(Mirror Daily, United States) – Square Enix has recently made a great announcement, which brings twice the excitement. A new title is in the making, and it is called Left Alive. However, it won’t be like any regular game, since it has some of the greatest video game veterans involved in its production. So, it will be hard to contain our impatience, since details on the game are quite scarce at the moment.

Left Alive gathers many golden video game veterans

The video game studio revealed the new title during the PlayStation Tokyo Game Show. However, to the disappointment of many, we only know it will be called Left Alive, and not many other things. Fortunately, they released a teaser trailer meant to make the wait a bit more bearable.

Fans are already hyped, since many golden names are involved in this project. The teaser revealed one of the artists who is going to work on Left Alive, namely Yoji Shinkawa, veteran well-known for working on the Metal Gears series. The studio used his artwork for the trailer, as well as on the official wallpaper.

The teaser present a post-apocalyptic universe

The producer of Left Alive is no other than Shinji Hashimoto, who was also involved in popular franchises like Kingdom Hearts or Final Fantasy. It might already sound amazing, but this is not all. Other big names associated with the project are Takayuki Yanase, known for Xenoblade Chronicles X and Ghost in the Shell, or Toshifumi Nabeshima, of the Armored Core series.

As the teaser trailer reveals, Left Alive should take place in a post-apocalyptic future, where only few survived a terrible calamity. We should find out more as the release date approaches, meaning sometime in 2018. Square Enix didn’t offer a set date for the release, but we can say the game will be available on PS4 and PC.

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(Mirror Daily, United States) – Overwatch features a complex in-game meta which has suffered several changes lately. Recently, Blizzard rolled out some buffs to two characters among the Australian Junkers, which significantly increased their playtime in the meta. Moreover, the update brings a new escort map, called Junkertown, and a comic called Wasted Land.

Junkertown and the recent changes boosted the popularity of the Australian heroes

The new map Junkertown is currently available in the Public Test Realm, while the comic has already entered the game. Both of these releases have contributed to the increase in popularity of the two characters. They seem to have been the new favorites lately in the game, and had an increase both in playtime and in the number of wins. These characters are Junkrat and Roadhog.

Omnic Meta ran some analyses and statistics, and discovered Junkrat was the most popular DPS hero at that moment. It occupied the first place in the Grandmaster top, as well as in mostly every tier. Junkrat has always been preferred by fans but, since it received the recent improvements, his popularity increased.

Junkrat and Roadhog are at the top, but how long is it going to last?

This sudden change in Junkrat’s popularity affected other heroes as well. Among these heroes, there are Soldier: 76, Reaper, or Doomfist, whose popularity went down. Overall, most tops in Competitive Play are dominated by Junkrat.

One more Australian hero faced a sudden plunge in the in-game meta, and this one is Roadhog. He also received great boosts, such as survivability improvements, which are really tempting for players. As a result, Junkrat and Roadhog occupy the first places in the Competitive Play top.

However, the Public Test Realm will soon go live, and the meta will most definitely be affected by it. This means that the supremacy of the two Australian heroes might not last long, and the charts will again suffer sudden changes.
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(Mirror Daily, United States) – Religious writings are always puzzling, as researchers usually never manage to decode everything that they might be hiding. However, if they choose to look beyond what’s written in them, they might make amazing discoveries. An 800-year-old Vatican manuscript was covered in some weird purple spots, and Italian researchers claim to have finally found their secret.

The Vatican manuscript was covered in mysterious purple stains

The Vatican manuscript in question was written on a goatskin about 800 years ago, and was found in Secret Archive of the Vatican. At the time of its discovery, researchers were more fascinated by the purple spots which stained the parchment than by other elements. These stains, dating back to different times and places, have remained a mystery until recently.

Scientists established marine bacteria were responsible for the purple stains. However, this finding led to another surprising one. It turned out the Vatican manuscript didn’t come into contact with any seawater. They were expecting this, somehow, as the scroll couldn’t have been kept in water without being completely destroyed.

