The first round of tickets to the main BlizzCon 2018 convention will go on sale tomorrow, May 9. World of Warcraft, Overwatch, StarCraft, Diablo, Heroes of the Storm, and Hearthstone fans can buy tickets to BlizzCon 2018 starting at 7pm PDT, 10pm EDT, 3am UK (May 10). A second round will go on sale Saturday, May 12 10am PDT, 1pm EDT, 6pm UK. Every year there are three options available and 2018 is no different. The BlizzCon badge grants access to the convention, includes a goodie bag, and a Virtual Ticket for $199. On Thursday, November 1, Blizzard will host a special dinner to benefit the Children’s Hospital of Orange County (CHOC). The ticket grants access to a meet and greet with game developers, artists, executives, and other folks from Blizzard Entertainment. Benefit Dinner tickets include access to the special dinner, convention badge, virtual ticket, and a signed art print. Tickets for the benefit will go on sale May 16 at 7pm PDT, 10pm EDT, 3am UK (May 17) for $750 each. Information and details on the BlizzCon Virtual Ticket will be announced at a later date, for those who cannot attend the show. BlizzCon 2018 takes place November 2-3 at the Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim, California. For more information on ticket purchases, follow the links. Blizzard is also selling tickets for the initial rounds of the World of Warcraft Arena World Championship global finals and Heroes of the Storm Global Championship. Attendees to the BlizzCon Opening Week will be part of a live audience for the initial rounds of the aforementioned esports events. Ticket holders will also be given a “special behind-the-scenes tour” of the Blizzard Arena. They will be able to witness “firsthand how broadcasts come together” during the live StarCraft 2 World Championship Series (WCS) Global Finals. Interested parties can purchase tickets on May 17 at 8am PDT, 11am EDT, 4pm UK through the Blizzard Arena Los Angeles ticketing site. Single-day tickets to the WoW Arena games and HGC games will be available for $30 per day. Blizzard Arena Behind-the-Scenes Tour sessions will also be available for $50 per session, with multiple dates and time slots available.

Nintendo Switch has no plans to bring the Virtual Console to the hybrid handheld/console platform. More than any other gaming company Nintendo has been committed to its history and allowing gamers to play older generations of games. Backwards compatibility has always been a priority for Nintendo. From the Super Nintendo, players could still use their games from a previous generation. Yet starting with the Nintendo Wii, the company went above and beyond with the launch of the Virtual Console. The Virtual Console gathered together games from past Nintendo consoles (and sometimes non-Nintendo consoles) and emulated them for the Wii. It was possible to play everything from the original Mario Bros. to the Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask on the Wii. The functionality and game library only grew in subsequent years and generations. The New Nintendo 3DS added Virtual Console games, including ones from the Super Nintendo. Meanwhile the Wii U had a surprising variety of Virtual Console games, including Game Boy Advance titles. Yet with Nintendo Switch, the Virtual Console won’t appear – or at least not the way fans are used to seeing it. Kotaku reports that Nintendo is doing away with the Virtual Console entirely for Switch. In a statement, a spokesperson for Nintendo explained: There are currently no plans to bring classic games together under the Virtual Console banner as has been done on other Nintendo systems. This doesn’t sound promising. However, that doesn’t mean classic Nintendo games and other retro titles won’t be available on the Switch. In fact, it means quite the contrary. Classic games are still coming to Nintendo Switch, they just won’t be under the Virtual Console branding. This opens the possibilities of what Nintendo, and other publishers, can do with classic titles in a huge way. The only confirmed old-school Nintendo games coming to the Switch, at this moment, are NES titles. As a part of the announcement of their online service plans, Nintendo confirmed that paying for online play would give players access to 20 NES titles. Nintendo Switch owners will be able to play Dr. Mario, Super Mario Bros. 3, Legend of Zelda and several other titles by paying for the online service. They aren’t just simple ports either. These NES titles will come with new functions including, in some cases, online play. Meaning it’s possible to compete (or cooperate) with friends across the country while playing Super Mario Bros. on Switch. Though not coming with the access to the online service, Nintendo will also access to classic Sega games on the Switch. Under the banner of Sega Ages, classic titles from the company including Sonic the Hedgehog will release, individually, on the Nintendo Switch’s online store. For the moment, this initiative has only been announced in Japan. Yet it’s only a matter of time before it’s confirmed for (and comes to) Western audiences. The death of the Virtual Console isn’t a cause of mourning. Instead, Fans should celebrate it. The retirement of the Virtual Console suggests a new era for Nintendo and how it’ll approach backwards compatibility. As great as Nintendo’s commitment to its history has been since the Nintendo Wii, it hasn’t been all that exciting or fresh. The Virtual Console, in its most basic terms, consisted of selling players a game they’ve (probably) paid for and played countless times before on another console. There’s every indication that with the Nintendo Switch, classic games will receive new features. Even if it’s something as simple as an online leaderboard, these games will be getting a facelift and makeover. They won’t be the same games that have been available for decades. There will be a reason to buy them on Nintendo Switch. If Nintendo has committed to adding new features for NES on Nintendo Switch, they could do the same for even newer titles. It’s conceivable that Nintendo Switch could add Gamecube games to its online store, making it possible to play Super Smash Bros. Melee with online play. However, it’s important to keep in mind that Nintendo adding classic games to the Switch’s library is just starting. There’s much more to be revealed and confirmed before fans get too carried away with speculating how Nintendo Switch will deal with classic games. The only thing that’s really known is it won’t be under the Virtual Console branding.

