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What the Car? is a celebration of gaming through pure creativity, unfettered by the trappings of narrative logic. It isn't as wildly surprising as What the Golf?, and it doesn't have the VR immersion of What the Bat?, but like those previous two games, it still delivers more charm and whimsy than you'll see in most other titles. Why does the car have legs, you ask? Shut up and play. As we learned from What the Golf?, the developers at Triband Games specialize in subverting your expectations. So while your main character is indeed a car, you won't actually be racing on four wheels over boring old tracks. Your car sprouts legs early on, and that alone teaches you to expect the unexpected. Every level you play twists the weirdness a bit further: You'll get long legs; you'll get a rocket pack and springy legs; you'll be transformed into a soccer ball. What the Car? escalates its gameplay ideas to levels of sheer absurdity, but that's what makes it so great. After playing as a soccer ball for a bit, a few stages transformed into massive foosball tables. The game didn't need to pause and explain the changes or tell me which buttons to press. I intuited that the car's action button flipped the kickers, and my brain quickly remapped itself around foosball rules. This experience might be a little frustrating for those unfamiliar with the glory of tabletop soccer, but the game effectively uses failure as a teaching tool. After debuting on Apple Arcade last year, What the Car? is now available to PC players on Steam. And before you ask, yes, it does make for a truly perfect portable Steam Deck experience. While it's lush with a vivacious aesthetic and cartoonish characters, the game doesn't require advanced graphics hardware. (Its minimum specs? A mere 2.6GHz Intel Quad Core chip, 2GB of RAM and an 11-year-old GeForce GT 750M mobile GPU.) Triband For the most part, levels in What the Car? aren't too difficult, but if you want more of a challenge you can try to get gold trophies by completing stages faster. That carrot was enough to make me replay stages multiple times. There's also a hidden collectible card in every stage, as well as other secrets. While Triband Games claims youll be able to complete What the Car?s core stages in three to five hours, it estimates itll take another nine to 12 to get all of the secrets and gold trophies. There are also user-generated levels to consider (most of which are truly punishing), as well as a level builder for your own creations. Triband These days, I'm often playing games side-by-side with my five year old daughter Sophia, who in the past few months has become absolutely Minecraft-pilled. (Is there some sort of Minecraft support group for tired parents who never got into it? Someone please hook me up.) She ended up sacrificing some of her limited gaming time just to watch me play What the Car?. She was thrilled when I was able to reach gold on particularly tough stages, and she couldn't stop laughing at the car's silly transformations and the damage it would inevitably inflict on bears populating the levels. I could relate to her sense of awe. Through its whimsy and delirious inventiveness, What the Car? is a testament to the power of games. It's something I felt at the same age, when I first encountered Super Marios Bros. on the NES. I didn't question why mushrooms made Mario get stronger, or why I could go down pipes. My daughter never questioned why the car had legs, or why the rules of the game kept changing. She was just thrilled to be along for the ride.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/pc/what-the-car-hits-steam-and-its-still-one-of-the-best-games-youll-play-this-year-153007118.html?src=rss
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Modern life dictates that the longer you have a smartphone, the crappier the battery gets. Thats where power banks come in. One of Ankers leading 5K models for iPhones has dropped to its lowest price ever. The power bank is just $18, down from $26. This is a well-regarded product. As a matter of fact, a variant of this model made our list of the best power banks. Its portable and doesnt even beef up the iPhone too much when attached. It offers 12W fast charging and provides 20 hours of additional smartphone use. Thats a whole lot of doomscrolling, or even joyscrolling. It folds up and can easily fit into a pocket or bag when not in use. The power bank also includes the companys ActiveShield safety system that continuously monitors the temperature to avoid overheating. While advertised as being for iPhones, the power bank is also great for iPads and even some retro iPods. That leads us to the main downside of this device. It uses a Lightning connector, so it wont work with newer iPhones or iPads with USB-C ports. However, iPhones had a Lighting connector all the way up to the iPhone 14. Statistically, youre probably reading this on one of those iPhones right now. If thats true, this is a great power bank for the money. 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/this-anker-5k-power-bank-for-iphones-is-cheaper-than-ever-145758805.html?src=rss
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Marketing and Advertising
Google is facing yet more scrutiny over its ad tech practices after the UKs competition watchdog provisionally found that the company is abusing its dominant market position. In a statement of objections, the Competition and Markets Authority said Google is harming competition in the country by using its dominance in online display advertising to favor its own ad tech services. The watchdog contends that, since 2015, Google has taken advantage of its dominant position in the sector as the operator of the Google Ads and DV260 ad-buying tools and DoubleClick For Publishers, a publisher ad server, to bolster its AdX advertising exchange. The CMA said that AdX is at the heart of the company's ad tech stack and it's the platform on which it charges the highest fees to advertisers approximately 20 percent of each bid for ad space that's processed there. The CMA provisionally found that "the vast majority of publishers and advertisers use Googles ad tech services in order to bid for and sell advertising space" on websites. By preferencing its own services, "Google disadvantages competitors and prevents them competing on a level playing field to provide publishers and advertisers with a better, more competitive service that supports growth in their business," the CMA stated. The statement of objections gives Google a chance to provide feedback and the CMA will consider those representations before it makes any final decision. A case decision group comprising three people (none of whom were involved in the preliminary investigation or sending the statement of objections). If the CMA ultimately determines that Google has infringed competition rules, it can fine the company up to 10 percent of its global annual revenue and order legally binding changes to the ad tech business. Google disagrees with the decision and will respond accordingly, Dan Taylor, vice president of Google Ads, said. Our advertising technology tools help websites and apps fund their content, and enable businesses of all sizes to effectively reach new customers, Taylor told CNBC in a statement. Google remains committed to creating value for our publisher and advertiser partners in this highly competitive sector. The core of this case rests on flawed interpretations of the ad tech sector. Regulators elsewhere have taken aim at Google's position in the ad tech space. The European Commission accused the company of "abusive practices" in the online ad space in June last year. The EC said that a potential order for Google to implement remedies may not be enough to resolve those practices. That could lead to the EU breaking up Google's ad business. Meanwhile, the Department of Justice and Google are set to go head-to-head in a trial that will start on Monday. The agency has called for the company's ad tech business to be broken up, citing an alleged illegal monopoly Google holds in that market. Google failed in an attempt to have the case dismissed. Last month, a federal judge ruled that Google illegally abused a monopoly over the search industry following a trial that stemmed from a separate DOJ lawsuit.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/uk-watchdog-claims-googles-ad-tech-practices-are-harming-competition-144944451.html?src=rss
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Marketing and Advertising
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