The organisms behind the spots were marine bacteria

The manuscript tells the story of the sanctity of Laurentius Loricatus. After killing a man accidentally, he lived the rest of his life punishing himself for the horrible sin. This convinced the people in his village to preserve his story on a goatskin. But how did marine bacteria end up on it?

It seems the organisms date back to the time the goatskin was washed, prior writing. Over the centuries, the bacteria thrived, and left these purple spots. This caused several bits of the Vatican manuscript to degrade and flake off. The bits were produced as the old bacteria died off, and new ones came to take its place. In fact, these bits helped the researchers unravel the mystery of the purple spots.

These purple stains are not unusual among ancient scrolls, so scientists hope their discovery would be useful. They hope they were able to help conservators avoid the destruction of parchments affected by these bacteria.
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(Mirror Daily, United States) – Facebook continues its fight against the spread of misinformation with another important step to defeat those pages which promote it. If the platform identifies a page which is constantly sharing fake news, it will no longer allow it to buy ads.

If you share fake news, you can no longer advertise

Facebook is serious in its fight against fake news, so it improved its method of detecting them. Therefore, the platform is currently collaborating with several third-party organizations which perform fact-checking, and flag those pages and stories which promote false stories.

When such a page is detected, Facebook will ban it from advertising. In fact, the platform’s rules already prevent ads from promoting fake stories. Now, the ban moves further, and any page known to spread misinformation will no longer be able to promote any kind of ad.

Pages sharing false stories should no longer make money out of it

Facebook knows how fake news easily get viral. One person sharing a false story is enough to trick many others into thinking it is true, then leading to it spreading everywhere. This kind of news can also reach people more easily through ads, and Facebook doesn’t want this to happen anymore.

Therefore, one shared fake story is enough for a page to be refused advertising. Also, Facebook wants to stop these pages from earning money from fake news. However, if their ‘behavior’ starts improving, and they stop sharing these kinds of stories, the pages in question might be eligible for regaining permission to advertise.

Facebook’s strategies against fake news have gained rise since the 2016 US Presidential Election, when plenty of false information was given to people. Since then, its methods have improved. The platform also issued some campaigns where people were taught how to spot fake news, and how to flag them. Facebook condemns these pages, and blames them for the people’s lack of knowledge and information.
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(Mirror Daily, United States) – Google has just announced the long-awaited Android 8 OS. As many speculations indicated, the operating system bears the name Oreo. As the company has promised, the system brought several upgrades to the already existing features, as well as brand new options. All of them make Android Oreo safer and Android Nougat, and offer a better user experience.

The major novelty in Android Oreo is probably Project Treble. This is an exciting option which makes it possible for manufacturers to create and deliver updates more quickly. Before, the process was a bit more complicated, as Google delivered code to the processor makers, and then it got to the phone manufacturers.

Another interesting feature is Rescue Party. This allows devices running Android Oreo to recover if they constantly crash, or if an app gives them a hard time. Rescue Party continue running the devices even after rebooting, to see if they have a chance to recover.

This can happen for five times and, if the device is still not working, the user is encouraged to send it back for a reboot. Also, devices with Android Oreo will boot faster. Tests show the booting actually takes place twice as fast as it took place in Android Nougat.

Redesign and improved features with Android Oreo

Although this is not a major change, Android Oreo also gets a redesign and a more neatly-looking interface. Users will gain more access from the navigation bar, as well as features like magnification. Also, they will be able to share files more quickly using web links.

The menu gets easier to use, as the OS will support tooltips. These are, in fact, pop-ups which describe apps and other items in the menu, displaying a short text when you tap them. However, the best thing is probably the fact that users no longer have to download certain apps, as they can open them directly from the browser.

