List Criteria: Vote for your favorite Playstation 4 titles - Don't add a game to the list if it hasn't come out yet! Lists about sony sony on Wikipedia Collection Photo: user uploaded image Iceland’s Pirate Party Is Polling In First Place Ahead Of Elections 10.27.2016 :: 10:31AM EST RyanWhitwam The political landscape is vastly different in Iceland than it is in the US. While both countries are on the verge of elections, they’re historic for very different reasons. In the US, we have two candidates with high unfavorability ratings vying for the presidency. In Iceland, the Pirate Party is currently polling in first place. The newspaper Morgunblaðið and the Icelandic Social Science Research Institute just released a poll showing the Pirate Party running at 22.6% in advance of the October 29th election. That’s a point and a half better than the ruling Independence Party and four points ahead of the Left-Greens. This is an impressive increase in support — in the 2012 election the Pirates got just 5.1% of the vote.
Iceland uses proportional representation, which encourages multiple parties to compete in an election. The party with the most support in the 63-member Althingi (national parliament) typically controls the government, but only if it controls a majority of seats or can put together an alliance to get majority support. The Pirate Party is currently on track to get 15 seats on the Althingi. That’s not enough to take the government outright, and party leaders have already said they will not ally with the Independence Party. If the Pirates do get enough support to take control, it intends to implement policies in support of privacy and the right to online anonymity. Copyright reform, once a pillar of the Pirate Party, is strangely absent from the stated platform. The party wants to make Iceland a safe data haven where information cannot be disclosed without authorization and open data formats are strongly supported. That gets at some of the same problems, but it doesn’t make any direct changes to copyright.
subscribe to our newsletter: Subscribing to a newsletter indicates your consent to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.Although this Thursday will see the release of issue 49 of The MagPi, we’re already hard at work putting together our 50th issue spectacular. As part of this issue we’re going to be covering 50 of the best Raspberry Pi projects ever and we want you, the community, to vote for the top 20. Below we have listed the 30 projects that we think represent the best of the best. All we ask is that you vote for your favourite. We will have a few special categories with some other amazing projects in the final article, but if you think we’ve missed out something truly excellent, let us know in the comments. Here’s the list so you can remind yourselves of the projects, with the poll posted at the bottom. Now you’ve refreshed your memory of all these amazing projects, it’s time to vote for the one you think is best! The vote is running over the next two weeks, and the results will be in The MagPi 50.
We’ll see you again on Thursday for the release of the excellent MagPi 49: don’t miss it!If you can add two franchises in year three what would they be? And the winner of the R500 Raru Credit is Jacobus Boel. Thank you for everyone who made the time and effort to place your votes. Here are the complete results from the 779 votes placed. Why have games like Skylanders and Disney Infinity grown? Because one study found parents spent $131 on toys-to-life products over a six-month period. Toys-to-life is working wonders for publishers’ profits, but can prove complex for families to find best value. Here’s what matters to the families I’ve worked with. While the recent trend of tying kid’s video game characters and levels to toy purchases has turned strong profits for publishers, it has also increased the complexity of finding the best value purchase for families. Industry watcher Andy Robertson assesses the state of the Toys to Life genre in 2015. The toy-game hybrid trend came about when Activision introduced Skylanders in 2011, broadened with Disney Infinity in 2013, and this year sees the arrival of Warner Bros’ Lego Dimensions.
Nintendo’s Amiibo chart the same seas but with figurines that function in multiple games. This “Toys to Life” category extends beyond consoles to tablets and smartphones with Disney Infinity and Skylanders supporting both iOS and Android. Anki Overdrive extends the toy-tablet gaming with physical robotic cars that bring the action into the real world. Disney Playmation stretches things further with Avengers, Star Wars, and Frozen wearable tech for kids that creates physical play challenges. Throughout, the dividing lines between toys, video games and outside play are being rewritten. This year’s crop further tweaks the balance between costs and benefits to players, as each jostles for position in an increasingly crowded genre. Skylanders’s developer this year is Vicarious Visions, who returns to the helm after 2013’s Skylanders: Swap Force. Skylanders Superchargers adds an array of vehicles, like cars, that enable players to unlock and customize fantasy modes of transport.
This expands the value of the physical toys by offering more than just collectable figurines that might sit on a shelf. The vehicles are each articulated and come with matching drivers. Although the figurines don’t fit in the physical vehicles as they do on the screen, by doing away with the need for a circular stand, the toys are instantly more fun to play with. In terms of value, Skylanders offers excellent backward compatibility. Every existing Skylanders character works in the new game and can drive the vehicles. Also, all of the previous Skylanders USB Portal peripherals send the characters into the game. This means that existing Portal owners can simply download the cheaper digital version and play for a fraction of the cost. Finally, kudos for ongoing support of the Wii — derided as outdated by many gamers but still a popular platform for families. This year’s Wii and 3DS games are complementary experience and look to offer some sort of kart racer experience with their Skylanders Superchargers Racing moniker.
Disney has the Star Wars franchise to roll out in toy-game form this year and could have sat happy in the knowledge that this would sell itself. Happily, it’s not relied on the strong brand alone but improved the game in a number of areas. Ninja Theory brings some triple-A development clout to improve the combat in the Twilight of the Republic adventure. Studio Gobo continues its good work with the Rise Against the Empire, and Sumo Digital brings it menagerie of racing skills to bear in a Disney Infinity Racing experience. These various improvements to combat, racing, and platforming each focus on a specific part of the game but apply enhancements throughout. As ever, the killer feature for Disney Infinity is the Toy Box game creator. While families may find it frustrating that only certain characters can be used in certain playset adventures, they can combine any and all of them in the game creator mode. The biggest negative here is the way Infinity uses its banner Star Wars original trilogy content at launch.