Author: Nick Cowen

Yes, that’s one hell of a headline. David Fincher is once again joining forces with Andrew Kevin Walker – the scribe behind Seven (or Se7en) and 8mm – for a Netflix release called The Killer. Oh, did we mention Michael Fassbender is in talks to star in it? Well there’s that too. According to a report on Variety, Fincher is once again collaborating with Walker on a project, which in this instance, is based on a French graphic novel about an assassin who starts to develop a conscience. While that sounds like pretty standard fare, we have high hopes that…

It seems like 2021 is shaping up to be the year tech giants find themselves in the crosshairs. First, Australia introduces a law to force the likes of Facebook and Google to pay for news content. Then, the UK Supreme Court rules that Uber drivers are workers – a baton taken up by SA and UK law firms  filing a similar suit on our shores. Now, India’s government is coming for social media’s leading lights. Facebook, Twitter and the like may have to reveal “first originators” According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, India’s minister of electronics and information,…

If you’re in the market for some free shooter action, we have some good news: the demo for Outriders drops today. Publisher Square Enix has announced that from 7pm local time (5pm GMT/6pm CET/9am PT for those of you reading from abroad), the opening chapter of the game – billed as a “high-intensity RPG-Shooter” – will be available to play on PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, PC (via Steam) and GeForce NOW. The demo features a chunky three hour’s worth of content in which players can create multiple characters and try out all four classes in the game: Devastator, Pyromancer,…

Australia’s proposed law that will force tech giants such as Google and Facebook to pay to link to news content is ready to be enforced, according to a report on AP. The country’s parliament passed the final amendments to the News Media Bargaining Code, which were agreed between Australian treasurer Josh Frydenberg and Facebook on Tuesday. The agreed amendments resulted in Facebook lifting its block on Australians sharing news content on its platform. Rod Sims, the competition regulator who drafted the legislation, announced that he was pleased with the amendments to the bill. “The purpose of the code is to…

TikTok has removed nearly 350,000 videos from its platform for violating the app’s rules on misinformation. And we just thought that its users were comparing their best performances of the Renegade. In a transparency report covering content from the second half of last year, the service announced it has junked videos for (amongst other things) spreading disinformation (read:lies) about numerous topics including (but not limited to) the COVID-19 pandemic, the Trump administration and whether there is life on Mars (Okay, we made that last one up). TikTok under the hammer While TikTok is one of the most popular apps in the…

Apple has acquired 100 companies in the last six years, according to its CEO Tim Cook (or Tim Apple, if your name happens to be Donald Trump). If you do the arithmetic that works out to buying a company every three to four weeks. Well, you don’t have to do sums yourself; Cook announced that figure at the company’s annual meeting of shareholders on Tuesday. In that same call, Cook revealed that the company has had its largest quarter by revenue of all time, bringing in $111.4 billion in the first-quarter of 2021’s fiscal year – having over a billion iPhones…

Well, that didn’t take long. Following a UK’s Supreme Court ruling last week that Uber drivers should be classified as workers, rather than self-employed, Uber South Africa is now staring down the barrel of a class action lawsuit that’s being brought against it by a group of human rights lawyers, demanding that the ride-sharing app company recognise its drivers as employees. Johannesburg-based Mbuyisa Moleele Attorneys, assisted by law firm Leigh Day in London, are preparing the class action lawsuit, which is to be filed in the Johannesburg Labour Court. The potential ruling in this case could affect up to 20,000…

For World Of Darkness fans champing at the bit to play Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodlines 2 this year, we have some bad news: publisher Paradox has announced the game will definitely not be coming out in 2021 as it was originally slated to do so. Furthermore, the publisher has also announced that the  game’s developers, Hardsuit Labs, have been removed from the project. As part of a year-end earnings statement released by Paradox, the publisher said: “We have now chosen to postpone the release of the game further, and we will not be launching the game [Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodlines 2]…

Facebook has reversed its decision to block news from Australian publications after the country’s government agreed to make amendments to its proposed bill that would force tech giants to pay for linking to news content. Facebook blocked news sites on its platform Down Under last week in response to the proposed legislation,  the News Media and Digital Platforms Mandatory Bargaining Code, and in the process mistakenly also banned government and emergency services, along with charity organisations and other community pages. The action by Facebook was the result of a prolonged spat between the social media company and the Australian government,…

Hackers of the Big Smoke unite! Watch Dogs: Legion will be getting its long-awaited online mode on the 9th of March this year, and it will be available absolutely free. Originally set for release in December last year, the online mode has been delayed a couple of times, but it’ll soon be available on PC and PS and Xbox consoles. According to a release from Ubisoft, the cyberpunk hacking thriller set in London is in for a decent amount of multiplayer content next month, including free-roam open world co-op in which players can form teams of four and tool about…