2017 Chevrolet Corvette Grand Sport review – Roadshow
The Good Solid brakes and an excellent cooling system make for long stints at the track. It’s cool to check out your racing stats in the easy to operate Performance Data Recorder.
The Bad The steering in Track mode is ultra-heavy and requires more muscle than most will be willing to give.
The Bottom Line The Corvette Grand Sport is an excellent value. If you’re looking for an affordable and balanced sports car, this is it.
The Corvette Grand Sport is the ‘Vette you want
The Grand Sport features the best of the base Stingray and the bonkers Z06.
by Emme Hall
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The latest generation Corvette, introduced in 2014, revived the Stingray name and the world went a little bonkers. Some felt that the complete redesign looked a little too Ferrari, while others bemoaned the new rear fascia. However, all agreed that the 6.2-liter V8 engine under the hood stayed true to the ‘Vette’s two-seat, rear-wheel-drive sportscar roots.
Introduced in 1953 with a six-cylinder engine and a two-speed automatic transmission, the Corvette didn’t really become a true sports car until three years later. GM equipped the ‘Vette with a small block V8 and a three-speed manual transmission and raced it in 1956 and 1957 at the 12 Hours of Sebring. Although GM didn’t have a very successful campaign those years, it set the stage for the sports car we know today.
Through constant development both on and off the racetrack, that original six-cylinder, 150 horsepower engine has now morphed into its current 460 horsepower V8 iteration in the Corvette Stingray. Chevrolet also produces the ridiculously fast Z06 Corvette for those who wanted even MOAR POWAH, but with 650 galloping horses under the hood, the “Big Nasty” can be a little intimidating.
Enter the Corvette Grand Sport. It’s like the Stingray and the Z06 had a baby, each giving the best of their DNA. The Stingray contributes the naturally aspirated 6.2-liter V8 engine, knocking out 460 horsepower and 465 pound-feet of torque. As part of its Z06 genes, the Grand Sport borrows the cooling system, bigger Brembo brakes and Michelin Pilot Super Sport tires.
2017 Chevrolet Corvette Grand Sport…
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Like all Corvettes, power goes to the rear wheels via the standard seven speed manual transmission, but an eight-speed auto is optional. An electronic limited-slip differential and Magnetic Ride Control suspension are standard, though also available on the base Stingray with the Z51 Performance package.
Nick Miotke/Roadshow
The Grand Sport offers five different driving modes: Touring, Sport, Track, Weather and Eco. I had the track all to myself at Gingerman Raceway in Michigan, a fun little road circuit just over two miles long, with plenty of late apexes and reduced-radius, off-camber turns. I set the car to track mode and zoomed out of the pit lane.
The Grand Sport can handle 1.05 g in the twisties, but Chevy sent me something just a bit better. My test vehicle came with the optional Z07 performance package, bringing in carbon-ceramic brakes, a carbon-fiber aero package and super-sticky Michelin Sport Cup 2 tires. It’s a $7,995 option that helps you get around the track faster — not by brute power, but by virtue of more downforce, better cornering capabilities and the chance to brake later into the turns…if you dare.
My first thought after turn one: “Holy mackinoly this steering is heavy!” I’m not one to shy away from using muscle, but in track mode the Grand Sport felt like it had no assist in the steering rack at all.
Still, the turn-in is very sharp indeed. The Magnetic Ride Control adjusts the suspension 10 times faster than the blink of an eye, keeping everything flat through the turns. The Cup 2 tires offer massive grip, and with the extra aero package, the car never got out of sorts. The brakes felt solid through all of my sessions, never fading or getting spongey. Essentially I just pointed the ‘Vette and jammed on the gas, the Grand Sport obeying my commands with no trace of understeer, just good old American fun.
Nintendo NES Classic Edition review – CNET
The Good Authentic-looking, throwback design; comfortable controller; the best value for a bunch of Nintendo’s classic 8-bit games; connects with HDMI, and powered by Micro-USB. Plays two-player games. Can save progress in all games.