Welcome to Invitehawk

Welcome to Invitehawk

Welcome to Invitehawk

Looks like its leak galore today as the upcoming NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1180 next-generation graphics card was added to the venerable TechPowerUp GPU database. The data entered is very clearly of an engineering sample and we could see things such as the clock speeds improve further down the line but it does mean that the GPU is now entering the final stages before launch. The closest big event is Computex 2018 and all the rumors point to a launch around that time. NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1180 specs, price and release date The GPU entry lists the specifications for the graphics card – most of which are identical to the leaks we have seen before. The NVIDIA GTX 1180 graphics card will be manufactured on TSMC’s 12nm FinFET process which will introduce significant power efficiency upgrades on a core to core basis.m The exact core count will be 3584 CUDA cores divided in 28 SMs. 64 ROPs and 224 TMUs make up the rest of the specifications. According to the same entry, the memory in question will be the GDDR6 variant with up to 16 GB worth of DRAM. Img The clock speed for the engineering sample was 12 GHz effective which is a step up from Pascal – keep in mind however that memory clocks can usually be clocked upwards quite easily. The GPU core clock is listed as 1405 MHz with the ‘base’ boost clock listed as 1582 MHz. If this is anything like Pascal, however, then this boost clock is just the minimum guaranteed rate and actual clock rates will be closer to the 1800 MHz mark then anything else. Pixel rate is 101.2 GPixel/s and Texture Rate is 354.4 GTexel/s. The peak floating point performance will be around 13 TeraFlops. As far as the physical specifications of the card go, the entry measured it at 10.5 inches in length and dual slot width. TDP is a cool 200 W that can be powered by a 1×6-pin and 1×8-pin configuration. This power setup can easily deliver more if necessary (for overclocking configurations). The card will have a single HDMI port and 3 DisplayPort ports. Here is where things get slightly murkier, however, the TPU GPU DB entry lists the card as a volta variant, which is odd considering the previous leaks have told us that the architecture in question will be called Turing. This might simply be a MachineID error where the GPU-Z tool is reading the architecture incorrectly. Turing is essentially a process shrink and optimization of the Volta architecture and will bring significant performance and power efficiencies to the next-generation graphics card. The expected launch date for the next generation of NVIDIA Turing graphics cards is probably around the Computex time frame. Earlier reports have indicated that they could hit the shelves as soon as July which means a tease or soft launch at Computex next month might not be entirely out of the question. As far as pricing goes, keep in mind that the crypto bubble has mostly burst (as far as graphics card pricing goes anyways) so we are expecting a slightly toned down MSRP of somewhere around $699-799 but that sticker will mean nothing if retailers and e-tailers decide to charge a heavy premium for them depending on demand.

An official Gigabyte UK Notebook representative, who goes by the name of Atom80, over at the OverclockersUK forums has confirmed that NVIDIA's next-generation mobile GPUs will launch towards the end of this year. When asked about whether Gigabyte will be providing a GTX 1080 option for their Aero 15X V8-CF1 notebook, Atom80 stated that there are no plans to upgrade the Aorus notebook family until the next-generation GPUs are available. Since the mobile variants usually launch a few months after the desktop variants, it's possible that we're looking at a summer launch for the desktop models.

