OnePlus has finally announced the name of the budget-oriented smartphone line it’s been teasing for a while, and it’s not the OnePlus Z or OnePlus 8 Lite.

Say hello to OnePlus Nord instead. This is a name that has been around for a while, and we have to say that it sounds a lot more appealing than a random letter or “Lite” nickname next to the brand’s other flagship.

Apart from the name, little has been revealed about the device so far. What we do know is that it’s coming to Europe and India, and that a “limited number” of American users will be able to get their hands on the device via some sort of beta program.

Where the OnePlus Nord will differ from its 8 and 8 Pro siblings is in price. OnePlus has announced this as a far more affordable offering that still sticks to the brand’s “Never Settle” mantra. OnePlus also said it used feedback from its fan community when designing and pricing the phone.

Related: Best Android Phones

Pete Lau, Founder and CEO of OnePlus said: “The launch of the OnePlus Nord line of products marks the beginning of an exciting new chapter for OnePlus. The Never Settle spirit is focused on sharing the best technology and products with the world, but it’s also about challenging ourselves and stepping out of our comfort zones. We take great pride in our flagship products and will continue to develop technically leading flagship products for our users. Now we are excited to share the OnePlus experience with even more users around the world through this new line of products.”

Read our OnePlus 8 Pro review

Alongside this reveal, OnePlus is also releasing the first part of an Instagram series dedicated to the launch of the Nord device. You can watch this via the @oneplus.nord brand’s Nord account, and more episodes to come as we get closer to full reveal.

We’re still in the dark about the price, the release date (July 10th has already been suggested as an Indian launch) and most importantly what specs the phone will have and what it looks like. Hopefully we won’t wait too long for this information. For a look at what we’re expecting from this phone, head over to our OnePlus Z rumors page.

“‘Platforms: Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC – Xbox 360 version verified.”‘

Every year, the ridiculous pre-Christmas rush leaves the average games reviewer with a bunch of games they want to play but just don’t have time to even look at. This year was particularly bad: when we’re getting games like Assassin’s Creed, The Orange Box or Crysis week after week, who has time to look at a BlackSite or TimeShift? It’s only now, as things start to quiet down between Christmas and New Year’s, that we have a chance to take stock, search the stacks, and see if there’s anything good we’ve missed. As someone with a penchant for underdogs, it’s one of my treats of the holiday season.

Of course, TimeShift has hardly made it easier for itself. Saber’s game was originally slated for an Xbox release in 2005. Then the original publisher Atari shifted production to the Xbox 360 before deciding to throw the game into development hell. Then came Vivendi Universal and offered Saber a chance to take a little more time and turn a failed project into a great one. Unfortunately, the game released a major change in technology, setting, and visual direction later in November; Around the time The Orange Box, Call of Duty 4, and Crysis hit the streets. Ironically, for a game where control of time is a key theme, TimeShift’s timing couldn’t have been worse.

Worse still, a game that would have already felt like a derivative of other FPS games now feels even less original. Using slow-motion controls would have always reminded you of FEAR, and certain elements – the dystopian futuristic setting, sinister government forces, poorly armed resistance, and intrusive civilian announcements – beg comparisons to Half-Life 2. In fact, it begs comparisons to Half-Life. Life 2. If TimeShift needed a subtitle, “FEAR and loathing in City 17” would have done the job. However, his biggest new idea – his time-controlling beta suit – now feels ripped from the nanosuit in Crysis, while other parts of the game are coming close to Halo 3. As a result, TimeShift could easily be condemned as a B-movie version by other, better games.

But maybe that’s not so bad. There’s always something entertaining about a really good B-movie, and Crysis is actually a thoroughly entertaining B-game.

It helps that technically it’s not nearly as old as you might expect. Saber’s engine doesn’t look old hat in the age of Gears of War, Halo 3, and Call of Duty 4 – which is good since they’re the games that most people think of. When things are going well, the game’s devastated cityscape, rich detail, strong dynamic lighting, and excellent water and weather effects remind you of Epic’s work in Gears. Period details in some interiors are reminiscent of Bioshock, while a mid-game section set in a beautiful snowy alpine setting wouldn’t have embarrassed Bungie’s latest blockbuster.