The Bad The one included controller isn’t wireless, and the cord is really short. You can’t download or buy new games.
The Bottom Line Nintendo’s little self-contained mini console plays 30 of the best NES games ever made, making it a fun nostalgia trip for Nintendo fans and a no-brainer stocking stuffer.
Visit manufacturer site for details.
“Dad, I want to save my allowance to get this.”
My son played on the throwback controller easily: to him, it’s like a Wii remote. And he already knows how to play Super Mario Bros. 3: he remembers it from Super Mario Maker, where he’s created endless levels.
Nintendo’s prepared him well.
If you love retro games, you’re probably an obsessive over the culture. A collector, maybe. So the NES Classic Edition, a miniature replica of the system released in the US in 1985, that’s also a plug-and-play box with 30 classic NES games installed, probably sounds like a geek dream come true.
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It’s smaller than you think.
Sarah Tew/CNET
But it’s not just Nintendo’s move into a landscape well-traveled by lots of other all-in-one retro game boxes over the years. Finally, these classic games have been freed from their Nintendo console prison. Into, well, a small, very affordable box.
Nintendo’s classic archive of games, many of which are flat-out legendary, have always existed behind a protective wall of proprietary hardware. Buy a Nintendo 3DS, or a Wii, or a Wii U, and download Virtual Console mini games. What you buy for one system doesn’t necessarily carry over to another. This is how I’ve bought Super Mario Bros. 3 about three times.
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It’s smaller than an NES cartridge. Also, a Nintendo 2DS for comparison.
Sarah Tew/CNET
The stand-alone NES Classic Edition bundles 30 NES games in one self-contained package for $60, £50 or AU$100. As my son noticed right off the bat, it’s 30 games for the price of one Wii U game, just about.
Is that a good deal? Well, yes, considering that Nintendo normally sells most of these games for $5 a pop via its Virtual Console service.
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A lot of games there.
Sarah Tew/CNET
The included 30 games are all pretty good, too, and they all play perfectly, even down to the authentic sprite-flicker and slowdown. Super Mario Bros. 1-3 are here, and Zelda 1 and 2. Metroid, Kirby’s Adventure, Castlevania, Super C. The whole list, in case you’re curious:
- Balloon Fight
- Bubble Bobble
- Castlevania
- Castlevania II: Simon’s Quest
- Donkey Kong
- Donkey Kong Jr.
- Double Dragon II: The Revenge
- Dr. Mario
- Excitebike
- Final Fantasy
- Galaga
- Ghosts’n Goblins
- Gradius
- Ice Climber
- Kid Icarus
- Kirby’s Adventure
- Mario Bros.
- Mega Man 2
- Metroid
- Ninja Gaiden
- Pac-Man
- Punch-Out! Featuring Mr. Dream
- StarTropics
- Super C
- Super Mario Bros.
- Super Mario Bros. 2
- Super Mario Bros. 3
- Tecmo Bowl
- The Legend of Zelda
- Zelda II: The Adventure of Link
It sounds like Facebook Messenger will soon have more games
Facebook’s gaming aspirations are deeper than its Gameroom app and quick rounds of basketball, soccer (football to the rest of the world) and chess in Messenger. Zuckerberg and Co. are shopping a development kit to, well, third-party developers to bring more distractions to Facebook Messenger. The “Instant Games” toolset will launch later this month, according to a report from The Information.
Aside from those details, all that’s known is the social network is pushing for more asynchronous games than stuff where you’d be playing in real-time with another player. Which makes sense considering Words With Friends or Catan lends itself much more to the mobile platform than a Facebook game like Racing Legacy probably would. Hopefully when this launches it fares better than Messenger’s chatbots have.
Source: The Information
15 hidden Facebook Messenger tips – CNET
Facebook Messenger tips & tricks
From secret basketball games to friendly nicknames, make the most of your Messenger chats with these handy tips and hidden features.
by Lexy Savvides
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Messenger has a lot of hidden features that you need to know to become a power user. Here are 13 to get you started on your way.
