This web game shows you why self-driving cars are better

You’ve probably heard that self-driving cars are safer than their human-guided equivalents (as a general rule, at least). But what if you have a hard time wrapping your head around how that concept works in practice? Never fear: developers Mark Backler and Peter Cardwell-Gardner have posted a web game, Error-Prone, that teaches you about the perils of overcrowded roads and the virtues of autonomous vehicles. You’re supposed to take control of one of the closely-packed cars circling in a loop, but doing so almost guarantees that you’ll either slow everyone down or cause an accident. It’s much like WarGames‘ nuclear battle, where the only way to win is not to play — the sooner you realize that the computer is better at driving than you are, the sooner traffic calms down.

This is an extreme simplification of the issue, to be sure. It doesn’t address the snarls that come with complex roadways, or the sheer pleasure of driving your car on a winding back road. Nonetheless, it’s a good illustration of the safety and speed advantages that come with letting robotics handle your daily commute.

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Wired

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Error-Prone

Tags: autonomous, car, error-prone, games, gaming, internet, self-driving, self-drivingcar, vehicle

Get a terrifying taste of ‘We Happy Few’ on Steam, Xbox this holiday

We Happy Few isn’t necessarily a terrifying first-person stealth and combat game. So far, it’s more of a bone-chilling, creepy, deeply unsettling experience. In other words: It looks great. Today, there’s good news for anyone who pledged to the game’s successful $330,000 Kickstarter, or anyone in the market for a drug-fueled romp through a fictional 1960s English town. We Happy Few will hit Steam Early Access and Xbox Game Preview at the same time this holiday season, Compulsion founder Guillaume Provost tells Engadget.

We Happy Few took center stage at Gamescom‘s Xbox conference, complete with a nursery-rhyme trailer and the Game Preview announcement. It was a slight surprise to see We Happy Few under the lime-green Xbox lights, since the game has been fairly platform-agnostic to this point. Compulsion’s first game, Contrast, was a PlayStation 4 launch title, and development on We Happy Few originally targeted PC first, followed by Mac and Linux, and finally consoles.

“We hadn’t really planned on associating directly with a first party this time around, but Microsoft was consistently very, very excited about the title and after discussing it internally we felt like we should simply embrace a partner who was clearly passionate about the game,” Provost says. Now, Compulsion is prioritizing development on Xbox, Windows 10 and Steam, he says. The full game is due out in 2016.

We Happy Few is set in 1964 in the quaint English town of Wellington Wells, where every citizen is constantly doped up on pills that make them forget the horrifying things they had to do during the war. In a first-person view, players try to blend in with the suspicious, murderous townsfolk and attempt to escape Wellington Wells. We recently played an early version of We Happy Few and found it to be dreadfully delightful.

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Tags: compulsion, gamescom2015, hdpostcross, STEAM, steamearlyaccess, WeHappyFew, xbox, XboxGamePreview

‘Destiny’ ditches Dinklage

Before Destiny officially launched on consoles, it launched a meme: That wizard came from the moon! The phrase, which was printed on Bungie-sanctioned t-shirts (and sold like hotcakes), spawned from Peter Dinklage’s awkward, non-committal voice acting as the game’s helpful, floating Ghost character. Soon, we’ll be able to tell if the dialogue was to blame, or if Dinklage simply phoned this one in: Bungie is replacing all of Dinklage’s voice work in the main game with that of Nolan North, the voice actor behind Uncharted‘s Nathan Drake and Assassin’s Creed‘s Desmond Miles (among many other credits). North spilled the beans to Game Informer this month.

“They let me bring what I wanted to the role,” he said. “You have to give it your own spin. For that reason, I specifically said I didn’t want to hear anything that someone else had done, so that I didn’t have some preconceived notion of what it has to be. Instead, I just gave it my stamp, and let them direct me accordingly.” Sounds like a good plan of action.

North’s version of the Ghost makes its debut in The Taken King, a big Destiny expansion launching on September 15th. The Taken King ran into a bit of its own drama earlier this year, when Bungie announced a convoluted pricing structure for the DLC and extra content associated with it.