When it’s bad – when it’s just dishing out another boxy, nondescript industrial interior – it just looks like the more generic sections of FEAR or Half-Life 2. The character models look a bit like someone tried to use FEAR’s high-tech armor with them to splicing Gears of War’s steroid-popping freaks, but as you can now imagine popping bullets in Marcus, Dom, and pals isn’t as bad as it sounds.

The world also feels solid. Many walls, barricades and objects can be shattered by heavy firepower and the ragdoll body dynamics are very compelling. Use your suit’s slow-motion function, fire a grenade at the nearest group of bull-necked combo wannabes and the effects are quite spectacular, aided by some very nice blur and distortion effects that show the flow of time being interrupted. In short, TimeShift might not be as amazing as Crysis or as awesome as Call of Duty 4, but it certainly doesn’t look or feel like its poor country cousin.

The question is, does it play as one? Well, the action definitely feels like it’s right on video. As far as I can tell from the (I think intentionally) confusing intro movie and the snippets of text jammed in as the game loads levels, you’re a scientist working on a revolutionary time control suit at a top-secret military research facility. Another scientist, Dr. Krone, steals the Alpha Prototype model and uses it to travel through time and become an evil dictator on an alternate, totalitarian future Earth. Only by rescuing the damaged beta version of the suit can you jump to his alternate timeline, help the “Occupier” resistance, uncover Krone’s evil deeds, and put the world to rights.

To do this, the suit gives you several abilities. First, it behaves a bit like armor, tracking your physical condition and repairing damage when you take a breather, much like Halo’s shield or Call of Duty 4’s health recharge feature. More importantly, it allows you to watch the flow of time to control. Press and hold the left bumper (on the Xbox 360 version) and you can pause, slow down, or even reverse time for a few seconds. Tap the bumper and the suit’s built-in AI will select an appropriate power for you. That means you can do some pretty cool things. Apparently old FEAR blasts several baddies in slow motion and watches them collapse as time speeds up again. Routine is a breeze, but you can also grab guns, dodge heavily armored robot guards, and solve your share of simple puzzles.

And utilizing those abilities is crucial, as there’s quite a bit to be said for combat – at least on anything beyond the casual level. TimeShift places great emphasis on powerful weapons, placing them in the hands of large numbers of enemy troops capable of using them. With you often surrounded and outnumbered, and with no Gears of War-style cover system in place, careful use of the slow-motion and pause features is the only way to tip the balance in your favor.

I couldn’t say the KI is on par with FEAR or STALKER, but your enemies are showing some signs of group intelligence and it’s hard to win a firefight against them fairly and honestly. As a result, the plot develops its own rhythm, similar to FEAR. You make contact with the enemy, duck around a corner, use your powers, and then do as much damage as humanly possible before the meter runs out, before heading out to find a safe place to hang out to relax and recharge. There’s a fair amount of suspense, then a very satisfying gory release.

However, it’s hard to avoid the thought that much of the suit’s potential has been wasted. Watching a bunch of enemies get shot back in slow motion never gets boring; nor does it turn back time when a grenade is flying towards you. However, anyone expecting puzzles in the order of Prince of Persia: Sands of Time will leave disappointed. It’s all in the spirit of break time to escape the falling elevator or cross the collapsing bridge, and the points where you can reverse time are obviously controlled and obviously signposted. There’s none of the experimentation or flexibility you get in a Crysis or Bioshock, and the fact that the suit suggests what power to use means you can click on the left bumper and 90 percent of your brain shut off completely.

In addition, the game is so linear that Call of Duty 4 feels like STALKER. There’s obviously some narrative hidden somewhere, but the pieces all feel separate from one another, and as you progress from level to level following a list of constantly updated objectives, it’s hard to figure out where you’re going, what you’re doing, and why. Without the atmosphere of Bioshock or Half-Life 2, TimeShift can only rely on its action.

Still, it’s an oddly addicting game. It helps that the pace is excellent, with most levels having a nice up and down of shooting. The medium level of challenge is just right, checkpoints are carefully placed and you can save when and where you want. There are a few useless shooting sections on rails, but the game makes up for that with a nice race track through the mountains on a quad bike. And the enemies, the settings, and the weapons all get more interesting and varied over time – and we’ve all seen bigger, better games where that’s not true. TimeShift isn’t a very clever shooter, but for dumb shooters it’s meaty and solidly constructed.