1. Catch a ride
You can even call for a ride through messenger. All you need to do is tap on the icon of the car in the chat menu. From there you can choose a ride from Uber or Lyft. If you want a friend to come pick you up, click on the Location icon and you can send your friend a map marked with your exact location.
2. Create your own chatbot
You probably already know that you can talk to a Facebook chatbot, but you can also make your own…sort of. If you have a Facebook page go to the page’s Settings and select Messaging. Then, go down to Response Assistant and click on Send Instant Replies to anyone who messages your Page. Here you can set up what your bot will tell people when they send you a message, either through Messenger or on Facebook.
3. Share songs
Sometimes words just won’t express how you feel, so send them a song instead. Click the … button on the right side of the menu when you’re in a chat, install the Spotify app and login using Facebook. Then, tap on the … button in chat again and tap on the Spotify option. Search for the song you want to share, tap on it and hit the Send button.
Sometimes a song says it all.
Alina Bradford/CNET
4. Create a shortcut
Keep your BFF handy by creating a shortcut to your chat. Go to the main menu and hold your finger down on your friend’s photo. A menu will pop up. Choose Create shortcut from the menu. An icon will be added to your device’s home screen so you can start a chat with your friend without even opening Messenger.
5. Send a flurry of hearts, balloons or snow
When you send someone the single heart emoji in Messenger for iOS it will rain hearts. If you send a single snowflake it will snow on the screen. A flurry of balloons can be set off by sending the balloon emoji. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work with Messenger for Windows or Android.
6. Make a short video
Instead of sending a picture, send a video. Just hold down the shutter button and it will record whatever your camera is pointing at. When you’re done, let go of the shutter button and tap the Send button. Your videos can be up to 15 seconds long.
Send a quick video to get your point across.
Alina Bradford/CNET
7. Change your like button
If a thumbs-up just isn’t your style, you can change your like button to whatever you want. Go into a chat and tap the circle with an “i” in it. Then, tap on the Emoji option. A menu will pop up with a variety of emojis you can use instead of the standard like emoji. You can change the emoji in every chat session, so the emoji will fit the person you’re messaging.
By clicking on the same circle, you can also access other options, like changing your chat buddy’s name to a silly nickname.
You can change your like button and then make the emoji huge.
Alina Bradford/CNET
8. Make your emoji huge
Whether you stick with the thumbs-up emoji or pick something a little more custom, you can show the person you message how you feel in a big way. In the Messenger app, hold your finger down on the emoji and it will grow. When it’s the size you want, lift your finger and the emoji will send.
9. Play a hidden soccer (football?) game
All you need to to find a secret soccer game in Messenger is to send the soccer ball emoji to a friend, tap on the sent emoji and start playing. The object of the game is to keep the ball off the bottom of the screen. To do this, keep tapping on the ball. This game is a lot harder than it sounds.
Enlarge Image
Shoot some hoops and battle for the best shooting streak.
Alina Bradford/CNET
10. Also, there’s a hidden basketball game
You can find a hidden basketball game the same way. Just send a friend a basketball emoji and tap on the sent emoji. If you’re good at Pokemon Go, you may be good at this Messenger game. All you do is try to flick the basketball into the basket. The counter keeps track of how many times you make a basket in a row.
11. Start a chess game
You can play chess with Messenger, too. Type @fbchess play and send the text. A chess game will pop up that you can play with your friend. Need help? Type @fbchess help and a message will pop up with a rundown on the game.
Get cerebral with a mobile chess game.
Alina Bradford/CNET
12. Share your Messenger code
Your Messenger has its own QR code that you can share with others. Sharing the code will add you to their contacts list. If you scan their code, it will add them to yours, too.
Click on the Profile icon in the upper right-hand side of the main Messenger page on the app. Then tap on your photo. The app will give you the choice of scanning someone else’s code or sharing your own. To scan someone’s code, tap on Scan Code and hold your phone’s camera over the other person’s phone until their Messenger QR code is recognized. They will need to share their code while you are doing the scan for it to work.
