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Metal Gear Survive flops at UK retail

April 4, 2019 | News | No Comments

Metal Gear spin-off Metal Gear Survive has flopped upon release in the UK.

It placed sixth in Chart-Track’s official rundown, which tracks physical copies sold only.

Survive obviously shifted a fraction of the boxed copies that Metal Gear Solid 5 did – although as very different animals, the comparison is somewhat unfair. However, compare Survive’s launch with Rising – another Metal Gear spin-off – and it’s notable Survive sold 85 per cent fewer copies.

Its success on Steam is a little harder to pin down, but it is currently way down the list of games sorted by current players – in 65th place just days after launch, behind H1Z1, Europa Universalis 4 and Human: Fall Flat, with at the time of writing 4136 playing worldwide.

Eurogamer did not recommend the game in our Metal Gear Survive review, though Martin noted there were some moments which were “equal parts brilliant and baffling”.

The only other new launch to make the chart was Sword Art Online: Fatal Bullet, which arrived in 37th place.

The full top 10 lies below:

  1. FIFA 18
  2. Grand Theft Auto 5
  3. Call of Duty: WW2
  4. Monster Hunter World
  5. EA Sports UFC 3
  6. Metal Gear Survive
  7. Shadow of the Colossus
  8. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe
  9. Super Mario Odyssey
  10. Assassin’s Creed Oranges

As primary school students returned from their autumn break on Monday, some in a town east of Paris were wearing the same polo shirts and sky-blue sweaters – the first uniforms ever seen in a French public school.

The highly symbolic move by officials in Provins comes as France wrestles with how to close a growing achievement gap between children from poor and wealthy families.

Many countries around the world require school uniforms, with advocates saying they bolster respect between students and teachers while reinforcing a communal sense of belonging.

But they are relatively uncommon across much of Europe, with the notable exception of Britain.

Last June, 62 per cent of parents in Provins voted in favour of a uniform emblazoned with a crest of the medieval city’s famed Cesar Tower and the French motto of "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity".

Yet just a few children were wearing the new outfits Monday morning – officials didn’t go so far as to make them mandatory.

"I was a little worried," said eight-year-old Noe at his school’s entrance.

"But I like it, because we’re dressed like in ‘Harry Potter’," he said.

At 137 euros (£120), the kit also includes matching trousers and an aviator-style jacket, though subsidies are available for families who can’t afford it.

"About half the students will wear it," said Mayor Olivier Lavenka of the rightwing Republicans party, who pushed for the vote as a way of easing social discrimination.

"It’s an experiment, and in a few years we’ll see how it has worked out."

Traditionally uniforms have been the preserve of private schools, often Catholic institutions in the nicer parts of French towns.

But recently more parents have been calling for uniforms as a way to promote social cohesion, in particular in deprived neighbourhoods, and ease the resentments that can emerge over how different kids are dressed.

French children in deprived areas are four times more likely to end up struggling than students in higher income areas, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has found.

On this measurement, France was the worst performing of 36 major economies measured by the respected Paris-based research institute, far behind Britain or the United States but also Brazil and Mexico.

Two candidates in last year’s presidential campaign, rightwinger Francois Fillon and far-right leader Marine Le Pen, called for a "return to uniforms".

Historians note there has never been such a policy in French public schools.

Students did have to wear aprons or smocks until the late 1960s, but only to avoid stains from using fountain pens and ink wells.

"Lots of people have this memory of uniformed smocks, but it’s a reconstructed memory – you only have to look at class photos from that era," education historian Claude Lelievre said.

Since 2013, three proposals have been lodged in parliament urging uniforms in public schools, but have gone nowhere.

Education Minister Jean-Michel Blanquer has indicated he’s in favour of the measure for schools which want it, but has not called for nationwide implementation.

Lavenka, the Provins mayor, noted that school uniforms are common in the French overseas territories of Martinique and Guadeloupe.

Like other advocates, Lavenka says they will help induce "an improved education climate" by reinforcing a sense of belonging to the same school body – while also making it easier for getting kids dressed in the morning.

His move echoes the growing demand for publicly funded charter schools in the US, which often tout their use of uniforms as a core part of their high-achieving strategies.

Yet critics say there is little solid research to back up such claims, not least because uniforms are often part of a broader push to improve academic performance.

"There has never been a serious empirical study showing there is more social equality between students or respect for authority because of uniforms," said Francoise Lantheaume, an education professor at the University of Lyon-2.

Some parents also remained sceptical.

