Testimonial Reviews and Videos: December 2015

Thursday, December 31, 2015

Valve finally explains Christmas Steam attacks

PC gamers had a rather unhappy Christmas this year, as gaming hub Steam was affected by some extreme account vulnerability errors. Almost a week later, Steam operator Valve has explained what happened.

By: Matt Kamen,

Wednesday, December 30, 2015

Oculus Rift comes with an unlikely free game

Virtual reality platform Oculus Rift still doesn't have a set release date, but we now know something that everyone will be playing on it whenever it does arrive -- Lucky's Tale. A 3D platformer suitable for all ages, the game will be included with every headset, for free.

By: Matt Kamen,

Fighting games will be reborn in 2016

While all eyes are turned to (or perhaps rather, encased in) virtual reality as being the next breakout gaming trend, there's a smaller, quieter, but arguably equally exciting shift brewing. As the release calendar currently stands, 2016 is poised to be the year when fighting games make a strident resurgence -- and that could be a very good thing for gaming as a whole.

By: Matt Kamen,

This photographer wants to be the first artist in space

"Space travel has been a lifelong fascination," says German photographer Michael Najjar. "Now fiction has become reality".

By: Oliver Franklin-Wallis,

This factory is leading London's vinyl revival

WIRED's series on tools for trades comes to a factory at the forefront of the vinyl revival.

By: Rowland Manthorpe,

This company is making haptic controllers a reality

Ultrahaptics' palpable sonic sensations could bring about new ways to control a car or play computer games

By: Gian Volpicelli,

Twitter changes its rules to ban 'hateful conduct'

Twitter has updated its rules in an attempt to crackdown on abuse being dished-out online.

By: Matt Burgess,

Disney's robot car uses propellers to climb walls

The aptly named VertiGo is a small wall-climbing robotic car that uses a pair of propellers to keep it on vertical surfaces and drive along like gravity is no obstacle.

By: Matt Burgess,

WIRED Awake: 10 must-read articles for 30 December

Your WIRED.co.uk daily briefing. Today, Twitter has updated its anti-harassment policies, Spotify is being sued for unlawful music distribution, the disruptive weather patterns of this year's strong El Niño could cause an international humanitarian crisis and more.

By: WIRED.co.uk,

Tuesday, December 29, 2015

Classic Pokémon trading cards are making a comeback

Prepare for playground wars to erupt once more -- the original Pokémon trading cards are getting reissued, as part of the 20th anniversary of the franchise.

By: Matt Kamen,

Monday, December 28, 2015

Game of Thrones tops 2015's piracy charts

In what is fast becoming an annual tradition, Game of Thrones has once again won the extremely dubious award of being the most pirated television show for the year.

By: Matt Kamen,

Saturday, December 26, 2015

2016 predictions: the emoji edition

2016 is going to be an amazing year. And what better way to express what's to come than in emoji?

By: James Temperton,

Thursday, December 24, 2015

Jamming Bodies: this robotic wall will eat you alive

JB1.0: Jamming Bodies is an interactive laboratory built to explore how mouldable rooms might form part of the future of spaces.

By: Michael Rundle,

Wednesday, December 23, 2015

Virtual MMO Sword Art Online: Hollow Realization heads west

Like the idea of MMOs but can't stand other people interfering with your game? Bandai Namco has the answer, with the biggest ever Sword Art Online game heading to the UK in 2016.

An offline RPG mimicking the gameplay of massively multiplayer games, the Sword Art Online franchise stems from the Japanese novel series by Reki Kawahara. The series follows a group of players trapped in a virtual reality MMO, forced to clear 100 levels to escape. The only hitch -- if they die in-game, they die for real.

By: Matt Kamen,

Tuesday, December 22, 2015

InSight 2016 mission to Mars likely delayed two years over leak

Nasa has been forced to delay the launch of the InSight mission to Mars from March 2016 to mid-2018.

By: Michael Rundle,

Tantalising new Final Fantasy VII Remake details revealed

Details continue to emerge on the upcoming Final Fantasy VII Remake, with director Tetsuya Nomura confirming that his update to the 1997 RPG classic will be fully voiced throughout.

When the trailer for the new game was shown at Sony's PlayStation experience event in San Francisco earlier this month, it featured spoken dialogue between Cloud and the members of ecological freedom fighter group AVALANCHE. However, it was unclear if that was just for the cutscenes, or whether all lines would be voiced.

By: Matt Kamen,

Schools monitoring web use 'unlikely to stop radicalisation'

Schools being forced to monitor pupils' internet history for signs of radicalisation is "counter-productive" to the debate about terrorism, it has been claimed.