13. Automatically save photos
If you want to automatically save photos to your device’s gallery whenever someone sends you a pic, you can. Click on the Profile icon in the upper right-hand side of the main Messenger page on the app. Then tap on Photos & Media. Toggle the switch next to Save Photos and all photos sent to you through the Messenger will be saved in your device’s gallery.
14. Stop unwanted convos
Is some random person bugging you, but you don’t want to block them? If you’re not friends with them, go into the conversation and select Manage at the top of the screen. Then, from the menu choose Manage Messages. Move the slider tab to the left and you will stop receiving messages from that person.
If you’ve been added to a group you don’t want to be a part of you can mute it so your phone isn’t buzzing every few seconds. Go to the conversation on the dashboard and hold your finger down on the conversation. Then, choose Mute Notifications from the menu.
15. Have a secret conversation
Messenger now has end-to-end encryption to keep your most secret conversations under wraps. These conversations are called Secret Conversations. You can learn more about turning on and Using Secret Conversations here.
Secret Conversation’s end-to-end encryption helps keep your Messenger convos safe.
Screenshot by Alina Bradford/CNET
Seven tips for securing your Facebook account
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This article was originally posted on July 28, 2016 and has since been updated.
Understanding Hype, a live-streaming app packed with weird – CNET
How to use the Hype app and win all the sparkles
Learn the hidden quirks of this live-video streaming app made by the creators of Vine.
by Bridget Carey
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The creators of Vine have a new gift for the Internet — and it’s called Hype.
Hype is a live-streaming video app on iOS with wide-ranging creative freedom. Every broadcaster can layer a live video with multimedia, including photos, videos, animated GIFs, music, text and emojis. Anything can be moved around the screen and added or deleted during the live broadcast.
The point of Hype is to use these tools to engage with a live audience and win subscribers. Like in other live-streaming apps, the audience can share comments in a chat window. But Hype takes it up a notch: If the broadcasters like a comment, they can pull it into the video, having it float above as a chat bubble.
Adding to the mania of the presentation, the audience also wields the power to light up a Hype broadcast with sparkles. Why? Because sparkles are how you show love (naturally).
It may sound overwhelming, but it has just the right blend of Internet weirdness to work — and it opens up new ways to create video for the YouTube generation that craves an audience.
Layers of live Hype weirdness.
Screenshot by Bridget Carey/CNET
The Hype app offers no tutorial (much like Snapchat), forcing you to learn just by tinkering around. If you’re feeling lost, here are some tips on creating your own broadcast (although you may want to watch a few other Hype videos before making your own):
Change the background
Long-press your finger on the background. That brings up a menu of preset animated backgrounds, or you can choose your own from your camera roll.
Change the live-video window
The default live-video window is a circle. Click the circle, then click the shapes icon on the bottom to cycle through different cutouts, like a hexagon, star or triangle. Resize or rotate by pinching with two fingers. The square window lets you pinch and pull the corners to create a custom proportion, such as a thin, long rectangle that shows only your eyes or mouth.
The ghost icon mutes your microphone and makes your video invisible to the audience.
The double arrows are a quick way to make an object full-screen. Press again to shrink it back down. This is useful for when you want to quickly put focus on one thing during a broadcast.
Adding multimedia
Click the plus icon to add photos and videos from your camera roll, or music saved on your phone, as well as text and emojis. You can also hunt for animated GIFs and Vine videos by tapping the search icon.
When adding photos from your camera roll, selecting multiple photos will create a slideshow.
When adding music, the album art appears as a photo by default. The art can be hidden by tapping the eyeball icon, and the music can also be turned on and off by tapping the volume icon.
Changing layers
Think of all these elements as being stacked on the screen like a deck of cards. You can bring an item to the front by selecting it and tapping the blue layer icon on the corner of the image.
Going live
Click the “Go Live” green button when you’re ready to broadcast. Once you give your broadcast a title, the show begins. The upper left corner shows the number of people who are watching and the number of sparkles (aka likes) you’re racking up. You earn sparkles when the audience taps on an element in your video.
