26, 2023

So, cloud gaming is the straw that broke the camel’s back, as unbelievable as it sounds. Compared to the overall gaming industry, cloud gaming is around 1% of the entire industry. Secondly, and the probably far more realistic side of things, could have to do with the Nintendo Switch’s… less-than-stellar performance with their games. The CMA enters the picture here, and in their 418-page report on the acquisition, we can find the following remark:

CoD is currently available on two gaming consoles – Xbox and PlayStation. We found that these consoles compete closely with each other in terms of content, target audience, and console technology. We found that Nintendo's consoles compete less closely with either of Xbox or PlayStation, generally offering consoles with different technical specifications, and with its most popular titles tending to be more family- and child-friendly.

Nintendo does not currently offer CoD, and we have seen no evidence to suggest that its consoles would be technically capable of running a version of CoD that is similar to those in Xbox and PlayStation in terms of quality of gameplay and content.

Considering that 60 frames per second are on such a game-by-game basis for the Switch (and many games that run at 60 and above elsewhere are incapable of doing so on Switch), that’s a valid concern. However, it also is important to note that Microsoft did make a deal with Nintendo to bring Call of Duty to the Nintendo Switch. Not to mention, this kind of deal was made with cloud gaming services such as GeForce NOW, addressing the cloud gaming concern offered by the CMA.

Of course, it's easy to assume that Microsoft could basically make Cloud versions of Call of Duty games available on the Nintendo Switch. This isn't a new practice in the industry, as the hardware has been relying on this kind of game to be able to play games such as Hitman and Kingdom Hearts. In the meantime, we'll expectantly wait for more news regarding Microsoft's appeal of the Activision Blizzard block soon.

Evil Dead: The Game apparently won Game of the Year from uhh... somewhere I guess because it's getting a new Game of the Year edition.

The GOTY edition comes with the base game plus a ton of DLC including skins, survivors, demons, and items that were added after launch. The GOTY edition also includes a new "Who's Your Daddy Bundle" which includes a new survivor, demon and outfit. 

Evil Dead: The Game - Game of the Year Edition is available now for PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Series X and PC.

It has been a few months since the GPD WIN 4 handheld ended its crowdfunding campaign and began shipments to consumers. The system, priced at ¥5799 (estimated at $840.85), offers better performance compared to Valve's Steam Deck, but that could be its downfall. In a recent customer interaction with GPD HK support, it turns out the system is incapable of playing 2D games and retro games.

GPD WIN 4 handheld console is incapable of playing 2D & retro games due to a display defect, stating that the system is only suited for AAA games

The below email describes an issue where the user experienced artifacts on the screen during gameplay. It is explained in the comments section on the Reddit post that it is noticeable in 60 Hz refresh rates and lower. Additionally, the display is not using landscape screen positioning and needs a workaround to change the screen from "portrait" to "landscape" modes.

A YouTube video from GPD Game Console shows the screen in portrait and needs to be changed to landscape, but reading the comments shows the WIN MAX 2 is "native landscape." The title of the video is "Why we need native landscape?"

The response from GPD HK is troublesome. The system, selling for above $800, is expensive for consumers looking for a portable computer handheld. The system has shown performance with the controversial game Hogwarts Legacy, based on the Harry Potter universe by J.K. Rowling, against the Valve Steam Deck. In performance benchmark testing, the GPD WIN 4 produces an average of 64 fps while maintaining a 70° C temperature, while the Steam Deck hovered around 53 fps at 56° C.

The design of the GPD WIN 4 handheld console is similar to the PlayStation Portable (PSP), with a sliding screen mechanism that hides the keyboard underneath. Under the hood are the AMD Ryzen 7 6800U processor and integrated Radeon graphics. Windows 11 is preinstalled onto the GPD WIN 4 and supports Steam's operating system.

The fact that the company admits the system can easily play current AAA games and is not made for retro or 2D games removes an extensive library of games that have won numerous awards over the years. Also, instructing the consumer to purchase one of the company's older devices instead of offering any driver update to fix the issue would require the user to return the product (if it is within warranty and available for refunding) or purchase another handheld. Other devices on the market, such as the competing Steam Deck, or other options such as the OneXPlayer, AOKZOE handhelds, and others, allow users to play not only newer titles but also emulate older systems and even play native 2D games on the consoles.

sciencehabit shares a report from Science Magazine: A research team has turned the bodies of dead mice into vivid 3D maps of anatomy, with tissues, nerves, and vessels highlighted in color. The technique, which renders the corpses transparent and then exposes them to fluorescent antibodies that label distinct cell types, could help everything from drug development to understanding the spread of cancer, its creators and other scientists say. The developers, at the Helmholtz Munich research institute, call their technique wildDISCO -- wild because it can work on any "wild type," or normal, mice, and DISCO for 3D imaging of solvent-cleared organs. Building on their previous success at making mouse bodies transparent, the new technique removes cholesterol from the bodies so that a vast array of existing antibodies can penetrate deep into the animals. "wildDISCO is a game changer -- it allows us to see the hidden highways and byways in the body," says Muzlifah Haniffa, a dermatologist and immunologist at the Wellcome Sanger Institute and Newcastle University's Biosciences Institute who was not involved in the research. The method should let scientists map a mouse at the cellular level and explore previously hidden links between tissues, like neural connections between organs, says neuroscientist Ali Erturk, director of Helmholtz Munich, who led the work, posted recently as a preprint. His group in Germany has already posted eye-catching videos of "flying" through the 3D anatomy of a mouse with different tissues labeled.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Recent reports citing NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 40 price reduction and limited production may be due to excess inventories, claims a report by EETimes. According to an analysis by \research firm, Arete Research, NVIDIA is amongst the list of TSMC's Top fabless customers whose inventory far exceeds the 5-year industry average of 92 days.

NVIDIA Inventory Issues Could Be The Reason GeForce RTX 40 GPUs Have Been Limited In Production, Price Cuts & Promos To Alter Course?

