Atlas Angle

One of the best roguelikes on PC is getting a farewell of sorts this week. Twitchy slashfest Dead Cells received its final major update, introducing new enemies, fresh weapons, and a few mutations. Unfortunately, all this new stuff is very cursed. In other words, it all toys with the game's "curse" status effect, a hex that causes you to be killed if you take even a single hit. You'll probably die a few times as a result of this update, which in some ways is a fitting finalé for this fast-paced jar smasher of a game. You can see the new features in the trailer below. Read more

I’ve likely mentioned hitting Lovecraft fatigue so often that it’s now evolved into a second phase of Lovecraft-fatigue fatigue. This is not the same as Lovecraft refreshment, no matter how much I might want to return to the days before old one plushies and Cthulhu children’s books terrorised the internet en masse. There’s not quite enough information about “story generator” sim Marry a Deep One: Innsmouth Simulator for me to confidently say it’ll cut through my exhaustion with all things tentacular and horrifically be-gilled. But it is beguiling, isn’t it? There’s all sorts of little widgets and details shown off that remind me of everything from Sid Meier’s Pirates to classic adventure games, and maybe even a little Rimworld? It’s a heady soup, although one I’d recommend against quaffing...

Australia’s Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC) has shut down 615 crypto scam websites over the past year, according to an Aug. 19 statement. This action is part of a broader effort to combat investment fraud in the country. The regulator closed 7,300 scam websites, including 5,530 fake investment platforms and 1,065 phishing sites. Over $1 billion lost ASIC cited the surge in investment scams as the reason for these takedowns, revealing that such scams resulted in approximately $1.3 billion in losses in 2023. The regulator emphasized that shutting down these sites helps disrupt the connection between scammers and potential victims. Sarah Court, ASIC’s Deputy Chair, highlighted that scammers exploit Australians, stealing billions each year. She noted that while technology offers ma...

Crypto analyst CrypNuevo has highlighted key price levels to watch out for this week for those seeking a buying opportunity for Bitcoin. The analyst also provided other valuable insights into Bitcoin’s current price action and what to expect from the flagship crypto in the future. Potential Bitcoin Buying Opportunity For As Low As $51,500 In an X (formerly Twitter) post, CrypNuevo suggested that Bitcoin investors could again get the chance to buy the flagship crypto for as low as $51.500. This followed his analysis of a spot buy opportunity on Bitcoin’s higher timeframe. The analyst noted that $53,600 and $51,500 are two potential levels the crypto could drop to the wicks on the 1-week and 1-day time frames.  As such, CrypNuevo remarked that those who missed the most recent Bitcoin crash...

Last week, the Xitter account for H2M - a mod aiming to recreate the heyday of classic Modern Warfare 2 multiplayer inside Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Remastered - announced that they had received a cease and desist from Activision Blizzard, and would shut down the project. The 2022 version of Modern Warfare 2 lacked the original’s multiplayer, and H2M was so highly-anticipated that Steam sales of the 2016 FPS balooned in the lead-up to the mod’s planned release date. It didn't hurt that Activision had it on sale, of course, but the timing lined up so well that some fans speculated the discount was a deliberate bait-and-switch on the publisher’s part to profit from excitement over a mod they were already planning to shut down. Read more

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has moved 400 ETH, worth about $1.05 million, to Railgun, a well-known crypto mixer, according to on-chain data from the Arkham Intelligence dashboard. The transaction, which took place on Aug. 19, was corroborated by Web3 analysis platform SpotOnChain, which stated that Buterin had transferred 662 ETH, approximately $1.91 million, to Railgun in the last ten months. Railgun Railgun functions like the sanctioned Tornado Cash protocol by helping to obfuscate its users’ transactions. However, it employs the Privacy Pool protocol, a concept from an academic paper by Buterin. The Privacy Pools allow users to create cryptographic proofs verifying their funds’ legitimate origins while maintaining privacy. So, if honest users generate these proofs, only bad acto...

Justin Bons, founder and CIO of Cyber Capital, Europe’s oldest cryptocurrency fund, recently took to X to express his concerns about misleading transactions per second (TPS) metrics reported by Solana (SOL) and Cardano (ADA). In a thread, Bons argues that both networks propagate misleading information that deviates sharply from established industry standards. “The two biggest offenders for ‘fake’ TPS metrics are SOL & ADA: SOL is misleading investors by a factor of 6.5, while ADA does so by a factor of 26.5! Both are guilty of ignoring industry standards for TPS,” Bons stated in his initial post. Cardano And Solana: Real Numbers Bons explains that Solana’s often cited maximum theoretical TPS of 65,000 is far from its practical capabilities. He breaks down the calculation based on the n...

The decentralized prediction market platform Polymarket is seeing significant activity as traders speculate on the 2024 US presidential election outcomes between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump. The total volume has now reached $638,887,107, with $72 million for Harris and $80 million for Trump. Unlike traditional betting platforms, Polymarket allows users to buy and sell positions on various outcomes, enabling them to profit from market fluctuations even before the final resolution of events. The environment reflects real-time sentiment shifts akin to the volatility seen in the stock or crypto market dynamics. Recent trading data highlights the strategic maneuvers of Polymarket participants. Over the weekend, 1,275,606 “Yes” votes for Kamala Harris were sold at an average price of $0.50, y...

Interest in the cryptocurrency market of Turkey has skyrocketed. The country’s leading exchanges have been racing for licenses to operate. Applicants rose from 47 to 76, and the impressive list includes such popular names as Coinbase, KuCoin, and Gate.io. This surge follows closely on the heels of Turkey’s recent push to offer more regulatory clarity for crypto exchanges and their service providers. It makes updates to the guidelines of the Capital Markets Board of Turkey for the purpose of informing the public about organizations that have declared their intention to comply with Capital Markets Law No. 6362. Exchanges Eye Turkey’s Potential Coinbase, KuCoin, and Gate.io, are seeking licenses from Turkey—most likely due to the expanding demand for crypto in that country. Now they see quit...

New week, same old terror of that cyclopean glutton known as the Maw emerging from its cosmic bolthole and swallowing the entirety of Devon. As ever, we have a way of thwarting the Maw's advance, and it's... pasta sauce? Graham, why is their pasta sauce in the Trello? Have Ziff Davis subfranchised us to Dolmio? Oh, I'm sorry! That's just my shopping list. What I meant to say was: new video games! Video games (PC games, specifically) are the only thing that can preoccupy the Maw, the only thing newsworthy enough to distract it from the tempting clifftop maisonettes of Torquay. Let's see what the week has in store for us, eh. Read more