"They are going to be faced with social differences their entire lives," said Stephanie Meiria, whose daughter attends one of the town’s six public schools.

"And my daughter loves picking out her own clothes, I don’t want to take that away from her."

In most countries, a 79 percent leap in share prices over just 11 days would normally suggest a surfeit of investor confidence.

In Zimbabwe, home last month to the world’s best performing stock market, it has been a sign of panic and inflation, just another terrifying financial statistic in a country that has been a world-beater at producing them.

Nine years after inflation hit 89.7 sextillion percent and the central bank authorised a 100-trillion Zimbabwean dollar banknote — still too little to pay for a local bus fare — the country is again mired in financial woe.

In recent weeks, Zimbabweans have experienced a wretchedly familiar reprise of aspects from that grim period, experiencing anew soaring prices, petrol queues, bare supermarket shelves and pharmacies running short of life-saving medicines.

It should not have been this way. A year ago this month, the coup was launched that finally ousted Robert Mugabe, the nonagenarian autocrat blamed for turning one of Africa’s most promising economies into a dysfunctional supplicant.

Zimbabweans celebrated on the streets, dancing euphorically with the soldiers they hailed as liberators. Many felt their country would be unleashed both from tyranny and immiseration.

But in the 12 months that have passed, many have reached the gloomy conclusion that getting rid of a dictator is easier than erasing his legacy.

Africa's tarnished jewel: how four decades of Robert Mugabe left Zimbabwe's economy reeling

As a result of past mismanagement, profligate government spending and a failure to institute economic reforms by Emmerson Mnangagwa, the new president, Zimbabweans are facing a twin currency and inflation crisis.

Prices have sky-rocketed. Richer Zimbabweans complain that the cost of their weekly shopping skyrocketed by 40 percent, while the poor are suffering even more. 

The collapse of industry in Zimbabwe means that the cost of about 90 percent of of goods, including staples like flour, sugar and cooking oil, have gone up by about 20 percent. Getting enough to eat is again a major challenge for hungry families.

Hyperinflation was finally brought under control in 2009 after the Zimbabwean dollar was finally abolished. 

The economy stabilised after Mr Mugabe was forced to accept a coalition government with opposition control over the finance ministry, and Zimbabweans chose to use the US dollar as their currency. 

Government overspending saw the dollar largely disappear two years ago and the government launched new quasi currencies, such as locally printed cash known as bond notes, and electronic money spent via mobile phones. 

These methods of payment  were at first interchangeable with the US dollar but values deteriorated and plunged in the last few weeks with the rate briefly hitting ten local dollars to US$1.

So prices began rising and panic quickly set in as some, remembering the economic crash a decade earlier, went to spend their money before they feared it would lose all its value.

Crowds formed outside fast-emptying supermarkets, with people desperately trying to stock up on basic grocery items. 

Fast food chains, such as South African-owned franchise Kentucky Fried Chicken, said it had to shut down because it ran out of chicken  and locally produced fast food outlets almost doubled prices. 

Richer Zimbabweans found that often the only way to turn bond notes into dollars was to buy shares in foreign companies listed on the local stock market, explaining why prices have soared.

But nowhere has the situation been as grave or as tragic as in the health sector. 

Inside a hospital in Chitungwiza, a commuter town outside Harare, HIV positive Zimbabweans have been queuing in an increasingly frantic attempt to source anti-retrovirals, the vital medicines that give them a chance of life. Fourteen per cent of Zimbabwe’s sexually active adult population are HIV positive.

Patients used to be given a month’s supply of the medicine at a time, but now, there is only enough to give four days’ worth to each patient, necessitating more frequent trips for those who can ill-afford to make them.

In Bulawayo, many have resorted to social media to get medication.

“Urgently need the following anti-psychotic medications: either Sodium Valproate or Epilim” reads one message on a WhatsApp group used mainly by the old and the poor. 

For Portifa Mwendera, president of the Pharmaceutical Society of Zimbabwe, the crisis has reached nightmare levels. Pharmacies were either selling medication only in US dollars, which most people do not have, or had ratcheted the prices up to unaffordable levels for those who could only pay with bond notes, he said.

Efforts by a cash-strapped government to intervene have inevitably been paltry, with only £2.3m made available for an emergency fund for medicines.

"That will only cover us for about a week,” Mr Mwendera said. “We also owe suppliers about $30m (£23m). It is a crisis.”

