Assassin's Creed Valhalla is a massive game, whether you're measuring it by the scope of the world, the hours of content, or the install size. That last one is an unequivocal negative, but the game's next title update will shrink the game's footprint on your hard drive a good bit. You'll just have to download an absolutely massive patch to make it happen.
Title update 1.4.1 for Assassin's Creed Valhalla features a data restructuring - basically, the devs are repackaging the game files to be more efficient after all the updates over the past year. That means you'll have a smaller install size, plus improved performance across the board, with "faster loading screen times, improved world data streaming, and overall runtime performance."
But it also means that you have to essentially redownload the entire game with this update. On PC, that's a 78GB download (console patch sizes range from 40GB to 71GB, as you can see in the update notes), which will ultimately save you 34GB off the previous install size (13GB to 44GB on console). Expansions won't be affected by this.
When it comes to the state of packaged web browsers for Debian GNU/Linux, unfortunately it leaves a lot to be desired at the moment and for those wanting to be secure and up-to-date it can mean resorting to proprietary or un-packaged browser builds...
An anonymous reader quotes a report from NPR: It's Dr. Francis Collins' last few weeks as director of the National Institutes of Health after 12 years, serving under three presidents. Collins made his name doing the kind of biomedical research NIH is famous for, especially running The Human Genome Project, which fully sequenced the human genetic code. The focus on biomedicine and cures has helped him grow the agency's budget to over $40 billion a year and win allies in both political parties.
Still, in a broad sense, Americans' health hasn't improved much in those 12 years, especially compared with people in peer countries, and some have argued the agency hasn't done enough to try to turn these trends around. One recently retired NIH division director has quipped that one way to increase funding for this line of research would be if "out of every $100, $1 would be put into the 'Hey, how come nobody's healthy?' fund."
In a wide-ranging conversation, Collins answers NPR's questions as to why -- for all the taxpayer dollars going to NIH research -- there haven't been more gains when it comes to Americans' overall health. He also talks about how tribalism in American culture has fueled vaccine hesitancy, and he advises his successor on how to persevere on research of politically charged topics -- like guns and obesity and maternal health -- even if powerful lobbies might want that research not to get done. In regard to Americans not getting healthier over the last 12 years, NPR asked Collins why there haven't been more gains and what role NIH should play in understanding these trends and trying to turn them around. Here's what he said: Well, sure, it does bother me. In many ways, the 28 years I have been at NIH have just been an amazing ride of discoveries upon discoveries. But you're right, we haven't seen that translate necessarily into advances. Let's be clear, there are some things that have happened that are pretty exciting. Cancer deaths are dropping every year by 1 or 2%. When you add that up over 20 years, cancer deaths are down by almost 25% from where they were at the turn of the century. And that's a consequence of all the hard work that's gone into developing therapeutics based on genomics, as well as immunotherapy that's made a big dent in an otherwise terrible disease.
But we've lost ground in other areas, and a lot of them are a function of the fact that we don't have a very healthy lifestyle in our nation. Particularly with obesity and diabetes, those risk factors have been getting worse instead of better. We haven't, apparently, come up with strategies to turn that around. On top of that, the other main reason for seeing a drop in life expectancy -- other than obesity and COVID -- is the opioid crisis. We at NIH are working as fast and as hard as we can to address that by trying to both identify better ways to prevent and treat drug addiction, but also to come up with treatments for chronic pain that are not addictive, because those 25 million people who suffer from chronic pain every day deserve something better than a drug that is going to be harmful.
In all of these instances, as a research enterprise -- because that's our mandate -- it feels like we're making great progress. But the implementation of those findings runs up against a whole lot of obstacles, in terms of the way in which our society operates, in terms of the fact that our health care system is clearly full of disparities, full of racial inequities. We're not -- at NIH -- able to reach out and fix that, but we can sure shine a bright light on it and we can try to come up with pilot interventions to see what would help.
Inequality has remained persistently high for decades, and a new report shows just how stark the divide is between the richest and poorest people on the planet. Insider reports: The 2022 World Inequality Report, a huge undertaking coordinated by economic and inequality experts Lucas Chancel, Thomas Piketty, Emmanuel Saez, and Gabriel Zucman, was the product of four years of research and produced an unprecedented data set on just how wealth is distributed. "The world is marked by a very high level of income inequality and an extreme level of wealth inequality," the authors wrote. The data serves as a complete rebuke of the trickle-down economic theory, which posits that cutting taxes on the rich will "trickle down" to those below, with the cuts eventually benefiting everyone.
They argue in the new report that the last two decades of wealth data show that "inequality is a political choice, not an inevitability." For instance, when it comes to wealth, which accounts for the values of assets people hold, researchers found that the "poorest half of the global population barely owns any wealth at all." That bottom half owns just 2% of total wealth. That means that the top half of the world holds 98% of the world's wealth, and that gets even more concentrated the wealthier you get. Indeed, the richest 10% of the world's population hold 76%, or two-thirds of all wealth. That means the 517 million people who make up the top hold vastly more than the 2.5 billion who make up the bottom. The world's policy choices have led to wealth trickling up rather than down.
One group in particular has seen its share of global wealth swell. The report notes that "2020 marked the steepest increase in global billionaires' share of wealth on record." Broadly, the number of billionaires rose to a record-number in 2020, with Wealth-X finding that there are now over 3,000 members of the three-comma club. Billionaire gains are a well-documented trend: The left-leaning Institute for Policy Studies and Americans for Tax Fairness found that Americans added $2.1 trillion to their wealth during the pandemic, a 70% increase. Some of the solutions that the authors propose to help alleviate this disparity center around taxation. "It would be completely unreasonable not to ask more to top wealth-holders in the future, especially in light of the social, developmental and environmental challenges ahead," they write.
That means expanding wealth taxes like property taxes to all different types of wealth, and to make taxes progressive -- meaning they increase with net worth.
One of the coolest things about RetroArch is its simple implementation of netplay across a variety of emulators - at least, in theory. When it works, it's great, but it can be pretty fiddly to get to that point. Luckily, the devs have put out an array of fixes and improvements in its latest update, and there are more on the way.
"Netplay has received plenty of improvements thanks to the efforts of Cthulhu," the devs explain in the 1.9.14 update notes. "We have a lot more prepared for the next version, so consider this a prelude to the main event." The current round of improvements include a variety of quality of life improvements and stability fixes, but "for the next version, we will finally address the relay MITM server issues".
RetroArch's MITM (man in the middle) server is intended to make connecting to other players more convenient, as it routes netplay traffic through a central relay. That prevents you from having to set up port forwarding or a VPN to connect with friends, but even the relay server has proven a bit fiddly in the past, so it's good to see improvements on the way.
AMD is prepping an ever faster desktop kit based on its console SOCs known as the 4800S and powered by the Zen 2 core architecture.
AMD Readies 4700S Desktop Kit Successor: 4800S Launches Next Year With Higher Clocks, Increased Discrete GPU Support & Micro-ATX Form Factor
According to Videocardz who received the information from their sources, the AMD 4800S Desktop Kit will be replacing the existing 4700S Desktop Kit. It will feature a slightly better design in the form of a Micro-ATX layout that will allow for more components to be featured on the board.