When the recent NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 hit the market two weeks ago, the amount of inventory across the board, except for a few manufacturers' graphics cards, was packed on many retail shelves, whether online or in stores. NVIDIA has begun to sell the cards for cheaper to entice new and returning consumers, but it is not only due to the cards not selling fast enough.

TSMC and Samsung were previously on an increased path to be the first company to develop and manufacture the 3nm process technology for chips used in processors and graphics cards. TSMC recently acquired this goal, but not without problems. According to a report by EE Times, the semiconductor giant is struggling with "tool and yield" issues that are slowing the volume of production of 3nm-based chips to its customers, i.e., NVIDIA.

Our 3-nm technology is the first in the semiconductor industry to high-volume production with good yield. As our customers’ demand for N3 [TSMC terminology for 3 nm] exceeds our ability to supply, we expect N3 to be fully utilized in 2023, supported by both HPC and smartphone applications. Sizable N3 revenue contribution is expected to start in the third quarter, and N3 will contribute a mid–single–digit percentage of our total wafer revenue in 2023.

— C.C. Wei, Taiwan Semiconductor Co. CEO during a conference call with analysts

The report explains that over the last five years, "the industry's chip inventory safety line" was, at most, an estimated 92 days. NVIDIA has the most extensive inventory of GPUs, with an estimated 220 days' worth of supply. NVIDIA is one of six companies that are the largest fabless customers for TSMC and is the highest of five companies to exceed what is being called the "warning line."

The current market conditions aren't supporting either with inflation and economic devaluation of currency making gamers reluctant to buy new graphics cards such as NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 40 series. NVIDIA is also trying to limit production so that its partners don't end up with excessive inventories which would mean that price cuts and other incentives might be the only solution to push these GPUs out of warehouses.

The recent NVIDIA cuLitho hardware and software are being utilized in NVIDIA graphics cards, such as the H100 GPU, which uses a 5nm process technology. The new software and hardware will assist TSMC in "deploying inverse lithography and deeper learning."

We recently see TSMC partnered up with NVIDIA, Synopsys, and ASML on 2-nm production and beyond. TSMC is currently the only foundry within that group.

— Brad Lin, research analyst, Bank of America

TSMC is slated to increase N3, N4, and N5 nodes to assist companies like Apple and its A17 and M3 processors, ASIC-based server processors, and fabricate N4 and N5 nodes for AMD, Intel, and NVIDIA during H2 2023. However, N3 nodes are delayed because of the demand for adopting "multi-patterning with EUV lithography" from EUV lithography company ASML.

While the high cost of EUV multi-patterning has made the cost/benefit of EUV unattractive, loosening the design rules to minimize the number of EUV multi-patterning layers has led to a much higher die size. The “real” 3-nm node will not scale until a higher-throughput EUV system, ASML’s NXE:3800E, is available during the second half of 2023.

— Mehdi Hosseini, senior equity research analyst, Susquehanna International Group

TSMC's inventory woes are also causing companies other than NVIDIA to struggle with demand for parts and technology. This could be the more significant catalyst for the stagnant GPU sales for AMD, NVIDIA, and Intel, causing the three companies to reduce pricing almost upon launch.

This is the latest unofficial patch for Rune: Halls of Valhalla. This patch contains some bug fixes and crash fixes, as well as redirection of in-game downloads. As with any unofficial ptach, install this at your own risk. Rune: Halls of Valhalla Version 1.08 Client LIMITATION OF LIABILITY: TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, IN NO EVENT WILL CREATORS OR ITS SUPPLIERS OR RESELLER

I analyzed a PCAP file from a sandbox execution of the Evil Extractor stealer malware earlier today. This stealer collects credentials and files of interest from the victim’s computer and exfiltrates them to an FTP server. It is designed to autonomously collect and exfiltrate data rather than receiving commands from an operator through a command-and-control channel. The EvilExtractor creators market this feature as a “golden bullet”.

Real hackers don’t use reverse shells right? If you have only one bullet, would you waste with reverse shell? Try Evil Extractor to have golden bullet.

I downloaded the Evil Extractor capture file from Triage to a Windows Sandbox environment, to avoid accidentally infecting my computer when extracting artifacts from the PCAP. I then opened it up in the free version of NetworkMiner.

NetworkMiner shows that after checking its public IP on ipinfo.io EvilExtractor makes an unencrypted HTTP connection to a web server on 193.42.33.232 to download KK2023.zip. This zip archive contains a file called “Lst.exe” which is used to steal browser data, cookies and credentials according to Fortinet.

Image: Files downloaded from TCP port 80

Twenty seconds later an FTP connection is established to 89.116.53.55 on TCP port 21. The username and password used to authenticate to the FTP server was “u999382941” and “Test1234”.

On the FTP server EvilExtractor creates a directory named after the country and hostname of the victim's PC, such as “(Sweden)DESKTOP-VV03LJ”, in which it creates the following three sub directories:

• 1-Password-Cookies
• 2-Credentials
• 3-Files

After uploading browser cookies, browser history and cached passwords from Chrome, Firefox and Edge to the “1-Password-Cookies” directory EvilExtractor sends a file called “Credentials.txt” to the “2-Credentials” directory. The contents of this text file looks something like this:

Public IP: [redacted]
Location: [lat],[long]
Computer Name: [redacted]
Username: Admin
RAM: 4 GB
OS Name: Microsoft Windows 10 Pro
OS Bit: 64-bit
Keyboard Language: en-US
GPU: [redacted]
CPU: Intel [redacted]
MAC Address: [redacted]
Extracted WIFI: [redacted]

The stealer also exfiltrates files with mpeg, docx, jpeg, pptx, zip, avi and rar extensions from the victim PC to the “3-Files” directory on the FTP server. The directory structure of the victim’s PC is maintained on the FTP server, so that files from the victim's desktop end up in a folder called “Desktop” on the FTP server.

The stealer later downloaded a keylogger module (Confirm.zip) and a webcam module (MnMs.zip), but no additional data was exfiltrated from this particular victim PC after that point.

