Half-Life: Alyx is the first all new Half-Life related game in over a decade
Tesla’s Cybertruck is real and looks like it fell out of Ridley Scott’s nightmares
Telstra turns itself in to the ACCC for selling NBN plans at speeds it can’t deliver
Philips Brilliance 439P9H monitor has great specs, packed with useful features and not a rip-off
Cheap Sandisk microSD card, Moto X4 smartphone, Civ 6 for iOS, refurb Sony WH1000XM3B, Huawei P20 Pro, 12m PS+ sub
Half-Life 3 has been an ongoing gag in the game industry for over a decade, but today, we finally have some new Half-Life related content! The story of Half-Life: Alyx is set between Half-Life and Half-Life 2 and you're some sort of resistance fighter against an evil overlord that's taken hold after the Black Mesa incident. It's designed from the ground up for VR and will be supported on "all PC-based VR headsets" via Steam and goes on sale March 2020. I don't know if you'll be able to play it without a VR headset, so if you've been on the fence about going the whole hog on a fancy VR rig I couldn't think of a better time to get out the credit card and drop five grand.
Tesla showed off the production model of their much hyped ute/pickup truck about 20 minutes ago in Los Angeles. It really is called the Cybertruck and it looks fucking insane. Go check it out, it's like those wild production cars auto makers how off at trade shows but never make. Cybertruck has a stainless steel body, armored glass, maximum 800km range, max 1500kg payload, max towing capacity of 6300kg, adaptive air suspension, 0-100km/h in 2.9s and 250kW+ Supercharging. Pricing starts at US$39,990 pre-incentives, which is pretty crazy considering how unconventional this thing looks. Americans can order now for delivery late 2021 (so 2022 really).
Telstra has told the ACCC that it failed to check the connections of over 180,000 customers on FTTN/FTTB, to make sure they’re physically able deliver the speeds promised. That doesn't mean all 180,000 customers aren't getting the speed they're paying for, but line speed pre-checks were the result of a 2017 court case between the ACCC and Telstra put in place to avoid the scenario where people are paying for say, 100/40 but can only get 46/10 due to shitty FTTN NBN and then be stuck with it because of a contract with early exit fees. Telstra will now contact those customers and give them a refund. Just another example of how shit the NBN is.
The new Brilliance 439P9H ultrawide curved 43-inch monitor from Philips looks fantastic on paper. Resolution is nice at 3840x1200 (same res as two 1920x1200 displays side by size with no bezel), refresh rate of 100Hz is good and 95% DCI-P3 colour gamut is more than acceptable - but the interesting bits on this monitor are the features. There's a gigabit Ethernet port, a 2MP webcam with IR sensors (perfect for Windows Hello), a height/tilt/swivel adjustable stand, 90W USB-C PD, 2x USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-C ports and a 4-port USB 3.0 hub. Best of all, it's not demonstrably expensive! (£879 - so about AU$1700). Only slight downside is the VA panel. I'd prefer IPS, but modern VAs are pretty good so I'd need to see it in person before complaining.
64gb Sandisk Ultra microSD card - $13 at Amazon AU
Motorola Moto X4 smartphone (64GB storage/4GB RAM) - $179 at JB Hi-Fi
Civ 6 for iOS on sale - $7.99 on the App Store
Refurbished Sony WH1000XM3B headphones - $319.20 from Sony’s eBay store
Huawei P20 Pro smartphone (128GB storage/6GB RAM) - $599at JB Hi-Fi
12 month PlayStation Plus subscription - $59.95 at JB Hi-Fi
🎶 Chapel Street, Etc - Something for Kate
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