Android isn’t known for its watertight security and one almost always finds out about a glaring flaw in it. It was recently discovered that Android apps on current and previous versions of the OS get unrestricted access to your network activity. To make matters worse, there’s no permission for you to grant, it’s just allowed for all apps by default. This means that any app has unrestricted access to the network activity of another app. Additionally, they could also tell when those apps are connecting to the Internet and where they are connecting to. The actual contents of the data is still protected, but even a destination is enough to cause trouble. Some apps on the Play Store even use this method to detect when you connect to services that they don’t like. Even social media apps could use this to track your network activity without your knowledge. Thankfully, the next version of Android is going to remedy the situation. According to a new AOSP commit discovered by XDA Developers, apps in Android P will no longer be able to monitor network activity. Only designated VPN apps will be allowed to read TCP and UDP files which in turn interpret network activity. Unfortunately, most apps will continue to enjoy unrestricted access until 2019 when apps are forced to use the newer version of the Android API. Hopefully, the new security measures will be implemented across all versions of the OS, but there’s no word about Google about it. It’s also unclear if this change will make its way to past Android versions, and the vulnerability will still be around in devices running older versions of Android. Apps that specifically monitor network activity will likely be affected but there may be an official workaround to allow those apps to keep functioning. We may well find out more about this at Google I/O this week when the second developer preview for Android P is introduced.

An apparent Samsung Galaxy S8 Lite has appeared in both an FCC and TENAA listing. Despite the existence of the flagship Galaxy S9 line and the premium Galaxy A8 line, Samsung appears to be working on a lower-cost variant of last year’s Galaxy S8, currently going by its model number SM-G8750. As can be seen from the TENAA images, the device is essentially identical to the company’s smaller 2017 flagship, down to the highly-criticized placement of the fingerprint scanner. This means a glass and aluminum build is present alongside an Infinity Display that is complete with curved edges. Also featured is the additional Bixby button. The only notable difference is the lack of a rear heart rate monitor. In regards to internal specs, the TENAA listing reveals a number of differences that hint at this being a more budget-friendly model. Starting off on the outside, the display size remains identical to the Galaxy S8’s at 5.8-inches, but the resolution tops out at just 2220 x 1080 pixels. In addition, on the rear of the smartphone, Samsung appears to have swapped out the 12-megapixel sensor for a lower-end 16-megapixel camera that is often present on the company’s Galaxy A-series smartphones. Moving on to the internal side of things, an octa-core processor clocked at either 2.2GHz or 1.9GHz is present, coinciding with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 660. This is accompanied by 4GB of RAM and 64GB of internal storage, while a 3,000mAh battery keeps the lights on. When it comes to the FCC listing, no specific details surrounding the device are mentioned aside from its model number. However, the fact that it has already been certified suggests that Samsung’s apparent Galaxy S8 Lite will be announced in the near future and will not be yet another China-exclusive. Instead, the smartphone is expected to form part of Samsung’s new strategy to recycle older flagship devices in a bid to cater to those on a tighter budget.

The new week barely started unfolding and we already have a new phone announcement, coming from Panasonic India. The company introduced a new addition to its P-series portfolio - the Panasonic P95, coming with Snapdragon 212 chipset and ultra-affordable price of INR4,999 (around $75 or €62). The Panasonic P95 comes with a 5” display of HD resolution. It is in the classic 16:9 ratio and has three capacitive buttons below to keep it company. The forehead is occupied by a 5MP selfie cam, an earpiece and a proximity sensor. The chipset, running in the P95 has a quad-core CPU, clocked at 1.3 GHz. It is coupled with 1 GB RAM and 16 GB storage, but there is a microSD slot for up to 128 GB more. Pictures are taken with the 8 MP camera, coming with AF and LED flash. Connectivity options include LTE, Bluetooth 4.1 and micro USB 2.0, while Wi-Fi is 802.11 a/b/g/n compliant. Sporting Android Nougat 7.1.2 and a 2300 mAh battery, the Panasonic P95 will be offered in three colors - Blue, Gold, and Dark Gray. Arriving exclusively on Flipkart, the phone will be available from May 13 to May 16 at a discounted price of INR3,999 as part of the Big Shopping Day Sale campaign.