While the 4700S Desktop kit is based on the PlayStation 5's Ariel SOC, the AMD 4800S Desktop Kit could utilize the Xbox Series S/X chip which offers slightly higher performance with faster clocks on the same Zen 2 core architecture. Other upgrades to the kit include the support for Gen 4 GPUs on the primary PCIe connection whereas the 4700S was only able to offer Gen 2 lanes which meant its discrete graphics support was very limited. The AMD 4800S Desktop kit is expected to support up to Radeon RX 6600 series graphics cards.
Additional features on the AMD 4800S Desktop kit include an M.2 SSD slot for storage expansion, a WiFi card, and will also feature support for AM4 Desktop CPU coolers. The 4700S was pre-equipped with a standard cooler plus fan but users will have the option to customize the cooling according to their preferences. The AMD 4800S desktop kit is expected to launch in Q1 2022 & is manufactured by MSI which will be bundled with PowerColor's RX 6600 graphics cards. There's currently no word on pricing yet but expect it to be over $500 US considering the 4700S Desktop kit retails for around $450-$550 US.
The threat group believed to be responsible for the attack on IT management company SolarWinds has developed new malware as it continues to target organizations that possess data relevant to Russian interests.
Intel's Alder Lake lineup launched last month with some expected issues, and Windows DRM incompatibility rendered over 50 games unplayable when using the new chip. Thankfully, Intel and Microsoft have cooked up a fix for the chip's DRM related drawbacks, meaning the majority of your Steam library should play nice with 12th gen CPUs.
According to Intel's support page, only three out of the original 51 affected games are still experiencing Alder Lake DRM issues; Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla, Fernbus Simulator, and Madden 22. The update post doesn't specify whether or not a fix is in the works for the remaining entries, but the shortlist will change subject to patch releases.
Of course, if you're rocking one of the big blue's best gaming CPUs and you're looking to run this troublesome trio of games, you can still use last month's scroll lock workaround. While this fix involves turning on Legacy Game Compatibility BIOS settings, MSI and Gigabyte have simplified things by enabling players to toggle compatibility mode on and off with a button.
WinBox for 86Box v1.0.0.976 is released. 86Box (formerly PCem Unofficial, PCem Experimental, or PCem-X) is an unofficial branch of the PCem emulator, which aims to emulate IBM compatible machines from 1981-2000 period. This branch adds several emulated motherboards....More
For over 50 years, "Doctor Who" has remained one of the most important contributions to British pop culture and has developed a cult following across the globe. Following the adventures of the titular character, "Doctor Who" is about a rogue Time Lord who fled the planet Gallifrey in a stolen TARDIS ("Time and Relative Dimension in Space"), a time machine equipped with a malfunctioning "chameleon circuit" which typically allows the machine to take on the appearance of local objects as a disguise, but our Doctor's TARDIS remains fixed as a blue British police box.
The Doctor has taken 13 different forms, and travels across time and space to stop evil forces, frequently only using the local resources, the multifunctional sonic screwdriver, and pure ingenuity. The Doctor has historically been one of the only exclusively non-violent protagonists on television, but according to an early draft of the pilot episode of the very first incarnation of the Doctor, the character's motives toward his human companions were originally envisioned to be something much darker than what Whovians are used to seeing.
Meet Ian And Barbara
In "An Unearthly Child," Ian and Barbara are two teachers investigating a peculiar student named Susan Foreman who is extremely advanced in knowledge of space and science. When the duo arrive at her house to check up on her, they notice the TARDIS, confusing it for a police box. They try to enter but an old man warns them not to, but they force their way inside when they hear Susan's voice. The two step inside and realize the box is larger on the inside than it is from the outside, and find Susan at the helm of a control room. Susan is the granddaughter of the Doctor, the old man from before, and the two are exiles from the planet Gallifrey. The Doctor refuses to let Ian and Barbara go and instead puts the TARDIS in flight and they all end up in the Stone Age.
During the first three serials of "Doctor Who," the group were not a fun and adventurous group, especially because the Doctor had not yet become the hero we know them as today. The early episodes of "Doctor Who" are filled with conflict, as Ian and Barbara weren't particularly close before they were essentially kidnapped by an alien, and the Doctor was pretty selfish at this point. He even caused the group to suffer from radiation sickness on the planet Skaro during the first meeting with the Daleks (the Doctor's greatest rivals) because he wanted to explore while everyone else wanted to leave.
The Darkly Alternative Storyline
As the first human companions, Ian and Barbara had to do a lot of heavy lifting for the Doctor, to get him to see them as valuable and learn to listen to their point of view. Had Ian and Barbara not been able to win him over, we would have had a very different version of "Doctor Who" moving forward, and perhaps would have even lost the opportunity to have an exceptional legacy. The duo never coupled up on screen, but across the canon of the "Doctor Who" expanded universe, we know that they later married, all thanks to the Doctor bringing them together.
If "Doctor Who" had gone as originally planned, all of this happiness would have been destroyed. As it turns out, an early draft of "An Unearthly Child" that was leaked showed indications that the Doctor was so afraid of his and Susan's secret getting out, that he was willing to kill Ian and Barbara to make sure no one would ever know the truth about his identity. After 50-plus years, the Doctor is not one for killing, only doing so if absolutely necessary and for the greater good of the universe. To have killed Ian and Barbara would have totally changed the trajectory of the character and completely altered the tone of "Doctor Who."
Thankfully, this decision never made the final cut, and we've been able to enjoy five decades of wibbly wobbly timey wimey goodness. With Jodie Whittaker finishing up her role as the Thirteenth Doctor (and the first woman to play the character) the sky's the limit as to what comes next. At least we know it won't be intentionally killing off human companions.
Nvidia’s updated Image Scaling isn’t the only way in which you can – on paper – give your graphics card performance a free boot up the backside. Earlier this year, Nvidia began enabling Resizable BAR on their GeForce RTX 30 series GPUs and laptops, with the promise of faster frame rates for no additional expense. But what exactly is Resizable BAR, and assuming you have compatible hardware, is it really worth switching on?
Some multi-hyphenate filmmakers become their own worst enemy because they end up being stronger directors than writers, or vice versa. And then some multi-hyphenate filmmakers shouldn't attempt to broaden their scope at all. To wit, Aaron Sorkin, who proved himself earlier in his career to be extremely gifted at capturing the rat-a-tat, rapid-fire pace of the world of media and politics, grafting urgency while depicting people speed-walking and talking through the halls of Washington, D.C. and New York. But Sorkin's best script remains his Oscar-winning "The Social Network," a film aided as much by the gifted hand of David Fincher as director. Sorkin, in his last few scripts, has directed his own work. And nowhere is it clearer than in his latest, "Being the Ricardos," that he should let someone else step behind the camera. "Being the Ricardos" is a good idea in search of focus, intelligence, wit, and a skilled directorial hand.