Highlighting comments
People can chat and leave a message for you by typing in the chat window, found in the lower left corner. Tap the chat icon to see a list of messages. Tap a message to share it in your broadcast as a chat bubble.
Even a plastic dinosaur can have a talk show on Hype.
Screenshot by Bridget Carey/CNET
Subscriptions
When someone subscribes to you, they’ll be notified the next time you go live. You’ll also show up in their subscriptions tab in the main menu of Hype.
Ending and saving a broadcast
Click the “X” in the upper right corner to end your broadcast. Selecting “Upload Replay” will save your video to be viewed on your profile later. Even if you don’t upload the video to your profile, it will still save a copy in your camera roll.
Sharing a broadcast
As of now, there’s no way to alert friends on other networks when you’re in a live Hype. But past broadcasts uploaded to your profile can be shared with others. When watching your replay, tap the bottom right icon to share a link to your video. The creators of Hype say they are working on better ways to share broadcasts on social networks.
Get creative
Come up with ways to blend your live video with other media. Make it look like you’re eating emoji fruit. Use your super breath to blow away comments on the screen. Crop the live video to only show your mouth and place it on the face of another photo.
Many early users have created their own chat shows, interacting with the audience, answering questions and responding to feedback — all the while being cheered on by twinkling sparkles.
As the kids say: Do it for the Hype.
Google Home vs. Amazon Echo: Video head-to-head!
How do you choose between Google Home and Amazon Echo? Start by listening.
Now that Google Home has been presented to the world as a genuinely good, but still kind of basic, alternative to Amazon Echo, there’s a lot of folks out there wondering which of these systems is the one they should be setting up in their homes or giving as gifts this year.
There’s no easy answer here, for a couple of reasons. Amazon has had lots of time to build a ton of features, and has a cheaper Echo Dot that offsets the more expensive Amazon Echo. Google’s Assistant is in more places and connected to a lot of great things out of the box though, and the ability to learn is something that will show which is the better system over time.
Not satisfied with that answer? Yeah, me neither. But I made a quick video to help show you what I’m talking about, and hopefully that will help.
Google Home
- Google Home review
- These services work with Google Home
- Google Home vs. Amazon Echo
- Join our Google Home forums!
Google Store Best Buy Target
‘Hearthstone’ is going to Gadgetzan
The next expansion for Blizzard’s wildly popular digital card game goes out into the desert. But it’ll be a bit different than when you checked out out in World of Warcraft. “Mean Streets of Gadgetzan” is a bigger, more populated city now, but executive producer Hamilton Chu said that it has some seedy back alleys and underworld elements to it.
In terms of what this will mean for gameplay, Chu said that there’s a card coming called “Piranha Launcher” which is exactly what it sounds like: a weapon that shoots vicious fish. Then there’s the Lotus Assassin which gains stealth points with every kill. The Kabal Talonpriest gives friendly cards three health.
These cards are from three different races, the Grimy Goons, the Kabal and the Lotus. Following that delta theme, there are tri-class cards as well, with the Kabal’s Courier able to play within mage, priest and warlock decks.
Like new Overwatch hero Sombra, these will be playable on the Blizzcon show floor.
Source: Blizzard
Netflix comes to Comcast X1 boxes next week
Comcast and Netflix are announcing that the latter’s streaming service will be fully available on the former’s X1 boxes from next week. If you have a Comcast X1 and a Netflix subscription, you’ll be able to watch original series like Stranger Things and House of Cards without new equipment. As Netflix’s Reed Hastings says, users can now “seamlessly move between the Netflix app and their cable service.”
The product has been in beta since September, where users could opt-in to trial the most unlikely of team-ups between cable and streaming media. Comcast has worked surprisingly hard to ensure that the Netflix app is compatible with the X1, ensuring that its voice remote and universal search both work in the app. If you’re not already a Netflix customer, you’ll also be able to sign up to the service and have the charge added to your Comcast bill.
