Enlarge / Bill looks over the boycott’s corpse to determine if it’s still a threat… The following piece, originally published in late 2009, looks back at that year’s somewhat quixotic attempted boycott of Left 4 Dead 2—and how that effort eventually fell apart. Flawed as it was, that movement would serve as a precursor to […]
Returnaling, over and over, to remember the things we shot. [credit: Sony Interactive Entertainment / Housemarque ] Returnal is a sci-fi video game about a person constantly reliving the past in order to find a new future. In some ways, it feels like a pointed metaphor for the game’s creators. PlayStation fans are likely familiar […]
I have no gun, but I must shoot. [credit: Nintendo ] When you get down to it, “shooting” in a video game is really just a way of projecting a directed line of intent from your character to another visible point on the map. This basic fact is a large part of why shooting a […]
Enlarge / In the future, what might lunar exploration look like if NASA can send multiple Starships there each year? This SpaceX rendering offers a vision of one such future. (credit: SpaceX) When NASA astronauts return to the Moon in a few years, they will do so inside a lander that dwarfs that of the […]
Enlarge / This tiny PC’s Ryzen 5 Pro 2500U is a couple generations out of date—but it’s inexpensive, and it still packs a serious punch. (credit: Jim Salter) Minisforum’s UM250 is a very small form factor PC with the power and the ports to take on a lot of tasks. And due to its choice […]
Enlarge / The lure of frozen deliciousness that led to uncovering insane techno craziness. (credit: NurPhoto | Getty Images) Of all the mysteries and injustices of the McDonald’s ice cream machine, the one that Jeremy O’Sullivan insists you understand first is its secret passcode. Press the cone icon on the screen of the Taylor C602 digital […]
Enlarge (credit: Emanuel M Schwermer) The self-driving technology industry is in a strange state right now. A number of companies have been pouring millions of dollars into self-driving technology for years, and many of them have prototype self-driving vehicles that seem to work. Yet I know of only one company—Waymo—that has launched a fully driverless […]
The G15 is reasonably unassuming as gaming laptops go—it doesn’t feel huge or bulky, and there’s a thankful minimum of SuPeR 31337 bling. [credit: Jim Salter ] Recently, we managed to get our hands on an Asus ROG Zephyrus G15 laptop. We had to do it just like anybody else does, by finding one and […]
Enlarge / Adenoviruses seen via transmission electron microscopy. (credit: Getty | BSIP) Out of an abundance of caution, US officials on Tuesday recommended pausing use of Johnson & Johnson’s COVID-19 vaccine. Officials linked the vaccine to six peculiar illnesses in which people developed life-threatening blood clots in combination with low levels of blood platelets, the […]
And the award for most improved goes to…. the 2021 Rolls-Royce Ghost, which is better than the car it just replaced in almost every way. [credit: Jonathan Gitlin ] The most inescapable thing about driving a Rolls-Royce Ghost is never being able to forget how much it costs. So let’s get that out of the […]