The US government now says that the China government iPhone ban is “aggressive and inappropriate retaliation” despite a statement 12 hours prior by China that there is in fact, no ban.

Fedora test days are events where anyone can help make certain that changes in Fedora Linux work well in an upcoming release. Fedora community members often participate, and the public is welcome at these events. If you’ve never contributed to Fedora Linux before, this is a perfect way to get started.

There are several test periods in the upcoming weeks.

• Thursday 21 September and Friday 22 September, is to test Passkey Auth.
• Sunday 24 September through Sunday 01 October, is to test Fedora IoT Edition.
• Monday 25 September through Monday October 02, focuses on testing Fedora CoreOS .

Passkey Auth

Passwordless authentication methods to log into Linux systems became a hot topic in the past few years. Various organizations started to mandate more secure methods of authentication, including governments and regulated industries. FIDO2 tokens, and smartcards, represent two passwordless authentication methods mandated by the US government in their Zero Trust architecture.

FreeIPA, and SSSD in Fedora 39, enable the capability to log-in to a desktop or a console terminal with a FIDO2-compatible device, for centrally managed users enrolled in Active Directory. This is supported by the libfido2 library. Additionally, for FreeIPA, once the user is authenticated with the FIDO2-compatible device, a Kerberos ticket may be issued .

As a part of this changeset , we will be having test days on Thursday 21 September and Friday 22 September.  The idea is to run through test cases and submit results here.

Fedora IoT

For this test week, the focus is all-around; test all the bits that come in a Fedora IoT release as well as validate different hardware. This includes:

• Basic installation to different media
• Installing in a VM
• rpm-ostree upgrades, layering, rebasing
• Basic container manipulation with Podman.

We welcome all different types of hardware, but have a specific list of target hardware for convenience. This test week will occur Sunday 24 September through Sunday 01 October.

Fedora 39 CoreOS Test Week

The Fedora 39 CoreOS Test Week focuses on testing FCOS based on Fedora 39. The FCOS next stream is already rebased on Fedora 38 content, which will be coming soon to testing and stable. To prepare for the content being promoted to other streams the Fedora CoreOS and QA teams have organized test days from Monday, 25 September through 2 October. Refer to the wiki page for links to the test cases and materials you’ll need to participate. The FCOS and QA team will meet and communicate with the community in async over multiple matrix/element channels. The announcements will be made 48 hours prior to the start of test week. Stay tuned to official Fedora channels for more info.

How do test days work?

Test days or weeks are an event where anyone can help make certain that changes in Fedora work well in an upcoming release. Fedora community members often participate, and the public is welcome at these events. Test days are the perfect way to start contributing if you not in the past.

The only requirement to get started is the ability to download test materials (which include some large files) and then read and follow directions step by step.

Detailed information about all the test days are on the wiki page links provided above. If you are available on or around the days of the events, please do some testing and report your results.

NetherRealm Studios has been on a real hot streak with the Mortal Kombat franchise ever since it dropped its first game, the sublime Mortal Kombat 9, all the way back in 2011. The studio has always focused on bringing a top-notch narrative experience to the table, supported by a laundry list of single-player arcade and online multiplayer modes, alongside the fantastic collectathon that is the Krypt.

Mortal Kombat 1 is a reboot of sorts for the franchise, one that continues on from Mortal Kombat 11 but also completely changes direction, giving us a new universe that threads through the series’ rich lore whilst also refreshing everything from character designs to the roster and environments where you set about decapitating and exploding your foes. It’s a clever move, one that feels as though it was required given how complicated things had gotten by the cataclysmic events of the last game, and it affords NetherRealm the opportunity to reintroduce some old favourite characters into the bloody fray to boot.

Indeed, in terms of the roster, besides the disappointing fact that Shang Tsung has been made a pre-order/paid-for exclusive, this is a strong outing at launch with 22 base characters to choose from, all rocking sweet new looks and, don’t forget, you even get to play as Jean Claude Van Damme, although he is just a skin for Johnny Cage.

There’s been plenty of shakeups in terms of mechanics, too, the biggest and most obvious of which is Kameo assists, giving you access to some sweet tag-team options with a simple press of your right shoulder button. Kameos factor into the game’s combo-breaking manoeuvres, and this new entry also sees some shaking up of blocking with the ‘Up Block’ giving you the chance to shift your opponent into a disadvantageous position if you nail it correctly. Think of the Flawless Block system from Mortal Kombat 11 and you’ve got the general gist of this one.