Source: Netflix
The truth about Trump’s secret server and Russia
It’s hard not to follow the hacks and cracks of the election, even if you don’t want to — every day there’s a new accusation or hysterical revelation. So you no doubt saw “Was a Trump Server Communicating With Russia?” postulating that Donald Trump’s connections to Russia were confirmed with the discovery of a secret email server.
That story came from Slate, based on a connection a researcher found between a Trump Organization server and a Russian bank. News outlets took the bait and ran with it, telling us that this was as damning as it appeared.
But if you’re like me, you probably had already seen that same exact tale told in early October, as it was run through the grist mill that is infosec Twitter. You must be wondering, then, why didn’t anyone cover the story before now?
Monday’s article hit just before the week ramped up. Newsrooms were deciding the week’s coverage and PR firms were barraging us with press releases in attempts to get their clients some media attention. Outlets were primed and ready for the election scandal du jour.
A “benevolent posse”
The piece pointed a finger at Trump and Russia sittin’ in a tree, while fawningly describing the security researchers like some kind of dreamy Hollywood team of elite super-good-guys coming together to solve a crime. It began by describing the heroes of its story, a secret group who acts as a “benevolent posse that chases off the rogues and rogue states.”
According to Slate, this plucky, rag-tag bunch “are entrusted with something close to a complete record of all the servers of the world connecting with one another.” Why the benevolent posse hasn’t told us who gave the Clinton emails to Wikileaks, or used their magical (mythical) god-like all-seeing eye superpower to end anonymous online harassment was not explained.
Slate’s piece felt like wishful thinking on a lot of levels, but plenty of major outlets took the provocative question mark and ran with it. By Tuesday night, CNN’s front page slapped Trump and Putin together like a far-right Grindr match.
According to Slate, the researchers found “a sustained relationship between a server registered to the Trump Organization and two servers registered to an entity called Alfa Bank.” Essentially, a bank in Moscow was irregularly pinging a Trump server with small bits of traffic.
The article even brought in a well-respected, bonafide expert, Dr. Paul Vixie, a pioneer of the internet’s domain name system (DNS). “The parties were communicating in a secretive fashion,” Vixie told Slate. “The operative word is secretive. This is more akin to what criminal syndicates do if they are putting together a project.”
There was no doubt in the minds at Slate that this was it, the coup de grâce tying together all the Trump-Russia connections.
But, there were many doubts to be had.
The article consulted some known names in infosec, few of whom actually saw the logs. The original accusations and research came from anonymous sources, and one primary source called “Tea Leaves.” Only one female member of the “benevolent posse” went on record with a name, Professor L. Jean Camp.
The writer assured us that these computer scientists were legit, yet we got no background or skill sets, or real reasons to trust them. In a world where practically anyone with an internet connection can call themselves a security expert, it raises more red flags than an article relying on anonymous sources already would.
In the world of journalism, anonymous sources aren’t something you trifle with, especially if you value your reputation and like not being in jail. Meaning that if you agree to publish the word of your anonymous source, you are saying that you’ve done the research to verify the source is credible, and you are vouching for the information as truth. Making everything worse, the credibility of Slate’s posse of sources was anchored by an endorsement from one of the group’s own members — the aforementioned L. Jean Camp.
It’s this exact cocktail of infosec ignorance and unvetted sources that give us pastebin posts treated as fact and turned into headlines.
Super-secret marketing emails
The sources were actually sketchy. Security researcher Krypt3ia pointed out that no one had any viable docs to look at. “There was a lot of speculation and theory but what Tea had put on the darknet and had been shopping around was not forensically proven and in fact all of the metadata that may have existed had been stamped out of all documents or never existed in the first place as they were using text files.”
Maybe that’s why the New York Times started investigating this story in early October but dropped the story.
It took the infosec community about ten minutes to debunk the Slate story. This entire Twitter thread explains the technical details if you’re curious. What Slate was seeing was actually a marketing email server sending spam. The low level pinging between Trump’s old 2009 mail server and a bank in Russia was just a respondse to marketing spam that had been set up and forgotten about. The so-called “Fifth Avenue server” referred to the WHOIS business address on a reg record, and the whole thing was outsourced to a marketing company.
