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While the memo didn't strictly forbid “fun” it did attempt to ban dominos, cards, and video game tournaments before the Army made an about-face last week. ... The Army has canceled a memo that would have directed a defense contractor to cease providing ping-pong and other “recreational activities other than sports and fitness” for soldiers at Camp Arifjan and Camp Buehring, Kuwait, said Lt. Col. Christina Wright, a spokeswoman for U.S. Army Central Command. “All activities remain in place,” Wright told Task & Purpose on Monday, in response to a query about the letter of technical direction, or LOTD. “The...

The complete game was found in a catacomb grave, but without a copy of the rules. The Royal Game of Ur, helpfully, had its rules written out on a cuneiform tablet. Image credit: Mary Harrsch/Flickr (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0) After thousands of years, we may finally know how to play an ancient board game, or at least a decent approximation of it. In 1977, Italian and Iranian archaeologists were excavating a cemetery in Shahr-i Sokhta in the south-eastern region of Iran when they discovered an unusual item in grave number 731. Inside the pseudo-catacomb grave was an ancient board game, coming...

Although it was not the first massively multiplayer online role-playing game (a genre known as MMORPG) when it was released in 2004, World of Warcraft was an instant success, quickly attracting several million players worldwide.s it celebrates its 20th birthday, online video game World of Warcraft has demonstrated a rare longevity thanks to its loyal following and constant evolutions. "It is inspiring to be able to work on this rare game that has touched so many lives, and to also feel the burden of carrying that forward," Ion Hazzikostas, the current director of the game, told AFP at the Gamescom...

For most people, it’s understood that when a creator chooses to depict something ‘evil’ in a piece of fiction, especially when that something is also portrayed in-universe as explicitly ‘bad’, said creator is not endorsing a given behavior or ideology, but rather using it for narrative purposes, often to contrast the moral differences between a protagonist and their opposition. However, the same apparently does not ring true for the video game industry’s ‘modern audience’, as like many games before it, Indiana Jones and The Great Circle will feature a very performative disclaimer assuring players that despite developer MachineGames’ decision to...

Democrat vice presidential nominee Tim Walz teamed up with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) on the streaming platform Twitch to playing video games in a desperate attempt to reach young male voters the Harris campaign is struggling to gain support from. The Washington Post reports that Minnesota Governor and Democrat vice presidential nominee Tim Walz joined forces with AOC on the streaming platform Twitch. The duo took to the virtual stage on Sunday to play video games and discuss a range of topics, from electoral politics to social security benefits.

PlayStation will be taking its new Firewalk-developed live services game “Concord” offline this Friday and issuing refunds to players just two weeks after its Aug. 23 launch. The team-based first-person shooter game is reported to have drawn a historically small audience during its initial availability across PlayStation 5 and PC, with third-party PC-based gaming data website SteamDB showing 30 current in-game players at the time of publication on Tuesday. At the peak in its short history, “Concord” had 697 concurrent players, drastically low for a PlayStation new release, and ranked toward the bottom of PlayStation’s weekly sales charts. In “Concord,”...

Hmm: Democrats are fighting to get third-party candidates Jill Stein and Cornel West off the ballot in multiple states — while simultaneously battling to keep RFK Jr. on some states’ ballot even after he’s withdrawn. “Defending democracy” sure is a tricky business. Of course, the “principle” at stake here is nothing but “what’s best for Kamala Harris.” Stein and West, both serious lefties, will siphon off votes likely to otherwise go to the Democrat; leaving Kennedy on (the calculation goes, anyway) will cost Donald Trump more votes than it does Harris. And never mind that RFK’s campaign had to battle...

A 'woke' gender row has broken out among Games Workshop fantasy fans after women were added to an army squadron for the first time. Bosses behind the Warhammer game have introduced a female character to one of its most popular table-top battalions whose devotees include film star Henry Cavill. But some men are furious at the move, insisting that the 'Adeptus Custodes' brigade has always been all-male and any changes should have been done differently. A new edition of Warhammer 40,000 fantasy fiction introduces a character named 'Custodian Calladyce Taurovalia Kesh' - and using female pronouns for her. Long-time fans...

Fallout trailer. Episodes available on Prime Video April 11th.