The ingredients are there for a quintessential Sorkin script in "Being the Ricardos". Set over a tight period of time? Check -- the story takes place over one work week. Connected to politics? Check -- the specter of the Red Scare hovers over the film, as none other than Lucille Ball (Nicole Kidman) is accused of being -- gasp! -- a Communist. Connected to the inner workings of the medium of television? Check -- the film is primarily set at Desilu Studios as Lucille and her husband Desi Arnaz (Javier Bardem) work on the massively popular "I Love Lucy." Full of overly verbose people who are not-so-secretly convinced they're all the smartest person in the room? Double check. But in spite of setting his story amidst the making of one of the most famous television shows of all time, and featuring two of its stars as his leads, Sorkin is unable to actually craft a story that's compelling, entertaining, or even remotely witty. (His interview last month with an industry trade in which he said he thought "I Love Lucy" wasn't that funny is reflected in a film that has no concept of humor itself.)
Part of the problem is that the impact of the Red Scare on Hollywood is the infamous and terrible blacklisting of actors, writers, and filmmakers who the U.S. government had decided were Communists or Communist sympathizers. And seeing as "I Love Lucy" is one of the most wildly popular television shows ever made, still well-known and widely loved in the 2020s as it was in the 1950s...well, you don't recall Lucille Ball being blacklisted because it never happened, thus making most of the tension over whether or not she'll be smeared in the news pretty much moot. Leave aside the accidentally grim way in which this film treats being exonerated by an intensely, immaturely conservative government of the period as a badge of honor.
A Film About Comedy That Refuses To Be Funny
The other part of the problem is that "Being the Ricardos" is almost stridently unwilling to be funny. Outside of Kidman and Bardem, the cast has some pretty talented folks who are plenty adept at comedy: J.K. Simmons and Nina Arianda play William Frawley and Vivian Vance, the actors who played Fred and Ethel on "I Love Lucy", and Jake Lacy, Tony Hale, and Alia Shawkat play the writers of the show. (It is a real shame that, at no point in this film, Shawkat never looks around and shouts, "Marry me!", a la Maeby Funke from "Arrested Development" back in her days as a teenage Hollywood executive.) But considering that Aaron Sorkin is, among his many other credits, the creator of the by-turns arrogant and overwrought "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip," it is perhaps no surprise that "Being the Ricardos" is a hectoring affair whose depiction of the crafting of even the simplest sight gag is exhausting. If, indeed, this is how the sausage was made, then looking behind the scenes is the worst possible idea.
The cast does as well as they can with such plodding material and stiff direction. Well, at least the supporting actors. (Simmons, in particular, is extremely well-cast as Frawley -- he not only looks pretty much like a dead ringer for the actor, but he aces the grouchy exterior in every line reading.) Much was made early on about how Nicole Kidman is not exactly Lucille Ball's identical twin. It's not so much an issue that Kidman won't be mistaken for Lucy -- the same can be said of Bardem not looking like Arnaz, but he does a fairly solid job embodying the boisterous and shrewd performer. It's that Kidman's performance feels as rigid as Sorkin's depiction of one of the most brilliant comic performers of her generation. It's deliberate that we rarely see Kidman as Lucy Ricardo, as opposed to Lucille Ball, in that the script is about the making of the show without ever really being about "I Love Lucy." But that Lucy seems a lot more interesting than the one we're presented with throughout "Being the Ricardos".
Maybe at an earlier time in Aaron Sorkin's career, "Being the Ricardos" could've worked. At the very least, his directorial efforts make clear that he's not nearly as well-served as writer when he's behind the camera too. What would "The Social Network" have looked like if he directed it instead of Fincher? Would the film be held up as a searing satire on the level of Lumet's "Network"? Or would it have been forgotten quickly? "Being the Ricardos," with the script it has, would not have been a great film had a better director made it. But a better director would have improved its flaws, or maybe pushed Sorkin to go through some of the elements and refashion them. "Being the Ricardos" needed a different voice; the one here profoundly, obstinately refuses to grasp the inner workings of the comic mind.
Much like the inescapable threat of zombies themselves, "The Walking Dead" franchise isn't going anywhere anytime soon. The long-running AMC series has shown no signs of stopping whatsoever, lasting for 11 total seasons and spawning multiple spin-offs. Of course, fans know that it will finally wrapping up the main story -- though according to some involved in the show, that decision came as a complete surprise -- but there's a reason we refer to those hordes as the "undead." "The Walking Dead" will eventually shift from the small screen to the movies, further establishing the franchise's dominance throughout an entire decade of storytelling. Before that, however, we have another spin-off from the original series to look forward to, titled "Tales of the Walking Dead." Here's everything we know about the series to this point.
When And Where To Watch Tales Of The Walking Dead
AMC officially announced not too long ago that "Tales of the Walking Dead" has been officially given the green light. Though a firm release date has not yet been settled on, fans have been told to expect the series to debut on AMC and the AMC+ streaming service in the summer of 2022. This would have the spin-off series roughly lined up to pick up the torch from the original series, which will come to an end late next year after the second half of its eleventh season airs. Unlike the lengthy seasons of the main series, "Tales of the Walking Dead" will only run for six total episodes in its introductory season. AMC has previously described themselves looking at the spin-off as a sort of trial run of how to expand the franchise, so starting small with grand ambitions down the road makes a certain amount of sense. Plus, the very first season of the original "The Walking Dead" only consisted of 6 episodes as well, adding a neat parallel to the two.
What We Think Tales Of The Walking Dead Will Be About
In a stark departure from the heavily serialized original series, "Tales of the Walking Dead" has been conceived as an episodic anthology series. The spin-off show will predominantly focus on new storylines, though it will also feature both new and returning characters. Speaking about the potential this series holds, Dan McDermott of AMC Networks and AMC Studios said:
"'The Walking Dead' is a show that made television history and attracted an army of passionate and highly engaged fans. We see so much potential for a wide range of rich and compelling storytelling in this world, and the episodic anthology format of 'Tales of the Walking Dead' will give us the flexibility to entertain existing fans and also offer an entry point for new viewers, especially on streaming platforms. We have seen the appeal of this format in television classics like 'The Twilight Zone' and, more recently, 'Black Mirror,' and are excited to engage with fans in this new way, against the backdrop of this very unique and engrossing world."
Scott Gimple, chief content officer for "The Walking Dead," added that this new spin-off will be best suited to provide "new voices, perspectives, and ideas" out of any other series in the franchise.
What We Know About The Tales Of The Walking Dead Cast And Crew
No specific cast members have been revealed for "Tales of the Walking Dead" to this point, but there will at least be continuity behind the scenes among the creative team. Channing Powell has served as both a writer and producer on the original series and its earlier spin-off, "Fear the Walking Dead," and has been promoted to showrunner for "Tales." Gimple, as he has done for the rest of the franchise, will also be involved with this latest series. The idea of the series is for well-received episodes to possibly lead to yet more spin-offs of their own, further establishing "The Walking Dead" as a franchise that is here to stay.
It would appear that Elon "Pedo Guy" Musk doesn't think much of level playing fields. His recent attack on the Biden Administration's infrastructure plan seems centered on the fact that his company got the benefit of the tax earlier, no longer thinks it needs the support, and doesn't want to see other manufacturers benefit. — Read the rest
Apple launched the new M1 Pro and M1 Max chips alongside its latest 2021 MacBook Pro models. While the new Apple silicon is extremely powerful for students, enterprise users are quick to adopt the powerful machines. The latest comes in with Jamf adding to the list. If you are unfamiliar, Jamf makes a wide range of tools for managing iPhone, iPad, and Macs. Scroll down to read more details on the subject.