Zimbabwe once made three-quarters of its own drugs, but like in so many other sectors, mismanagement ultimately resulted in ruin. State-owned health facilities that were sophisticated at independence in 1980 are now dilapidated or barely functioning, while nearly all medicines are now imported.

Mr Mnangagwa, who has positioned himself as a pragmatic moderniser despite having been a deeply loyal ally of Mr Mugabe, will have to act fast to end the crisis.

Yet his options are limited, and he has been blamed for exacerbating the turmoil by increasing already unsustainable levels of government spending to win votes ahead of last July’s presidential election.

But cutting government expenditure would mean slashing Zimbabwe’s bloated civil service – a deeply unpopular move, sure to alienate many in the already divided Zanu-PF.

Nor can the president approach the World Bank or International Monetary Fund until Zimbabwe pays off more than £1 billion in debt arrears — money it does not have.

US sanctions are likely to remain on hold until Mr Mnangagwa can show democratic discourse.

Suspicions that he is not prepared to do so mounted when soldiers fired at unarmed protesters in the streets and killed six people just two days after the contentious election that confirmed Mr Mnangagwa in the presidency. 

Mr Mnangwagwa had promised that, on his watch, Zimbabwe would enjoy both economic revival and “a flowering of democracy”. As he grapples with the poisoned legacy of the man he ousted and a country again flirting with financial disaster, Zimbabwe’s new president is likely to find it increasingly hard to deliver either.

Protect yourself and your family by learning more about Global Health Security 

A note from the editor: Jelly Deals is a deals site launched by our parent company, Gamer Network, with a mission to find the best bargains out there. Look out for the Jelly Deals roundup of reduced-price games and kit every Saturday on Eurogamer.

Sea of Thieves may still be a month away, but for some reason Microsoft has opted to release the Limited Edition Sea of Thieves Xbox One Wireless Controller this week, a little ahead of the game’s actual launch.

While the controller has been up for pre-order for a little while now, it was a bit of a pricey thing with an RRP of £64.99. Thankfully, the controller’s launch has brought a £10 price drop and you can now order yourself one of these Sea of Thieves controllers for £54.99. Sure, it’s not the biggest discount in the world, but it’s nice to see a price cut on the week of release if nothing else.

One of the more curious Sea of Thieves tie-ins so far, however, is the official Seagate 2TB ‘Game Drive’ which is basically an external hard drive with a custom paint job – and a rather nice one at that. That will cost you £79.99 and work on Xbox One, PC, or any other system that is compatible with external drives.

Odd licencing choices aside, I’ve known plenty of people who baulked at the £65 price point on the Sea of Thieves controller who are now considering it, so this was perhaps a wise move from retailers to shift the probably-countless units of stock for this controller. Only time will tell if we’ll be seeing this pad discounted further around Black Friday time, though.

While we’re talking console releases, you may want to head over to Jelly Deals to check out the current (and recently updated) guide to the best gaming headset in 2018, or just to check out today’s best deals, which includes everything from a Samus Arran amiibo for £13 to a PC gaming case for under £40.

 

Donald Trump has suggested up to 15,000 troops could ultimately be sent to the US-Mexico border to counter approaching caravans of migrants, a major increase on initial deployments. 

The US president denied he was “fearmongering” over the threat of illegal immigration ahead of the county’s midterm elections next Tuesday, insisting it was an important issue. 

The new figure, floated during a discussion with reporters on the White House lawn, is higher than the 14,000 troops that America has deployed in Afghanistan. 

It is the latest increase, with 800 soldiers initially sent to the border by the Pentagon – a figure that then rose to 5,200 earlier this week. The troops are legally barred from enforcing US immigration law and are instead providing support to border officials. 

"We’ll go up to anywhere between 10 and 15,000 military personnel on top of Border Patrol, Ice [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] and everybody else at the border,” Mr Trump said. 

Two Years of Trump

It remains unclear whether the US president will follow through on the suggestion, given he mentioned it in passing rather than by making any formal announcement. 

The comment is the latest in a series of escalating warnings that Mr Trump has been issuing over migrants approaching the country’s southern border though Central America. 

At first there was just one so-called ‘caravan’ of people seeking to enter the US. Size estimates peaked at around 7,000 people before dropping to around 4,000 people. 

Now more caravans have emerged. A second, which clashed with police whiling crossing Guatemala into Mexico this week, is made up of an estimated 1,000 people. A further two caravans, smaller in size, have also formed. 