IOC List

• Web server: 193.42.33.232:80
• FTP server: 89.116.53.55:21
• EvilExtractor: 9650ac3a9de8d51fddab092c7956bdae
• KK2023.zip: f07b919ff71fb33ee0f77e9e02c5445b
• Lst.exe: 163d4e2d75f8ce6c838bab888bf9629c
• Confirm.zip: 30532a6121cb33afc04eea2b8dcea461
• Confirm.exe: 0c18c4669e7ca7e4d21974ddcd24fdca
• MnMs.zip: bda0bda512d3e2a81fc9e4cf393091eb
• MnMs.exe: fb970c4367609860c2e5b17737a9f460

Users with an account on Triage can download the analyzed PCAP file from here: https://tria.ge/230424-vv9wvsfb2v/behavioral2

Update 2023-04-27

Jane tweeted a link to an execution of this same sample on ANY.RUN. This execution showed very similar results as the one on Triage, but with an interesting twist. Not only did the ANY.RUN execution exfiltrate images and documents from the Desktop and Downloads folders, it also exfiltrated “vv9wvsfb2v_pw_infected.zip”, which contained the EvilExtractor EXE file that was being run!

The PCAP from the ANY.RUN execution can be downloaded from here: https://app.any.run/tasks/43a11a79-4d1f-406c-86d7-158efb5ede01/

The stories of self destructing Ryzen 7000 chips, both the Ryzen 7000X3D and standard models, has been verified and AMD has responded.  The good news is that anyone who has encountered this…

A future where all games would be live service games would be a boring future, according to former Sony Interactive Entertainment Worldwide Studios president Shuhei Yoshida.

Speaking with The Guardian in a lengthy interview that addresses a variety of other topics, one of the most recognizable faces from Sony Interactive Entertainment spoke about live service games, highlighting how he wishes the industry would continue to support and chase creative ideas and people who work on such ideas, as a future where games would become all the same, or live service games would be a bit boring for him.

While this statement may sound strange, coming from someone who's working in a company that has been increasing its effort in creating live service titles, it really isn't, considering Shuhei Yoshida was leading Sony Interactive Entertainment Worldwide Studios when Journey released, a very creative and unusual game which spearheaded a new wave of indie titles. In the interview with The Guardian, Shuhei Yoshida recalls how the launch of the game is one of the highlights of his career.

Creativity is still going to make a difference in the future of the video games industry, even in the era of AI-powered tools, according to Shuhei Yoshida. AI can produce some very strange things, he said, but these tools must be used properly. As such, AI will change the nature of learning for game developers, making it more efficient and allowing for more beautiful things to be made, possibly making creativity even more important in a future where a developer does not even need to learn how to code and program.

While many are the very creative games that get released, not many of them manage to achieve the same level of popularity as tried and true franchises and select live service games, so Shuhei Yoshida's feelings on the future of the industry are definitely warranted. Technology advancements will allow for even more creative titles, but if the market will actually embrace them enough to prevent the live service model from being the only feasible release model, only time will tell.

Fifty percent of Microsoft cybersecurity recovery engagements relate to ransomware,¹ and 61 percent of all breaches involve credentials.² In this second report in our ongoing Cyberattack Series, we look at the steps taken to discover, understand, and respond to a push-bombing request that targeted a legitimate user, allowing an attacker to authenticate and register their own mobile device.

Credential-based attacks begin with the process of stealing or obtaining credentials illegitimately. Often attackers target individuals who they believe have the credentials they need, then conduct social and dark web research on them. Phishing emails and websites created to target corporate targets only need to succeed once to gain credentials that can be sold to and shared with other bad actors.

Push-bombing is when an attacker uses a bot or script to trigger multiple access attempts with stolen or leaked credentials. The attempts trigger a rush of push notifications to the target user’s device, which should be denied. But multiple attempts can confuse a target and cause them to mistakenly allow authentication. Other times, multifactor authentication fatigue can weigh on the target, causing them to believe the access attempts are legitimate. Just one mistaken “allow” is all it takes for an attacker to gain access to an organization’s applications, networks, or files.

On average, people receive between 60 and 80 push notifications each day, with some of us viewing more than 200.³ The time it takes to swipe, tap, flag, click, save, and close every ding, buzz, pop-up, text, and tab takes a toll. Researchers believe the onslaught of notifications is causing us to get tired faster and lose focus, leaving us especially prone to distraction as the day wears on.⁴ This is what attackers count on. If an attacker gains the credentials to operate like a registered, legitimate user, identifying the intrusion and tracing their possible paths of destruction becomes paramount.

Late last year, a large enterprise customer asked Microsoft Incident Response to investigate an incursion into their on-premises Active Directory environment. Due to the risk of ongoing threats and the need for continued vigilance, the organization and attacker will be kept anonymous for this incident, and we will refer to it as “the inCREDible attack.” This credential-based incident highlights the critical need for establishing healthy habits in our security maintenance processes to combat the regular, repeated, and overwhelming credential attacks faced by today’s organizations.

In this report, we examine the factors contributing to the threat actor’s initial incursion and explore what could have happened without prompt, tactical mitigation efforts. Then we detail the required workstreams, recommended timing, and activities involved with regaining control and establishing a plan going forward. We’ll also explore four core steps customers can take to “eat their vegetables” and establish healthy habits that help minimize the risk of attack. And then we share five elements of a defense-in-depth approach that can help businesses maintain a robust defense against ransomware attacks.

Many attacks can be prevented—or at least made more difficult—through the implementation and maintenance of basic security controls. Organizations that “eat their vegetables” can strengthen their cybersecurity defenses and better protect against attacks. That means establishing a solid inventory of all technology assets, continually patching operating systems and software, and implementing comprehensive centralized log collection—all while following a well-defined retention policy. Read the report to go deeper into the details of the push-bombing attack, including the response activity, and lessons that other organizations can learn from this inCREDible case.

What is the Cyberattack Series?