And as long as you like silly shooters, you should probably pick this up. In many ways, TimeShift is the FPS equivalent of some kind of low-budget action movie that used to star Jean-Claude Van Damme but now stars Jason Statham. You wouldn’t buy it at full price via Call of Duty 4 or The Orange Box, any more than you would see Crank at the cinema via The Bourne Ultimatum, but if you saw it at a bargain price at your local video store, you wouldn’t be disappointed , if you would pick it up and take it home.

TimeShift isn’t the game it could have been – but given its troubled history, we can say that for both good and bad. It’s not worth more than a seven for all of the reasons above, but there were times when I got carried away playing it that I’d swear it was played more like an eight. If you’ve already worked your way through the more experienced colleagues at TimeShift, you should bear that in mind.

“‘Verdict”‘

It’s unoriginal and underperforms with its handful of good ideas to anyone’s idea of ​​excellence, but as a dumb shooter TimeShift is actually loads of fun. Buy it at a bargain basement price and then enjoy it.

characteristics

For our last TV review of 2007, it seemed only fitting to view a TV with a firm eye on the future. More precisely, a future without analogue television.

Like it or not, in an ongoing three to four year process starting pretty much right now, parts of the UK will suddenly and dramatically find their analogue television broadcasts being shut down, leaving the Freeview digital terrestrial service their only option remains to watch any TV.

So it’s nice to see that manufacturers are finally paying more than lip service to the Freeview system in the form of the 42-inch 42LT75 LCD TV from LG. What makes the 42LT75 different/special is its Freeview Playback accreditation. In fact, this is the first Freeview playback TV to be launched in the UK.

Freeview Playback, in case you’ve missed all the recent TV adverts about it, is practically an attempt to bring the joys of Sky+ recording to Freeview’s own digital service. So any device – TV, separate receiver – that wants to be Freeview playback certified must have, among other things, a built-in hard disk recorder, two digital tuners so you can watch one digital channel while recording another, and – hooray! – Series Link feature where the hard drive automatically tracks and records every episode of your favorite shows so you never have to worry about missing them again.

Freeview playback devices also let you pause live TV, rewind live TV, or watch live TV (as in, you watch a show a minute or two later while it keeps recording in front of you). Also, you can link recordings/series by simply selecting programs from the 7-day electronic program guide. As you can see, Freeview Playback really does pretty much everything for Freeview that Sky+ does for Sky Digital.

At this point, anyone who has taken a break from stuffing themselves with turkey and chocolate to read our Christmas review of the Hitachi P50XR01 TV might be wondering what really makes the LG 42LT75 so special, given that it only shares a majority of its functionality seems with the Hitachi (which also had a built-in HDD recorder).

The answer is that the LG 42LT75’s recording and operating system not only features the all-important Series Link system, which is conspicuously absent from the Hitachi model, but has also been developed entirely in collaboration with Freeview engineers to deliver a defined set of ” Freeview Playback” standards. In comparison, the Hitachi just does its own thing.

And the results of the collaboration between LG and Freeview are evident in the 42LT75’s operating system, which is as perfect as you’re likely to ever get on a feature-packed TV. For example, creating and recalling recordings from the hard drive is incredibly easy, thanks to well-organized on-screen menus and a well thought-out remote control. And playback functions like rewind, fast forward and “live pause” are so easy to use that even the most nervous technophobes will be getting the most out of every aspect of the 42LT75 in a matter of hours.

Before we find out if the 42LT75 has the capability to back up its impressive functionality, there are a few limitations with the Freeview playback system that you should be aware of. First and worst, you can’t record two digital channels at the same time like Sky+ does. Second, oddly enough, there is no trace of any program on your save list while it’s actually being recorded; It will not appear until the recording is complete.

Still, we suspect the two limitations just outlined might not seem like too much of a deal for people wanting to enjoy the delights of onboard digital TV/HDD recording without having to pay through the nose like you would with the alternative do by Sky.

Additionally, the 42LT75’s digital channel recordings are absolutely impeccable. Because the television actually records the direct digital bitstream on its hard drive, the results are indistinguishable from the original broadcast. And there’s no fairer way to say it.

