Technology

The indie gem Minit, released back in 2018, felt like a breath of fresh air. The monochromatic adventure game took a seemingly absurd time constraint — killing the player every 60 seconds — and turned it into both a passionate love letter to top-down classics like The Legend of Zelda and an ingenious and clever quest that threw constant surprises at the player. Now, the core team behind Minit — Nuclear Throne and Disc Room developer Jan Willem Nijman, designer Kitty Calis, composer Jukio Kallio, and artist Dominik Johann — are back with a new spinoff title, Minit Fun Racer. The game takes the same core idea and applies it to a side-scrolling biking game reminiscent of arcade titles of decades past. All proceeds of the game, which is being published for free by indie label Devolver Digital,...

Getting my license at age 16 was a breath of fresh air. It was me, my used 2007 Mazda6, and the open road. As anyone who knew me at the time will say, though, I was a misfortune magnet as a teenager and this extended to my car. There was even a running joke among my peers that I was on a first-name basis with the local tow truck drivers because AAA had to dispatch them on a regular basis — a dead battery being one of the more common mishaps. Whether the battery died so often because I left a light on, the weather was frighteningly cold, or I waited too long to replace the battery, doesn’t really matter. However, my mom eventually saw fit to save me both time and money by gifting me the Halo Bolt Portable Car Jump Starter so I would always have a way to give my little car a boost when I nee...

Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout, Mediatonic’s charming platformer battle royale title, is coming to Xbox Series X / S and Xbox One this summer, Microsoft announced in a blog post today. The news comes just one day after Mediatonic announced that the game was going to be ported to the Nintendo Switch sometime this summer as well. While no firm release date has been announced, both ports will likely launch within the same time frame. Fall Guys originally released in 2020 on PC via Steam and PS4, where it was a free title for users with an active PlayStation Plus subscription. The game mixes battle royale with the platformer genre, where players compete in elimination-type challenges. The title draws inspiration from competitive game shows like Wipeout. Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout is currently ...

Huawei has posted another teaser for its upcoming Mate X2 folding phone on Weibo, offering the strongest hint yet that it’ll move away from the original Mate X’s design. The first Mate X, announced in 2019 and refreshed in 2020, had a single large screen that folded in half so that the display was on the outside of the device. The follow-up phone, however, looks like it’ll fold the other way, more like Samsung’s Galaxy Folds. Making reference to a new design for the Mate X2, the teaser image shows the phone from the side open at an angle, with a glow on the inside of the hinge. The picture is also a reference to the timing of the event, which will take place at 8PM China time (7AM ET) on February 22nd. Here’s the full teaser image: The announcement will coincide with Mobile World Congress ...

The next major update to Windows 10, version 21H1, will be delivered in the first half of 2021 and focuses on improving remote work scenarios. Microsoft traditionally delivers two major Windows updates per year, with most of the bigger features dropping in the spring and a smaller update in the fall. While IT admins are used to this approach, Microsoft appears to be reversing this cadence for 2021. “Windows 10, version 21H1 will have a scoped set of features improving security, remote access and quality,” explains John Cable, Microsoft’s head of Windows Servicing and Delivery. “The features we are releasing in this update are focused on the core experiences that customers have told us they’re relying on most right now.” These improvements will include: Windows Hello multicamera support to ...

The US government has released updated figures on the number of companies and federal agencies it believes were impacted by the recent SolarWinds hack. “As of today, 9 federal agencies and about 100 private sector companies were compromised,” Deputy National Security Advisor Anne Neuberger said in a briefing, though she declined to name specific organizations. Although the hack was “likely of Russian origin,” Neuberger said the hackers launched their attack from inside the US. The latest figures revealed are lower than the 250 federal agencies and businesses that were previously reported to have been infected, though Neuberger cautioned that the investigation is still in its “beginning stages” and that “additional compromises” may be found. In particular, the technology companies compromis...