By: Matt Burgess,

Incendiary design: tech and gadgets for the perfect festive fire

WIRED gets hot and bothered with the finest in incendiary design

By: Chris Haslam,

Cards Against Humanity might cut up this Picasso

From sending customers literal bullshit to giving away square feet of a specially purchased private island, Cards Against Humanity are well known for their irreverent, ridiculous and often politically incorrect stunts. But this year's offering, Eight Sensible Gifts for Hannukkah, sounds slightly less absurd, right? Wrong. No -- this year, the company are giving subscribers the chance to own 1/150,000th of a Picasso painting.

By: Emily Reynolds,

Lexus made a car with ice wheels, just because it could

This 2.2 tonne Lexus has tyres made of ice and it is able to drive on them.

By: Matt Burgess,

SpaceX makes history with first vertical rocket landing

SpaceX has successfully landed a vertical rocket back on Earth for the first time.

By: Michael Rundle,

WIRED Awake: 10 must-read articles for 22 December

Your WIRED.co.uk daily briefing. Today, SpaceX has successfully landed its reusable Falcon 9 rocket for the first time, Apple has submitted formal objections to the UK government's draft Investigatory Powers Bill, Google and Ford are reported to be working together on a self-driving ride-sharing project and more.

By: WIRED.co.uk,

Monday, December 21, 2015

JK Rowling shuts down Hermione casting Twitter storm

The creator of Harry Potter has shut down racist opponents to a black actress playing Hermione in the upcoming 'Harry Potter and the Cursed Child' stage play.

Harry Potter's story doesn't end with the events of The Deathly Hallows. That final book -- and its movie adaptation -- adds an epilogue seeing Harry, Ginny, Ron, and Hermione waving their own children off to Hogwarts as adults, hinting at new adventures to come.

The scene sets the stage, somewhat literally, for the upcoming Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. A theatrical production set to debut in London's West End in 2016, the story -- written by Jack Thorne and based on an outline by JK Rowling -- follows a grown-up Harry and his youngest son, Albus, each struggling to deal with their family legacy. Unfortunately, the reveal of the play's cast has had some fans up in arms.

By: Matt Kamen,

Friday, December 18, 2015

Statement of Douglas Bry and Ernest Jaffarian, candidates for NFA Board of Directors CTA/CPO seats

Joint Statement of Douglas Bry and Ernest Jaffarian Candidates for NFA Board of Directors CTA/CPO Seats

Dear CTA/CPO NFA Member –

Two of the CTA/CPO Board Seats are contested this year, your vote is critical, and we would appreciate your consideration.

Lizard Squad: 'wannabes' will target gamers this Christmas

Lizard Squad member says 'wannabe' group Phantom Squad will 'more than likely' attack Xbox Live and PSN this Christmas

By: Cara McGoogan,

Thursday, December 17, 2015

Google 'disappointed' by California's self-driving cars draft regs

Google has expressed disappointment at California's first draft regulation for the wider use of autonomous cars on the road, which demands that a licenced driver be able to take over control at all times.

By: K.G Orphanides,

Crude's bottom?

Trying to pick a bottom in crude oil has been an expensive habit of late. Just over a week ago analysts were talking about WTI crude oil’s inability to settle below $40 as a sign of a bottom. Seemed to make some sense too as it was corresponding with the annual OPEC meeting, that many people thought would produce some proposal on production that would push crude higher. OPEC, however, didn’t blink.

The Force Awakens review: almost the best Star Wars ever

This is the Star Wars film you’ve been looking for. That’s not just a flippant pun: The Force Awakens is everything you ever loved about Star Wars.

By: Oliver Franklin-Wallis,

Met Office: 2016 will be the hottest year in history

The Met Office has released long-term figures indicating that 2016 is likely to repeat this year's record global temperatures.

By: K.G Orphanides,

Getting cancer mostly down to environmental factors, not bad luck

A new study has found that "bad luck" contributes only a 10 to 30 percent of cancer risk, with external factors responsible for the greatest risk.

By: K.G Orphanides,

This software knows how memorable your face is

If people are constantly forgetting that they've already met you, we've got some bad news -- your face may just be 'unmemorable'.

By: Emily Reynolds,

Study identifies area of brain that perceives music

Listening to music often evokes an intangible, emotional reaction, and the neural basis of this reaction is just as complicated. Pitch, melody, rhythm and other components of music are all processed by various areas of the brain. Until now, though, no one neural population had been identified that could respond selectively to music as opposed to speech or other noises. Now, an MIT study claims to have found this specific neural population.

By: Emily Reynolds,

Nasa's 2016 budget would make it illegal not to land on Europa

Nasa's plans to send humans back to the Moon and possibly even further have received a huge boost after the US Congress decided to fund the space agency with an "extraordinary" budget for 2016.

By: Michael Rundle,

WIRED Awake: 10 must-read articles for 17 December

Your WIRED.co.uk daily briefing. Today, Nasa's 2016 budget requires the US space agency to send a lander to Europa, Google isn't pleased with California's draft regulations for self-driving cars, Facebook's Year in Review lets you erase the bad bits of 2015 and more.

By: WIRED.co.uk,