August 2021

Last week, Tiktok user rushman360 announced to the world, with a certain degree of incredulity, that he had been hardware banned from Call of Duty: Warzone. That meant he couldn’t just create another account and get back into the game, because his entire machine was locked out. It wasn’t clear exactly what happened, but it certainly seemed like an escalation in Activision’s ability to detect and clobber cheaters. And now Activision is using rushman360’s Tiktok tale of woe as a warning to others as it prepares to launch a new anti-cheat tool this fall: “We are coming for you.” This…

A future Apex Legends patch will remove a popular movement exploit that has seen wide use in recent months. Known as “tap-strafing,” the tactic allows players to quickly change their midair trajectory while maintaining momentum. Basically, you become a speedy midair bullet that’s very hard to shoot at. Respawn announced on Twitter that the unintended movement technique will be removed in Apex Legends patch 10.1. “Our reasoning: It’s inaccessible, lacks readability/counterplay, and is exacerbated by movement abilities,” the tweet reads. The dev promised to go into more detail when the official patch notes come, but it’s not yet clear when…

In late March this year a giant container ship got wedged in the Suez Canal, and blocked one of the world’s biggest trade routes entirely for six days. This obviously happened at a time when most of us were still sitting at home with our shirts off, so the world became obsessed with the story for a few days, and the ship and efforts to un-stick it became a meme. Good times. Thing is, as experts were at pains to point out while we all had a good laugh, piloting something of this size through the Suez Canal is actually…

Back in January of 2018, Colorado resident Andrew Schober was relieved of 16.4 bitcoin, worth around $780,000 in todays market. After spending around $10,000 in private investigation fees, he is now suing the parents of the believed culprits—two UK-based computer science students who were, back then, minors. Schober supposedly followed a link through Reddit to download a cryptocurrency wallet application called Electrum Atom, only to find it was bundled with some dodgy clipboard scouring malware. According to KrebsonSecurity (via Futurism), the kids used this to weed out his cryptocurrency wallet details, and steal the bitcoins he had stored away. It was…

The Roccat Magma membrane keyboard reminds me that a gaming keyboard doesn’t have to be expensive, or even mechanical, to keep you at the top of your game. I’ve been thoroughly impressed by the tactility of the rubber dome switches, the unique RGB top plate design, and great features for competitive gaming. All underlined by an affordable price for a trustworthy brand. That’s a rare thing, and though it may not be as sturdy as some boards, nor as full of fancy greebles, it’s a (literal) beacon of excellence among membrane gaming keyboards. It’s a board for flashy, ’80s retro…

Mega-popular streamer Benjamin “DrLupo” Lupo has announced a partnership with YouTube Gaming that will see him leave Twitch in order to livestream exclusively on the YouTube platform. “I am incredibly fortunate to be able to do what I love and even more grateful to be able to give back to causes that I care about the most,” Lupo said. “YouTube not only allows me to continue creating content and growing my community, but through this partnership, YouTube will help me as I expand my brand through other entertainment initiatives. I am excited to bring my fans on this journey with…