wargames

From 'WarGames' to Aaron Swartz: How U.S. anti-hacking law went astray

Aaron Swartz, the Internet activist who committed suicide while facing the possibility of a felony criminal conviction, was prosecuted under a law that was never intended to cover what he was accused of doing.

The Computer Fraud and Abuse Act of 1984 dealt only with bank and defense-related intrusions. But over the years, thanks to constant pressure from the U.S. Department of Justice, the scope of the law slowly crept outward.

So by the time Swartz was arrested in 2011, the tough federal statute meant to protect our national defense secrets covered everything from Bradley Manning's offenses to … Read more

Nukemap: Shall we play a game?

Want to play god much?

With Nukemap, a new tool that lets anyone test out--on a Google Map--the effects of some of history's most famous nuclear explosions on cities around the world, you can.

Say you're inclined to see just how bad the destruction would be in London if "Fat Man," the second A-bomb dropped on Japan by the Americans during World War II, detonated there. Nukemap lays it all out for you.

Nukemap lets you choose from a long list of cities to experiment with--or drag the map's marker wherever you want--and then choose either a custom yield in kilotons, or one of a list of famous bombs. When you click the "detonate" button, you quickly see a map with a series of colored circles that show the radii of the fireball, the air blast, the spread of radiation, and the spread of thermal radiation. … Read more

preGame 27: God of War: Ghost of Sparta, Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions

Today on preGame, we'll take an early look at God of War: Ghost of Sparta on the PSP and sample the many faces of Spider-Man in the web slinger's latest adventure, Shattered Dimensions.

But before we get to the demos, we must take time to talk about one of the biggest game releases of the year, Halo: Reach. We were fortunate enough to get an exclusive advance look at the game back in June, so be sure to check out preGame episode 19 when we had Bungie Community Director Brian Jarrard live in the studio!

Believe it or … Read more

Battleship for iPhone: Best board game adaptation yet?

Free of messy pegs and full of clever touches, Battleship for iPhone and iPod Touch ($2.99) gives the classic board game a terrific 21st-century makeover.

In addition to Classic mode, the game offers two new options: Salvo and Superweapons. In Salvo, you get to select one target for each ship in your fleet--meaning for the first few rounds at least, you get to lob five shots instead of just one.

Suffice it to say, that makes the game go much faster than a traditional Battleship exercise, which can easily last 30-40 minutes.

In Superweapons mode, you get to choose … Read more

Get Company of Heroes (PC) and other games for $5 each

A few weeks back I told you about Direct2Drive's 5-year-anniversary sale, which was offering games like BioShock (a personal favorite) for $5 apiece.

I hope you've been checking the site every week since then, because the cheap hits just keep on coming. This week it's wargames, starting with the beloved, award-winning Company of Heroes Gold--yours for just five smackers.

Other $5 gems include Supreme Commander Gold, World in Conflict Gold Edition, and Brothers in Arms: Road to Hill 30 (which, incidentally, scored a rare 9.0 on GameSpot). Good, good stuff.

In case the name of … Read more