A spate of shootings and stabbings in London has prompted additional police patrols on the capital’s streets over the bank holiday weekend. Rhyhiem Ainsworth Barton, 17, was fatally shot on Warham Street, south London on Saturday. The attack took place in daylight, just after 6pm, and police are appealing for information. The following day, a 15 year old was shot in the head with shotgun pellets in Wealdstone, north-west London, Harrow Police said. Another teenager, aged 13, was found with a wound to the head on the same street minutes later. He had been walking with his parents at the time of the attack, and has since been discharged from hospital. A man was arrested on Sunday in connection with the two Harrow attacks and has been released “under investigation.” "It would appear that the first victim was approached by two male suspects, one in possession of a shotgun – and shots were fired, injuring him and an entirely innocent member of the public,” Detective Chief Superintendent Simon Rose said. Also on Sunday, a 22-year-old man was found with gunshot wounds in New Cross Road, south-east London. He was taken to hospital and his condition is not believed to be life-threatening. Meanwhile, a 43-year-old man was stabbed in Perivale on Sunday, and two men in their 20s were injured in a suspected acid attack in Shacklewell Lane, Hackney. “The violence used has rightly caused concern and we are doing all we can to address this,” DCS Simon Messinger said of the spate of attacks. “Over the Bank Holiday weekend, additional officers are on the streets across the capital, working hard to keep London safe. They are using highly visible local patrols supported by armed response, traffic motorcycles, dog units, and air support – alongside plain clothes intelligence-led operations.” There have been more than 60 alleged murders in London so far this year, and homicides have jumped by 38 percent since 2014, the Sunday Times reports.

Update (1:40 pm ET): The Five Star Movement isn't backing down just yet. M5S leader Di Maio is pushing back against President Mattarella's appeal for the parties with the most parliamentary seats to support a "neutral" prime minister and government to run the country until fresh elections can be held early next year. Instead, Di Maio is sticking with the party's initial request to hold a second election as early as July. In a tweet, the five-star leader said "no one is responsible for a neutral government. Same as a technical government. Go for the vote in July!." A twitter account associated with a Milanese chapter of the Northern League said it also opposed the "neutral" prime minister, saying the last time there was a technical government, it gave money away to troubled Italian lender Monte dei Paschi while repeatedly hiking taxes. Meanwhile, Forza Italia, the League's largest coalition partner, said it wouldn't immediately rule out Mattarella's suggestion, saying it would prefer to hold elections in the fall. That didn't take long at all. * * * After two months of failed negotiations between the Five Star Movement, the Democratic Party and the center-right coalition (which includes both the far-right Northern League as well as Silvio Berlusconi's center-right Forza Italia), Italian President Sergio Mattarella has offered the first sign that Italy is likely headed for another election after what was billed as a final push to form a coalition ended in failure on Monday. During remarks to reporters on Monday, Mattarella called on Italy's political parties to back a neutral government that would govern the country until the end of December, when new elections would be held, according to Italian newspaper Il Sole 24. The technocratic government would govern until an agreement is reached, or until the new elections are held, and would step down if an agreement is reached before the election. Still, the news is a blow to the Five Star Movement (M5S), which won the largest share of any single political party during the March election (though the center-right coalition came out with a plurality). Five Star Movement leader Luigi Di Maio has said he'd be willing to consider somebody else for prime minister, and Matteo Salvini of the anti-immigrant Lega Nord has rejected the idea of a non-partisan prime minister and called for elections in July, a demand that Five Star has seconded. Mattarella said elections in the summer are possible, but that it would be difficult for people to vote. Should Italian politicians reject the technocratic solution, Mattarella said elections would likely be held in the fall. Of course, Italy's Five Star Movement, which has grown from a semi-serious political party founded by comedian Beppe Grillo into a national political force, has only seen its popularity increase since the March vote, according to polling data. We speculated earlier that talks between Five Star and the League broke down because of League leader Matteo Salvini and his enormous ego. Di Maio, whose anti-corruption movement won around 32 percent of the vote, said he would give up his claim on the premiership if the League agreed to enter into a coalition with them -- as long as they get rid of their scandal-tainted coalition ally, Silvio Berlusconi. M5S has rejected the Northern League's overtures because they don't approve of the League's coalition partner, Silvio Berlusconi, a former prime minister of Italy, who leads the more moderate Forza Italia. Berlusconi was convicted of tax fraud in 2013. But Salvini, whose coalition won 37.5% of the national vote compared with M5S's 33%, turned down Di Maio's offer. However, the League alone received just 22% of the vote. Mattarella also warned that calling for another round of elections could harm markets, as investors worried about worsening political instability in one of Europe's most indebted countries. In Italy, the president is the official head of state and the steward of the country's government. It is not generally viewed as a political position.