While it’s doubtful you’ll need to pick up the TV’s analogue tuner very often, the 42LT75 still does a good job when needed. Various recording quality options are available for the analog tuner, with the lower quality options taking up less storage space. And of those options, the top ‘High’ mode results in images that are only slightly noisier than the original analog broadcasts, while even the much less memory-hungry Standard mode works well too, and looks vastly better than anything you’d see from an old one VCR.

If we shift our attention from the quality of the 42LT75’s recordings to its actual screen performance, the 42LT75 proves to be an unexpected success. Why unexpected? Because the 42LT75 really makes big strides in the right direction, away from the rather disappointing efforts of many of LG’s other recent LCD offerings.

Of particular note – not to mention a necessity given the Freeview playback focus – is how good the 42LT75’s standard definition images look compared to most other LG LCDs. For example, LG’s old tendency to overemphasize noise in standard definition images is replaced here with one of the cleanest digital tuner presentations we’ve seen.

Also, LG’s previous problem with colors starting to take on some odd tones when viewed at standard definition has been massively reduced, to the point where the 42LT75’s standard definition images are actually some of the most natural tones we’d see on an LCD – Saw TV.

Finally, when objects scroll across the screen when viewed in standard definition, there are far fewer problems with smearing seen with previous LG LCDs.

In fact, the magnitude of the standard definition improvements made for the 42LT75 is so remarkable that we can only imagine that creating a Freeview playback TV eventually forced LG’s Korea-based engineers to tweak their normal picture processing routines, to optimize them for reality very specific image requirements of our Freeview service. Let’s hope similar changes can now infiltrate LG’s entire line of TVs.

In keeping with its focus on standard definition, the 42LT75 isn’t a Full HD TV, sticking to the HD Ready resolution of 1,366 x 768. That doesn’t mean it’s not a very comfortable HD performer, however.

For example, crisp HD sources like The Prestige look as sharp and detailed on HD DVD as they do on any other HD Ready TV we can imagine – and video noise is a big deal. The overall sharpness of the presentation is also enhanced by the fact that there’s even less motion blur than we’ve reported with standard definition, while colors in tone are even more subtly believable.

Another quality that rivals both standard and high definition quite well is the 42LT75’s black level response. We’re not talking about class-leading or benchmarking here; There are certainly other sets that deliver even deeper, more natural black levels. But the level of gray that sits over dark scenes like the shuddering final tracking shot in the basement of Robert Angier’s old theater in The Prestige is rarely, if ever, strong enough to really distract you from what you’re looking at.

Perhaps a little more disturbing is the fact that the 42LT75’s colors don’t look as aggressively vibrant and eye-catching as most of LG’s recent LCD releases. Still, they certainly don’t look drab, and if a little “holding back” helped LG achieve the more natural toning we’ve been talking about, then we won’t say more about it.

One definite downside that might compel some prospects to look elsewhere for their next digital TV is the way the digital feed loses strength as it makes its way through the 42LT75’s first tuner and into the second. In other words, when we cranked our digital reception strength down to the kind of levels you might reach if you happen to live in a frontier area of ​​digital television reception, the second tuner often struggled to show a clean, stable picture, despite the first tuner has held up well. We therefore strongly recommend that you have your Freeview signal strength checked professionally before purchasing a 42LT75.

The 42LT75, like most LG flat screen TVs, is a very eye-catching eye-catcher. But its sleek design hasn’t stopped it from delivering robust audio, complete with rich, round vocals, a winsomely wide soundstage, and even a decent helping of bass by flat-screen TV standards. A bit more treble clarity would have added more “shine” to the soundstage, and the pseudo-surround sound mode provided is predictably terrible. But overall, the 42LT75’s sound offers a sympathetic accompaniment to its much-enhanced images.

“‘Verdict”‘

Congratulations to LG on the 42LT75. The Freeview playback system turns out to be a triumph, even in this first TV incarnation. And thankfully, LG has really thrown its support behind the new tech by showing Freeview pictures much better than ever.

Add all of this to a frankly amazingly low price for such a large, feature-packed TV, and LG deserves to have a resounding success.

How we test televisions

We test every TV we review thoroughly over an extended period of time. We use industry standard tests to properly compare features. We will always tell you what we find. We never accept money to rate a product.

Learn more about how we test in our Ethics Policy.

