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South of Midnight, Compulsion Games' upcoming Southern Gothic/dark fantasy adventure, got some time in the spotlight during Xbox's Developer Direct event on Thursday. The studio revealed that the game is coming to Xbox Series X/S, Xbox Cloud Gaming and PC on April 8. As ever, Game Pass Ultimate, Console and PC subscribers will get access on day one. Those who snap up the premium edition can jump in five days early. This deep dive into South of Midnight focused on the world, combat and story, which sees a hurricane tear through the part of the Deep South where main character Hazel and her mother live. The two get into an argument that ends in disaster, as their home is swept away with Hazel's mom still inside. As she sets out to find her mother, Hazel finds that the hurricane has brought some fantasy creatures, both friendly and otherwise, to her corner of the world. Our hero learns that she is a weaver, someone who possesses magical abilities. A gold star for anyone who guessed that these can be used for traversal and in combat. Timing is said to be a critical component of battles, so you'd best be sure that your reactions are on point. Speaking of time, Compulsion Games says that South of Midnight should take most players between 10 and 12 hours to finish.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/xbox/the-striking-south-of-midnight-comes-to-xbox-and-pc-on-april-8-185157726.html?src=rss
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Doom: The Dark Ages is set to come out on May 15 for PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. Its a single-player sandbox experience with an emphasis on exploration, bloodshed and upgrading skill trees, introducing massive mech battles and a ridable cyber dragon that spits fire on command. Doom: The Dark Ages is the largest Doom game id Software has ever made, but to be perfectly clear and possibly assuage some fears, its not open-world. In fact, the directive for developers was to edit down everything controls, levels, menus, upgrade paths in order to emulate the reactive rush that made the original Doom games so addictive. According to executive producer Marty Stratton and game director Hugo Martin, Doom: The Dark Ages is a refined and thoughtful return to the series classic loop, set in the medieval wastelands of Hell and starring a super tanky Doom Slayer. id Software In The Dark Ages, the Slayer has three basic inputs: shield saw, melee and gun. The shield saw is a critical tool, allowing players to parry and block incoming attacks, and also acting as a boomerang-style projectile that can embed itself into enemies to rip through their demonic flesh. Parrying is a massive factor in the new game, and its also one of many aspects that players can customize in the difficulty settings. Youll be able to change the size of the parry window, adjust the actual game speed and fine-tune a dozen other factors to make each run feel just right. The Slayer has a choice of three melee weapons and he carries just one at a time. Theres an iron flame, an electrified gauntlet and a spiked mace, and each one can be upgraded as you make your way through Hell. The final main input is the trigger, which controls all of the gruesome guns. Theres a wondrous array of weapon-based brutality on display in The Dark Ages, including the Skullcrusher, a gun that eats the bones of murdered enemies and uses the shards as ammo. Certain levels will support skyscraper-sized Atlan battles and allow the Slayer to ride on the back of a cybernetic dragon, spraying flames on the gathered demons. These abilities wont be available at will, and are instead contained to specific regions of the map. There are also swimming levels which, speaking as someone with a phobia of deep water, is possibly the scariest thing in the new game. id Software The Slayer in Doom: The Dark Ages is beefy. Hes thick, heavy and armor-plated, and as he hunts demons through the medieval wastelands of Hell, hes going to feel different than the Slayers in 2016s Doom and its 2020 follow-up, Doom: Eternal. In terms of development mottos, Doom was run and gun, Eternal was jump and shoot, and The Dark Ages is, stand and fight. Strafing and twitchy teleportation-like abilities are still on the menu, but the emphasis this time around is on holding your ground and strategizing while shooting. What people didn't like in 2016 was that it was too repetitive, Martin said in a media Q&A before Thursdays Xbox Developer Direct, where id showed off new bits of the game. And in Eternal, some people said it was too hard. I actually think it's too complex. I think that the complexity of the control scheme led to unnecessary difficulties. You really want to be fighting the demons, the bad guys, not your controls. Martin and Stratton emphasized the importance of streamlining the core loop in The Dark Ages, while also building the largest, most adventure-feeling Doom game that id has ever made. There are skill trees, currency and more secrets to find than ever before, but theres not a lot of filler everything has a purpose and there are no unnecessary frills in the actual mechanics of combat, resource-collecting and upgrade paths. id Software There is a lot of exploration in this game, and it's for power, Stratton said. That's one of the things that is really important. You're finding resources and other things that allow you to improve yourself, upgrade your guns, upgrade your shield, your melee. So it isn't just the secrets, just the toys, that kind of thing. It really is an exploration for power. Martin added, I want to feel strong. It's got to be a good amount of speed and exploration and power, but I'm okay with you changing what that power fantasy is, especially if the change you make brings it back closer to classic Doom. I'm super down for that. The points of inspiration for Doom: The Dark Ages include Batman: Year One, Frank Millers The Dark Knight, and the film 300, specifically that iconic tracking shot of Leonidas slamming and stabbing his way through hordes of Persian warriors at the Hot Gates. Miller's The Dark Knight was a particularly poignant source for Martin. He drew an older, more powerful, thicker Batman, he said. And I just love that comic so much. And I always thought it would be so interesting to just, instead of a Ferrari, you'd be more of a monster truck. And that's what were working on, we've been talking about that for years and years. Doom: The Dark Ages is due out on May 15 for PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S, including Game Pass.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/doom-the-dark-ages-hits-pc-ps5-and-xbox-on-may-15-190015221.html?src=rss