With this Cyberattack Series, customers will discover how Microsoft incident responders investigate unique and notable exploits. For each attack story, we will share:

• How the attack happened
• How the breach was discovered
• Microsoft’s investigation and eviction of the threat actor
• Strategies to avoid similar attacks

Read the first blog in the Cyberattack Series, Solving one of NOBELIUM’s most novel attacks.

Learn more

To learn more about Microsoft Incident Response, visit our website or reach out to your Microsoft account manager or Premier Support contact.

To learn more about Microsoft Security solutions, visit our website. Bookmark the Security blog to keep up with our expert coverage on security matters. Also, follow us on LinkedIn (Microsoft Security) and Twitter (@MSFTSecurity) for the latest news and updates on cybersecurity.

---

¹Microsoft Digital Defense Report 2022, Microsoft. 2022.

²2022 Data Breach Investigation Report, Verizon. 2022.

³Batching smartphone notifications can improve well-being, Nicholas Fitz, et al. December 2019.

⁴Phone Notifications are Messing with your Brain, Molly Glick. April 29, 2022.

The post Healthy security habits to fight credential breaches: Cyberattack Series appeared first on Microsoft Security Blog.

The browser serves as the primary interface between the on-premises environment, the cloud, and the web in the modern enterprise. Therefore, the browser is also exposed to multiple types of cyber threats and operational risks.  In light of this significant challenge, how are CISOs responding? LayerX, Browser Security platform provider, has polled more than 150 CISOs across multiple verticals and

Red Dead Redemption 2 remains the watermark for western games, and for the abilities of Rockstar Games itself. But it's the product of a storied history. You can trace it back to the original Red Dead Redemption, the early 3D Grand Theft Autos like GTA 3, and even other cowboy games like Call of Juarez. Perhaps the biggest inspiration behind Red Dead Redemption 2, however - the game that first proved it was all possible - is Gun. Developed by Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater studio Neversoft, you can experience this vital piece of gaming history yourself, and for cheap, thanks to a new GOG sale.

MORE FROM PCGAMESN: The best story games on PC, Best western games, Best sandbox games

I wish there was a hole I could just crawl into and die

One of the titles that had the greatest impact on my consciousness in the past few years was Happy’s Humble Burger Farm. What seemed like a novel concept on the surface turned out to have a lot of beef underneath. Centering a horror game around cooking is engrossing enough, but it then gets tied up in interesting ways and dunked into an unconventional world full of mystery and horror. The narrative tells the story of trying to escape from an obvious simulation, but the world in which this simulation exists is an entity worth exploring on its own.

Immediately after stepping into the game, you’re hit from all sides with flavor lore. The TV plays an almost unending list of shows, the coffee table prominently displays a book on the history of the Barnyard Buds, and a Walkman sits nearby to fill your ears with radio skits that inject fat into the world around you. None of it is necessary to understand Happy’s Humble Burger Farm’s main plot, but actually digging through it is a trip on its own.

It’s obvious someone really loves the lore and creating it because there’s a lot more of it than a five-ish hour game really needs. That’s because the Scythe Saga Universe is a sprawling concept originally dreamed up by Jon of the Shred (Jon Reilly) back in 2005. I wanted to get to know more about where this came from, so I got in touch and talked shop. Now I’m sharing that shop with you.

[caption id="attachment_375462" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

Beef underneath

The Scythe Saga Universe didn’t actually originate as an idea for a video game. It was a world to base a rock opera in. “I’ve been developing all of this stuff personally since 2005 when I was just a teenager developing a rock opera,” Jon told me. “I kinda wanted all my music to be set in its own world. That ballooned out into a record label in 2012. My buddy Kaleb joined, and when he joined, he brought art and music of his own to the table. It was me and him that went forward and started a dev team with his childhood friend Blake, but it was the three of us making games that really made it a universe. Before that, it was just concept albums, like what if Dark Side of the Moon had 90 sequels.”

The short-form horror genre has taken off recently, carving a niche within a niche. Most of the time, the inspiration comes from horror movies themselves. Chillah’s Art stays in line with Japanese horror, while Puppet Combo loves their grotesque ‘80s slashers. While there is some of that inspiration, especially in Scythe’s Northbury Grove games, it’s less identifiable in Happy’s Humble Burger Farm.

“A really good comparison point is Mortal Kombat because of how they take so many different genres, and they manage to wrap it into their own unique take on how all this stuff could co-exist.” With mystical monks, sorcerors, movie stars, monsters, and special ops, the Mortal Kombat series does manage to juggle a lot of different genres. “I just really like how they’re able to connect so many different types of stuff that I love and create their own universe for it. It all feels earned.”

With slasher killers, evil corporations, and even a defined solar system to explore, the Scythe mythos already offers opportunity to a lot of different interests. For the DreadX Collection, Scythe Dev Team provided Carthanc, a game about futuristic archeology. It was set thousands of years after another game of theirs, To the End of Days, which depicted the end of the titular world, Carthanc. This is depicted as a completely different planet in the same solar system that Happy’s Humble Burger Farm takes place on. In HHBF, and even as far back as Northbury Grove, you can find mention of it within diagrams of the solar system.

[caption id="attachment_375464" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

Goldeneye meets Twisted Metal

Despite the grandness and depth of the Scythe universe, you don’t need to have knowledge of it to understand the plot of the individual games. Happy’s Humble Burger Farm is about escaping a simulation. What happened in the earlier title, Happy’s Humble Burger Barn, may be directly connected, but the important details are given to you, and playing the previous game just means you have a wider insight into what’s happening. “I like to reward people with that deep lore if they’re paying attention, but it’s not necessary to fully enjoy the experience. They’re all standalone as well.

“The universe was so expansive that, by the time we started making video games, any genre we wanted to cover already existed in a pocket of this universe.” According to Mr. Of the Shred, Happy’s Humble Burger Barn started off as a first-person vehicular combat game. “Goldeneye meets Twisted Metal.” Which somehow morphed into “a drive-thru at a restaurant.” After the gameplay, Kaleb and Blake brought Jon in to “tie it into the Universe and make it scary.”

