vigilante
Latest
Once-banned Vigilante app now warns of nearby emergencies
Late last year, Sp0n released a Vigilante mobile app that was supposed to warn you of nearby crimes and emergencies. Or rather, it tried to release the app -- Apple quickly pulled the title after worrying that the name and focus encouraged users to thrust themselves into dangerous situations. After a few months of retooling, however, it's back. The newly rebadged Citizen for Android and iOS will still warn you when someone nearby has reported an emergency to 911, but the emphasis this time is on safety. If there's a robbery in progress down the street, you're encouraged to avoid it. If you are caught up in an incident, however, you'll have tools at your disposal.
Hack knocks out a fifth of the Dark Web
The Dark Web is having a rough time right now... although the victims in this case won't earn too much sympathy. An Anonymous-linked hacker speaking to Motherboard brought down about a fifth of the Tor network's 'secret' websites (over 10,000 of them) in a claimed vigilante move. The intruder decided to attack a Dark Web hosting service, Freedom Hosting II, after discovering that it was managing child porn sites it had to be aware of -- they were using gigabytes of data each when the host officially allows no more than 256MB. Each site had its usual pages replaced with a message that not only chastised FH2, but offered a data dump (minus user info) and explained the nature of the hack.
A Mild-Mannered Reporter: Both sides now
Back when Going Rogue was first released, I made a point that I wasn't going into detail on the alignment and tip system. As I saw it at the time, there were two major reasons not to go whole-hog into it, the first being that I was already writing an entire novel on the expansion, and the second being that Paragon Wiki was hard at work putting more details into place. Why try to reinvent the wheel in a weekly column? And there was also a third reason: I'd been spending more time in Praetoria than on my old characters. So I suppose in some way I ought to thank whichever designer gave my poor brute the chance to fight two elite bosses at the same time with three NPCs as backup in a single-player mission. It gave me plenty of incentive to spend more time with my higher-level characters. (Seriously, that mission is absurd.) That meant I started diving into the alignment system, and that means I'm going to spend more time detailing one of the centerpieces of City of Heroes gameplay at the moment: alignment.
A Mild-Mannered Reporter: Facefirst into Praetoria
It's finally here, and I have to admit, it's a little weird to realize it. After I spent the better part of half a year focusing on Going Rogue, the expansion has been released and is totally playable. To have the game sitting in front of me (metaphorically) after it's become such a huge part of my professional life is almost too daunting. I almost didn't even want to fire up the launcher to... OK, yeah, that part isn't fooling anyone. Getting to play around a bit while it was in beta to see how it would play was nice, but I couldn't get myself into City of Heroes fast enough to start leveling a Loyalist and going to town on the new side of town. At the end of the day, I'm just a player like everyone reading this column, and the game I got to play on Monday evening made me very happy indeed. There's a lot to see and do, and I've tried to recap some of the disconnected thoughts in this week's column. And as a bonus, there's a sad announcement at the end! It's like a bonus, anyway.
A Mild-Mannered Reporter: A chicken in every pot, an answer for every question
It's the first Wednesday of the month, and like always that means we're going into the questions-and-answers for City of Heroes players. Before we delve into this week's column, I'd like to take a moment to thank everyone for the amount of discussion that took place about our last article extolling the virtues of the Loyalists. It brought a smile to my face to see all of the back and forth about the topic, something I haven't written the last word about. But that's next week's column, and right now it's time to see what other questions the community desperately needs answered. Superfan asked: "Why is the game so repetitive and lacking imagination?" On one level, I can't answer this question because I don't agree with the basic premise. I don't find the game terribly repetitive, and it's lacking in imagination in the same manner that Transformers: War for Cybertron is lacking in robots. But I've acknowledged before that there is a certain rinse-and-repeat feel to City of Heroes, even beyond the equally repetitive feeling in any given MMO. There's something about the game's layout that just gives players that feeling, and I'm not immune to it.
The Virtual Whirl: Of villains and crusaders
This week, in The Virtual Whirl, we're taking a look at the vigilante side of intellectual property rights. For many, it seems like a good idea to mass-report or name-and-shame intellectual property rights violators whenever and wherever you see them ... but is it really?
Autonomous sniper system combines Xbox 360 controller, .338 rifle for deadly drone action
You know how it is -- we're frightened and appalled by the thought of unmanned killing machines, but if they must exist we really, really want to play with one. The US Army's latest nightmarish deathcopter / awesome tech toy is a little something called the Autonomous Rotorcraft Sniper System (ARSS). Essentially a .338-caliber rifle mounted to the bottom of a Vigilante unmanned helicopter (though it could eventually be made to work on a Predator drone, for instance), this bad boy utilizes a modified Xbox 360 game controller for targeting while the vehicle itself stays put courtesy of its autopilot functions. Never again will your favorite sniper need to leave the comfort of his barracks! Airborne testing begins in July, with autonomy to come soon after that and a possible robot apocalypse estimated for Q4 2011.
Torrent of TurboGrafx-16 titles set for Australia's Virtual Console
Making up for its delayed arrival to Australia's Virtual Console, the TurboGrafx-16 will debut in the world's smallest continent next week with eleven releases! Hudson's VC site lists that over a third of the games will be shmups -- no big surprise there -- but classics like Dungeon Explorer, Military Madness, and Bomberman '93 are also set to appear at the system's opening ceremony.The US, having been spoiled with dozens of TG-16 releases since the Wii's launch, will receive only one PC-Engine title next Monday: Dragon Spirit, an impossibly hard, vertical-scrolling shoot 'em up in which you pilot a blue dragon. Check past the post break for Hudson's planned releases across all territories this July.
VC Friday: It's shopping time
Maybe you've been holding out on this whole Virtual Console thing. Maybe you just didn't feel like spending money on some older games. But this week comes complete with a huge shot of pure, unadulterated goodness, so maybe it's time you gave the Wii Shop channel a chance. We're not saying you have to ... we're just saying it may make your weekend that much better.This week: Super Mario World (SNES) -- 800 Wii points Vigilante (TurboGrafx) -- 600 Wii points Zelda II: The Adventure of Link (NES) -- 500 Wii points
Virtual Console vigilantes gain ground in Super Mario World
If you're the sort of person who leaps out of bed on a Monday morning, filled with the burning desire to rescue something from a perilous situation, you'll likely find today's Virtual Console offerings most satisfying. As of 9AM Pacific Time, you should be able to make your way into the Wii shop and start proving that chivalry is far from dead (but possibly overpriced in some cases).Princess Toadstool will be requiring your services in Super Mario Land State Continent World (SNES, $8), having been kidnapped during her trip to Dinosaur Land -- it sounded so inviting! If you haven't played it before, it's well worth witnessing Mario's career shift to Dino-Rider and his expertise in straddling a vicious green beast that devours enemies whole. If that doesn't hold appeal, a different career of sorts lies in Vigilante (Turbo-Grafx 16, $6), which sees players beating up thugs in New York City in an effort to rescue "the beloved Madonna." Finally, there's Gain Ground (Genesis, $8), a dramatic tale of supercomputers gone rampant and civilians being unjustly imprisoned within war simulations (obviously). It's just as well that you have an AK-toting guy called "Professor" on your side. Presumably, it's expected of us to find and rescue the fourth and still missing Virtual Console game for this week.