Most of the signature moves, flashy combos, and ridiculously gory fatalities return this time around, although you’ll find as you play that some attacks, such as Johnny Cage’s fireball, have been replaced. Don’t worry Johnny fans, he’s got a sweet new Hype Meter that more than makes up for the loss of his classic fiery ranged attack, and overall the new additions make for a fighter that feels nice and fresh whilst also retaining all of the aspects we expect, know and love about this series.

So, overall what we’ve got here is a fresh new take on the Mortal Kombat universe, or multiverse as it is now, one that sticks to the studio’s usual setup of delivering the best story mode in fighting games — the campaign really is a cracker — alongside all the other modes you’d expect to find; the online fisticuffs, local and single player match-ups, Towers and in-depth practice and training arenas for you to hone your fatalities, ball-busters, drill kicks, and fan-nados. But wait…where is the Krypt?

Well, unfortunately, the Krypt is no more, here replaced by a shiny new single-player Invasions mode that sees you choose a character and get busy romping around a boardgame-styled setup. Invasions has you travel along nodes, unlocking multiple paths forward as you take part in fights that throw all manner of random modifiers and special enemies into your path. This all takes part in Johnny Cage’s suitably OTT Hollywood mansion and, although we were initially skeptical that it could match the Krypt, it’s a mode that makes a good replacement, testing your skills to the max, throwing up tons of fun situations and dishing out all the goodies and cosmetic items you could ever hope for.

However — and it’s a pretty big ‘however’ — all of this is sullied by the fact that this Switch port feels as though it’s really pushing the system to the max, and then some. Is it playable? Yes, it’ll do if you’re a big Mortal Kombat fan and you’ve got no other way to experience the game, but you really are going to have to come at this version with a lot of patience as it’s got some serious problems.

Now, this particular writer hasn’t sampled Mortal Kombat 11 on Switch, and therefore can’t compare directly in this regard, but revisiting our review it seems it’s a port that dials the graphics right down in order to achieve a playable frame rate. Perfectly fine and acceptable. Mortal Kombat 1 attempts to take the same route, turning all of the lovely visuals down to their very lowest settings — we’re sure you’ve seen some of the rather hilarious comparison images with other consoles online already — but it still can’t provide anything approaching a smooth experience as things stand at launch.

In story mode, the various cutscenes look good for the most part, but they suffer from weird glitching and skipping issues, whilst the game’s signature seamless transitions from cutscene to actual gameplay are marred here by stutters, loading screens, and a dynamic resolution that dips way, way down at the start of battles in order to keep things from grinding to a complete halt.

Manage to ignore all of this and you’ll get scraps that can still provide some entertainment when the frame rate isn’t wobbling. We’ve had entire bouts that have been fine and played well, however, for the most part, you’re looking at kombat that’s been kompromised (couldn’t resist) by dips and stutters that can make action hard to follow and oftentimes lags behind your inputs, meaning you lose the flow of what moves you’re trying to pull off. We have also encountered broken visuals and issues in relation to Fatalities not playing out or animating properly. Now, anyone who plays fighting games knows this is not ideal, in this genre more than most. These games have got to nail input lag and any other issues that affect your ability to perform the moves you want when you want. Mortal Kombat 1 on Switch isn’t doing this right now, and that’s really the long and short of it.

There is more bad news too, we’re afraid. Our attempts to get down with the online aspects of this game have been unsuccessful, to say the least. We know we’re reviewing during the exclusive ‘early access’ period for purchasers of the Premium Edition, so things may improve when those who didn’t want to stump up £100/$110 for a few days of early Scorpion spears join the online pool, but so far we haven’t been able to find a single match-up with any other players. (We’ll provide an update here with our impressions of online play in the coming days.)

Further to this, and this is a real kick in the NetherRealms, Invasions mode is a bug-fest right now. We’ve had an issue where we’ve had to restart the mode several times because a key item just will not drop in the very first battle, denying us access to Johnny’s mansion — a totally mode-breaking bug — and the character select menus are also incredibly slow and have frequently ended up selecting the wrong fighter for us as a result. Now, WB Games has also just put out a correspondence to Switch players stating that;

“To ensure the best possible experience for Switch players at launch, only the introduction for Invasions will be available. The full breadth of Invasions Season 1 content will be available on Switch in a matter of weeks.”