In many ways, it sounds a bit like creating a Dungeons and Dragons campaign, where there are certain standards and places to draw from for whatever story you want to tell. The big difference here is that Scythe Dev Team is drawing from lore that they themselves created.

[caption id="attachment_375463" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

Sticking with you

In terms of inspiration, Jon doesn’t turn to video games. “For my writing, my music, my sound design, I’m more inspired by film.” He specifically mentions director John Carpenter as a big draw. Despite that, Scythe Dev Team tries to invoke the sense of exploration found in games like The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, where there’s a sense of wonderment at what’s unfolding around you.

Jon follows through to the extent that he doesn’t play other short-form indie developments like those from Puppet Combo. “I don’t go out of my way to play these games ‘cause I don’t want to get inspiration from them or take their ideas inspiration from them.”

I brought up the similarities between Happy’s Humble Burger Farm and Five Nights at Freddy’s. Notably, they’re set in restaurants where you’re harrowed by mascots. I asked if he played them. “What’s funny is no,” he said. “I never played any of them. I don’t know if anyone else [at Scythe Dev Team] did. When Tinybuild picked us up for Burger Farm, they told us, ‘You should use these mascots; why wouldn’t you?’ and we were, like, ‘Yeah, okay, if you’re telling us it’s a good idea, we’re going to go with it.’”

“Kaleb came up with Happy, and I came up with the rest of the Barnyard Buds based on that. My inspiration was The Animals of Farthing Wood, which is some old cartoon where the animals die viciously. It’s like Walking Dead meets Winnie the Pooh. It’s really strange.” He went on to mention Plague Dogs, Watership Down, Bambi, Land Before Time, Lion King. “They all had dark subject matter that would make them stick with you.”

“That was the Barnyard Buds. The whole joke was that meets McDonald’s.”

[caption id="attachment_375471" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

The Scythian Future

Beyond the games, Scythe Dev Team does a lot of augmented reality game stuff. There are numerous in-character sites related to the universe, including Maverick Cooper News and Justice for Toe. They’re currently leading into their next game, Project Meganet, which is to be a VR title. To help with this, they’re gradually releasing microgames in a series such as Love at First Squeak.

I don’t have VR, so that kind of sucks for me. However, it’s not going to be the end of the Scythe sage. “The whole universe – the games – will all eventually come to a head, and everything will connect in ways that people don’t expect,” Jon explains. “There is a storyline that we’re following for the greater universe that we’ve alluded to so much, but no one would possibly know it’s going to happen until we do the big twist to contextualize all the hints we’ve left.”

Hopefully, we don’t get there too quickly. For now, you can get Happy’s Humble Burger Farm wherever fine video games are sold, but for some of Scythe Dev Team’s earlier titles, you’ll need to grab them off of itch.io.

The post World-building with Scythe Dev Team’s Jon of the Shred appeared first on Destructoid.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from MIT Technology Review: Joshua Bergen is a very productive person. His secret is the workspace app Notion. Bergen, a product manager living in Vancouver, uses it to plan trips abroad in meticulous detail, with notes and timelines. He uses it to curate lists of the movies and TV shows he's watched, and records what he thought of them. It's also a handy way to keep tabs on his 3D-printing projects, map snowboarding runs, and quickly update his cute list of the funny things his kid has said. It might sound strange, but Bergen is one of a growing number of people using Notion, software intended for work, to organize their personal lives. They're using it in a myriad of different ways, from tracking their meditation habits and weekly schedules to logging their water intake and sharing grocery lists. So why has a platform built to accommodate "better, faster work" struck such a chord when there are countless other planning apps out there? Part of the reason Notion has such a devoted fan base is its flexibility. At its heart, Notion is designed to combine the various programs a business might use for functions like HR, sales, and product planning in a single hub. It uses simple templates that let users add or remove features, and remote workers can easily collaborate on notes, databases, calendars, and project boards. This high level of customizability sets Notion apart from other work apps. It's also what's made it so popular among people looking to map out their free time. It started to gain traction around 2018 in YouTube's thriving productivity subculture, where videos of fans swapping time management tips and guides to organizing their lives regularly rack up millions of views. Since then, its following has snowballed. More than 275,000 people have joined a dedicated subreddit, tens of thousands of users share free page templates in private Facebook groups, and TikTok videos advising viewers on how to make their Notion pages look pretty have been watched hundreds of millions of times. "You don't have to change your habits to how rigid software is. The software will change how your mind works," says Akshay Kothari, Notion's cofounder and chief operating officer. "I think that's actually been a big reason why you see so much love in the community: because people feel like the things they build are theirs." While platforms like Notion are great for people who enjoy feeling organized, spending too much time optimizing and organizing our lives can be counterproductive when we prioritize creating to-do lists over completing the actual tasks on them, says Gabriele Oettingen, a psychology professor at New York University. It's a phenomenon known as the planning fallacy. Using Notion to track whether you're drinking enough water or going jogging, or using it to plan assignments, doesn't necessarily mean you're actually getting those things done. "In a way, Notion might help me to get structure, but it might not work to get me going," she says.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Netflix lost more than one million users in Spain in the first three months of 2023 according to market research group Kantar, a sign that the streaming giant's crackdown on password-sharing could backfire. From a report: In early February, Spain became one of Netflix's first markets to introduce a monthly fee for users who shared their log-in details with another household and technical measures to detect such sharing. The move was linked to a fall in users of more than a million, two thirds of whom were using someone else's password, according to Kantar's research, which is based on surveys of household streaming habits. "It's clear this steep drop is due to the crackdown," said Dominic Sunnebo, global insight director at Kantar's Worldpanel Division, adding that the loss of a million users, even if most weren't paid subscribers, would be a blow to Netflix in terms of word of mouth recommendation for its shows and service. Subscription cancellations in the first quarter tripled compared to the previous period, according to Kantar's research. Of all remaining Netflix subscribers in Spain, one-tenth said they planned to unsubscribe in the second quarter. Spanish subscribers are charged $6.57 a month to add members outside their household. A similar fee was introduced in Portugal, Canada and New Zealand after a roll-out in several Latin American countries.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Mandoline slicers have a scary reputation. And yes, they’re sharp as heck, and can do major damage if you don’t respect the blade. But inviting one into your kitchen is one of the easiest ways to cut down on prep time and improve your cooking.