Among other features, there is Picture in Picture, where you can view two apps at the same time, better battery life, better performance, several brand new emojis, or greatly improved security features.
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(Mirror Daily, United States) – The NPD Group has just released the report for July 2017 regarding console sales. As you might have probably expected, the best selling console of the month is Nintendo Switch. This huge success is given mostly by the fact that Nintendo provided stores with more units. Also, Splatoon 2 might have also had an important contribution.

Nintendo Switch won the supremacy on the console market in July. The company wanted to prevent stores from running out of their Switch supplies, so they were bombarded with more units. These greatly satisfied the huge demand, propelling the console at the top. Splatoon 2 also became the best selling game of the month, and it paired perfectly with the unending Switch supply.

When comparing hardware sales in July 2017 with those from July 2016, the NPD Group noticed a huge increase. Mat Piscatella, an NPD analyst, explained how this increase was mostly caused by Switch and PS4 sales. Switch managed to become the top selling console in July, but the overall supremacy in 2017 is owned by PS4. The analyst didn’t mention anything regarding Xbox sales.

The big increase in hardware sales was given by Switch’s popularity

This year on average, hardware sales have reached around $1.6 billion so far. According to the NPD Group, this was given mostly by the sudden increase in Nintendo Switch sales. This constituted an increase of 20 percent compared to the previous years.

The same report also looked at the sale increase in the Accessories and Gamecards category. Each year, this category grew by 9 percent, until it reached an increase of $129 million. This happened after Switch and Xbox One accessories also reached top sales. In fact, gamepads were the best selling item for both consoles.

Even if Nintendo Switch might not turn into the best selling console of the year, it still managed to make great achievements in terms of both sales and performance. The company knew how to provide it with the most desired games, and offered fans just what they wanted.
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(Mirror Daily, United States) – Google will soon roll out a change on its Play Store which will help those apps with good ranking. More precisely, those which perform better will receive some sort of a privileged status, and will be favored in the Store over those with a poor performance.

Pushing the best-ranked apps on top of the Play Store list

Google wants to help users find the best apps out there, so the company is going to promote those apps with a good performance. More precisely, those apps which rarely crash and don’t consume too much of your battery will appear on top. At the same time, the others which have many reported bugs and an overall poorer performance will be somewhere lower on the list.

This is also a great move for the good apps, as they get a better exposure and an increasing number of users. Also, it should get the developers motivated to keep them up-to-date and less buggy. Google came up with this idea after finding out about half of those apps with a one-star rating have issues with stability.

Now poor apps get the chance to be improved

Also, this method of ranking is directed towards the other developers as well. If one of their apps gets poor ratings, and then gets pushed down in the Play Store as well, they might get motivated to solve the issues and maybe, in the end, reach the top of the list.

Google will thoroughly develop a system of quality signals. They will take into account several factors, including battery drainage, number of crashes, number of uninstalls, and many others, and give a ranking to the app. Any other details haven’t been released yet.

The company has already started rolling out this feature to some users, and the result have been relevant. Now, it hopes this algorithm will help users find the best apps, uninstall them less often, and never experience serious performance problems again.
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(Mirror Daily, United States) – After coming as a PlayStation and PC exclusive title, Xbox One will receive the fierce first-person shooter Killing Floor 2. However, contrary to the expectations, it won’t be featured as a native 4K on Xbox’s brand new console, Xbox One X.

Killing Floor 2 coming to Xbox

In November 2016, Killing Floor 2 was released for PlayStation 4 and PC. The game received a warm welcome, as players enjoyed fighting for their life in a first-person shooter. Now, Xbox players can also enjoy the experience of fighting zombie-like creatures, starting August 29^th.

The Xbox edition will be available for $39.99. It will come in a special pack, featuring both the original game and all the other packs released previously. These are The Summer Sideshow, The Descent, and The Tropical Bash.

Before the official announcement, the developer, Tripwire Interactive, revealed they were working on certain improvements for the Xbox One X version of Killing Floor 2. Among these improvements, they mentioned 4K support.