It’s important to know this in advance if you’re thinking of picking up the game, as it’s not gonna be the full package at the time of writing, even though you’re expected to pay full price. We get it, the Switch is a tricky prospect, but we’d really rather the game was delayed or reduced in price until these things were sorted.

Away from all of this, loading times across the board between fights can see you wait a good long while. We’ve seen close to a minute in the Towers mode, menus can be excruciating to traverse due to how slowly everything moves, and you’ll find that you’re hit with infinite loading screens from time to time as the game struggles to keep up, forcing you to reboot and restart.

When all’s said and done, this is a port of Mortal Kombat that’s in a bit of a state, really. Yes, it’s playable, you can make your way through the Story and Towers mode and have some fairly good fun when it’s behaving itself. In portable mode, it looks fine for the most part, even with every bit of polish and detail stripped away, but patches are needed ASAP before we can recommend anyone throw down their money on the Switch version of the game.

We’ve been playing Mortal Kombat 1 on another platform (also the Premium Edition — no, we couldn’t resist as big fans of this franchise) at the same time we’ve been reviewing on Switch and it’s a superb fighter, a highly polished, slick, addictive effort that’s the best the series has looked and felt since Mortal Kombat (9) dropped 12 years ago. However, this Switch port, unless you really have no other choice and can put up with the multiple issues we’ve outlined, just doesn’t cut it.

AirPods firmware version 6 has been released with iOS 17 compatibility, improved switching, and AirPods Pro 2-specific features.

How to check your AirPods firmware version

Summum Aeterna, a prequel to 2022’s Aeterna Noctis, riffs on a Dead Cells-style genre fusion, mixing roguelite elements into the tough Metroidvania structure of its predecessor for a game that doesn’t pull its punches. The result feels rough around the edges but it’s hard to deny that the gameplay feels pretty great.

Enemies hit hard, frequently gang up on you, and will almost assuredly send you back to the hub dozens of times before you manage to successfully complete a run. And while Summum Aeterna primarily demands dexterous skills to overcome its toughest challenges, you do have something to show for each failed run. You, of course, lose most of the upgrades you snagged while out and about, but every run will see you gaining currency and crafting materials that you can then reinvest into things like better stats and starting weapons. This meta-progression system thus ensures that you’ll always be making progress, even when you lose time after time.

In an interesting departure from similar games, Summum Aeterna also introduces a cool seed system for generating the world you run through each time. Before venturing out, you must first create the world by placing a seed in a machine that will generate it for you. Each seed is unique, spawns you in a different starting biome, and will have positive and negative modifiers that’ll change things like enemy health and the drop rate of certain rewards. Picking the right seed is thus as much a part of one’s strategy as deciding on a build, and we appreciated how this positively affects run diversity.

Controls are smooth and responsive, while weapon types feel genuinely distinct from each other and offer interesting twists on combat. A sword can be thrown and either quickly recalled or teleported elsewhere. The scythe, on the other hand, builds up Damage-over-Time debuffs on enemies with each hit which you can then trigger all at once. Moment-to-moment gameplay feels snappy and engaging, which encourages you to dare to try again.

The visuals feel like a cross between the illustrious Castlevania: Symphony of the Night and, of all things, Child of Light. Whether you’re exploring the shadowy reaches of a familiar-looking Gothic castle or the bright canal-bordered streets of a Venice-esque village, all environments feature a painterly, hand-drawn style that feels like a perfect fit for the somewhat dreamlike tone of Summum Aeterna.

Unfortunately, Summum Aeterna feels rather poor on the performance side of things. Luckily the frame drops here or there don’t affect things too much, but loading times can be pretty long and we had a few instances where the game outright crashed, ending promising runs and erasing some hard-won progress. Hopefully patches are forthcoming, as it feels like this could be an excellent addition to any roguelike fan’s Switch library with a little bit more elbow grease.

Launch instability issues aside, it may be a bit derivative, but Summum Aeterna ultimately ticks enough boxes to be worth your while. Smooth combat, tough difficulty, and an interesting seed system all come together to make this one worth investigating.