Read more...

[link] [126 comments]

A draft law that aims to criminalize and prosecute those who "create conditions for online piracy" has been approved by Bulgaria's Council of Ministers. The proposed amendments are Bulgaria's response to heavy criticism from the United States, most publicly via the USTR's Special 301 Reports. It's hoped that prison sentences of up to six years will send a deterrent message. TorrentFreak reports: Last week the Council of Ministers approved draft amendments to the Criminal Code that aim to protect authors, rightsholders, and state revenue. "Crimes against intellectual property should be perceived as acts with a high degree of public danger, not only considering the rights and interests of the individual author, which they affect, but also considering the financial losses for the holders of these rights, which also affects the revenues in the state budget," the explanatory notes read. The stated aim of the bill is to solve identified weaknesses by upgrading substantive law to counter computer-related crimes against intellectual property. The text references those who "build or maintain" an information system or provide a service to the information society for the purpose of committing crimes. The notes offer further clarification. "The bill aims to prosecute those who create conditions for online piracy -- for example, by building and maintaining torrent tracker sites, web platforms, chat groups in online communication applications for the online exchange of pirated content, and any other activities that may fall within the definition of 'information society service' within the meaning of the Electronic Commerce Act (pdf) and which are carried out with the specified criminal purpose." The Bulgarian government notes that the amendments are part of its response to criticism in the USTR's Special 301 Report. [When countries are placed on the USTR's 'Watch List' for failing to combat piracy, most can expect years of pressure punctuated by annual Special 301 Reports declaring more needs to be done. Bulgaria was on the Watch List in 2015 when the USTR reported "incremental progress" in the country's ability to tackle intellectual property infringement, albeit nowhere near enough to counter unsatisfactory prosecution rates. In 2018 the United States softened its position toward Bulgaria, removing it from the Watch List on the basis that the government would probably deliver.] The fact that Bulgaria has been absent from the 'Watch List' for the last five years is down to "specific commitments" made by the authorities, with progress being monitored closely by the United States in respect of Bulgaria's future status. The draft approved by the Council of Ministers last week envisions sentences of up to six years imprisonment and a fine of up to $5,600. According to the draft, there is no intent to prosecute individual users who simply consume pirated content.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Microsoft's Edge browser appears to be sending URLs you visit to its Bing API website. Reddit users first spotted the privacy issues with Edge last week, noticing that the latest version of Microsoft Edge sends a request to bingapis.com with the full URL of nearly every page you navigate to. Microsoft tells The Verge it's investigating the reports. From a report: "Searching for references to this URL give very few results, no documentation on this feature at all," said hackermchackface, the Reddit user who first discovered the issue. While Reddit users weren't able to uncover why Microsoft Edge is sending the URLs you visit to its Bing API site, we asked Rafael Rivera, a software engineer and one of the developers behind EarTrumpet, to investigate, and he discovered it's part of a poorly implemented new feature in Edge. "Microsoft Edge now has a creator follow feature that is enabled by default," says Rivera in a conversation with The Verge. "It appears the intent was to notify Bing when you're on certain pages, such as YouTube, The Verge, and Reddit. But it doesn't appear to be working correctly, instead sending nearly every domain you visit to Bing."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Yesterday we reported that MSI announced a wave of firmware updates designed to address and alleviate potential issues with users on AM5 using AMD's Ryzen 7000X3D processors with 3D V-Cache. One of the main changes with MSI's latest UEFI firmware for AM5 included voltage restrictions when using Ryzen 7000X3D series CPUs so that these chips couldn't be overvolted as the V-Cache packaging is somewhat sensitive to additional power.

Further to MSI's announcement, ASUS has released a statement to experienced engineer and extreme overclocker Roman 'Der8auer' Hartung, which addresses the potential issue with using AMD's EXPO memory profiles in conjunction with the Ryzen 7000X3D series chips. One of the key elements that seemingly surrounds the problem is the use of AMD's EXPO memory overclocking profiles.

ASUS's Director of Global Product Marketing and Technical Marketing, Rajinder Gill, said in a statement to Der8auer, "The EFI updates posted on Friday contain some dedicated thermal monitoring mechanisms we've implemented to help protect the boards and CPUs. We removed older BIOSes for that reason and also because manual Vcore control was available on previous builds." Rajinder also said, "We're also working with AMD on defining new rules for AMD Expo and SoC voltage. We'll issue new updates for that ASAP. Please bear with us."

ASUS ROG Crosshair X670E Hero AM5 Motherboard for AMD Ryzen 7000 Series CPUs

Looking at the narrative of the statement provided to Der8uaer from Rajinder, we can confirm that ASUS has indeed removed older iterations of its firmware for its AM5 motherboards. Looking at the EMEA side of things, at the time of writing, the latest firmware update to be posted on the ASUS product pages is dated 04/21/2023, which indicates ASUS recently updated the firmware, but the update isn't the latest one in question.

Roman 'Der8auer' Hartung's Ryzen 9 7900X also has a bulge.

The one thing these issues have in common is that AMD's EXPO memory profiles have been applied, claims Roman 'Der8auer' Hartung, and even highlighted that his Ryzen 9 7900X processor also fell foul the the 'bulging issue.' This is particularly interesting as this isn't an X3D series chip with 3D V-Cache, although we're not aware of any other reports of non-X3D Ryzen 7000 chips being affected at this time.