One of the developers behind an upcoming Black Panther game has come under fire after a clip resurfaced in which they admitted that they previously built a team that excluded white people to create a “safe environment” for them to create a prior game. Dani Lalonders is an associate narrative designer at Cliffhanger Games who is currently working on a game based off the Black Panther Marvel film series. Formerly, they worked on a game called ValiDate, “a romantic visual novel about 13 adults in Jercy City navigating new relationships and the harsh realities that come alongside them.” It was...

Anybody have a vibrating football game as a kid? (See picture in thread.)

Long story short, then, we love Flight Simulator. There’s just one problem, though, and it’s a fairly big one. What happens when you run out of ideas? As a sandbox, the game is great. Choose where to start, choose where to end, and enjoy the flight. But not everybody is comfortable with setting their own parameters like that in a game. Some people play games for the satisfaction of completing challenges set for them. In other words, some players like being told what to do and seeing if they can successfully do it. The 2020 release has some of this...

I know a lot of you are fans of Bethesda and their games which more often than not stick the landing very well. Today they revealed Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, their upcoming open-world game. Looks like it's going to be pretty good, better than last year's Indiana Jones movie that's for sure. Looks AMAZING.

A senior Ubisoft official suggested that gamers need to get comfortable not owning their games. The executive's perspective on the subject of game ownership, or lack thereof, arrived amid his company's latest digital push that saw Ubisoft make big changes to its subscription service. Philippe Tremblay, Ubisoft's director of subscription, labeled the latest changes as the company's attempt to "evolve." In a recent interview with GamesIndustry.biz, the executive explained that splitting the subscription offering into two will allow the publisher to better cater to its ever-diversifying customer base, which now includes a substantial number of people who are primarily interested...

Text Guide: 1. Go to the Releases page 2. In the latest release, go to the Assets section and download the Windows Subsystem For Android™ version of your choosing (do not download "Source code") 3. Extract the .7z archive and rename the folder (that you extracted) to WSA 4. Delete the .7z archive 5. Move the newly extracted folder to a suitable location (Documents folder is a good choice), as you will need to keep the folder on your PC to use MagiskOnWSANoteIf you're updating WSA, merge the folders and replace the files for all items when asked 6. Open...

The generative AI will change the way economy functions and businesses are run; it will be a game changer for in many verticals In a world driven by unprecedented technological advancements, there emerges a groundbreaking force that promises to reshape the very fabric of innovation: generative artificial intelligence. With its awe-inspiring ability to create, compose, and imagine, generative AI has surged to the forefront of scientific exploration, capturing the imaginations of researchers, entrepreneurs, and artists alike. From generating realistic images and synthesising music to aiding in drug discovery and revolutionising customer experiences, this cutting-edge technology possesses the potential to revolutionise...

So I recently retired from the air force and I'm just looking to keep busy and keep my brain learning. I created a mobile game that you can try on itcho.io. I'll soon be releasing it on the app stores (iphone and android). I'd love your feedback on what you think. Is the music for each mode appropriate? Is it fun? Are the modes distinct and interesting enough to try each one? You can try the game here: https://schlista.itch.io/kabocha

Whether it’s riding a human-sized hamster wheel across the Atlantic Ocean or wielding a machete in a road rage incident, the notorious Florida Man always seems to be making headlines for another “truth is stranger than fiction” kind of story. Next year, a Florida-style competition aims to give Sunshine State residents a chance to compete in tests of beer belly sumo wrestling, evading the police and knocking each other into the mud with pool noodles. The Florida Man Games are coming to St. Augustine for the first time on Feb. 24. The event was dreamt up by Pete Melfi, a...

I recently bought Starfield, a game put out by the creators of Skyrim and Fallout. While it is not quite as engaging as Fallout, it seems pretty good. I am also delighted to let you know that it follows in an old Bethesda tradition: It is a buggy mess. Word of advice: SAVE OFTEN. When your computer reboots you can resum,e from there.

Over the last week, protesters have lit thousands of cars on fire, attacked schools, town halls, police stations, banks and businesses, and set nearly a thousand buildings ablaze. Some in the Paris suburb of L'Hay-les-Roses rammed a burning car into the mayor's home. Estimates of the damage have been projected to be about $1.1 billion. As a result, thousands of young people have been arrested since the rioting began in the days after 17-year-old Nahel M. was killed on June 27. According to France's Interior Ministry, the average age of those arrested is 17. The crisis has exposed deep rancor...