The game won’t run at 4K on Xbox’s latest console

However, some time after, they declared that the game won’t actually run at full quality on the powerful console. Therefore, if you are planning to play Killing Floor 2 at 4K, you will have to stick to PC as the only option available for such a quality.

The developers felt the need to explain themselves. They had indeed experimenting with rendering 4K on the latest console. However, they noticed how the frame rate drop could prevent players from enjoying a truly entertaining experience. Therefore, 1800p would provide a balance between graphics and gaming on Xbox One.

When it comes to Xbox One X, they didn’t specify any frame rate, but it will be higher than that available for Xbox One. Even so, Killing Floor 2 offers enough goodies and surprises to attract the attention of Xbox gamers.
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(Mirror Daily, United States) – Niantic wanted to celebrate one year of Pokemon Go in a special way, but the company’s attempt was some sort of a disaster. The special event it organized should have given players the chance to collect rare Pokemon. Instead, it ended in many connection problems and Niantic offering refunds and other compensations. However, players think this wasn’t enough, and want to sue the company.

Players took legal action against Niantic

Since the Pokemon Go anniversary event was so disastrous, Niantic offered to give people refunds and game goodies to compensate for their failed experience. However, some of them felt like they deserved more, and decided to sue the company.

Jonathan Norton has already filed a lawsuit against Niantic. He declared that the company lured people with special Pokemon and other in-game rewards, but they didn’t receive anything. These promises were exactly the things which convinced so many players to join the event.

The Pokemon Go Fest went quite bad, and players were furious

In case you’re not aware of what had happened, here’s a brief description. Last weekend, on Pokemon Go Fest, Niantic promised to offered people the chance to catch tons of unique Pokemons. Instead, they received plenty of connection issues, so it’s understandable why they got upset.

After Norton decided to file the lawsuit, some other participants also decided to join him. However, they didn’t mention what compensation they are looking for. Some of them came from far away, so they had to spend money on their trip and accommodation. However, their attempt might seek more than that.

Niantic didn’t leave disappointed players like that. As mentioned above, the company refunded their tickets and offered them money to use in the game. It even went that far to spare them the effort to catch a Legendary Pokemon and offered them Lugia for free. However, some players were not content, and took legal actions against the company.
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(Mirror Daily, United States) – YouTube is actively fighting against terrorism and extremism, and is constantly finding new ways to combat it. On Thursday, the platform announced a new method to take down online propaganda, which is also known as Redirect Method.

YouTube found a way to prevent people from watching propaganda videos. This way is inspired from the Redirect Method powered by Jigsaw. According to the keywords a person uses, the video streaming platform will counter extremism and terrorism by offering other kinds of suggestions.

The Redirect Method keeps people from viewing propaganda videos on YouTube

More precisely, if people search for videos displaying propaganda or extremist content, they will be redirected to something different. This method identifies the terrorism-related keywords and offers users other video suggestions. These suggestions include mainly anti-extremism videos which teach people not to fall the victims of propaganda.

The Redirect Method has been created by Google’s Jigsaw, together with Valens Global, Quantum Communications, and Moonshot CVE. Through it, companies are trying to understand how online propaganda works, and how extremists use technology to reach and recruit more people. Also, the Redirect Method is a means of persuading people to stay away from terrorism.

Companies withdrew their paid ads from YouTube due to extremist content on the platform

Online propaganda is an important issue, as it is the easiest way to bring recruits from all social categories. It has even reached YouTube and other important streaming platforms, which have already suffered in terms of profitability.

Many important companies chose to withdraw their ads after finding out some of them are displayed in videos with extremist content. This is only one of the reasons why companies stop investing in advertisements on the platform, but it’s probably the most prominent one. Among those which stopped collaborating with YouTube are L’Oreal, Marks and Spencer, or McDonald’s.
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