Enabling EXPO memory profiles on Ryzen 7000 processors does several things to the processor that pushes it beyond the technical specification of the chip. Chief among these is raising the SoC voltage and some other primary voltages, such as VDDIO, which are used to feed the IOD. Like any ASIC, there are limits to how high voltages can be safely pushed, and this is one theory behind the cause of the recent run of damaged Ryzen reports. Though how this might be connected to the issue being centered around Ryzen X3D chips – where the voltage-sensitive V-Cache is on the CCDs and their separate voltage plane – is unclear at this time.

In any case, this does underscore why AMD's EXPO memory overclocking profiles void the warranty on these chips, as there's more to EXPO than just ramping up memory frequencies and applying more voltage to the DRAM itself.

Further to Rajinder's statement given to Der8auer, ASUS's Senior Technical Marketing Manager, Juan Jose Guerrero, posted the following statement on Twitter Tuesday afternoon:

As we mentioned in our article yesterday about MSI addressing CPU voltage on their own AM5 motherboards, vendors are looking to address any more potential issues, following a small-but-concerning number of reports circulating on Reddit that their Ryzen 7000X3D processors are burning out and killing the motherboard in the process. ASUS's statement and the summary of the firmware on the official product page indicate that ASUS is worried about SoC voltage, and as such, the new firmware locks it down to 1.30 V. Which ASUS states is to 'protect the CPU and motherboard.' 

Screenshot of the ROG Crosshair X670E Extreme BIOS/Support page on the official product page (China).

On the Chinese product page for the ROG Crosshair X670E Extreme, the firmware has been updated as of today (at the time of writing) to 04/25/2023, and the firmware version in question (1302) does seemingly address the SoC voltage.

Further to ASUS's and MSI's statements, AMD has officially responded with a statement of their own:

It reads, "We are aware of a limited number of reports online claiming that excess voltage while overclocking may have damaged the motherboard socket and pin pads. We are actively investigating the situation and are working with our ODM partners to ensure voltages applied to Ryzen 7000X3D CPUs via motherboard BIOS settings are within product specifications. Anyone whose CPU may have been impacted by this issue should contact AMD customer support."

Of course, these issues of Ryzen 7000X3D series processors burning out aren't just limited to those using MSI and ASUS motherboards. Since the initial reports, users have reported additional issues on various models and brands across threads on Reddit. The potential for damage is one of the primary reasons AMD locked down the X3D series processors so that users couldn't manually overclock them. Even the first iteration, the Ryzen 7 5800X3D, was also locked down.

One thing remains clear: AMD and its motherboard partners are now officially investigating the matter, and users with affected Ryzen 7000 CPUs are advised to contact AMD customer support directly.

Microsoft has released their earnings for the quarter ending March 31, 2023 (their fiscal year runs from July 1 until the end of June the next year) and, overall, it was a good quarter for the company. Revenue for the quarter was $52.9 billion, up 7 percent compared to the same quarter last year. Unfortunately for Xbox boosters, the gaming division was not one of the standout parts of the company. In fact, some of the figures posted were downright concerning.

In Q3 2023, Xbox hardware revenue (almost entirely derived from Xbox Series X/S at this point) was down a whopping 30 percent year-on-year. That’s a rather startling figure considering sales of the rival PS5 are on fire right now, with Sony setting new sales records seemingly every month. The conventional wisdom is that a high tide lifts all boats, but apparently that’s not the case with the Xbox Series X/S. Now that folks can more easily buy a PS5 it seems they’re not interested in picking up an Xbox Series X/S as an alternative.

Meanwhile, on the games front, Xbox content and services was up slightly (3 percent) mostly driven by Xbox Game Pass subscriptions. That may sound like a positive, and it is to a degree, but such a slim increase can’t be the kind of growth Microsoft is looking for from Game Pass considering how many eggs they’ve put in this basket. This past quarter saw the release of GoldenEye 007 and the shadow-launch of the acclaimed exclusive Hi-Fi Rush, but apparently, those games’ effect on subscription revenue wasn’t huge. We already know Game Pass badly missed subscriber targets in fiscal year 2022 and it seems the service may be on track to do the same in FY2023.

Microsoft is currently trying to get their proposed acquisition of Call of Duty publisher Activision Blizzard past regulators. If they can achieve that, their gaming fortunes will look quite different, but for now, they seem to be struggling to put the pieces together.

This current quarter (Q4 2023) will see the release of some major Xbox published titles, including Minecraft Legends and Redfall, so hopefully, Microsoft’s next earnings report will be a better one for the gaming division. Microsoft CFO Amy Hood provided an optimistic Q4 outlook during Microsoft's earning call, predicting "mid-to-high single-digit growth" in Xbox revenue year-on-year due to third and first-party releases and Game Pass. Whether that comes to pass, remains to be seen.

What are your thoughts on the latest results from Xbox? Is there anything Microsoft can do to spur Xbox Series X/S sales? Is Game Pass going to continue to grow or remain more-or-less stalled out where it is?

This article contains spoilers for "Yellowjackets."Even if you've never watched a single second of Showtime's hit series "Yellowjackets," you probably know that the show deals with a high school girl's soccer team stranded in the wilderness and a whole lot of cannibalism. Maybe it's because I'm a Sicko™ who watched "Cannibal Holocaust" a little too young, but "Yellowjackets" has currently featured a pretty acceptable amount of cannibalism. I mean, if you consider anything more than "one" to be an acceptable number.Season 2 kicked off with the show's first foray into eating human flesh, when pregnant teen Shauna (Sophie Nélisse) ate the frozen ear off of the corpse of her best friend, Jackie (Ella Purnell), who froze to death in the season 1 finale. 

The moment was shocking, disgusting, and weirdly poetic, as Shauna's love for her best friend seemed to extend to her desire to make Jackie a part of her. The show's creative team has already spoken about how her act of eating the ear was hotly debated in the writer's room, with co-creator Bart Nickerson saying: "And then the other thing is — and I usually don't want to do this, talk about what almost was — but I just think it's hilarious the amount of time that we spent both in breaking writing and then in editing, deciding how much of the ear — like, should it go in the mouth, should it not go in the mouth? Should there be a chew?"

