Banana Pro

Lemaker, a Chinese newcomer to the hobbyist electronics scene, isn’t a company to shy away from controversy. As the name implies, the Banana Pi is a riff on the Raspberry Pi theme but with a dual-core AllWinner A20 processor, SATA support and numerous other niceties.

The company gathered considerable ill will for its naming convention, then managed to fall out with the company it had asked to manufacture the boards – SinoVOIP. That company has now forged out on its own with Banana Pi variants, and Lemaker’s latest product suggests it’s learning from its past mistakes: it has a new manufacturing partner and a new design: the Banana Pro.

Net neutrality

The idea that all Internet traffic gets equal bandwidth, regardless of content, is up against strong resistance in the UK, warns Jim Killock

Did we win the net neutrality debate? If you’re reading US news stories, it would seem so, but in the UK, we’re in fact on the verge of another serious defeat: the European Council is pushing to weaken rules on Internet content to allow more blocking and discrimination. Net neutrality is the idea that all communications on the Internet should be treated equally. Whether you’re a small web service, an individual sharing files or a web behemoth such as Google, your messages and content should be sent along each Internet pipe in the same way, without deciding that one or another deserves better treatment.

Broken Age: Act 2

Point-and-click finale lives up to its creator’s name

Double Fine’s decision to split Broken Age into two parts caused a bit of a kerfuffle among the kind of noisy wallies who really shouldn’t be allowed to arm themselves with a Twitter account. It wasn’t what was originally promised, sure, but the exquisite production values of Act 1 more than justified the Kickstarter fund outlay, and when the money ran out the studio went ahead and funded Act 2 from its own, presumably double-lined, pockets. And, you’ll be pleased to hear that it’s a fine conclusion to the first new Tim Schafer-penned point-and-click adventure for the best part of 17 years.

Assassin’s Creed Chronicles: China

Ubisoft takes a stab at a new perspective

Typically, games progress from 2D to 3D and never look back. But it seems that Ubisoft has hidden-bladed this convention in the face and taken a leap of faith of its own as it rolls out this three-part 2.5D series: Assassin's Creed Chronicles. It sounds like a downgrade, doesn’t it? Just hold on a minute before you firebomb forums with your Ubi-rage, though, because this is actually good... well, sort of.

Deus Ex: Mankind Divided

Not to be confused with Call Of Duty: Black Ops III

Time Moves a little slower in the Deus Ex universe. While we've been lugging our weak, fleshy bodies around not solving any conspiracies for four years since Human Revolution's release, supercop Adam Jensen's story in Mankind Divided picks up just a mere two years after the events of the last game. Like we said: life just meanders along at a slower, more relaxed pace in Jensen's world. As slow and relaxed as it can be when you're being blown up by terrorists and punched through walls by baddies with steam engines for hands, anyway.