Apple's Latest Macs Are Being Adopted by Enterprise Users at a High Rate as Jamf Joins the List
The company says that it has helped position more than a million Macs and all of which are powered by Apple's M1 series of chips. In addition, 74 percent of the company's customers already use a Mac with Apple silicon. Check out the major highlights of the deployment.
SAP, an enterprise software company, has deployed 3,500 Macs powered by M1 using Jamf in the last year, adding to its 30,000 total Mac fleet. When testing Mac with M1, SAP developers saw “remarkable” results regarding speed and app performance, resulting in increased cost-efficiency. SAP has offered employee choice since 2008 and has seen demand for Mac quickly increase since then. SAP also has deployed over 70,000 iPhones and 17,500 iPads with Jamf.
Electric, a Jamf partner and IT tech company that manages a fleet of over 26,800 Apple devices for its small and medium-sized customers, has seen a 158% growth in the deployment of Mac devices this year. They note that the speed offered by Macs with the M1 family of chips is attractive to the many businesses they serve who are focused on quickly and securely onboarding employees with the powerful devices and applications they need.
Bartlett City Schools, an 8,500 student and 1,100 employee school system just outside of Memphis, Tennessee, deployed nearly 6,000 Macs powered by M1 this year.
It goes on to show how Apple is picking up the pace for enterprise users. It is not just Jamf but other tech companies that are also pushing to adopt MacBook models with the M1 series of chips. You can check out the full press release here.
Share your thoughts with us in the comments section below.
In the current pandemic-driven remote work environments, security has become increasingly important. Earlier this year, Colonial Pipeline, one of the leading suppliers of fuel on the East Coast of the United States, was hit by a ransomware attack.1 This caused a massive disruption of the fuel supply chain and a surge in gasoline prices. In another unrelated incident, Chinese start-up Socialarks suffered a massive data breach,2 which exposed personally identifiable information (PII) of over 214 million users of some of the most popular worldwide social networks. These data breaches are extremely expensive, with the average cost of a data breach estimated at USD4.2 million dollars for every breach in 2021.3 There has also been a surge in the number of ransomware attacks, with a ransomware attack expected every 11 seconds and the total costs of damages due to these attacks is estimated to be about USD20 billion dollars in 2021.4
As we discussed at Microsoft Inspire earlier this year, threats against infrastructure can come from a variety of sources—attackers exploiting web shells, brute force login attacks, software vulnerabilities, and credential theft—to achieve goals like deploying ransomware. With cyberattacks continuing to rise, the need for secure computing has never been more important. Customers care about the protection of their data and workloads, and platform security can be an important tool in a comprehensive defense-in-depth strategy. Applying our learnings from the Secured-core PC initiative, Microsoft is collaborating with partners to expand Secured-core to Windows Server, Microsoft Azure Stack HCI, and Azure-certified IoT devices.
REvil ransomware use case
Let’s dive into the typical kill chain of a human-operated ransomware campaign undertaken by REvil (or Sodinokibi), which very recently impacted over thousands of businesses worldwide including the recent attack on Kaseya.5 The attackers used a variety of different techniques, such as compromised Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) credentials and vulnerabilities in the operating system and applications to gain an initial foothold in the organizations. Documents from the United States Department of Justice’s investigation6 delve into how REvil carried out the ransomware attack on Kaseya by using the following attack pattern:
Figure 1. Kill chain of REvil ransomware.
The ransomware operators can gain administrative privileges on the compromised devices, steal passwords from the memory using credential dumping tools, such as Mimikatz, and use Cobalt Strikeand Metasploit to hop laterally and establish persistence on the victim’s networks. After obtaining the necessary privileges and access across the infrastructure, the ransomware activates, initiating the encryption of all the files and leaving an electronic note to the user indicating the amount that they need to pay to decrypt their files.
Ransomware attacks like these result in an enormous loss of time and money for enterprises. Continuing to raise the security bar for critical infrastructure against attackers makes it easier for organizations to meet that higher bar, which is an important priority for both customers and Microsoft. Successfully protecting systems requires a holistic approach that builds security from the chip to the cloud across hardware, firmware, and the operating system.
Secured-core servers leverage your infrastructure to help protect you from security threats
Secured-core servers take a defense-in-depth approach to basic system security. Secured-core servers are built around three distinct security pillars:
To protect the server infrastructure with a hardware-based root of trust.
To defend sensitive workloads against firmware-level attacks.
To prevent access and the execution of unverified code on the systems.
Partnering with leading original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and silicon vendors, Secured-core servers use industry-standard hardware-based root of trust coupled with security capabilities built into today’s modern central processing units (CPUs). Secured-core servers use the Trusted Platform Module 2.0 and Secure boot to ensure that only trusted components load in the boot path.
“To help our customers remain secure and accelerate their business outcomes, Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) is excited to release the new Gen 10 Plus (v2) products for Azure Stack HCI 21H2 and Windows Server 2022 which can be delivered with the HPE GreenLake edge-to-cloud platform,” said Keith White, Senior Vice President and General Manager, GreenLake Cloud Services Commercial Business. “These offer unprecedented host protection by combining HPE’s security technologies with Secured-core server functionalities for a secure, hybrid implementation.”
Secured-core servers use hardware-rooted security in the modern CPU with Dynamic Root of Trust Measurement (DRTM) to launch the system into a trusted state, mitigating attacks from advanced malware that attempts to tamper with the system.
Enabled with Hypervisor-Protected Code Integrity (HVCI), a Secured-core server only starts executables signed by known and approved authorities. This ensures that code running within the trusted computing base runs with integrity and is not subject to exploits or attacks. The hypervisor sets and enforces permissions to prevent malware from attempting to modify the memory and executing.
In the REvil ransomware example that was described earlier, Secured-core servers would have made it much harder for the attackers to effectively deploy and activate their payload. HVCI comes enabled with a code integrity security policy that blocks drivers that tamper with the kernel, such as Mimikatz. Additionally, since Virtualization-based security (VBS) is enabled out of the box, IT administrators can easily enable features, such as Credential Guard, which safeguard the credentials in an isolated environment that is invisible to attackers. By preventing credential theft (stage two of the kill chain, represented in Figure 1), Secured-core servers can help make it extremely hard for attackers to hop laterally in the network, thereby, stopping the attack.
Look for Secured-core server solutions in the HCI and Windows Server catalogs
You can now find a breadth of servers certified for Secured-core server AQ in the Azure Stack HCI catalog. Enhancements made to the catalog allow you to easily identify Azure Stack HCI solutions that support Secured-core server functionality with the new Secured-core server badge.
Secured-core servers support all the protections offered in the trusted enterprise virtualization use case, plus additional features to protect hosts from firmware-level attacks. In addition to the Azure Stack HCI catalog, the Windows Server Catalog lists dozens of hardware platforms from our various ecosystem partners that meet the Secured-core server AQ. Learn more about how the Secured-core servers provide exceptional host security in our blog post.
Manage your Secured-core server easily with the Microsoft Windows Admin Center
Windows Admin Center is your user interface (UI) for managing the status and configuration of your Secured-core server. Windows Admin Center is a locally deployed, browser-based application for managing Windows servers, clusters, hyper-converged infrastructure, as well as Windows clients, and is ready to use in production.
