Tag: memories
A footballer, bricklayers, Teddy Boys – memories of National Service 60 years on
How Reunion of Memories changes the One Piece Odyssey experience, Out May 25
Honkai: Star Rail rekindles memories of absolutely banging PS2 RPGs
Are you, like me, a gross little nerd that’s still grumpy about turn-based JRPGs being slowly relegated to mid-budget or handheld titles after the PS2 glory days? Do you miss being rewarded for getting through a tough section with a pre-rendered cutscene? Do you wish the only exploration you had to worry about was picking the dead end at a junction in a corridor to find a treasure chest? Does the very thought of Final Fantasy 16’s complicated real-time combos and parries and blocks make your fingers hurt? Excellent news. HoYoverse has followed up its unimaginably successful Genshin Impact with one of the best turn-based JRPGs in a generation.
Honkai Star Rail is a lavishly produced, immaculately localised and perfectly designed celebration of each and every single aspect of the genre. It’s a blessedly linear, solidly written adventure through fantastical sci-fi locales filled with interesting characters and engaging boss battles. It’s refreshingly old-fashioned, and if you miss this sort of thing being done with this sort of scale and polish, it feels like a godsend.
The game has a set-up that lends itself to the somewhat episodic structure of classic JRPGs (wait, are we still calling them that?) that involve moving from town-to-town, and solving their local problems that all tie into a larger narrative. You are the latest passenger of the Astral Express, a cosmic passenger train locked on a never-ending odyssey across the stars. You have mysterious powers, a foggy memory, and an overwhelming impulse to fight evil. It’s some real bread-and-butter JRPG business, and if it’s the sort of thing you’ve been missing, it’s delicious. Each stop the Express makes means a new world with its own characters, aesthetic, and adventure.
Keep Your Memories, Kill Your Nostalgia
Recently, HBO Max officially announced it will be reviving the Harry Potter series as a multi-season television show. During a Warner Bros. Discovery press event, the initiative was described as a “decade-long” project to bring the novels to the small screen, hoping to create a faithful interpretation of the…
Jack Teixeira Pentagon leak arrest brings up haunting memories for Reality Winner’s family after Espionage Act sentence
THE arrest of a 21-year-old U.S. Air National Guardsman suspected of leaking classified Pentagon files has called to mind another case that haunts an ex-NSA translator’s family.
Reality Winner, 31, was given the longest-ever prison sentence for the unauthorized release of government information around five years before Jack Teixeira was detained for allegedly sharing sensitive documents on a Discord server.
Footage shows the moment Jack Teixeira was taken into custody by armed tactical agents on Thursday, April 13[/caption]
Reality Winner served in the Air Force between 2010-2016 and was jailed on June 3, 2017, for unauthorized release of government information[/caption]
It is alleged that Jack Teixeira leaked classified national defense information[/caption]
Teixeira was enlisted in the 102nd Intelligence Wing of the Massachusetts Air National Guard.
The FBI had been zeroing in on Teixeira for several days before arresting him at a home in North Dighton, Massachusetts, on Thursday.
It’s alleged that Teixeira oversaw an online Discord group called Thug Shaker Central where approximately 30 people – mostly young men and teens – shared a love of guns, offensive memes, and games.
The federal probe into Teixeira centered on leaked documents containing sensitive information about the support the United States is providing Ukraine amid its war with Russia.
He’s being investigated for “alleged unauthorized removal, retention and transmission of classified national defense information.”
While little is known about Teixeira so far, his arrest brought back haunting memories for the family of Winner, who was convicted under the Espionage Act in 2018.
REALITY WINNER’S CONVICTION
Winner, who served in the Air Force between 2010 and 2016, was jailed on June 3, 2017, after she admitted to printing off a classified intelligence assessment about a Russian phishing attack targeting election support companies during the 2016 presidential election.
At the time, she was working with NSA contractor Pluribus International Corporation translating documents from Persian related to Iran’s aerospace program.
Winner admitted to coming across the election assessment through her translation work. She claimed she became “frustrated” that proof of Russian interference was not made available to the public.
She printed the report off and smuggled it out of the NSA office in Augusta, Georgia, in her pantyhose.
Winner shared the report with The Intercept, which published the story without redacting key clues that led officials back to the whistleblower.
Winner pleaded guilty to transmitting national security information in 2018 and was sentenced to five years and three months, a record for the crime.
She has since been branded as an American traitor who put the U.S. at risk by leaking information on election safety.
She apologized for her actions in 2018, stating that they were a “cruel betrayal of my nation’s trust in me.”
‘KEPT IN THE DARK’
Winner’s sister Brittany told The U.S. Sun in an exclusive interview on Thursday that the family was “incredibly shocked” when Winner was arrested.
“At first, we were really kept in the dark about everything. It seemed like the news reporters who were talking to us knew more than we did at the time because of how quickly things just kind of unfolded,” Brittany said.