If you ever wanted a zombie game where you played as the undead instead of fending off against it, you’ll have another chance soon. Stubbs the Zombie in Rebel Without a Pulse is being rereleased on March 16th for PC, PS4, Switch, and Xbox One and will be playable on PS5 and Xbox Series X / S via backwards compatibility. Aspyr Media, the company that originally published Stubbs the Zombie, is handling the port. The studio recently worked on porting Star Wars Episode I: Racer to modern consoles, so it’s safe to say this remaster is in good hands. Originally released in 2005 on the Xbox, Stubbs the Zombie has players control the titular character with the main goal of wreaking havoc and devouring human brains. It’s a third-person action title developed by the now-defunct Wideload Games. The g...

Velan Studios, the studio behind the mixed-reality racer Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit, has revealed its next title: Knockout City, a team-based online dodgeball game. And it’s launching soon, as the game will be released on May 21st on Origin, Steam, the Playstation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch, with enhancements for the PS5 and Xbox Series X. EA is publishing the game under its EA Originals label. Knockout City’s take on dodgeball is similar to what you probably played in gym class. You and your team are trying to hit your opponents with balls while simultaneously avoiding and catching the balls thrown at you. In addition to straight-on throws, you can curve your shots, lob balls over obstacles, and even fake throws to try to catch your opponent off-balance. Image: Velan Studios But ...

Texas’ massive energy crisis didn’t have to happen, experts say — and it doesn’t have to happen again. Authorities can start working on solutions now that could prevent future blackouts. But unless the state gets to work fast, its energy system will be vulnerable to the next shock. Unless the state gets to work fast, its energy system will be vulnerable to the next shock For starters, Texas’ grid needs to prepare for more blows from extreme weather, and the change can’t stop there. Upgrading homes and buildings is a straightforward way to keep people safe during catastrophic conditions like this week’s cold snap. Emergency response efforts need an update, too. Michael Bates, general manager of Energy at Intel, lives in Austin where he and his mother have not had power for three days. “She’...

Samsung has announced that its latest One UI 3.1 software update is rolling out to some of its older phones. The update will trickle down some of the Galaxy S21 lineup’s newer software features to last year’s Samsung flagships, including the Galaxy S20, Galaxy Note 20, Galaxy Z Fold 2 and Galaxy Z Flip phones. Most of the new features are focused on bringing some of the software enhancements that Samsung debuted for the camera on the S21 lineup back down to its older devices. Those include the “enhanced single take” option that automatically captures and generates a variety of still images and videos with just one click, the smart object eraser tool for quickly removing unwanted parts of your photos, and the option to use both your phone and a separate Bluetooth microphone to record audio ...

The Facebook pages of many Australian government agencies seem to have been caught up in the social media network’s ban on news posts by users and media organizations in the country. Users on Twitter have reported that the pages of agencies like the Bureau of Meteorology, Department of Fire and Emergency Services Western Australia, and Queensland Health have no posts available. When Verge staff in the US tried to access the pages, some saw them as having no posts. Other Verge staffers saw posts appearing as normal, however, though were often viewing pages without logging into Facebook. Still, the volume of Twitter concerns makes it clear that, for at least some users, posts from those pages are inaccessible. It’s unclear whether the different results were the result of a ban still rolling ...

For the first time in over a year, Nintendo hosted a full-fledged Direct presentation. The latest presentation was focused mostly on games slated to hit Nintendo’s hybrid gaming console, the Switch, sometime during the first half of 2021, though there were a few announcements for games that will hit later than that. The nearly hour-long event included a slew of titles slated to hit the Switch before the year is half over, including ports for indie games such as Fall Guys and Outer Wilds and new installments in franchises like No More Heroes and Splatoon. Here are the biggest news announcements and trailers from today’s Nintendo Direct. [embedded content] Splatoon 3 inks its way onto Nintendo Switch in 2022 The third installment in the Splatoon franchise is slated to launch in 2022. Not muc...