Police in Sweden seeking three men who ambushed and raped an underage girl on her way home from school do not want to release their descriptions. The minor was assaulted in a cemetery at 3 o’clock in the afternoon in Östervåla, a locality with a population of just 1,600 in Heby Municipality, Uppsala, SVT reports. The public broadcaster’s report indicates that “at least” one of the men raped her, and police investigator Daniel Nilsson confirmed the authorities “have a clear picture of what has happened and there is no doubt that the crime occurred inside the cemetery.” Nilsson also confirmed police have a “good description” of the attackers — but say they will not disclose this description to the media while they are pursuing “other threads” despite the fact the offence occurred some days ago and they have yet to secure any arrests. The Swedish government was one of the most enthusiastic recipients of supposed refugees at the height of the migrant crisis, and anti-mass migration opposition parties such as the Sweden Democrats have blamed this move for an apparent surge in rapes and other sex crimes in the Scandinavian country. It has been difficult to make any definitive statements about the link between sex attacks and mass migration, however, as the Swedish government has steadfastly refused to disclose any information of the ethnic breakdown of the criminal population. The Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention (Brå), which deals with criminal statistics, has said that gathering data on migrant crime is not part of its mission. The government has even suggested that it could restrict access to Lexbase, which archives legal documents, to legal professionals and government-approved journalists, in order to stop independent media and researchers from using it to try and build a picture of the impact mass migration has had on crime. One of these independent studies indicated that some 85 percent of gang rapes involved men with a migration background.

Less than a week after the Greek government sent additional police forces to reinforce its land border with Turkey as fears mount over a sharp rise in the number of refugees and migrants crossing the frontier, The Guardian reports that Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras faced down protests from citizens Thursday upset over how he’s handled April’s 17% increase in the influx of migrants. The Daily Caller's Audrey Conklin reports that the protests in Lesbos, Greece, represent a stark shift in attitude among a people once significantly more welcoming to migrants fleeing as part of a years-long refugee crisis. Huge numbers of people seeking asylum are flooding into the country by bus and boat every week, and while an agreement between the EU and Turkey signed in 2016 states that illegal refugees are supposed to be sent to Turkey after crossing European borders, Greek camps are overcrowding and in bad shape. Experts estimate that as many as 500 refugees new people cross the island’s borders each week. As DW News reports: “Earlier on Thursday, the aid agency Doctors without Borders warned that Lesbos was ‘reaching breaking point’…overstretching healthcare and other services laid on for the migrants while leading some to resort to violence.” Approximately 9,000 migrants and refugees are currently stranded in Greece because they are stuck between borders with no real place to live, even temporarily, as a result of the EU deal with Turkey. Since March 2016, Turkey has threatened to terminate the agreement because the EU is having trouble collecting and delivering funds for the millions of refugees Turkey agreed to take in from Europe. Arrivals on Greece’s Aegean islands have increased by 17 percent since last month “due to refugees fleeing Iran, Iraq and Syria.” Nearly a million refugees have crossed the borders of Lesbos over the past three years. Locals have had enough. “The people of Lesbos are exhausted,” said mayor Spyros Galinos. “Kindness has turned to anger … and where there is anger there is room for all sorts of extremism.” Locals and refugees alike witnessed that extremism Galinos is referring to when, just two weeks ago, radical protesters set fire to bins and flares surrounding a refugee base where Afghan migrants were protesting their confinement. Over a dozen people were injured, the Tampa Bay Times reports. “Women are afraid to leave their homes at night,” Galinos continued. “Children are kept locked up indoors because parents are afraid to let them go out and play. No community would put up with this.” Residents feel their government is neglecting the people who actually live and work legally in Greece as a result of the ever-increasing population of refugees, which now make up a third of Lesbos’ total population “Commerce and investment [have] come to a standstill,” local chamber of commerce leader Evangelos Myrsinias told reporters. “On these islands, we feel very neglected, very abandoned with frustration compounded by the decision to raise VAT which after everything we’ve been through will drastically raise the cost of living.” Migration Minister Dimitris Vitsa said the government plans to decrease the number of migrants and refugees by the end of September from the current number of 15,500 to 6,500, which is the total population capacity for refugee shelters.