Used as the main TV during the period

Tested over a week

Tested with industry calibrated tools, discs and real world use

Tested with broadcast content (HD/SD), video streams and demo discs

points in detail

• value 10

• picture quality 8

• sound quality 8

After a quiet summer in which the Galaxy Note 10 was pretty much the only major release, we’re finally approaching the busiest time of the year for tech. But before we get into the launch of the iPhone 11 or the Huawei Mate 30, we have to deal with the huge gadget show IFA 2019 in Berlin.

Unlike Mobile World Congress, IFA is not a show dedicated to launching the latest and greatest smartphones. Instead, it’s much more about smart home technology, household appliances and audio kit.

That’s not to say we expect any phones to get a surprise announcement during the show. Here are all the devices we could see in Berlin next week.

1.LG V60

LG loves the IFA. It’s using the show to announce a whole host of tech, and it’s already kicked off its 2019 show by launching a fridge that makes “artisanal” ice cubes for your cocktails.

The Korean brand has also announced that a new smartphone will be at the show that will use the dual-screen accessory first presented alongside the LG v50. Rumors suggest this will be the LG V60 and that it could end up being the flagship to beat at IFA 2019.

2.SonyXperia2

This might seem like a long shot, but we know from previous releases that Sony doesn’t mind launching multiple flagship phones in a matter of months.

The Sony Xperia 1 – which happened to be the best phone Sony Mobile has released in years – was first announced at MWC in February and then released in the early summer months. So if Sony continues with its previous biennial flagship update schedule, the successor could be announced at IFA.

We know Sony has set up a press conference for the show and that it’s used IFA to launch new phones in the past – so maybe we could see the Sony Xperia 2 after all?

3. A lot of Nokia phones

Nokia has already announced that it will launch a host of new devices during its IFA 2019 conference. The following tweet mentions that we’ll see a “mixture of smart and feature phones.”

Nokia (or at least HMD Global) likes to bring back iconic phones from the brand’s past. So could we see a phone following in the footsteps of the 3310 remake?

At this year’s IFA in Berlin we are introducing new family members. Expect a mix of smart and feature phones – can you guess which one that will be? #IFA19 #NokiamobileLive pic.twitter.com/jF9iROacVZ

— Nokia Mobile (@NokiaMobile) August 28, 2019

4. Huawei Mate 30 (or rather the chip that powers it)

Rumors of Huawei’s rival Samsung Galaxy Note 10 Plus have been constant over the past few weeks, but we doubt it will actually make an appearance at the show.

Huawei has recently preferred to showcase its devices at lavish standalone events rather than piggybacking at mass trade shows, and we expect the Mate 30 and Mate 30 Pro to follow this trend and be officially launched later in the year.

Instead, Huawei is more likely to show off its next flagship chipset, the Kirin. This chipset will likely power the Mate 30 and next year’s Huawei P40 and P40 Pro. Huawei did something similar at last year’s IFA, unveiling the Kirin 985 chip alongside a cheaper mid-range Mate 20 Lite.

We could also get a firm date for the Mate 30 launch, an update on the situation with Google and possibly another look at the brand’s new Harmony OS.

Fast Charge is our weekly, mobile-focused look at news, rumors and everything else from the world of phones, wearables and tablets. It will be live every Saturday morning.

Just four months after the launch of the original series, Oppo has announced a brand new range of Reno smartphones with a special camera trick.

There are three new models in the new series: Oppo Reno 2, Oppo Reno 2Z and Oppo Reno 2F. All models in the range have a 6.5-inch AMOLED screen, a 4000mAh battery (with 20W fast charging) and 8GB of RAM with at least 128GB of storage. As for the software, they all have the ColorOS skin on Android 9 OS.

Related: The best smartphones

The Reno 2 is the most premium device in this new lineup, boasting a Snapdragon 730G processor and a 48MP main camera sensor.

While all phones in the range feature a pop-up camera, this is the only one of the second generation that retains the signature wedge-shaped slide-on camera module of the previous generation of handsets. Launched in India, it costs £37,000 (~£420).

Related: Best camera phones

When we reviewed the Oppo Reno 10x Zoom, we described it as a “well-rounded and exciting new flagship that…has the potential to take on some serious cameraphone competitors as well”. It received an excellent 4.5 stars out of 5.