This Slate story is complete garbage https://t.co/lO8WG5d4ht
— Naadir Jeewa (@randomvariable) November 1, 2016
Researcher Rob Graham wrote, “the domain was setup and controlled by Cendyn, a company that does marketing/promotions for hotels, including many of Trump’s hotels.” He added, “Cendyn outsources the email portions of its campaigns to a company called Listrak, which actually owns/operates the physical server in a data center in Philidelphia.”
After the blistering debunkings by infosec denizens, there was a second article by the same author arguing against the very thorough debunkings done by the researchers. There is so much effort throughout the follow-up article to confuse the reader into thinking there’s something conspiratorial and unanswerable going on, that one of the debunkers wrote a second debunking of the whole damn thing.
With a little experience in hacking and cybersecurity reporting, it’s easier to see these stories coming from a mile off. What’s troubling here, and especially now, is that Clinton’s camp didn’t. Clinton senior policy adviser Jake Sullivan took Slate’s bottom line and ran with it Monday night, saying it was “the most direct link yet between Donald Trump and Moscow.”
Being a sports and politics writer, experience in hacking and cybersec is exactly what the Slate writer didn’t bring to the table, and like with the Clinton camp, a little would’ve gone a long way.
Giving us the next problem, which I’m going to call “infosec telephone.” It starts when researchers say wild things to reporters who don’t know anything about infosec. Next, the story goes forward without proper research. Then the story turns into a truckload of stupid as it gets blasted from the biggest news outlets.
It’s painful and terrible for those of us in the trenches, in 2016 especially, that big box journalism outlets can’t find the thoughtfulness in reporting on issues about hacking and security to get it right. And how the rush to be the next famous hacking journalist has eclipsed any sense of obligation to do due diligence, tell an objective story, and present readers with complex issues.
Or just chill with the fact that, like with this week’s server story, sometimes a cigar is just a damn cigar. Even if it’s being smoked by Putin’s very own dangerous inbred lap dog.
All I’m saying is that the insanity of this election isn’t being helped by people pushing unresearched infosec hysteria into the headlines.
But hey, don’t let that stop you.
Blizzard is building ‘Diablo’ inside ‘Diablo 3’
The big news for the saviors of Sanctuary has been announced at BlizzCon 2016: Diablo is coming back! The original game, that is. For its 20th anniversary, Blizzard is re-releasing the original dungeon delver that started its massively successful franchise, recreated within the engine of the latest in the series, Diablo 3. And you can play it next week on the game’s test realm.
The game will be delivered in a downloadable patch titled “The Darkening of Tristram,” sending players down the Cathedral dungeon they delved in the original game. The recreated Diablo will get special graphics filters to add grain to resemble the gloomy, gothic look of the original, as well as piping in the soundtrack from the original game. To seal the low-fi deal, they’re restricting players back to the 8-direction movement of games of yore. Hope you love retro controls with your old-school looks.
Sure, we were all looking forward to Diablo 4 instead of more content for a game released in May 2012, but given the decade between the second and third iterations, we probably have a few years before Blizzard even hints at a fourth installment. To help with the GRRM-length gap, the studio also announced two new free zones for players who bought the game’s expansion Reaper of Souls, accessible through Adventure Mode.
But the real cream is the announcement of a new(ish) hero for Diablo 3: The Necromancer, a class first appearing in the second game in the series, which will be available in 2017 as part of a microtransaction-style content pack called “Rise of the Necromancer.”
Command a new army of the dead. The Rise of the Necromancer pack is coming to Diablo III in 2017. pic.twitter.com/7R2Qj455S1
— Diablo (@Diablo) November 4, 2016
Details of the new class, the pack’s cost or its actual release date are nil. But given the Necromancer’s addition to Blizzard’s MOBA Heroes of the Storm back in January, it’s a good bet that some of those skills will transfer back to its Diablo 3 incarnation.
Source: BlizzCon 2016
AIVAnet 