Those who played Apex Legends yesterday may have noticed a strange message called "Save Titanfall". The message appears in playlists and notifications, and many report that they can not join any other playlists than the hacked one. The playlist in question is also broken, so affected players have not been able to play at all.

The message in question points to a website where the motivation for the action is described in more detail. The person or persons behind the website - the hacker claims to have no connection to it - say that Titanfall continues to be sold even though it is "completely unplayable" due to hackers using exploits. Furthermore, they claim that both Electronic Arts and Respawn are fully aware of the problem, but choose to ignore it.

The problem in Apex Legends should now be solved, according to Respawn's Twitter account. There, they refer to the event as a "matchmaking problem". On Twitter, most people do not seem to be too upset about what happened, but instead focus on asking for heirloom shards - a currency in the game - as compensation.

A rewrite of the game code significantly relieves the processor.

Microsoft Flight Simulator is one of the best games I've played, but it's also really resource hungry. Update 5, which will be released on July 27, seems to come with a real increase in performance.

In a stream on Twitch, Sebastian Wloch from Asobo Studios says that they rewrote part of the game's code and thus managed to lower how much CPU power it needs. The whole thing is demonstrated with a game round over New York with update 4 installed, where Wloch's fps is at 30-40, with 100% CPU usage. When he then switches to update 5, his fps increases significantly to 54-60, with a CPU usage of 75%.

It should also be added that this performance increase is not due to the planned implementation of DirectX 12, which will come at a later time. Update 5 will be released on July 27, which also happens to be the date when the game comes to Xbox Series X / S.

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1072488104

World Update V: Nordics means graphics updates for Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland and Iceland. 100 airports and 78 "points of interest" have received a overhaul, and five airports (Arlanda, Danish Bornholm, Norwegian Svalbard, Finnish Vaasa and Ísafjörður in Iceland has received extra care and specific landing challenges. The update also includes five "bush trips", which will highlight Nordic nature from its best side.

The update can be downloaded for free for anyone with access to the game.

 

In the next few years, a number of new expeditions to the moon are planned. Starting as early as next year, Japan, China, India, Russia and the United Arab Emirates plan to release lunar landers and spacecraft to explore the mountains and valleys of the celestial body in various projects. And in 2024, the American space agency NASA plans to once again, for the first time in more than 50 years, let astronauts walk bounce on the moon.

A little further ahead, there are also plans for a permanent lunar base. So now is the time to spruce up the moon's digital infrastructure, according to ESA and Nasa.

Today, lunar travelers rely on signals from large, costly networks of antennas on Earth to navigate to the right place. Instead of a precision of a few meters that you get from devices here on planet Earth, the person who is to land on the moon must be grateful if the position does not deviate more than a few kilometers.

Therefore, ESA and NASA have now commissioned two consortia to develop plans for how the moon can be equipped with its own network of satellites.

"A robust and reliable navigation and telecommunications system will make the dozens of planned lunar missions more cost-effective, and enable even smaller countries to become space-traveling nations that inspire future generations of scientists and engineers" said Elodi Viau at ESA in a press release. .

Conference calls from the dark side of the moon

In addition to facilitating navigation, the satellites will make it possible to send large amounts of information faster than today, for example from the back of the moon.  The connection there is so bad that the American astronaut Michael Collins felt "alone in a way that no earth creature has ever been before", when in 1969 he orbited around the moon, waiting for his fellow travelers Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin to return from the excursion down on the surface of the celestial body.

This should not be the case when you are on or near the moon, according to ESA and Nasa.

"Now we have all got used to video meetings. Who knows, maybe we will be able to skype from the moon" says Elodi Viau.

As plans look now, the satellites could be in place by the end of this decade.

 

An internal build of Windows 11 seems to have leaked online and is circulating on various pirate sites. Windows Central seems to have gotten a copy and shows a bit what the new operating system has to offer in the clip below.

The operating system's Reddit site, r/windows11, contains lots of clips and pictures, so if you want to see more, you can check out that page.

 

Yep, Orcs Must Die 3 is coming!

"Orcs Must Die! 3 ushers orc-slaying mayhem to a previously unimaginable scale. All new War Scenarios pit players and their friends against the largest orc armies ever assembled. Mountable War Machines give players the essential firepower to heave, stab, carbonize, and disarticulate the abominable intruders. Orcs Must Die! 3 is the long-awaited successor in the award-winning Orcs Must Die! series.

War Scenarios
All new War Scenarios deliver on the promise of massive scale invasions first set out in Orcs Must Die!. Confront overwhelming armies of orcs on the battlefields surrounding the castles. Thin out waves of orcs hundreds strong before they breach the walls and crash through your rift!

New Traps & Weapons
New insane traps and powerful weapons make vanquishing Orcs even more entertaining than before. Pick Orcs off the ground with the Gravity Well or slice through an entire wave with the Sawblade Launcher traps! Take advantage of the new Arcane Staff to rain magic down on enemies all around you! With dozens of new weapons and traps never seen before in the Orcs Must Die! series, there are plenty of new ways for you to dismember the Orc army.

New Story
Play through a brand new story set 20 years after Orcs Must Die! 2, where the War Mage and Sorceress have rebuilt the order and trained young new apprentices.

Extra Game Modes
Orcs Must Die! 3 is packed full of alternative game modes to play! Once you’ve fended off the horde in the campaign stories, you can head over to Weekly Challenges and face off against custom-made scenarios put together by Robot designers! Take on Endless mode to see how long you can last and if you can top the leaderboards! If you’re looking for variety on every level, check out the new Scramble mode for Orcs that come on random maps with debuffs to make it harder!

Release Date: July 23rd, 2021"

 

This, is, SPARTA! No wait, that's not right...
In early 2017, The Swedish based game developer studio Massive confirmed that they are making a game based on the world from the Avatar movie. Since the announcement however, there has been silence about the game, perhaps a direct effect of the film sequels being repeatedly postponed.

With Battlefield 2042 being announced and me being a big Battlefield fan, I want to know what others think. It seems like Dice might actually have listened to some parts regarding play style and functionality in last couple of Battlefield games.

What are your thoughts?

Sometime this summer, Microsoft Flight Simulator will make its debut on console after almost 30 years of PC exclusivity, and Xbox Series players may not have to stay on the ground for very long.

Battlefield 2042 can now be pre-ordered on almost all platforms, Steam, Epic, Origin etc. Depending on the package you buy you get access to an array of different things. Listed below are the different packages and what they will get you. What edition will you get?

Gaming giant EA has been hit by intrusion. Hackers allegedly stole over 780 GB of the company's data, containing tools, source code, development tools and more, Vice states.