Author: Nick Cowen

In the year 2021, players cock a suspicious eye at video game trailers and this is because we’ve all been burned by them, on more than one occasion. Sometimes trailers promise things — mechanics, gameplay, general goodness – that the end release doesn’t contain. At that point players’ ire is so thick and rich you could drizzle it on pancakes. What follows is a list of some of the most egregious offenders in this regard: Fallout 76 What the hell, Bethesda? Why did you think the Fallout audience wanted an online RPG? Why did you think that by taking all…

If you planned ahead, you’ll have taken this Monday off to play some games. There’s a public holiday on Tuesday coming up and if you think enjoying a weekend, working Monday, and then taking Tuesday off is a workable situation, we can’t help you. That having been said, if you have taken Monday off, you have a stretch of four days of holiday in the bank. But you may have kids. In which case, unless they have a play date, you may be in the position of having to entertain them. Anyone who has kids will tell you – quite…

This week John Garvin, the creative director on Bend’s zombie-apocalypse open world adventure, Days Gone, had a couple of sharp comments to make in a podcast interview with David Jaffe (the bloke behind the first two God Of War entries and the Twisted Metal franchise). Responding to a question from Jaffe about whether there had been any “meaningful uptick of engagement” with Days Gone since the game was added to the PlayStation Plus Collection on PS5 (read: had any more people played the game for this new gen of consoles), Garvin had this to say: “I do have an opinion…

This year, with data leaks becoming a massive issue, we could all do with taking stock of the security we use on communication platforms — and one way to do this may be through a South African-developed app called 10 Thirty. While it’s easy to shake our fists at the likes of Facebook, LinkedIn and Clubhouse when our data is leaked into the wild, a share of the responsibility does reside with us. Making sure our apps are up to date would help, as would toggling the security settings on our social media profiles and (for the love of God,…

There’s a rather interesting documentary on Netflix at the minute called ‘The Social Dilemma’. In it, former employees of companies ranging from Facebook, to Google, to Instagram and more, layout how these platforms’ users’ have been essentially placed in a glass box for the companies who own these sites to mine their data. A lot of data. A metric tonne of data. Which is mined at nano-second intervals. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uaaC57tcci0 This maybe a pact that the lion’s share of users are prepared to make with Big Tech, but over the last two weeks, several events have occurred that may make them…

Over the Easter weekend, it was reported that the data from around 533 million Facebook accounts had been posted on a forum used by hackers and cybercriminals and was available for purchase. This publication published a column in which (amongst other aspects) it was pointed out that Facebook released a statement regarding this event, which many FB users could probably take issue with. Here it is again: “This is old data that was previously reported on in 2019. We found and fixed this issue in August 2019.” A couple of days after the article was published, a PR firm representing…

Outriders is a game that will divide players. If you doubt this, hurl the phrase “Outriders” into a search engine and see what comes up. People Can Fly’s latest game has been praised from the rooftops, kicked up and down the street and been met by a lot of players with a resounding ‘meh’. For this review’s money, the appraisal lies somewhere in the middle, but leans towards the positive. Outriders is a game that leans very heavily into the last gen, but it has enough moxie to convince players it is an experience worth investing in. Outlanders? We’ve been…

Over the Easter weekend, stories emerged that over half a billion users’ details on Facebook had appeared on a hacker forum. The data included everything from phone numbers, to locations, to ID numbers, to physical addresses and more. There it was: the personal details of around 533 million Facebook users sitting on an open forum for any Tom, Dick and Harriet to purchase. It was a rather startling reminder about not only the amount of data Facebook collects from its users, but also how secure – or in this case, how unsecure – it all is. Amid the consternation this…

Over half a billion Facebook users’ details have been found online on a hacking forum. The breach, first spotted by cyber security firm Hudson Rock includes full names, ID numbers, phone numbers, global locations birth dates, email addresses and bios. https://twitter.com/UnderTheBreach/status/1378314424239460352 According to a report on Bloomberg, the breach affects users in 106 countries and the more than 533 million accounts have been confirmed as authentic. “This is old data that was previously reported on in 2019,” a Facebook spokesperson told Bloomberg in an email. “We found and fixed this issue in August 2019.” Facebook’s massive data collection While the…

Facebook has taken a bit of a hammering this year in the press. And that’s putting things charitably. At the beginning of the year it found itself in a stand-off against the Australian government over a piece of legislation designed to make it – and other platforms – pay news publications that it links to. Facebook responded by banning reading or sharing news on its platform for Australian users, and (apparently mistakenly) banning access to emergency services, charity groups and the local department of health ahead of a COVID-19 vaccine drive. It wasn’t a good look. Over in the United…