New functionality in Windows Admin Center makes it extremely easy for customers to configure the Secured-core features for Windows Server and Azure Stack HCI systems. The new Windows Admin Center security functionality, now included with the product, enables advanced security with a click of the button from a web browser anywhere in the world. For Windows Server and validated Azure Stack HCI solutions, customers can look for Secured-core certified systems to simplify acquiring secure hardware platforms.
Figure 3. Windows Admin Center Secured-core server cluster management.
The Windows Admin Center UI allows you to easily configure the six features that encompass Secured-core server: Hypervisor Enforced Code Integrity, Boot Direct Memory Access (DMA) Protection, System Guard, Secure Boot, Virtualization-based security, and Trusted Platform Module 2.0. Download the latest version of Windows Admin Center today.
Begin your Secured-core journey
Secured-core servers, which are now available in the Azure Stack HCI and Windows Server catalogs, come fully equipped with industry-leading security mitigations built into the hardware, firmware, and the operating system to help thwart some of the most advanced attack vectors. Coupled with Windows Admin Center, managing and monitoring the security state of your mission-critical infrastructure has never been easier.
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 at @MSFTSecurity for the latest news and updates on cybersecurity.
Thought it may be useful to add a post showing what I use daily.
Office, work from home place – Fancy office shed at the end of my garden, fully insulated & double glazed 5m x 5m with concrete base (important – lots of foxes where I live) – I built my Global ShedQuarters about 10yrs ago (well, paid someone to build it) and it’s really paid off for my own domestic sanity having a separate work/live space.)
I share it with my wife and whilst the schools were shut during COVID we also had 2 kids in the office – so we all have our own desks if required
The office is cabled to the house using some armoured cable for power and ethernet (4 x 1GbE – trunked to 3GbE.. well, because I could rather than any actual need.. and 1GbE as direct patch to HP c7000 chassis OA in the garage – blades mainly off unless serious lab work – but use a pair of Cisco 3020 blade switches to do L3 routing for the house.
2 x IKEA FLOALT light panels with remotes, hooked into Alexa – great especially during winter as daylight at the end of the garden is scarce
Herman Miller Aeron Size B chair with (extortionately priced) headrest from Amazon – brilliant chair, I got it 2nd hand about 15yrs ago and it still works perfectly – upgraded recently with rollerblade type wheels (still not sure about those – bit too easy to go flying across the office).
Desk – Ikea BEKANT sit/stand motorised desk – got used to having a sit/stand desk at work and it was a great COVID purchase – ensuring I get some motion during the day
Whiteboard(s) – I have 4 – you can never have too many – generic AmazonBasics brand ones, magnetic – lots of magnets (do not let your children “accidentally” eat them…! 1 x scary A&E experience
Thinking chair – IKEA POANG with leather cushion – brilliant for not staring at a screen. Book shelves, office furniture – IKEA (see a pattern here?) mostly 2nd hand from eBay or Facebook marketplace for pennies.
Lego
Bit of a Lego nerd and display space has overspilled from the house to the office – including an emergency drawer full of random Lego, you know… for those long conference calls
Internet service
I’m luckily in that I can get Virgin Media cable and it’s periodically upgraded – I’ve currently got a 200mbps service with 10mb upstream – the download is way more than I really need, but it’s always “sign for another 12 months and we’ll upgrade your speed”, I’ve had it for 8 or 9 years and it’s been really stable… apart from that time their installers cut through my cable in the cab to connect a new customer… and then it was out for 3 weeks and took a lot of shouting to get it back.
I use their “Super”hub in modem mode and use my own WiFi (UniFi) and UniFi USG 3P as the firewall and it’s pretty solid.
I have a TP-Link 4G router with an Ethernet connection as backup with a PAYG SIM if there is big outage, although – word of warning if you have kids with a Playstation your PAYG data allowance won’t last long as I discovered during the great cable cut incident of 2018
Tech
42U Rack with glass doors – got years ago for free from local paper (that shows how long ago it was!)
Office networking is all Cisco – 24 port PoE – pretty quiet
HP ML110 G7 running vSphere for all my normal VMs – small and quiet
IOMega PX-7 NAS – NFS storage for VMs
Unifi UAP-AC-Lite rest of house (non-work side) is using UniFi / USG equipment – can’t fault it
2 old monitors on the wall running from an old HP thin client which just about runs Windows 10 – CCTV monitor and streaming news – currently switch between Sky & BBC News channels using their VOD services
Primary display – Apple Thunderbolt 27″ screen – pretty old but still holds its own – USB-C adapter to laptop – and provides USB for my desk and wired Ethernet (please, if you spend all day on Teams, Skype etc. _WIRE_ a connection – don’t rely on wireless
Secondary display Lenovo 27″ over DisplayPort->USB-C to laptop
My layout is usually
Primary display: work VDI
Secondary display: general web browsing, gping running in a terminal to keep an eye on network latency during calls, CPU history/load
Mac display: personal email – Office365 running in a web browser
Both monitors on arms clamped to desk (especially important with a sit/stand desk as you don’t want to knock one off!
Laptop – recently upgraded an old MBP to a new M1 MacBook Pro 14″ with M1 Pro chipset, 8Gb RAM, 1TB SSD – can’t fault it – still really like the Apple virtual desktop / swipe setup which makes it easy to switch between my day job VDI and other remote sessions and browsers using a swipe
Apple Magic Mouse – it’s expensive but worth it for the swipe feature + virtual desktops
Cheap-ish Mac bluetooth keyboard – starting to annoy me, but it does pair with 3 devices which is handy
Day job involves using a VDI – once
Primary Browser – Chrome – despite the fact it eats a lot of resource I continue to use it, maybe more out of habit than desire
Edge for some personal Office365/Azure dev/test tenants I have (mainly seperate browser running InPrivate so I can keep ID separate from my main logged on OS
Linux terminal – OhMyZSH – brilliant
Files an storage paid-for Dropbox, but thinking about moving it to OneDrive in my Office365 tenant as the price is increasing pretty sharply and features are pretty much at parity for most of what I use, I keep everything in dropbox with smart sync (probably didn’t need a laptop with such a big drive in hindsight)
Microsoft RDP client for access to several Windows machines I use in my lab
Webcam Logitech C920 – seems to work well, if my MacBookPro were positioned better on my desk I’d use its webcam instead.
Plantronics W720 dual can DECT headset over USB – a bit long in the tooth but works faultlessly – friends don’t let friends use bluetooth headsets, DECT everytime – works a fair way up the garden if I need to stretch my legs on a call
Jabra Speak 710 wired with USB – really good for hands-free usage when my wife isn’t in the office
Backup Lenovo Thinkpas W530 – beast of a laptop with 32Gb RAM and actual real ethernet and VGA ports running (just) Windows 10/11 Insider builds – not used that much but handy to have a round
Cloud Services
Office365 primary email and collab Azure – several tenants for personal use – script to kill off and delete resources in my ‘experiments’ resource group to avoid me forgetting about them and ramping up a large bill
Home Lab
I still have and use my lab at home – for day to day running my ML110 G7 runs most of the management pod, vCenter and general house VMs. I have an HP7000 in the garage with some chunkly 128GB blades running vSphere and Hyper-V (sometimes virtualised StackHCI) that get spun up when the need arises, blades are usually off as they suck quite a lot of power.
c7000 chassis with 2 Onboard Administrators and 2 Cisco 3020 switches averages just under 300W and does all my core routing – the OAs are waaaay out of support now so sometimes its a bit of a struggle to find a VM/laptop with Internet Exploder and an old version of ActiveX to be able to run the remote iLo console reliably so I have a VM on stand-by on the ML110 to do-so.