Syrian real estate law: Greece wants EU to reject legislation 'hindering refugee return' Greece’s foreign minister says the EU should reject new Syrian real estate legislation that “would hinder the return” of Syrian refugees to their homes and property. Nikos Kotzias repeated concerns that the law “essentially casts doubt” on the ownership rights of millions of displaced Syrians to their homes, businesses and plots of land, AP reports. The decree was made public last month. The legislation gives property owners in some parts of Syria one month to provide ownership deeds or face confiscation of their property. Thousands of Syrian refugees have sought asylum in Greece.

Israel Threatens Assad: "If You Continue Allowing Iran To Operate Out Of Syria, It Will Be Your End" One month after Trump launched another 105 Tomahawk missiles at Syria, the latest US assault on a sovereign nation has been mostly forgotten, but not to Israel which keeps reminding the world that another provocation to be follower shortly by another regional war, is just a matter of time. Amid alleged Israeli tensions that an expected retaliatory attack by Iran - whose Syria-based forces Israel has repeatedly attacked in the past month - is imminent, Energy Minister, and cabinet member Yuval Steinitz issued a direct threat against the Syrian ruler, when during a Ynet studio interview on Monday he said that, "if Syrian President Bashar Assad continues allowing the Iranians to operate out of Syria, it would be the end of him, the end of his regime." Responding to a question on the readiness of Israel's home front for a possible war in the north such an approach might lead to, Steinitz said there was "no absolute readiness." On Sunday, Haaretz reported that Iran may soon execute the retaliatory attack that previously vowed to carry out in the wake of the airstrike on the T-4 Airbase near Homs, which the Pentagon subsequently admitted was conducted by Israel. However, since Hezbollah is expected to be involved in firing a missile barrage at a military base on Israeli territory, commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)'s elite Quds Force Qasem Soleimani was reported to have decided to postpone the attack to immediately after the Lebanese elections which took place this weekend, in order to catch Israel unawares. According to Ynet news, Soleimani and other IRGC officials have seemingly reached a conclusion — most likely with the assent of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei — that US President Donald Trump had already made up his mind to suspend the 2015 nuclear deal, and that was therefore no point in waiting for May 12, when Trump is set to make his decision public. Of course, with Israel setting the stage for an immediate retaliatory attack, it would be all too possible that a "false flag" attack is instead "launched" into Israel simply to give the IDF the green light to commence an attack on Syria or Iran. In the Ynet interview, Steinitz also spoke about the years' long civil war still raging in Syria, saying that Israel had thus far refrained from intervening in the internal conflict. "If Assad allows Iran to turn Syria into a forward operating base against us," he clarified, "to attack us from Syrian soil, he should know that will spell his end." * * * In a potential twist, the energy minister was then reminded of Benjamin Netanyahu's upcoming visit to Moscow on Wednesday, where he will meet President Vladimir Putin, who will most likely be less than enthused with such statements. As reported previously, on Aprul 25 Russia is set to send advanced anti-aircraft missiles to Syria, having warned Israel of "catastrophic consequences" should the Jewish state launch another attack on Syria. "It's excellent that the premier is going," Steinitz countered. "He has engendered unprecedented dialogue with Putin. Russia is an important superpower with which we have a lot of mutual interests." "Sometimes there are also conflicts of interest," he continued, "but usually our interests converge. Everyone should understand, however, that certain things are red lines for us. If anyone is interested in maintaining Assad's survival, they should tell him to prevent missile and drone attacks on Israel." When asked if that meant Israel might assassinate Assad, Steinitz had a witty retort, saying any assassination of Assad would be his own doing: "He will have his blood on his head." Steinitz also suggested that his remarks did not reflect Israeli government policy, saying, "I’m not talking about any concrete proposal." Nevertheless asked how Israel could go about bringing an end to Assad, the Cabinet member explained that a similar dilemma existed regarding Lebanon in the past. "We deliberated whether the fact that Hezbollah was attacking us from Lebanon meant that we would only retaliate against Hezbollah or also strike at Lebanon." "Assad can permit them to attack Israel from Syria soil, or not. He can permit them to bring in missiles, antiaircraft systems and drones into Syria, or not, and if he does—he should know there is a price tag," the minister concluded ominously. Meanwhile, one week after his "huge" revelation that Iran was, at one point, developing nuclear weapons ended up being a giant dud on the international arena, Netanyahu commented on the Iranian threat at the beginning of a Sunday coalition meeting, saying, "we are determined to block Iran’s aggression against us, even if this means a (military) conflict. Better now than later. We do not want escalation but we are ready for any scenario." The premier also asserted that Israel maintained "full freedom of action to defend itself" and "explained" that in recent months, the IRGC have "transferred advanced weaponry to Syria in order to attack us both on the battlefield and on the home front, including weaponized UAVs, ground-to-ground missiles and Iranian anti-aircraft batteries that would threaten air force jets," the prime minister said. For now, neither Syria nor Iran have attacked Israel despite the avalanche of pre-retaliatory rhetoric.