No one in the "Yellowjackets" cast interacts with Jackie's ear other than Shauna, which is probably why no one noticed when Sophie Nélisse accidentally took it home with her as an unintentional keepsake. Not the one she ate, of course.

'What Is This Weird, Squishy Thing?'

During a recent interview with Esquire, Sophie Nélisse admitted that she absentmindedly put the ear in her pocket after shooting one day, and didn't find it until months later. "I was going through my pocket and I was like, 'What is this weird squishy thing ... Oh my god, it's the ear,'" she said. The ear in question was made out of silicone, which is fortunate considering much of the edible flesh in "Yellowjackets" is made out of candy.

"You'll see eventually in the show there's other things that we eat that are actually made out of gummy bear," she told Esquire. "They're actually so tasty, but they look so real and gooey and gross that our brains can't really disassociate and step back away from it. It feels disgusting eating it—even though it's actually quite yummy. It's literally a giant gummy bear." Co-star Samantha Hanratty, who plays Misty Quigley, is a proud vegan and has confirmed that some of what she's provided is made of Beyond Meat or vegan-friendly gummies.

As for the ear? Nélisse said she keeps it hidden away in her room. " It'd be a bit of a red flag if someone came into my room and there's this whole little ear on my countertop. So, it's hidden away in a little souvenir box." Aw, it's just like the heart box from "Snow White." How sweet!

Read this next: Every Yellowjackets Main Character, Ranked

The post Yellowjackets Sophie Nelisse Accidently Took Jackie's Ear Home With Her appeared first on /Film.

Reply from Japheth, 25.04.2023, 12:58:

> What can I do now ?

1) Forget this old stuff!
2) Use the latest HX ( v2.20 )
3) Download vsbhda ( a fork of SBEMU )
4) replace the hdpmi32i.exe binary of HX v2.20 with the one contained in vsbhda.zip
4a) optionally install the JemmEx.exe binary contained in vsbhda.zip ( not really required for DosBox ).
5) install vsbhda
6) run DosBox

Both HX and VSBHDA can be easily found at github.

Redfall is almost here, and you can get in the spirit of Arkane's vampire game by revisiting its back catalog in a deal-filled Steam sale. Beware that the sale ends before the Redfall release date though, with some of the titles even available on PC Game Pass, which Redfall itself will be joining soon.

MORE FROM PCGAMESN: Redfall release date, Redfall gameplay preview, The best vampire games on PC

PC Game Pass doesn't negatively affect game sales, according to EVERSPACE 2 developer ROCKFISH Games.

As most of you will know, there's been a lot of discussions lately about the effect of Microsoft's Game Pass on game sales. Although Microsoft initially always claimed that the service didn't impact game sales, the company recently admitted that its service 'cannibalized' game sales.

"Microsoft also submitted that its internal analysis shows a [redacted] percent decline in base game sales twelve months following their addition on Game Pass.", the CMA's recent provisional report about the heavily-debated Microsoft Activision-Blizzard deal reads.

Although not official, industry market research firm DFC Intelligence recently said that Microsoft's Game Pass business model doesn't seem to work. "The problem with Game Pass is the business model does not appear to work", the research firm wrote earlier this year. "Comparing subscriber numbers is not necessarily fair because the services have significantly different prices.  However, what is clear is how well Nintendo’s subscription service works as an enhancement to the overall business model of selling hardware and software.  In contrast, Game Pass appears to be trying to be its own end where Xbox hardware sales are not important."

Yesterday, however, during the Reboot Develop Blue games industry conference in Dubrovnik, ROCKFISH Games CEO Michael Schade talked about funding and selling EVERSPACE 2. In addition, the CEO shared some early-access stats from the game. From the looks of it, this talk was attended by the CEO of indie developer and publisher New Blood Interactive, who shared some interesting details and (confidential) slides from the presentation on Twitter.  One of the slides contained some info about the number of sold EVERSPACE 2 copies from April 1, 2021, through January 31, 2023. Perhaps more interestingly though might be what ROCKFISH Games' CEO said during the presentation, as posted on Twitter by the above-mentioned CEO of New Blood Interactive. Apparently, during Schade's talk, he said that PC Game Pass didn't negatively impact game sales of EVERSPACE 2, on the contrary, sales were higher.

He also said Game Pass (PC) was good and didn't effect sales, in fact they were HIGHER.

This aligns with what Microsoft has said in the past but people want to tell you isn't true. pic.twitter.com/n6QHEdYRMH

— Dave @ Reboot (@DaveOshry) April 24, 2023

This is quite interesting for sure, although it should be noted that this applies to EVERSPACE 2, and might not be reflective of game sales in general. Also, EVERSPACE is currently only available on PC, and the stats shared were from the game's Early-access period. Still, we wanted to share this interesting tidbit as we're pretty sure that the community might be interested in this kind of info.

What are your thoughts on this? Do you think this applies to all games on PC Game Pass or only for certain titles? What about Xbox Game Pass? Hit the comments down below.

Why is Visibility into OT Environments Crucial? The significance of Operational Technology (OT) for businesses is undeniable as the OT sector flourishes alongside the already thriving IT sector. OT includes industrial control systems, manufacturing equipment, and devices that oversee and manage industrial environments and critical infrastructures. In recent years, adversaries have recognized the

Threat actors are employing a previously undocumented "defense evasion tool" dubbed AuKill that's designed to disable endpoint detection and response (EDR) software by means of a Bring Your Own Vulnerable Driver (BYOVD) attack. "The AuKill tool abuses an outdated version of the driver used by version 16.32 of the Microsoft utility, Process Explorer, to disable EDR processes before deploying

Managing vulnerabilities in the constantly evolving technological landscape is a difficult task. Although vulnerabilities emerge regularly, not all vulnerabilities present the same level of risk. Traditional metrics such as CVSS score or the number of vulnerabilities are insufficient for effective vulnerability management as they lack business context, prioritization, and understanding of