Hasta La Gadget!

Microsoft is getting rid of the VPN offered through Microsoft Defender. As spotted by Windows Latest, the company updated its support pages for privacy protection, its built-in VPN, to notify users that the service will end on February 28. The VPN was bundled with Microsoft Defender, which is available to anyone with a personal or family Microsoft 365 subscription, and it offered private browsing by “routing your internet traffic through Microsoft servers,” up to the monthly data limit of 50GB.

In a statement about the decision posted on the support page, Microsoft said, “Our goal is to ensure you, and your family remain safer online. We routinely evaluate the usage and effectiveness of our features. As such, we are removing the privacy protection feature and will invest in new areas that will better align to customer needs.” Android users might still see the Microsoft Defender VPN profile in their settings after the expiration date, which they’ll need to remove manually if they want it gone. “Action is not required by Windows, iOS, and macOS users,” Microsoft notes.

The company also says this is the only feature getting killed off for now. According to Microsoft, “device protection and identity theft and credit monitoring (US) features will continue.”

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/cybersecurity/microsoft-defenders-vpn-feature-will-be-killed-off-at-the-end-of-february-212313322.html?src=rss

Microsoft is getting rid of the VPN offered through Microsoft Defender. As spotted by Windows Latest, the company updated its support pages for privacy protection, its built-in VPN, to notify users that the service will end on February 28. The VPN was bundled with Microsoft Defender, which is available to anyone with a personal or family Microsoft 365 subscription, and it offered private browsing by “routing your internet traffic through Microsoft servers,” up to the monthly data limit of 50GB.

In a statement about the decision posted on the support page, Microsoft said, “Our goal is to ensure you, and your family remain safer online. We routinely evaluate the usage and effectiveness of our features. As such, we are removing the privacy protection feature and will invest in new areas that will better align to customer needs.” Android users might still see the Microsoft Defender VPN profile in their settings after the expiration date, which they’ll need to remove manually if they want it gone. “Action is not required by Windows, iOS, and macOS users,” Microsoft notes.

The company also says this is the only feature getting killed off for now. According to Microsoft, “device protection and identity theft and credit monitoring (US) features will continue.”

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/cybersecurity/microsoft-defenders-vpn-feature-will-be-killed-off-at-the-end-of-february-212313322.html?src=rss

New releases to add to your reading list.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/what-to-read-this-weekend-engrossing-literary-horror-and-a-dark-whimsical-new-comic-series-175906806.html?src=rss

New releases to add to your reading list.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/what-to-read-this-weekend-engrossing-literary-horror-and-a-dark-whimsical-new-comic-series-175906806.html?src=rss

When Wuthering Waves launched about half a year ago on iOS, Android and Windows, there were serious issues on day one. While some can be forgiving when a game launches, especially a live-service game that will get lots of updates, the errors that many experienced were catastrophic. However, developer Kuro Games didn’t give up on the title, and it has more than recovered from its launch, even becoming a nominee at The Games Awards last year.

For those who aren’t familiar with Wuthering Waves, it’s an open-world, free-to-play action RPG similar to Genshin Impact in many ways. However, its combat is more focused on spectacular combos, perfectly-timed parries and dodge counters after avoiding attacks at the right moment. Some players say that the combat is inspired by Devil May Cry games. Heck, there’s even a reference to Vergil’s (modded) chair in the game.

Screenshot by @deviltakoyaki on X

Wuthering Waves suffered from a disastrous launch. Many people had performance issues, experienced crashes and dialog text was often cut off. It wasn’t uncommon to see people complaining that they couldn’t play at all despite being excited about its graphics. Some also criticized the voice acting, which reminded me of ASMR-style vocals and didn’t fit the usual video game voice acting direction. Fortunately, Kuro Games apologized quickly and promised to make things right.

In fact, someone took a picture of Kuro Games’ Guangdong, China office between 10 and 11PM. The lights were on, and the company seemed to be taking its vow to improve the game seriously.

Over the next few months, Kuro Games would work hard at fixing the most pressing issues while also introducing much-needed quality-of-life fixes. The first highlight of this improvement process was giving all players another free standard banner 5-star character and 5-star standard banner weapon box. After that, they even let users get a limited 5-star character, Xiangli Yao, for free when they played an event to a certain point. The game even has 120FPS mode on PC, something all other games made by direct competitor miHoYo don’t have, except Zenless Zone Zero.

Plus, as of the 2.0 update, it has come to PS5. Limited character Camellya finally became playable during November, much to the delight of many after months of waiting. Wuthering Waves made it to the final rounds of The Game Awards’ best mobile game category but didn’t win, losing to Balatro.

Kuro Games

Kuro Games also released the drip marketing for a new area Rinascita early on to build hype, and many gamers were excited to visit it. Kuro Games’ early efforts to fix things paid off, as even the latest character teasers looked better and even provided crucial information like character roles, playstyles and materials. These teasers allowed players to farm resources ahead of time if they wanted, instead of relying on leaks.

I play the game in Mandarin Chinese dub and text, so I didn’t catch this detail. But an upcoming character, Zani, actually speaks in an Italian accent (with some Spanish and Greek influence, apparently) if you choose the English dub. When the game first launched, the English voices sounded incredibly forced since some of the voice actors were British but were forced to adopt American accents. Zani’s Italian accent is a major improvement in voice acting direction, and now I’m more willing to give the English dub another chance.

(Zani also recommends you eat pineapple pizza, though. But don’t judge me, because I like that stuff. Sorry, not sorry.)

Now that the 2.0 update is out, I saw some players calling it a wonderful experience. As for me, I’m definitely enjoying the update and have been farming for my characters. I haven’t finished the available story missions yet, but I do think Kuro Games has improved its writing compared to the first chapters. I noticed the tendency to show more than what I’ve experienced playing Genshin Impact and Honkai: Star Rail, both games that often utilize black screens with text. Wuthering Waves tends to stay away from those. I admit that the story isn’t completely riveting, but I’m still having fun exploring Solaris-3. The word salad from the first chapters has been reduced, allowing me to take in the story without being overloaded by too many new terms.

Kuro Games

I also play Genshin Impact and can appreciate the differences between them, as Wuthering Waves’s combat system satisfies an itch Genshin Impact’s doesn’t. Farming is quick, and the story is improving. The events are fun, except for the Tower of Adversity endgame mode and the Pincer Maneuver event series that comes back once in a while. Maybe it’s a skill issue, but I find these modes rather challenging if you don’t have the latest featured character or a featured recommended element. The Depths of Illusive Realm roguelike mode needs some more variety, but I suspect that’s in the works as it rotates back in soon.

Despite any faults, I still play Wuthering Waves daily on Windows and look forward to future content; It’s good enough that I’m taking any faults in stride. Earlier this month, Kuro Games CEO Solon Lee released a letter in Chinese thanking fans and revealing that Wuthering Waves reached its highest single-day revenue when version 2.0 was released. I felt encouraged by the letter, and I can confidently say I’m glad I gave the game a chance last year. Whatever the company has in store, I’m all for it.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/pc/im-glad-i-gave-wuthering-waves-a-chance-even-with-a-disastrous-launch-150051043.html?src=rss