This was in no small part due to its fantastic triple camera, which boasts impressive consistency and versatility – there’s no doubt that the snapper is the main feature of this device, even given the impressive battery life and great performance.

Let’s hope that the next generation of Reno devices can repeat these successes.

The second half of 2019 is shaping up to be a very busy time in the world of smartphones. Of course, there’s Apple’s annual launch event, which is expected to unveil the iPhone 11 in early to mid-September, and the Google Pixel 4 and Huawei Mate 30 launches are soon to follow.

Related: Best Android Phones

If Oppo has replicated its winning formula of value and performance, the Reno 2 range could be a worthy alternative to these (and likely expensive) premium phones.

Related: Oppo Reno Z review

Redmi’s first smart TV is huge, with 4K quality resolution and parent brand Xiaomi’s XiaoAI voice assistant, so you can easily search for shows.

The 70-inch TV – aptly dubbed the “Redmi TV 70” – was unveiled by Redmi CEO Lu Weibing at an event in Beijing earlier this week.

The TV packs 2GB of RAM and 16GB of storage and boasts 14 picture-enhancing technologies thanks to the 6th generation Amlogic octa-core processor. Redmi claims that its first TV will come with an upgraded audio system, as well as an eye-catching 4K quality resolution. The display isn’t HDR-capable, according to reports from Engadget, but the TV can decode HDR at the chipset level and has all the usual smart TV perks.

Related: Best TVs

As for connecting the TV to your laptop or smartphone, the Redmi TV 70″ is compatible with 2.4G/5G dual-band WiFi, which promises users “excellent signal connectivity”. You can use a USB cable to connect your device directly to the TV or, if you have a Mi laptop or smartphone, use a wireless screencast to project your display onto the big screen and stream from there.

Running on the PatchWall AI-enabled TV system, just like Xiaomi’s other smart TVs, the Redmi TV features the Xiaomi smart assistant XiaoAI to keep you company while you browse through your favorite movies and shows. The voice-activated remote is Bluetooth-powered and features a button to wake up XiaoAI, so you can seamlessly browse for programs and control the other smart devices that populate your home without getting on your feet.

Read our Xiaomi Redmi Note 7 review

The Redmi TV 70″ is available for pre-order in China this week, priced at RMB 3,799. It’s not clear yet if the smart TV will make it overseas, but open sales in China are scheduled to start at 10 am on September 10.

This week’s Week in Geek is all about looking ahead. We look forward to a new iPhone launch or gameplay footage from the latest Resident Evil.

It is also to talk about the future. This will be my final Week in Geek column as I leave the store to find out what’s next. We don’t talk much about departures at , and my colleague and certified Nicest Man in Tech, Alex Walker-Todd, also left to break new ground this week, but I wanted to take a quick look at the column dedicated to one of my favorite parts of the job, to mention the incredibly talented team of writers and editors I’m leaving behind.

Stay healthy, do a good job and keep in touch.

iSpy

Three things in life are certain: death, taxes, and the countdown to a new iPhone each year. This year is no different, and we now know when we’ll be peeking at the iPhone 11.

The splash tells consumers “only through innovation,” along with a rainbow-colored, older-style Apple logo. It has plenty of firsts: iOS 13 will run on iPhone 11 devices right away, bringing a host of new Apple services for those willing to splurge the cash. Consider the rumored triple camera setup on the back, another first for the Fruit phone.

What else? The biggest battery yet, the all-new A13 chipset, will power everything and, not for the first time, Apple probably won’t be releasing 5G with any of this year’s phones.

This year, Apple is taking a bigger risk than usual.

Smartphone sales, particularly for flagships like Apple’s iPhone, have slumped, and trade-offs between America’s Sentient Wotsit-in-Chief and the Chinese government could see Apple’s flagship priced up or even pulled from sales in the region altogether . It’s hard to say what impact this will have because it’s ongoing and it’s an unpredictable time for the industry since China is such a big part of the mobile phone industry.

To cover up the potential for weak sales on the device, Apple is hoping services like Apple TV Plus, Apple Arcade, and even the Apple Card can cheer things up a bit.

So there’s a reason to watch the September 10 live event for many reasons, as it could end up being a successful reinvention for Apple or another herald that even the coolest brands in tech can go through a rough patch .

residential

Capcom is bringing a new Resident Evil game to the masses and will be showing it off in September.