Mr Trump has been accused of playing up concerns over immigration to help drive up turnout among his supporters, with the Republican majorities in the Senate and House of Representatives on the line at next week’s elections. 

In recent weeks the US president has called the approaching migrants an “invasion” and a “national emergency”, threatened to close the US-Mexico border and described himself as a “nationalist”. 

On Wednesday he repeated a threat to strip Central American nations of US foreign aid if they fail to help him stop the caravans.  He also suggested there were 25 to 30 million undocumented migrants in America.

That is far higher than other estimates, such as from the Pew Research Center which put the 2016 unauthorised immigrant population at 11.3 million. 

On Wednesday, Mr Trump also doubled down on his proposal to remove a right for the children of illegal migrants born on American soil to get US citizenship, saying it was “very unfair to our citizens”. 

He chastised Paul Ryan, the most senior Republican in the House of Representatives, who suggested Mr Trump could not end birthright citizenship via an executive order, which does not need ratifying by the US Congress. 

“Paul Ryan should be focusing on holding the majority [in the House] rather than giving his opinions on birthright citizenship, something he knows nothing about!” the US president tweeted. 

Hungary’s Central European University, a graduate school founded by US financier George Soros, said it was being forced out of the country by the nationalist government and would switch to enrolling new students in Vienna if it did not get guarantees of academic freedom by Dec. 1.

The US billionaire, who promotes liberal causes through his charities, has been the subject of a campaign by the right-wing government of Prime Minister Viktor Orban. Earlier this year, his charitable Open Society Foundations was forced to leave Hungary.

Thursday’s move by CEU, which was quickly dismissed as a "political ploy" by the government, could deepen a rift between Orban and the European Commission, which has challenged his higher education reforms in the European Court of Justice.

A change last year to national law on education which withdrew the right to operate from foreign-registered universities that did not also offer courses in their home country was widely seen as explicitly targeting CEU.

The CEU offers graduate-level courses taught in English and is frequently ranked as the top university in Hungary. The prospect last year that it might be driven from Hungary drew street protests and international criticism.

The university’s statement on Thursday said the Orban government had kept it in legal limbo for more than a year by failing to reach a formal agreement on its status.

"We cannot operate legally in Hungary as a free, US accredited institution. We are being forced out of a country that has been our home for 26 years," CEU President and Rector Michael Ignatieff told a news conference.

Orban regularly accuses the Hungarian-born Soros of plotting to destroy European civilization by flooding the continent with immigrants. Soros says his support for refugees is one part of a wider humanitarian mission to back open societies around the globe.

The government said Thursday’s announcement by the CEU to relocate operations in Vienna was "a Soros-style political ploy" and it does not concern itself with such matters.

US Ambassador to Budapest David B. Cornstein said in a statement that the CEU remained a priority for the U.S. government and had overwhelming bipartisan support in the United States.

"There is a small window to resolve this, but it needs to happen fast," he said.

The government accuses the CEU of operating without full legal compliance. CEU says it has taken all steps required to comply.

The statement by the university said it would enrol new students in U.S. degrees at its Vienna campus in 2019 if its legal status in Hungary was not resolved by Dec. 1, though it would try to maintain as much research and educational activity in Budapest as possible.

Ignatieff said CEU’s board of trustees set the December deadline to give a chance for Cornstein to make a final effort to work out a compromise. 

Space sim Kerbal Space Program gets its first PC expansion on 13th March 2018.

Making History adds a mission builder and a history pack, the latter of which contains missions inspired by historical moments in space exploration. Perhaps it’s not too late to include a mission where you ride Elon Musk’s Tesla to Mars!

Digging deeper, the mission builder lets you create missions that include launches, landings, rescues, malfunctions, explosions, repairs and more. As you’d expect, you can share your creations with other players.

As for the missions inspired by historical moments, expect spacewalking and crash landing, but with a Kerbal twist. There are a number of new parts and astronaut suits inspired by the space race you can use, too.

These days, Kerbal Space Program is published by Private Division, the indie-focused label set up by Take-Two. It’s still developed by Mexican studio Squad though. Squad said the expansion costs £9.99, but all players who bought the game before April 2013 will get it for free.

Egyptian authorities on Sunday denied reports of alleged organ theft after the body of a British tourist who died suddenly while on holiday was returned home without some organs.

David Humphries, 62, died in the seaside resort of Hurghada on the shores of the Red Sea on September 18.

His body was returned to the UK where a second post-mortem ordered by a coroner discovered that his heart and some other organs had been removed.