But let’s take this one hiccup at a time. Bungie eventually removed the moon-wizard line from the final game, and so far there’s no word on whether it will be reinstated with North’s new take. Fingers crossed.

Destiny fans..proud to be with you! http://t.co/vEyhRWLbPS

— Nolan North (@nolan_north) August 4, 2015

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Source:
Game Informer

Tags: Bungie, Destiny, ghost, hdpostcross, NolanNorth, PeterDinklage, VoiceActing

Behind the wheel of Logitech’s G29 Driving Force controller

While gamers are still waiting for any official word on a PlayStation 4 entry in the venerable Gran Turismo series, there’s still plenty of racing to be done on Sony’s current-gen console. The recent release of Project Cars and the steady maturation of Driveclub (following its botched launch) are just two examples of the PS4’s racing options. Into this growing genre comes Logitech with its $400 G29 Driving Force Racing Wheel — the latest in its long-running G series of steering wheel controllers. While owners of the older (and non-PS4-compatible) G27 wheel may be disappointed that the company has opted to replace it, Logitech’s latest entry (released alongside an Xbox One-focused sibling called the G920) could be worth the sizable asking price.Slideshow-308879

The G29’s exterior doesn’t stray far from the line’s previous designs; the wheel’s housing still resembles the front end of a fifth-gen Ford Mustang, just like the G27 and G25 before it. The biggest visual differences (aside from the blue highlights here and there) are PlayStation-specific controls arranged around the steering column on sharp-angled surfaces — as though Logitech clamped a Batarang onto a G27. As the name suggests, the layout strongly resembles the company’s Driving Force line — a popular option that’s been closely associated with the Gran Turismo series of racing games in the past.

Plastic dominates the casing for both the wheel and three-pedal base, but Logitech went with higher-end materials for where your hands and feet will most often touch the G29. The leather-wrapped steering wheel surrounds aluminum spokes, while stainless steel paddle shifters are within easy reach of your fingers. Down below, stainless steel covers the similarly shaped clutch and brake pedals, as well as the skinnier, taller accelerator. All three have a satisfying range of motion, with the brake offering the stiffest resistance. There’s a wide plastic platform to rest your left foot — or just your heels, if you race with both feet handling the controls. I could do with a little more spacing between the clutch and the brake, but it’s not a dealbreaker by any stretch.

Installation is a breeze thanks to the G29’s integrated table clamp. As shipped, the two nylon claws have a “C” shape to them — handy for attaching to tables or desks with a bit of a lip. For thicker surfaces, though, you can snap off a pair of nubs to change the clamps from a “C” to an “L” shape. In that latter configuration, you get about 2.25 inches of clearance, which was enough for me to easily attach the G29 to my computer desk. Meanwhile, the pedal base has a handy gripper strip: a retractable ribbon of spiky plastic that digs into your carpet to help keep the unit stable while you furiously stomp on it. With the strip in place, the pedals stayed put through the vast majority of my playtime, but keeping a foot or your heels planted on the base definitely provides additional stabilization.

The G29 also plays nice with Fanatec’s Wheel Stand and I was able to clamp the wheel and attach the pedal base in just a few minutes with a single Allen key. As with most racing wheels, all the connections are routed to the wheel housing and a built-in cable spool helps you manage the tangle of wires coming from the pedals, power brick and the hardwired USB cord. While it’s not included in the base setup, there is a spot on the underside to connect an optional six-speed gated shifter. It’s interesting that, despite retailing for $100 more than the G27 (which included a similar attachment in the box), the leather-wrapped shifter here is a $60 extra. For what it’s worth, Logitech says older versions of the shifter module will work on the G29 — so your G27 setup may not be completely obsolete.