Brittany didn’t know much about Teixeira’s arrest but shared her own family’s experience of seeing their loved one tried and convicted.
“I hope that [Teixeira] has a good support system to get them through this because it is a very jarring, difficult process where the government has all the power once they’ve arrested you,” she said.
“And once they’ve charged you with something like the Espionage Act, which they charged Reality under, you don’t really have very much of a defense.
“You can’t really say much in defense of yourself. And it’s really not advised to speak out and tell your story.”
Brittany said that being in the spotlight usually leads to an in-depth evaluation of your personal life.
“I saw how it played out in the public trial of my sister – kind of like a trial on her lifestyle or her personality or her internet posts.”
“[It] played a role in denying her bail, so that she was imprisoned for over a year before her trial.”
Winner was released from prison for good behavior in June 2021 and sent to a half-way house, according to her lawyer.
SAFEGUARD CONCERNS
Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III said on Thursday that the Department of Defense would continue to review the national security implications of the latest unauthorized disclosure.
He said “intelligence access, accountability and control procedures within the department” would be re-examined to prevent further leaks.
Brittany said of the situation: “It certainly appears that the safeguards or the security surrounding some of these classified documents are not potentially strict enough.”
Brittany added of Teixeira’s case: “The motivations of the person should also be kind of carefully considered.
“It doesn’t seem like anybody knows what the motivations of this person are, other than the person themselves.”
Teixeira will have an initial appearance in U.S. District Court for Massachusetts, Attorney General Merrick Garland said.
The investigation into the leaked documents is ongoing.
Reality Winner (center) after her release to house arrest with mom Billie Jean (left), sister Brittany (right), and niece Indigo[/caption]
Reality Winner was given the longest-ever sentence for the unauthorized release of government information[/caption]
Many stood with Reality Winner and her decision despite her being convicted[/caption]
‘Desta: The Memories Between’ comes to Switch and PC later this month
Desta: The Memories Between is officially coming to the Nintendo Switch and PC on April 26th. If you haven’t gotten a chance to play the well-regarded roguelike, it’s likely because it was previously tied to Netflix as an exclusive title for its burgeoning gaming platform.
Desta was developed by the company ustwo, which also created the mega-popular mobile title Monument Valley and its sequel. Beyond some slight graphical similarities, however, Desta is its own beast. The title combines a roguelike gameplay style with turn-based mechanics, with plenty of quirky surprises. The story involves a twentysomething returning home after their dad’s death. You help neighbors deal with pressing issues by solving puzzles and, well, playing a whole lot of dodgeball. The dodgeball challenges change from run to run, which is why this title is sometimes compared to games like Hades and Into the Breach.
This is the Dream Team Edition of Desta: The Memories Between, so it includes every content update that came down the pike since the original launch last year. This includes new story scenarios, updated abilities and a range of difficulty settings. You can also play as three new characters, including Alba from Alba: A Wild Adventure, another ustwo title.
Purchasing this game for Switch or PC also nets you a digital soundtrack and a 52-page digital artbook. Both the art style and the music are singled-out as positives in reviews, so these perks are likely to draw in pre-existing players. It costs around $20 to pick up on the Nintendo eShop or the Steam Store.
“We’ve packed this bundle with so many new abilities, characters, game modes and more – I can’t wait for our community to get their hands on it,” wrote Lead Designer Joel Beardshaw in a press release when the port was officially announced in January.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/desta-the-memories-between-comes-to-switch-and-pc-later-this-month-175037612.html?src=rss
Return of the Jedi’s 40th Anniversary Panel Had Fond Memories and Funny Stories
“Scary teddy bears,” Emperor Palpatine himself, Ian McDiarmid, said. “The end of Palpatine.” The iconic actor behind Star Wars’ greatest villain was one of four actors to appear on the 40th-anniversary panel for Return of the Jedi at Star Wars Celebration 2023. McDiarmid was joined by Lando Calrissian’s Billy Dee…
False Memories Can Form Within Seconds, Study Finds
Overall, the participants regularly misremembered the letters, but in a specific way. People were generally good at remembering when a typical letter was shown, with their inaccuracy rates hovering around 10%. But they were substantially worse at remembering a mirrored letter, with inaccuracy rates up to 40% in some experiments. And, interestingly enough, their memory got worse the longer they had to wait before recalling it. When they were asked to recall what they saw a half second later, for instance, they were wrong less than 20% of the time, but when they were asked three seconds later, the rate rose as high as 30%.
According to Otten, the findings — published Wednesday in PLOS One — indicate that our memory starts being shaped almost immediately by our preconceptions. People expect to see a regular letter, and don’t get easily fooled into misremembering a mirrored letter. But when the unexpected happens, we might often still default to our missed prediction. This bias doesn’t seem to kick in instantaneously, though, since people’s short-term memory was better when they had to be especially quick on their feet. “It is only when memory becomes less reliable through the passage of a tiny bit of time, or the addition of extra visual information, that internal expectations about the world start playing a role,” Otten said.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.