Accusing the UK media of publishing "flawed reports", the Egyptian state information service (SIS) said allegations of "organ theft are unfounded".

The statement said that samples were taken and the heart, parts of the liver, kidneys and other organs had been removed in order to establish the cause of death.

It did not give an explanation as to why they had not been replaced. The service said the tourist had probably died of a heart attack, citing the medical report.

Mr Humphries’ daughter, Anita Goodall, 36, said: “We are totally in shock and don’t know what to do or think. We don’t know why this has happened to us.

“Dad will be buried without his heart. Some say that the heart is the soul and it is the heart that takes you to heaven, but dad won’t have his heart to take with him.

“Dad was such a kind and generous man. He was still working and seemed so fit and so full of life. Everyone who knew him will miss him.”

In another case in Hurghada on August 21, travel operator Thomas Cook moved all its clients to another hotel after a British couple died in what their daughter called "suspicious" circumstances.

Egyptian authorities say John and Susan Cooper, who fell ill and died suddenly while staying at the five-star Steigenberger Aqua Magic Hotel in the resort, succumbed to the effects of an E. coli infection.

NetherRealm has released gameplay showing off the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in DC-themed fighting game Injustice 2.

The video below shows how other members of the turtles gang fly in to finish attacks and extend combos by way of an assist. Michelangelo can kick his skateboard across the screen. Donatello, who wields a bo staff, has longer reach than the other turtles. Leonardo can chuck ninja stars, whereas Raphael looks like he’s mostly about being up close and personal. The super sees all four turtles slam into their opponent for a shellshock attack. There’s a nice Mortal Kombat Easter egg during Raphael’s victory cutscene, too.

Here’s how the turtles work in Injustice 2: by equipping one of four accessories – swords, bo staff, nunchakus or sais – you can change your character loadout to play as Leonardo, Raphael, Donatello or Michelangelo. Each has their own unique move sets, character powers and special moves. In online and tournament modes where specific loadouts are unavailable, you can select each individual turtle from the character select screen.

The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles arrive in Injustice 2 on 13th February as part of Fighter Pack 3. You can buy the Turtles on their own on 20th February priced £11.9. The other Fighter Pack 3 DLC characters are The Atom and Enchantress.

The US Navy has confirmed it is investigating 15 sailors working mainly in the nuclear reactor department of the aircraft carrier Ronald Reagan for allegations of LSD abuse.

Lt. Joe Keiley, spokesman for the Seventh Fleet, based in Japan, said that two sailors are already heading to court-martial accused of using, possessing and distributing the hallucinogenic drug, while three are waiting to see whether they will be charged as well.

Another 10 sailors were administratively disciplined. Of the 15, 14 worked in the nuclear department.

News of the LSD ring was first reported by The Wall Street Journal in February, but Lt Keiley confirmed that the initial investigation had resulted in charges.

When the allegations were first reported, the Seventh Fleet – beset by a series of problems – issued a statement saying that “the Navy has zero tolerance for drug abuse and takes all allegations involving misconduct of our sailors, Navy civilians and family members very seriously.”

Japanese authorities were also initially brought into the investigation because of suspicions that drugs were sold to Japanese residents. They dropped the case in June.

Lt Keiley said that the accused sailors had had their work reviewed.

“Out of an abundance of caution, Ronald Reagan leadership reviewed the work previously performed by the accused sailors and no improper work was identified,” he said, in an email to Navy Times.

The two facing court martial are named in charge sheets as Machinist’s Mate Nuclear 2nd Class Andrew W. Miller, who faces charges of using, possessing and trafficking the drug from January to February of this year, and Electrician’s Mate Nuclear 2nd Class Sean M. Gevero.

Gevero is also charged with distributing LSD and possessing nandrolone decanoate, an anabolic steroid.

Lawyers for the two men have not commented publicly.

Lt Keiley refused to say what rank the other 13 sailors held, but said the ship was never at risk. 

“Propulsion plant operations and maintenance are supervised by senior personnel,” he said. “Due to the defence in depth of the design and operation of the propulsion plants, the reactors aboard (the Reagan) remain safe.” 

The Seventh Fleet has been plagued by problems over the past year. 

In 2017, two ships – the USS John S. McCain and the USS Fitzgerald – were involved in separate collisions with commercial vessels, killing 17 sailors.

In August 2017 Vice Admiral Joseph Aucoin, commander of all US naval forces in the eastern Pacific, was fired as the result of a “loss of confidence in his ability to command,” the Navy said.