Audio player loading… Over the last month the game of kings has come under intense scrutiny thanks to accusations of cheating made by the world champion, Magnus Carlsen, against the grandmaster Hans Niemann. The whole thing began when the pair faced off in the third round of the Sinquefield Cup, a major chess tournament, an encounter that Niemann won as black. This was a major upset. Perhaps too major. Shortly afterwards Carlsen withdrew from the tournament, and posted a clip of football manager Jose Mourinho saying "if I speak I am in big trouble." The implication, quickly made explicit by Carlsen's friend and former world #2 Hikaru Nakamura, was that Niemann had cheated. Niemann strenuously denied the charge, admitting that he had cheated twice as a youngster but saying he was now clean and has never cheated in an over-the-board game. Carlsen faced criticism himself for the vague nature of the accusation (British grandmaster and former world title contender Nigel Short … [Read more...] about Chess scandal re-erupts as investigation finds the accused cheated in ‘more than 100’ games
Another day, another maddeningly vague Hideo Kojima tease
Audio player loading… Hideo Kojima has announced… something? Or he's announced that he's going to announce something, but the announcement is its own announcement of, oh god stop the internet I want to get off. For a creator that made a game about information overload and the surfeit of junk in contemporary digital life, he doesn't exactly practice what he preaches. Kojima has previously announced that the studio will be showing off a VR hallway at TGS (don't ask), then recently a new website launched with a blanked-out face and the phrase "Who Am I?" superimposed atop it. Now our boy's at it again, tweeting out the same face: The answer to “WHO” at TGS will be in the next “WHERE”. pic.twitter.com/y6Y6l7gAxo October 5, 2022 See more It comes with some maddeningly on-brand text, which is both English and semi-gibberish: "The answer to 'WHO' at TGS will be in the next 'WHERE'." WHAT does that mean and WHEN?! Clear as mud, though the implication … [Read more...] about Another day, another maddeningly vague Hideo Kojima tease
Parasitic malware tricks crypto scammers into doing the hard work for them
Audio player loading… In a world where scammers are rife, and seemingly obsessed with hacking innocent parties—like the Costa Rican healthcare system (opens in new tab) —in order to hold their data ransom for crypto capital, we almost got excited when we heard about malware that intercepted scammers before they could profit from their misdeeds. Unfortunately, it's not all good news. Trend Micro (opens in new tab) outlines in a recent post a parasitic threat actor the company just discovered. It's been named Water Labbu, potentially as a nod to a Mesopotamian lion-dragon-like mythological creature (opens in new tab) designed by the God Enlil to wipe out the nuisance that humanity had become. The rest of the Gods ended up cowering before it and he finally sent someone to slay the beast which took three years, three months, and a day to bleed out. The more you know... Water Labbu (the malicious actor, not the creature) had been targeting problematic … [Read more...] about Parasitic malware tricks crypto scammers into doing the hard work for them
Hitman 3’s roguelike mode has been delayed to next year
Audio player loading… Hitman 3's roguelike 'freelancer mode' (opens in new tab) has been delayed yet again, this time getting pushed all the way into next year. The mode, which has already been delayed once before (opens in new tab) , will release on January 26 as a free update for Hitman 3 that includes "almost all" of the locations from Hitman 1, 2, and 3. The good news—at least for a select few players—is that IO will be running a "closed technical test" for the mode in November. Some players will be "selectively" invited to participate in a test run for the mode that will let them experience a tasting plate of some of the freelancer mode's new features, such as the customisable safehouse and a few assassinations. Curiously, only Steam players seem to have the privilege of taking part in that test, even though Hitman 3 released on the Epic Games Store (opens in new tab) a whole year before it hit Steam. Hitman 3's freelancer mode was revealed as part of the … [Read more...] about Hitman 3’s roguelike mode has been delayed to next year
Multiplayer Witcher sounds a lot more exciting than a new trilogy
CD Projekt is heading back to the Continent with a new Witcher trilogy (opens in new tab) that the company teases will "build on the legacy of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt". My interest is piqued, but after playing Wild Hunt for hundreds of hours, I quite fancy something that deviates from that formula. Good news: another studio is working on its own "innovative take" on the monster-slayers, and this one is going to have multiplayer. Like my suggestion that Dandelion should be the protagonist of The Witcher 4 (opens in new tab) , I'm pretty this will inspire people to hurl rotten fruit and veg at me, but I'm a lot more excited by the prospect of something that isn't just trying to replicate the success of a game I've played to death. I've travelled all over the Continent alone, aside from the odd NPC companion, and now I'm more than ready to share that experience with some humans. We know very little about The Molasses Flood's Witcher romp, codenamed Sirius, except that … [Read more...] about Multiplayer Witcher sounds a lot more exciting than a new trilogy