Gmail calendar – shared family stuff
Sound
I like my music, and sometimes I like it err, loud – which is handy as my office isn’t really near anyone else so I can usually be as antisocial as I like.
most music comes from Spotify via an Alexa Echo plugged in via an Aux cable (yes, I know.. the horror! – just need something convenient with an optical) nothing too fancy in HiFi terms (sold all my really good stuff long ago but all good 2nd hand bargains)
NAD 310 Amplifier
Marantz DV4100 DVD player for those spinny silver things that we all used to use
Wall mounted Mission LX-2 speakers. I used to have some really loud floorstanding speakers but they took up too much space and didn’t really fit the room when it got busy during COVID, these aren’t bad speakers at-all – sometimes depends on how well mixed the source is.
Writer/director Aaron Sorkin is no stranger to historical drama and Being the Ricardos adds to the list. With a deft ensemble and a dynamite lead performance from Nicole Kidman, the film will be an enjoyable time for fans of I Love Lucy and Sorkin fans alike. Fair warning though: If Sorkin isn't your cup of tea, this film can be hard to swallow.
Lucille Ball (Kidman) is at the height of her powers. Alongside her husband and co-star Desi Arnaz (Javier Bardem), their sitcom I Love Lucy is the most popular show on television. But in 1953, Senator Joseph McCarthy was on the hunt for Communists within the United States. Word gets out among the CBS executives that Ball was interviewed by his committee. Ball and Arnaz begin to question the viability of the show if this information became public...
Kiernan Shipka played Sabrina Spellman in "Chilling Adventures of Sabrina" on Netflix, and throughout that time, there has been talk of a crossover into "Riverdale." At first, it seemed a bit odd. Not that she didn't interact in the Archie comics that spawned the universe, but "Riverdale," while strange, wasn't exactly dealing with much of the supernatural. That has all changed, of course. Death, ghosts, and all sorts of strange things have been happening in Riverdale. The next step? An older Sabrina Spellman is coming to town to save the day.
The time has arrived and we're going to see Sabrina do a transference spell with Cheryl (Madelaine Petsch). Well, it can't get any weirder than it already is in Riverdale ... can it? CAN IT? Fans were split on the end of "Chilling Adventures of Sabrina," and while I won't spoil it here, I will say that it would be great to have an explanation for how exactly she's able to visit the neighboring town. Witchcraft, I expect. I loved "CHAOS," and while the end was strange, it doesn't take away from the juicy silliness of it all. Shipka spoke to EW recently and said that there might be a door left open for more Sabrina and I'm absolutely here for it.
More Chilling Adventures?
In the interview, Shipka does say we won't see Salem, but that she hopes we will in the future. Is it wrong that I really want the version of Salem that makes quippy cat comments? I cannot be alone here. We're apparently going to see a "wiser" version of our no-longer-teenage witch, and maybe this isn't the last time we'll hang with her. Shipka told the site:
"There was always the hope of a crossover, so to get to be Sabrina again was a treat. It was a thrill. Also to go over to the set and do it for a few days and really have some fun with it, versus it being my full-time job, was really interesting. I did quite literally, in theme with Rivervale, feel like I was in an alternate universe. [Laughs] It was wonderful. I enjoyed every minute of it."
In terms of getting back into the role, she said:
"It's funny, she just like took over me the second that I started speaking. It was the craziest thing. I felt like no time had passed. Obviously I worked on the character and revisited her and thought about the script and all that kind of stuff, but it was like riding a bike in certain ways — an exciting bike. The best bike ride ever."
And now the important bit:
"Yeah I think the door's open [for more Sabrina in the future]. I think the door is open, and that's very exciting."
Wait, does that mean we'll get a new season of "CHAOS?" Yes, please! I love watching a show that makes my boyfriend stop when he enters my TV-watching zone, look strangely at me, and wander off, confused. Welcome back, Sabrina!
While all of the software components are out there now for being able to run NVIDIA's proprietary driver stack with modern (GBM-based) Wayland compositors by default, including XWayland support, Fedora Workstation currently defaults to using an X.Org based session with the green binary blob. However, for Fedora 36 next spring they are planning on using the Wayland-based desktop here too...
Reeses writes: The Debrief just reported that DARPA just "accidentally" created the world's first warp bubble. From the article: Warp drive pioneer and former NASA warp drive specialist Dr. Harold G "Sonny" White has reported the successful manifestation of an actual, real-world "Warp Bubble." And, according to White, this first of its kind breakthrough by his Limitless Space Institute (LSI) team sets a new starting point for those trying to manufacture a full-sized, warp-capable spacecraft. There's also a video of the announcement, The Very First Warp-Bubble Created by DARPA Funded Team.
One of the more ambitious modding projects for Doom II has become its own standalone free game. Ashes: Afterglow now includes two full episodes of post-apocalyptic, Mad Max action, and it's available for downloading if you've ever wanted to drive around through the ruins of Atlanta on a motorcycle with machine guns on it.
Ashes: Afterglow is one of the most convincing throwbacks to '80s B-tier action movies I've ever seen, and it began life as a total conversion mod for Doom II, although it's grown a lot over the course of the past six years. Lead modder Vostyok says it's inspired by Doom's action, the big open Build Engine levels of Duke Nukem 3D, and the vibes of the Stalker series, and you can see that all on display in the trailer below.
You'll have to scavenge and fight your way through the ruins of an America devastated by a cataclysmic nuclear explosion in Atlanta, locking horns with raiders, mutants, vicious animals, and supernatural enemies borne out of the ambient radiation left in the wake of the disaster.
(Superhero Bitsis a collection of stories, updates, and videos about anything and everything inspired by the comics of Marvel, DC, and more. For comic book movies, TV shows, merchandise, events, and whatever catches our eye, this is the place to find anything that falls through the cracks.)
In this edition of Superhero Bits:
Kate Bishop might show up in a big Marvel sequel.
Kevin Feige discusses Venom joining the MCU.
Tyler Hoechlin's new suit for "Superman & Lois" season 2.
Spider-Man's early Marvel Comics adventures get a fancy new collection.
All that and more!
Comic Book Legend George Perez Has Terminal Cancer
We have to start off with some sad news today, as legendary comic book artist George Perez has revealed that he has terminal cancer. Perez had already retired from comics due to health issues, however, in a recent post on his official Facebook page, the icon of the art form revealed that his prognosis is not good, and he is letting nature take its course.
It sounds like Perez, above all else, wants to spend as much time with his family and his fans as he can before his time comes. We wish Perez all the best and thank him for his immense contributions to pop culture, and the joy he has provided to so many people over the years.