That’s great news, especially as it’s rumored to be a multiplayer-focused title that shares DNA with predating Resident Evil Outbreak, the multiplayer survival ’em-up that launched on PS2 in 2003 and suffered from that console shortage a large online player base.

The title, currently nicknamed Project Resistance, will be shown during Tokyo Games Week and will be broadcast live on September 9th at 3pm on Blighty.

A multiplayer iteration of Resident Evil could be great if it includes some of the tense moments that caused drama in Outbreak: While later Resident Evil titles featured fairly generic looting-and-shooting co-op play, Outbreak often had characters that their own survival adventures played and interacted with each other in odd ways as they stalked around, locking doors to give players time to escape, or sharing healing items.

The game created drama by forcing the players together. For every hard-working helper, there was a survivor who would betray you for their own reasons, or even for the basest reason of all, theirs

Expect this one to be huge on Twitch when similar horror multiplayer efforts like Dead By Daylight come around.

Get steamy

Back in April, the EU claimed it intended to target publishers for blocking download codes originating from non-native regions across Europe and named six publishers it would try to resolve issues with.

Bandai Namco, Capcom, Focus Home, Koch Media and Zenimax intend to settle, according to Reuters. Meanwhile, Steam owners Valve have announced plans to fight the charges head-on, and have requested a closed hearing to bring their case before the European Commission and national bodies.

That’s huge. Valve has yet to comment publicly outside of the Reuters report, but said in April that regional blocking in Europe was disabled back in 2015 and that only 3% of all games were affected by regional blocking.

It’s a complicated scenario. I remember using a VPN at university to set my region to Mexico so I could buy Titanfall for a few pounds instead of being £40 on EA’s Origin store. That was a bad move, and I’ve felt awful a few times since because, if you’ll excuse the language, I took the p**s.

Economic inequality around the world is often at the root of regional pricing, and it seems fair that companies should be able to take steps to prevent the wealthier regions of the world from benefiting. Finally, the alternative would be for the company to raise prices to something comparable to £40 everywhere, which will hit those hardest.

“In a true Digital Single Market, European consumers should have the right to buy and play the video games of their choice, regardless of where they live in the EU,” said EU Competition Policy Commissioner Margrethe Vestager in April this year.

“Consumers should not be prevented from browsing between Member States to find the best deal available.”

But when you consider that the average salary in the UK is £28,677 and in Poland at the much less affordable £8,500, a game that costs £40 anywhere is a completely different value proposition for a player from Poland than it is for someone from UK . Hence regional pricing – which is good.

Not that that matters. As we look to the future, it’s likely that our own silly political bobbleheads will see us out of the EU on October 31 – deal or no deal – so it’s unlikely to set a precedent like UK players in the new future interact with codes through the EU.

A Google security researcher has detailed how the company discovered a hacking attack on iPhones to obtain personal information.

The hack was made possible by 12 vulnerabilities, most of which were bugs in Apple’s Safari web browser, and the attack was carried out through websites implanting surveillance software to collect personal data and sending the information to an external exploit server every 60 seconds to transfer.

Related: Best VPNs for Security and Privacy

The vulnerabilities were uncovered by Google’s Project Zero cybersecurity task force, and Apple fixed the vulnerabilities with a security update rolled out in February (iOS 12.4.1).

News of the vulnerability was released by a Google employee and made headlines just weeks before Apple’s next mobile operating system, iOS 13, is due to launch.

The new software is said to include a new security feature called Sign in with Apple, which will hopefully reduce instances of personal information theft.

This feature lets you sign up with an account on third-party services, but most importantly, you can control whether you share details like age and gender, and even your email address can be hidden by providing a randomly generated account name that Messages are forwarded to your real inbox.

It’s an interesting proposal to address the very real issue of personal data security, and we hope it’s an effective solution.

Along with this feature are several other changes to the software, including dark mode for a grey-black interface that’s less straining on your eyes, and big performance improvements across the board that reduce download size by 50% and the size of app updates could also reduce by 60%.

Related: Best iPhones

Along with the new software, Apple is expected to release its next-generation phone, the iPhone 11, soon. This will be the first iPhone to run iOS 13 out of the box, but beyond that it’s said to have new hardware features such as a triple camera for more photographic versatility and a new A13 chipset for even more performance.