In-game, the G29 offers a significant upgrade over the standard DualShock 4 controller. The wheel’s small-ish diameter might not match the dimensions of some real-life performance vehicles, but it has a satisfying thickness and is comfortable to grip from any angle. The feedback and vibration are stout without venturing into break-your-wrist territory. In Project Cars, for example, I was able to feel when I’d driven up on a curb, although I occasionally didn’t feel any feedback when grazing on some flat rumble strips. Crashing into walls was a suitably violent experience.

On both PC and PS4, navigating in-game menus from the wheel itself was a breeze, although you should be prepared for a bit more initial button configuration on the PC side — at least, that was my experience when trying older games such as Grid. I enjoyed controlling PS4 games like Project Cars and Driveclub using the wheel, but the lack of analog joysticks could present problems if you wanted to, say, adjust the camera angle in photo mode. And while the wheel’s LED strip gives you a solid visual indicator of when it’s time to shift gears, I wish it were located at the top of the wheel rim instead of the center column — where it’s harder to see using just my peripheral vision.

Overall, Logitech’s G29 Driving Force successfully blends the robust PlayStation-focused controls of the company’s Driving Force line with the tried-and-true design of its G series. At $400, it may be $100 more than the last-gen G27 — all while ditching the (now-optional) six-speed shifter — but the improved controls are a welcome upgrade. You may have a harder time justifying the price if you own the older model and you were hoping for signs of compatibility with the PS4, but the G29 is a solid replacement and a great, if a bit pricey, choice for racing game fans.

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Tags: Driveclub, engadgetirl, G27, G29, G29 Driving Force, IRL, Logitech, PlayStation, Project Cars, PS4, Racing

Twitch bans streamer who faked his own swatting

There are a couple things you probably shouldn’t do to celebrate acquiring 800,000 followers on Twitch. Faking your own swatting at the end of a 24-hour live event, as streamer Trick2g recently did, is at the top of the list. Trick2g, who focused primarily on League of Legends during his broadcasts, can be seen casually chatting with viewers when two “police officers” bust in and haul him away.

Trick2g’s manager, Cher Gambino, later confirmed that the scene was faked in a later post on the streamer’s website. “‘Now, I know some of you are saying…’Cher it is not funny to make a joke about being swatted,’” she wrote. “There is always someone that thinks only their sense of humor is what matters and if they don’t think it is funny then it couldn’t possibly be. That is why our Country is in the shape it is now, because we fear making light of anything that might be thought of as controversial.” Remember kids, if you don’t think a fake swatting is funny, that’s your problem. And Twitch, who didn’t think it was all that funny either. The prank went down last Friday. By Monday, Trick2g’s account had been banned. There was also significant blowback on social media.

@ZVFavion @LolStvicious whoever that person is is stupid as fuck, how is it oversensitive when its a traumatizing experience for real swats

— Marcel Feldkamp (@MarcelFeldkamp) August 3, 2015

Gambino, however, remained steadfast in the assertion that the prank really was funny and its critics were simply being wet blankets. She replied to the banning and social fallout of the prank by telling Kotaku:

If you saw the stream, there were theatrics the whole time. We had sailor girls, pirate girls, singing bears, singing pigs, prize wheels. His stream was from 3PM Friday to 3PM Saturday. I can’t imagine a swat team waiting for someone to finish a stream—not to mention the actors were the same people on stream the day before setting up, not to mention they were laughing. I don’t know what to tell you other than: if it offends one person it must be wrong. We have lost the right to comedy. Or we have at least lost the right to comedy if it offends one person, which means Saturday Night Live must really have to watch what they do.

There’s no word on how long Trick2g will remain banned, but given that he’s one of the site’s more popular streamers, it likely won’t be for long. We’ve reached out to Twitch for comment and will update when they reply.

Update: A Twitch representative has replied for our request for comment with, “We don’t comment on terms of service violations.” So, yeah.

[Image Credit: Shutterstock / Martin Spurny]

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Source:
Kotaku

Tags: banned, banning, Cher, CrimeAndPunishment, League of Legends, league-of-legends, LeagueOfLegends, Saturday Night Live, streaming, swat, swatting, trick2g, Twitch