Hawkeye Becoming Maya Featurette
Last week's episode of "Hawkeye" introduced us to Alaqua Cox as Maya Lopez, AKA Echo. Marvel has released a featurette detailing Cox's journey to becoming the character. It's remarkable, as Cox is deaf in real life and had no real acting gigs before taking on a huge role in the MCU. And, considering that Marvel is planning to release a full "Echo" series on Disney+, it appears they have a lot of faith in her abilities. Check out the full video for yourself above.
Is Hawkeye's Kate Bishop Appearing In Ant-Man 3?
What's the time? It's rumor time! Let's say right up top that this rumor appears to be coming from unproven sources, and for the moment I'm using this as an opportunity to tell anyone who has read this elsewhere to calm down, and wait for confirmation one way or the other. That said, a site called the Midgard Times is reporting that Hailee Steinfeld's Kate Bishop will reprise her "Hawkeye" role in the upcoming "Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania." On the surface, this doesn't seem that unbelievable, as Marvel's Kevin Feige has confirmed that characters from these Disney+ MCU shows will also make the jump to the big screen. But, for now, this exists firmly in the rumor mill with little to actually back it up.
Taschen Kicks Off Marvel Comics Library Series With Incredible Spider-Man Collection
Marvel Comics has announced a new partnership with Taschen that will see the company releasing a series of premium collections over the next decade. Dubbed "The Marvel Comics Library," the first volume in the series will be a collection of early "Spider-Man" stories. You can check out some of the artwork in the Instagram post above. Per Marvel, here's what to expect:
The inaugural volume of 'The Marvel Comics Library', Spider-Man. Vol. 1. 1962–1964, features the first 21 stories of everybody's favorite web-slinger, meticulously honoring the original vision of Spider-Man creators Stan Lee and Steve Ditko. An in-depth historical essay by Marvel editor Ralph Macchio, an introduction by uber-collector David Mandel, original art boards, rare photographs, and other never-before-seen gems make this book the ultimate tribute to the teen who redefined what it meant to be a hero, right ahead of Spider-Man's 60th birthday.
The first 5,000 copies of Spider-Man. Vol. 1 will be numbered and released as a "Famous First Edition." The book is also available as a Collector's Edition, limited to 1,000 copies featuring an aluminum print cover tipped into a leatherette-bound spine, foil embossing, and housed in a slipcase. The editions retail for $200 and $600, respectively. Those interested can pre-order a copy now by clicking here.
Marvel's Avengers Will Get New Content In 2022
Recent comments made by "Marvel's Avengers" Game Director Phil Therien had fans thinking that the game wouldn't be getting any new content in 2022. Now, as reported by Comic Book Resources, that is not the case. Crystal Dynamics Senior Brand Manager Nick Edwards has assured fans that more goods are coming to the game saying, "If the core question is: Will there be content in 2022 after this roadmap? Yes. There is not currently any version of any internal plan where we stop updates at the end of the current roadmap." The comments were made on Reddit but, given Edwards' role within the company, this seems pretty concrete. As for what that content will be? It's anyone's guess at this point.
Tyler Hoechlin's Superman & Lois Season 2 Suit Revealed
Tyler Hoechlin will be back as our small-screen Man of Steel in "Superman & Lois" season 2, which arrives on The CW in January. Recently, former "Power Rangers" star Amy Jo Johnson, who is directing an episode in the upcoming season, revealed a behind-the-scenes photo of herself with Hoechlin. In the process, it offered a better look at Superman's new suit. Granted, it's without any post-production or effects to polish it off, but it certainly looks fitting for the character.
Vincent D'Onofrio Congratulates Charlie Cox On Being MCU's Daredevil
Vincent D'Onofrio, who portrayed Kingpin on Netflix's "Daredevil," has congratulated his former co-star Charlie Cox on some recent news regarding the character's future. Specifically, Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige has confirmed that Cox will be The MCU's Daredevil when the character inevitably makes his return to the screen. D'Onofrio, exercising a whole lot of class, had nothing but love for Cox. He also singled out Deborah Ann Woll, in a separate tweet, for her work as Karen Page.
Whether or not Woll will make the jump to the MCU as well remains to be seen. To that end, many have speculated D'Onofrio's return could be coming sooner rather than later, but that is a surprise Marvel is at least attempting to keep under wraps, assuming it is indeed happening.
Kevin Feige Discusses Bringing Venom Into The MCU
The multiverse is opening up in a big way with "Spider-Man: No Way Home" next week, as well as "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness" next year. But it was the "Venom: Let There Be Carnage" post-credits scene that truly kicked that door wide open, particularly for those who want to see Tom Hardy's Venom in the MCU. Now, in an interview with Collider, Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige has explained how the decision to mesh these two universes was arrived at.
"You look at the obvious comic connotations between Venom and Spider-Man and it is inherent. So the minute Sony made their Venom movie and it worked as well as it did, and Tom Hardy became as iconic as he has become as Venom, then the obvious question is then, 'How do we start to merge them?'"
Regardless of commercial performance, there is no question that the "Venom" movies are not as critically well-liked as the MCU films, generally speaking. In any case, Sony and Marvel Studios working together with the "Spider-Man" franchise all but assured this was going to happen at some point.
Marvel's Voices: Comunidades Trailer
Lastly, today brings a trailer for the upcoming special "Marvel's Voices: Comunidades" #1. The latest in the publisher's "Marvel Voices" series looks to highlight Latinx heroes and creators from the Marvel Universe. The trailer gives an overview of the many stories contained within the oversized issue, which is hitting stands on December 8, 2021. Here is the synopsis for the book:
Spider-Man! White Tiger! Ghost Rider! And so many more heroes get their moment in the sun as new and fan-favorite creators continue to expand the world outside your window in MARVEL'S VOICES: COMUNIDADES (Community)! Featuring an introduction by renowned scholar Frederick Luis Aldama! PLUS, an all-new hero takes the stage in a whirlwind adventure you won't want to miss.
The huge list of contributors includes writers Daniel José Older, Karla Pacheco, Terry Blas, Juan Ponce, Leonardo Romero, Amparo Ortiz, Alex Segura, Nico Leon, and Edgar Delgado, with art by Enid Balám, Vanesa Del Ray, Adriana Melo, Leonardo Romero, Nico Leon, Alitha E. Martinez, and Joe Quesada.
Interviews and internal Apple documents provide a behind-the-scenes look at how the company made concessions to Beijing and won key legal exemptions. CEO Tim Cook personally lobbied officials over threats that would have hobbled its devices and services. His interventions paved the way for Apple's unparalleled success in the country. The Information: Apple's iPhone recently became the top-selling smartphone in China, its second-biggest market after the U.S., for the first time in six years. But the company owes much of that success to CEO Tim Cook, who laid the foundation years ago by secretly signing an agreement, estimated to be worth more than $275 billion, with Chinese officials promising Apple would do its part to develop China's economy and technological prowess through investments, business deals and worker training. Cook forged the five-year agreement, which hasn't been previously reported, during the first of a series of in-person visits he made to the country in 2016 to quash a sudden burst of regulatory actions against Apple's business, according to internal Apple documents viewed by The Information. Before the meetings, Apple executives were scrambling to salvage the company's relationship with Chinese officials, who believed the company wasn't contributing enough to the local economy, the documents show. Amid the government crackdown and the bad publicity that accompanied it, iPhone sales plummeted.