---

Heybike Ranger S is an excellent combination of stability and storability in an e-bike with fat tires and a folding frame.

Heybike Ranger S e-bike review — design

Assembly and maintenance

Heybike Ranger S e-bike review — features

Heybike app

Riding the Heybike Ranger S e-bike

No need to sacrifice power for storability

Heybike Ranger S e-bike — Pros

Heybike Ranger S e-bike — Cons

Rating: 4 out of 5

Where to buy the Heybike Ranger S

When I was working on my MFA in Game Design, I referenced Urbz: Sims in the City in a meeting with my thesis advisor, and he asked if I had played the console or the handheld version. I was confident that I’d played the console version growing up. I could recall the memory quite clearly—sitting against a study pillow on my childhood bed with the controller’s too-short cord pulled taut against the GameCube across the room, furiously speeding through the game in an attempt to finish every goal before Hollywood Video’s three-day rental period elapsed.

It’s hard to explain the cognitive dissonance I felt when my advisor started talking about in-game material that was completely unknown to me, that was certainly not what I remembered playing but had an eerie sameness to it, like the game I knew but in an alternate reality.

After that meeting, I got my hands on a copy of Urbz for my GameCube and booted it up. I was interested in the minigames I loved playing as a kid and wanted to take some notes for my thesis. The game loaded to a cinematic I’d never seen of a sim with big purple hair walking around a city in low-cut jeans trying to impress club bouncers with aerial dance moves. I launched the character creator and it was obvious that this was a different game than I remembered. The graphics alone were in a completely different ballpark, let alone the comparatively rich selection of hair and clothing options.

When I tracked down a copy of the handheld version of Urbz, everything came into focus. It was the game that I remembered— blocky graphics, ridiculous minigames and all. It turned out that I had played Urbz on my GameCube as a kid but only by way of the Game Boy Player, a genius contraption that clipped to the bottom on the GameCube and enabled play of Game Boy and Game Boy Advance games right on my TV screen.

Double take

Urbz was far from the only title in the early 2000s to have distinct versions for handheld versus home consoles. 2001 was a big year for Nintendo with the release of both the Game Boy Advance (GBA) and the GameCube. These cousin consoles shared a library of titles that, despite sharing a name, were often completely different experiences depending on what console you played them on. Tony Hawk had multiple major releases during the PS2/Xbox/GameCube generation, including Pro Skater 3 and 4, the first two Underground games, and American Wasteland/Sk8land. Two of my all-time favorite games on the GameCube, SSX Tricky and Super Monkey Ball, had GBA ports that met with varying approval in comparison to their home console counterparts.

Games with handheld ports like SSX Tricky made the GBA experience feel like a consolation prize in lieu of the real deal on the GameCube

Taking a game from the console to the less-powerful handheld could be compared to a translation of sorts, like bringing a book to the screen or envisioning a game as a television series, either keeping as faithfully to the original as possible or making adjustments to suit the new format. The GameCube’s Super Monkey Ball received a port to the GBA under the name Super Monkey Ball Jr. about a year after its console launch. Super Monkey Ball Jr. includes levels that are direct ports from the console version and some that were made in particular for the handheld version. The mechanics are largely the same between the two games, but the GBA of course isn’t blessed with an analog stick like that on a GameCube controller which made for much more difficult navigation on the handheld version.

The Game Boy Advance outsold the GameCube by an incredible amount — 81.51 million units versus 21.74 million — a dichotomy in sales trends for Nintendo’s home and handheld consoles that continued into the Nintendo DS and Wii era, albeit with Wii closing the gap. Yet, many games that were made available for both the GameCube and GBA were clearly designed with the home console in mind. That’s why we have instances like SSX Tricky, where the handheld version is a severely watered-down, nearly impossible-to-play facsimile that stubbornly attempts to recreate the console levels and mechanics with far worse graphics and frame rate. Games with handheld ports like SSX Tricky made the GBA experience feel like a consolation prize in lieu of the real deal on the GameCube.

The games that came out of this era of development say a lot about the capabilities of different platforms at the time, but also speak to who the intended audiences were for console versus handheld gaming.

Take Urbz, for example. The handheld was rated ‘E for Everyone’ and had more of an action-adventure feel to it in terms of genre. The console version of Urbz was rated ‘T for Teen’ and frankly pushed at those boundaries with social interactions like ‘Strip Tease,’ ‘Grab Booty,’ and ‘Suck Face.’

