‘Rise of the Ronin’ is a historical action RPG from the team behind ‘Nioh’

The studio behind Nioh plans to take PlayStation fans on an adventure through Bakumatsu-era Japan. On Tuesday, Team Ninja — not to be confused with Ninja Theory — announced it is working on a new action-adventure game titled Rise of the Ronin. 

Set in 1863, about a decade after Commodore Matthew Perry ended Japan’s isolation from the West, the game grounds the player in an era of dramatic technological and political change. You’ll play as a wandering Ronin navigating a fractured country. This being a Team Ninja project, expect stylish third-person melee combat. It also looks like the game will take inspiration from Western open-world games like Assassin’s Creed — which, you have to admit, is fitting given the subject matter. Rise of the Ronin will be a PlayStation console exclusive when it arrives sometime in 2024.

Flickr adds a virtual photography category as more games embrace photo modes

Flickr is adding a new virtual photography category to help users find and categorize images they capture in their favorite video games. Previously, the platform only offered three content categories: photos, illustration and art, and screenshots. The …

Discord voice chat is now available on Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S

Following an Insider beta test that began in July, Discord voice chats are now available on all Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S consoles. The integration allows Discord users on Xbox, PC and mobile to join the same voice channels. You’ll first need to lin…

EA will debut new anti-cheat tech with ‘FIFA 23’ on PC

Electronic Arts is determined to keep cheaters at bay. The company has developed a kernel-level anti-cheat system for PC that it will deploy alongside FIFA 23 when the game arrives on September 30th. According to the publisher, the move was necessary to “ensure fair play” by taking on PC cheat developers who are increasingly building kernel-level exploits that OS-level anti-cheat tools are unable to detect.

In a blog post, EA’s senior director of game security and anti-cheat Elise Murphy wrote that the company created EA AntiCheat (EAAC) because “third-party anti-cheat solutions are often opaque to our teams, and prevent us from implementing additional privacy controls or customizations that provide greater accuracy and granularity for EA-specific game modes.” It should also be able to address security issues head on.

EAAC won’t be used in all EA games, though the publisher says it’s necessary for competitive titles with an online focus, such as FIFA 23. This year’s edition includes cross-play support and, in theory, EAAC should prevent console players from having to deal with PC cheaters. The company may take different anti-cheat approaches in games without leaderboards or a competitive system. As such, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see EA add EAAC to the likes of Apex Legends, but it seems unlikely to be patched in to the 2021 Game of the Year (don’t take my word for it) It Takes Two.

The tool will only be active when a game with EAAC is running on your PC. It will be uninstalled when you remove all EA games that require it (you can uninstall EAAC manually, but the likes of FIFA 23 won’t be playable). Murphy wrote that “EAAC will have negligible impact on your gameplay,” so it shouldn’t diminish performance.

As far as system privacy and security goes, Murphy says that EAAC will only examine the files it needs to for anti-cheat reasons. EAAC will hash the information that it does collect and jettison the original data. The tool won’t collect data from your browsing history, apps that don’t interact with EA games or anything else that’s irrelevant to its purposes, according to the blog post.

EA isn’t the first publisher to adopt a kernel-level anti-cheat approach. Riot and Activision use similar tools in Valorant, Call of Duty: Vanguard and Call of Duty: Warzone.

Twitter shareholders vote to approve Elon Musk’s $44 billion acquisition

A majority of Twitter’s shareholders have voted to approve Elon Musk’s $44 billion takeover. During a special meeting of shareholders that lasted about seven minutes, stockholders approved of two proposals: one to adopt the merger agreement with Musk, and one related to how the company’s executives will be compensated as a result of the deal.

Both measures were approved, though Twitter will disclose the final breakdown of votes “at a later date” when it files paperwork with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Though shareholders formally approved the deal, which valued each share at $54.20, an October trial in Delaware’s Court of Chancery will determine whether Musk is able to terminate the agreement. Musk initially cited concerns about bots and spam as reasons for ending the merger agreement, though Twitter’s lawyers argued he was actually concerned about “World War 3.” The judge in the case ruled that Musk will be able to add claims raised by the company’s former security chief turned whistleblower, Peiter Zatko, to his legal bid.

Separately, Zatko testified at a Judiciary Committee hearing Tuesday, during which he shed new light on his allegations that Twitter’s security practices are a risk to the United States’ national security.

‘Clean Energy Charging’ is coming to iPhones this year

Even though iOS 16 is only just in the hands of most iPhone users, Apple has already revealed some details about what’s ahead for the operating system. A feature called Clean Energy Charging, which the company will roll out in the US as part of an update later this year, will optimize charging times to take into account when the power grid is using more sustainable sources of energy. Apple says the aim is to reduce the carbon footprint of iPhones.

The feature complements the Optimizing Battery Charging option Apple introduced a few years ago to maximize battery health. With this setting enabled, your iPhone will figure out your daily charging routine and limit the battery’s charge to 80 percent until close to when you’re going to start using your iPhone (or Mac, since that has the feature too).

In addition, iCloud Shared Photo Library is coming later this year. That will create a separate iCloud library that up to six people can access. Apple will also introduce support for the Matter smart home standard once that becomes available sometime this fall.

Those with an iOS 16-compatible iPhone now have access to a boatload of new features, primarily to do with personalization. The Live Activities function should make it easier to track certain things in real time, such as the status of a delivery and sports scores. The option to edit and unsend messages in iMessage will be a big deal for many, as will the ability to copy and paste an object from one photo to another.

Co-op adventure game ‘It Takes Two’ hits Switch on November 4th

It Takes Two was a breakout hit when it came out in 2021, and now the cooperative adventure game is coming to a fresh platform. It Takes Two is due to hit Switch on November 4th for $40, and pre-orders are open today. The game will take advantage of the Friend’s Pass feature from developer Hazelight and publisher EA, unlocking co-op play even if one person doesn’t own the game.

It Takes Two is a distinctly two-player experience, and on Switch it’ll be playable three ways: in couch co-op mode, with two Switches over a local wireless network, or with a friend online. It’s not playable cross-platform. The Friend’s Pass feature is already a thing for PC and console versions of It Takes Two, and it allows someone who doesn’t own the game to play with someone who does.

The Switch port was handled by Turn Me Up Games, the studio that brought Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater and the Borderlands: Legendary Collection to Nintendo’s latest console.

It Takes Two is also getting the silver-screen treatment, though its storyline is arguably the most distressing part of the game. Amazon Studios is adapting it into a movie, with The Rock rumored as a potential star.