I would argue that Halo Infinite could and should be marked as a fresh start to the series, even though it's the third of 343 Industries titles and marks the last of the originally planned "reclaimer trilogy". This trilogy is now a saga. Why could it be marked as a fresh start? Because it feels like a jump in the same way that Origins was to Assassin's Creed, only this is far more polished and well-designed.
I'm not going to say that this has brought me around to the Halo franchise in some magical way; it hasn't. Story-wise, it is distinctively lacking. The Halo universe will never have good storytelling unless you absorb the spin-offs, cartoons, novels, comics, audiobooks, toys, and branded bedding. As a result of names of planets, events and their supposed importance, Master Chief and the whole universe interests me less than the dust gathering on my Nintendo Switch.
There's one difference here than from the series' history. Halo Infinite has found a way to make me care about John the Cook's beat to beat actions.
Let's get the obvious points out of the way; this isn't a way for somebody new to get into the series in any narrative sense. I'm not even sure if it's suitable for current fans who have absorbed everything. Halo Infinite has you jump back into the boots of Agent 117 as he's rescued from a long cryogenic sleep, having been floating around in space for a while. There are no introductions or explanations beyond how you got there. You either know who these characters are, who Cortana is, why you're at war with the Banished, what the magical space ring is, or whatever any of these things are.
You're a big green suit of armour, impervious to the cold vacuum of space, and you're the good guy. It's time to do good-guy stuff, fight the baddies, and do many things along the way. The pilot thinks you're crazy for wanting to go down to the magical space-ring with a considerable chunk missing, swarming with things wanting to kill you. He advises going as far away as possible because almost all humanity is dead, and you've only just been rescued from space-sleep after being butchered by Atriox (from Halo Wars 2 and a dozen non-game options) in the opening cutscene.
As a follow-up to Halo's 4 & 5, this continues the maligned story of Cortana and her green puppet. This time, the puppet becomes the master of sorts, finding and then bringing along yet another AI he decides to pop into his head. This new AI, called The Weapon, is essentially Cortana-again, but without the baggage that came from every other Halo game. It's scared most of the time, relentlessly chirpy the rest and I don't mind it.
If only anybody else had that bit of character to them. Sergeant Slaughter is still the stalwart, incredibly dull hero of the universe with absolutely no personality, growth, emotion, or meaning. The pilot is amusing and has some admirable traits, such as logic, but falls into line with the chief. Escharum, the big bad in charge of the banished on this Halo, or at least this part, gets rid of all common sense, tactics, and more in what amounts to a giant pissing contest.
I'm saying I had no emotional investment in this game. Even though the story begins in medias res, meaning it's more accessible for people like me, it still faltered at most steps to ingratiate me into its universe. It does mark an improvement on previous titles, having some self-contained elements, but it's still over-reliant on other media. What did work for me? The gameplay.
You're likely aware that Halo Infinite is an open-world title. I wondered how 343 would manage this while keeping the constant linearity and spectacle the series is known for delivering. They've managed this well by keeping it semi-open-world while putting story-beats and spectacles within directed areas. Think Metro Exodus in style, only it's just one larger open area rather than multiple smaller ones. All of this allows you to infiltrate big bases, destroy massive structures, fight bosses, and do whatever else you've come to expect from the series.
What also helps is that 343 haven't gone full AAA open-world by placing random collectibles all over the shop. There are no random feathers here, with collectibles reserved to multiple audio logs from all sides of the conflict, Spartan Points that you use to level up Johnny Cage's skills and shield. Such skills include the grappling hook, by far the best addition to Halo when combined with the more open area, a threat sensor, thrusters, and more.
There are other gathering elements, Halo Infinite having you earn valor from completing side tasks such as rescuing bands of USMC soldiers, taking down propaganda towers, destroying other establishments, and even taking down high-value targets. This valor, as it grows, unlocks more weapons and vehicles to summon while at a forward operating base (FOB) that you capture by killing all the Banished that happen to be there. Capturing these also reveals the nearby events in a Ubisoft tower way, but far better as it makes narrative sense.
Travelling to these, and manoeuvring anywhere around Halo Infinite's open areas, can be done on foot or through the many vehicles found or summoned throughout. The vehicles also, when used right, can make expeditious work of most places you attack. You can also bring along some AI soldiers with you, though I've had them break a few times, not move when they say they're going to follow me (or jump in my warthog) or, on foot, run away from the battle. The reality is that they're a poor substitute for another player.
Naturally, this brings us to the combat in Halo Infinite. With a vast host of weapons, including unique versions gained from the corpses of the high-value targets, you'll rarely find yourself having some fun killing the enemy. I will admit most are useless, but that's because they belonged to the useless enemies. It's by far the best part of the game, even when you find yourself out of ammo and scavenging the corpses of the fallen for something to take down the next brute bounding towards you.
That's it. That's the fun part. I've already covered how bombastic it is, and it looks and sounds great while doing so. 343 Industries have certainly made this feel like the best Halo game, and they know that combat is and should be the focus, so they need to ensure you're not stuck too long away from the action. They manage this for the most part, with only a few dull moments, such as hunting for the collectible.
All I can say is that I wish I had another human around in what is a very rare comment from me. The delaying of the co-op has undeniably hurt Halo Infinite. 343 Industries made certain combat sections with more than one player in mind; that's clear to see. Also, vehicles have always been designed with a second player - on the gun - in mind.
At this point, I could talk about multiplayer. Only I don't need to. You've heard all about the shooty bang bang fun run in the gameplay; it's the same and feels the same there. Not only that, you've likely been playing it already and know if you like it, or you're like me, you've played a bit but have no interest in playing more. That and I would rant about unlock systems or something along those lines. So, if it pleases you, imagine this is a review of the campaign.
I've been pretty clear on how I consider the story one of Halo's most considerable pitfalls, with everything else being generally top-notch. I would be remiss if I didn't mention a few other minor annoyances. I had a few bugs here and here, such as characters getting stuck in scenery, and once or twice I found myself getting shot through solid objects. Minor annoyances. Another, which is quite possibly the fault of my PC (so not included in the scoring) and why I'm late in getting this review out, is that my installation of the review build disappeared on me, requiring me to reinstall it over again.
One petty quibble from me, though not one I will hold against Halo Infinite's score, Microsoft, in their infinite wisdom, have decided that saves from this review build won't continue into the full release. It's irritating as it means I've lost a hell of a lot of progress in the side objectives of the game. I've long-complained about open-world games that feel like they have content for the sake of content. Halo infinite's somewhat pared back and first-baby-steps into the open-world keep it feeling like a game I want to complete.
If anything, that's an accolade for Halo Infinite and one that I will praise. No other Halo game has ever made me want to complete it; I've just finished them for the sake of having done so. In the past, I've constantly stated that - outside of gameplay for a console shooter - Halo is one of the most overrated series in history and average at best. While the story (game only) is still shallower than a puddle of sick with little character development, there's another leg to carry the weight.
PC version reviewed. Copy provided by the publisher.
