The Godfather II Updated Hands-On

The Godfather II is a tale of two games, a blend of sandbox action and strategic resource management. The low-level mobster in you will want to parade around 1950s-era depictions of New York, Miami, and Havana causing as much wanton destruction as you possibly can, but you'll need to get in touch with your inner Mafia boss if you want to successfully progress through the story. Taking over and managing various rackets and crime rings is key, but so is keeping an eye on your own family and those of other organizations. We've had only a taste of what sort of strategic depth The Godfather II might offer in previous looks at the game, but we've recently been spending some time with a nearly complete version of this EA Redwood Shores-developed game to see how far we could dive into the Don lifestyle.

For a bit of background on the story told in The Godfather II, you'll want to have a look at the hands-on impressions that we posted yesterday based on a UK press event. It'll give you a good idea of what happens at the beginning of the game, including the myriad names and faces that are introduced during the course of the game's first act, set during the eve of the Cuban Revolution. Suffice it to say, things go sour and you quickly return to New York, where you're thrust into the position of building your own wing of the Corleone organized-crime family. The first item on the agenda is recruiting an associate, the bottom level on your family tree.

WOW: Wrath of Lich King Review

Four years and well beyond 10 million subscriptions after the release of World of Warcraft, Blizzard's phenomenally successful massively multiplayer online role-playing game is barely recognizable as the same game that sold almost a quarter of a million copies in its first 24 hours. The game has been in a near-constant state of evolution since 2004, and up until last month, the steady flow of new features and improvements had all been patched in for free, with only one exception: the Burning Crusade expansion pack that's required to play Wrath of the Lich King. The recently released second expansion pack doesn't boast as many back-of-the-box bullet points as its predecessor, and it doesn't offer anything for new players, but if you're still playing WOW or you're looking for an excuse to get back into it, this thrilling new adventure is not to be missed.

All of the new content in Wrath of the Lich King comes with a character-level requirement. You can't play the new death knight hero class until one of your existing characters reaches level 55, and you can't attempt any quests in the new Northrend continent until you're at level 68. The most significant exception to this rule would have been the new inscription-crafting profession, but that ended up being patched in shortly before the expansion's release alongside new talents for every character class in the game, an Xbox Live-style achievements system, barbershops, an extremely useful in-game calendar, and numerous user-interface improvements. There's new content for low-level players, but you don't need the expansion pack to get it.

Facebook ban of breast-feeding photos sparks protests

Are photographs of a mother breast-feeding her child indecent? The social networking site Facebook has sparked a massive online debate — and protests — after removing photos that expose too much of a mother’s breast.

Facebook spokesman Barry Schnitt said the website takes no action over most breast-feeding photos because they follow the site’s terms of use but others are removed to ensure the site remains safe and secure for all users, including children.

“Photos containing a fully exposed breast (as defined by showing the nipple or areola) do violate those terms (on obscene, pornographic or sexually explicit material) and may be removed,” he said in a statement.

“The photos we act upon are almost exclusively brought to our attention by other users who complain.”

But Facebook’s decision to ban some breast-feeding photos has angered some users, including U.S. mother Kelli Roman whose photograph of her feeding her daughter was removed by Facebook.

Refer: blogoverdose.com

Porsche Carrera 911 2009

The 2009 Porsche Carrera 911 S Cabriolet boasts a PDK transmission, which has the "ability to snap off shifts 60 percent faster than the Tiptronic and faster, in fact, than any human using a manual transmission, and those who relish pure performance will love this." Video after the break.
With $22,175 in options, this 2009 Porsche 911 Carrera S Cabriolet proves that Porsche makes much of its revenue from customers who like to check boxes on the order form. Including destination, this car rang up a price tag of $119,925.

Refer: techeblog

Full Chronicles Of Riddick Sequel In The Works

in Diesel's Tigon Studios has revealed that while Assault on Dark Athena is a nice little episodic update to The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape From Butcher Bay, a true sequel is being planned. Speaking to Eurogamer TV at the Atari Live event last week, Tigon head of production Ian Stevens called Dark Athena an episodic expansion, indicating that they've got a sequel to the original in mind should gamers react positively to the updated release.


Refer: kotaku

Homeade Asteroids Watch is Playable, Features Tilt Sensor

Building upon the success of the Pong watch, this Asteroids version features an "inbuilt tilt sensor so the wearer can control the action by simply tilting their wrist." Video after the break.

Microsoft Internet Explorer users told to switch browsers over flaw

Users of Microsoft's Internet Explorer have been warned of a flaw that could let hackers gain access to their computers and steal personal data, and told them to swap to a rival browser.
The flaw was spotted last week when hackers started attacking users of IE 7. The flaw, however, has also been found in earlier versions of Microsoft's browser, IE 5 and IE 6.
Because IE is used by seven out of every ten computers in the world, the flaw is potentially very serious. So far, however, it only seems to have been used to steal computer game code from rival gamers.
Microsoft is trying to put together a patch, but in the meantime computer users have been advised to update their security settings or switch to unaffected browsers such as Firefox or Opera.
The latter scored highest in a recent set of tests of how browsers deal with password security, by security consultants Chapin Information Services. Firefox came second with IE mid-table. Google's new browser, Chrome, and Safari 3.2 for Windows tied in last place.
The flaw in IE allows criminals to gain control of computers that have visited a website infected with malicious code designed to exploit it. While restricting web surfing to trusted sites should reduce the risk of infection, the malicious code can be injected into any website. Users do not have to click or download anything to become infected, merely visiting an infected website is sufficient.
Antivirus software specialists Trend Micro believe as many as 10,000 sites have been hacked to exploit the flaw. Sites that have been compromised so far, however, are mostly Chinese and the attackers seem intent on stealing people's computer game passwords in order to sell them on the black market rather than looking for personal details such as bank accounts.
It is known as a "zero-day" attack because it exploits a security vulnerability on the same day that the vulnerability became generally known. Usually there is a "window of vulnerability" between when the flaw is discovered and when the vendor issues a patch. The hope is that the vendor issues the patch before writers of so-called "malware" can exploit the flaw. If the malware writers have the flaw first, then the vendor has "zero days" to create a patch.
"Microsoft is continuing its investigation of public reports of attacks against a new vulnerability in IE," the company said in a security alert updated yesterday. "We are actively investigating the vulnerability that these attacks attempt to exploit. We will continue to monitor the threat environment and update this advisory if this situation changes."
"On completion of this investigation, Microsoft will take the appropriate action to protect our customers, which may include providing a solution through a service pack, our monthly security update release process, or an out-of-cycle security update, depending on customer needs."
refer: guardian.co.uk