The handheld ports for both SSX Tricky and Super Monkey Ball can be said to maintain the spirit of the console versions they’re derived from, showcasing the upsides and potential detriments of such an approach. Urbz falls into a different category, almost more adaptation than translation. At this point, I’ve logged dozens of hours in both versions of Urbz, and they are two games that feel like they’re drawing from a shared idea and source material instead of one game based on the other.

The same but (very) different

[embedded content]

Their shared elements, like minigames, reputation, social groups, and goal-oriented plot lines make them seem like similar games on paper, but in reality they couldn’t be more different.

You start out earning money by squeegeeing windows while dodging bird poop.

In the handheld version of Urbz, I was tasked with taking down harmful capitalistic forces as represented by the comically evil character Daddy Bigbucks. Goals are a big part of the home console’s Urbz as well, but they’re more formulaic. Everything is geared towards getting the right clothes, impressing the right people, and progressing into more and more neighborhoods as your reputation increases.

The minigames in both versions center around making money. Whether you’re earning cash as skateboarder, model, or piercing manufacturer in the home console version, the same mechanic is always present: hitting a series of four buttons in the order shown to boost your performance as quickly as possible.

The handheld version’s minigames are more distinct and are what drew me back to Urbz in the first place. You start out earning money by squeegeeing windows while dodging bird poop. My favorite was always being a comedian where I’d tell jokes to fill up a laugh meter, occasionally promenading to either side of the stage to avoid tomatoes from the crowd.

Urbz on GameCube gives you everything you need to engage in social roleplay, from piercings and tattoos to complete your look to all the bizarre social interactions that help you climb the reputation ladder. Handheld Urbz gives you community and a grand purpose where the social elements are tied into a fairly linear plot. They’re two completely different answers to the same prompt.

Worlds collide

The Game Boy Player helped to bridge the gap for home console owners who didn’t have a GBA and wanted to be able to play major, handheld-only titles (like the main Pokémon series). I don’t even have my GBA anymore; I just play all my Game Boy games on my GameCube.

But the prevalence of GameCube games with handheld ports created the possibility for strange experiences like the one that I had with Urbz, especially if we think about porting as a type of translation. Playing a handheld game that is a port of a GameCube game on the Game Boy Player is similar to reading a book that has been translated into one language and then separately translated back into its original language. It’s a bizarre game of telephone that dabbles in the uncanny.

In 2023, there isn’t such a distinct separation as there used to be between handheld and home console gaming. I can take a Nintendo Switch game from my hands to the television without ever having to change out a cartridge. The challenge for developers tasked with making something that worked on multiple systems with entirely different processing capabilities and player experience expectations resulted in some truly iconic games. Today’s developers have their own challenges that continue to lead to gains in the gaming world, but I wonder if we’ll ever see the likes of 2001 again: translations that confuse as much as they delight, doppelgangers that get further from the original the more they materialize, the reflection in the mirror winking just as you turn away.

If like us you grew up watching the iconic Inspector Gadget animated series, you’ll be excited to hear about the Inspector Gadget – Mad Time Party release date for the Nintendo Switch. That’s right! This kooky crime-fighter is getting his own detective game.

Inspector Gadget – Mad Time Party is a multiplayer party game set in the world of the Inspector Gadget animated series, created by Jean Chalopin. In this adventure, you must save Metro City from the evil Dr. Claw by using a time machine, but the machine malfunctions, sending you all to the present.

Complete quests and challenges in Adventure Mode to explore the city and take down Dr. Claw, and experience 16 minigames that are fun for all the family. This game even has a family connection as Jean Chapolin’s daughter, Tanis, scored its original soundtrack.

When is the Inspector Gadget – Mad Time Party release date?

Inspector Gadget – Mad Time Party is available now for the Nintendo Switch and other consoles both digitally and physically. The physical copy comes with two sticker sheets and a poster for all you megafans out there.

To celebrate the launch, the publisher Microids has released an exclusive interview with Tanis Chapolin that you can watch below:

That’s everything you need to know about the Inspector Gadget – Mad Time Party release date. For more family fun, check out our list of the best party games, or get more into espionage with our list of the best spy games.