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Today's Xbox Developer Direct kicked off with the announcement of Ninja Gaiden 4. Aside from the news of Ragebound, the series has been quiet for the past 13 years, and there's a mix of new and old in the latest entry. The protagonist is a new character named Yakumo, a member of the Raven clan, who will battle his way through a dystopian Tokyo. Longtime fans of the games will be glad to see that Ryu Hayabusa is returning and will play a central role. The new game is being co-developed by Team Ninja and Japanese action game specialists PlatinumGames (known for Bayonetta and NeiR:Automata). Ninja Gaiden 4's trailer shows all the flashy slashing you'd expect from a 3D action game, with aerial combat and lots of big power moves. Yakumo will also have traversal skills such as riding on rails, slinging across gaps and wall-running. The game is due out in fall 2025, and will be available on Xbox Game Pass at day one. It will also launch on Xbox Series X|S, PC and PlayStation 5. As an extra treat, Team Ninja has also dropped a surprise remaster of Ninja Gaiden 2 Black. This new version of the 2008 game is available today on Xbox and PC.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/xbox/ninja-gaiden-4-is-coming-out-this-fall-184041420.html?src=rss
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Subaru left open a gaping security flaw that, although patched, lays bare modern vehicles myriad privacy issues. Security researchers Sam Curry and Shubham Shah reported their findings (via Wired) about an easily hacked employee web portal. After gaining access, they were able to remotely control a test vehicle and view a years worth of location data. They warn that Subaru is far from alone in having lax security around vehicle data. After the security analysts notified Subaru, the company quickly patched the exploit. Fortunately, the researchers say less-than-ethical hackers hadnt breached it before then. But they say authorized Subaru employees can still access owners location history with only a single piece of the following information: the owners last name, zip code, email address, phone number or license plate. Engadget emailed Subaru for comment, and well update this story if we hear back. The hacked admin portal was part of Subarus Starlink suite of connectivity features. (No relation to the SpaceX satellite internet service of the same name.) Curry and Shah got in by finding a Subaru Starlink employees email address on LinkedIn and resetting the workers password after bypassing two required security questions because it took place in the end users web browser, not Subarus servers. They also bypassed two-factor authentication by doing the simplest thing that we could think of: removing the client-side overlay from the UI. Although the researchers tests traced the test vehicles location back one year, they cant rule out the possibility that authorized Subaru employees can snoop back even farther. Thats because the test car (a 2023 Subaru Impreza Curry bought for his mother on the condition that he could hack it) had only been in use for about that long. The location data wasnt generalized to some broad swath of land, either: It was accurate to less than 17 feet and updated each time the engine started. After searching and finding my own vehicle in the dashboard, I confirmed that the Starlink admin dashboard should have access to pretty much any Subaru in the United States, Canada, and Japan, Curry wrote. We wanted to confirm that there was nothing we were missing, so we reached out to a friend and asked if we could hack her car to demonstrate that there was no pre-requisite or feature which wouldve actually prevented a full vehicle takeover. She sent us her license plate, we pulled up her vehicle in the admin panel, then finally we added ourselves to her car. In addition to tracking their location, the admin portal allowed the researchers to remotely start, stop, lock and unlock any Starlink-connected Subaru vehicle. They said Currys mother never received notifications that they had added themselves as authorized users, nor did she receive alerts when they unlocked her car. They could also query and retrieve personal information for any customer, including their emergency contacts, authorized users, home address, the last four digits of their credit card and vehicle PIN. In addition, they were able to access the owners support call history and the vehicles previous owners, odometer reading and sales history. The security researchers say the tracking and security failures stemming from the ability of a single employee to access a ton of personal information are hardly unique to Subaru. Wired notes that Curry and Shahs previous work exposed similar flaws affecting vehicles from Acura, Genesis, Honda, Hyundai, Infiniti, Kia, Toyota and others. The pair believes theres reason for serious concern about the industrys location tracking and poor security measures. The auto industry is unique in that an 18-year-old employee from Texas can query the billing information of a vehicle in California, and it wont really set off any alarm bells, Curry wrote. Its part of their normal day-to-day job. The employees all have access to a ton of personal information, and the whole thing relies on trust. It seems really hard to really secure these systems when such broad access is built into the system by default. The researchers full report is worth a read.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/cybersecurity/subarus-poor-security-left-troves-of-vehicle-data-easily-accessible-182514123.html?src=rss
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The Samsung Galaxy Ring is on sale for $280 via Amazon. This represents a discount of $120, though the promotion doesnt show up until checkout. Just pop the ring in your Amazon basket and start the checkout process to peep the discount. We were fairly positive about Samsungs first smart ring in our official review, calling it a surprisingly informative health-tracking device for those with compatible Samsung phones. We came away impressed by the comfort-forward design, which doesnt impede sleeping, writing that we barely feel it when trying to snooze. This is a boon for light sleepers. The health-tracking metrics are on point, especially when you consider that theres a new software update that uses compatible SmartThings devices to create a sleep environment report that takes factors like temperature, humidity, air quality and light intensity into account. Samsungs app lets users adjust any connected devices to improve local conditions. The major downside with the Galaxy Ring is the price, which has been somewhat alleviated by this sale. At least now its slightly lower than the rival Oura Ring. This is a great wearable for those already tied into the Samsung ecosystem, but not the best fit for everyone else. Some of the features require a Samsung phone. Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter and subscribe to the Engadget Deals newsletter for the latest tech deals and buying advice.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/the-samsung-galaxy-ring-is-on-sale-for-120-off-174530918.html?src=rss
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