Work on the unofficial Half-Life 2 episode appears to be coming along nicely. Former Valve writer Marc Laidlaw outlined his ideas for the story of Half-Life 2: Episode 3 last August, a bizarre, bare-bones tale of a research vessel in the Antarctic that's phasing in and out of time and space. That led a team of die-hard fans to launch an effort to bring Laidlaw's vision to life in the form of Project Borealis, named after the ship at the center of Laidlaw's story. The team announced today that its first-draft take on Laidlaw's tale, which was at roughly the half-way point at the end of 2017, is now complete—and work has come along far enough that it has also released a short "in-engine" video showcasing weapons, movement, and flashlight animations. "The writing team has taken the plot points outlined in Marc Laidlaw’s Epistle 3 and fleshed out the details and gameplay elements into a full and engaging script," the Project Borelias team wrote. "Since finishing this first draft, the rest of the team have had the opportunity to give constructive feedback, and the writing team is now working on incorporating some of those suggestions into a second draft." Gordon Freeman's animations are working well, on the same timing as in the original games but with "some subtle flair of our own." Early levels are on the process of being blocked out for preliminary testing, and "huge strides" are being made in the creation of new environmental assets. Work on rendering techniques, physics updates, a graphics settings menu, and a new sound system are also underway. There's a bit of new concept art to look at too, including a few images of an updated Combine Elite helmet and Alyx in some winter duds. It's still a very long way from complete (and you should probably temper any "play it soon" hopes you may be holding onto: If there's one thing we've learned over the years, it's that large scale fan projects are slow going) but with the project picking up speed, the mod team is also looking to fill some spots. If you have relevant experience and want to get involved, you can sign up for some action on the Project Borealis recruitment page.

PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds’ tropical 4×4 map returns for another round of testing this week with an all-new name. Until now, the map has been saddled with the somewhat clunky title Codename: Savage, but now it has a more succinct name – Sanhok. Here’s PUBG Corp’s explanation for the name: "Our new 4×4 map is inspired by a wide variety of island locales across southeast Asia, particularly those found in Thailand and the Philippines. To reflect that inspiration, we invented a sort of hodgepodge combination of two words: The Thai word for “fun:” สนุก (pronounced like “sah-nook”) The Filipino (Tagalog) word for “chicken:” manok (pronounced like “mah-nok”) Combine the two and you get Codename: Savage’s new name: Sanhok (pronounced “sah-nok”). It’s grown on us quickly, and we hope all of you come to love it as much as we do!" Given PUBG’s obsession with chicken dinners, it’s about time we got a map named after the noble barnyard fowl! Sanhok is a compact, densely-jungled map designed to compete with Fortnite Battle Royale’s smaller map. Sanhok will eventually include an underground cave system, which should introduce some interesting strategic possibilities. The next testing phase for the Sanhok map will be open to all PC PUBG players. Here are the test dates: Testing Begins: THURS May 10, 7pm PDT / FRI May 11, 4am CEST Testing Ends: MON May 14, 4am PDT / May 14, 1pm CEST Anybody out there had a chance to try Sanhok yet? Did you the enjoy the closer quarters, or did it feel a bit cramped? Those who haven’t got their hands on Sanhok yet, are you excited to give the map a whirl now that its getting an open beta? PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds is currently available in varying stages of completion on PC, Xbox One, and mobile devices. The full launch of the Sanhok map should happen within the next couple months.

om Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege is about to get another content update next month and details leaked early about what to expect from the upcoming pair of Italian operators. Let’s take a close look at everything we know about Operation Para Bellum (more on this title and its Latin meaning below), including what Ubisoft has since confirmed. Operation Chimera released in March, adding a pair of over-powered attack operators and the game’s first mode in the time-limited Outbreak co-op missions. Those have already expired and the latest recent patch addressed some of the balance issues but the game is currently left with two more attackers than it has defenders leading to speculation that Operation Para Bellum could add a pair of defenders. And they were right. Year Three Season Two brings a breath of innovation, spawning a new intel gadget, a Clubhouse map buff, an Echo buff, lots of gameplay fixes, and the Pick & Ban settings. With the next update there comes two new defenders and what Ubisoft dubs the “most competitive map to date.” This is the 20th map of the game so far. Additional changes include a potential nerf to dropshotting, a change to the defuser animation, and the addition of a Pick & Ban system where each team can try to ban the opponents’ picks. Previous announcements revealed that the game will be getting more strict with team-killing while adding some bullet proof thermal cameras to select defenders. No details beyond this have been officially revealed however, the initial 4chan leak two weeks ago about the Operation’s title was true so we’re assuming its details on the operators and gadgets are too. Allow us to introduce the Italian defenders, Alibi and Maestro. Both characters bring unique attributes to the gameplay balance according to files extracted from the test server. “Si vis pacem, para bellum – If you want peace, prepare for war.” Maestro uses an LMG (specifically, the CETME Ameli light machine gun) and is the only defender that can do so (which explains why he’s covered in bullet holsters) and carries with him the Tortuga “Evil Eye” Auto-Turret which when deployed allows the player to operate via camera. When not in use, the turret is immune to bullet fire. Maestro also may have an ability called “Barrage” Alibi has a traditional SMG (the Storm MX4 submachine gun) and her ability is rather intriguing since she deploys holograms of herself, that when shot by the opposition, reveal the shooter’s position. Think Lion’s outline ability but for a defender. It’s a wonderful way to lure and identify an attacker. Both operators may have access to the Baliff410 and Rhino D40 revolvers as their sidearms.

Thanos is coming to Fortnite for a limited time and he’s bringing the Infinity Gauntlet with him. Epic Games and Marvel announced a crossover event today that will bring the Avengers: Infinity War villain into the game starting May 8, 2018. Called the “Infinity Gauntlet Limited Time Mashup,” it will put a new spin on the popular Battle Royale mode by adding the Infinity Gauntlet (equipped with all six Infinity Stones) onto the map. Avengers: Infinity War and Fortnite have been incredible success stories at the top of their respective mediums. While Infinity War has been breaking a ton of box office records, Fortnite has been doing the same on the video games side. It’s become a pop culture phenomenon so big that celebrities like Drake and many pro athletes are even capitalizing on the game in a fun way by streaming their own experiences or using in-game dances during their own sports games. Both have been astonishing money makers and this crossover event will only add to their spoils. Once players find the aforementioned Infinity Gauntlet, they’ll be able to transform into the powerful Thanos. Details are currently scarce on what exactly players will be able to do as the Avengers: Infinity War star, but there’s no doubt that it’ll be a major advantage for whoever finds the stones. Considering the mode will go live tomorrow morning, players won’t have to wait long to see it for themselves. While the crossover may seem random, it actually came together because Infinity War co-directors Joe and Anthony Russo are huge fans of the free-to-play shooter. “Over the past few months, while we were editing Infinity War, we’d take breaks to hop on and get in a few games,” said co-director Joe Russo to Entertainment Weekly. “And then we started thinking, how cool would it be to have some kind of Avengers–Fortnite mashup? This is an unprecedented crossover event considering it sees the most popular film and video game coming together for a limited time. There’s no doubt that the mode will get a ton of players, although it should be interesting to see how Thanos and the Infinity Gauntlet impacts gameplay. Adding such a huge item throws a big luck element into what is otherwise a very skill-based game, but it also makes sense that a limited time mode would prioritize fun and spectacle over pure competitive flavor. The ambitious Fortnite and Avengers: Infinity War crossover will begin tomorrow, May 8, 2018, on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC and mobile.

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