The 2021 Formula 1 season ended messily, to put it lightly, and the FIA is hoping technology will prevent a repeat. As part of a string of changes, Formula 1 is implementing a "Virtual Race Control Room" akin to the Video Assistance Referee (VAR) you see in soccer. The "backup" will sit outside the circuit and use a real-time link with the race director to enforce rules using the "most modern technological tools."
The race director will also be cut off from direct radio communications to reduce pressure. It will still be possible to ask questions, but there will be a strict procedure for this.
The move comes after a controversial end to the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix in December 2021. Lewis Hamilton was leading the race, with five lapped drivers sitting behind the safety car and preventing rival Max Verstappen from realistically contesting Hamilton's position. However, race director Michael Masi made the controversial decision to let those trailing drivers "unlap" themselves by passing the safety car, giving Verstappen a much easier time of challenging Hamilton's lead. With the help of fresh tires, Verstappen passed Hamilton (who was using worn tires) to win the race and, in turn, the Driver's Championship.
Hamilton's Mercedes team appealed Masi's call by pointing to rules requiring all cars to unlap themselves, and for racing to resume the following lap, rather than immediately. The team also claimed Verstappen's front wing briefly passed Hamilton while behind the safety car. Race stewards rejected the appeal.
There are no guarantees the virtual control room will improve F1 rule enforcement. This and VAR represent a shift in officiating techniques, however. Sports leagues appear less and less content to rely solely on human judgment — technology isn't replacing race directors or referees, but it might ensure their calls hold up under scrutiny.
Zwift is bringing together some of its more dedicated cyclists for another competitive riding event. On February 26th, the workout platform will host the second UCI Cycling Esports World Championships on a course set on a virtual version of Central Park in New York City.
Riders will complete two laps of the 22.5 km Knickerbocker route. The course features some glass roadways that are suspended above the park to add more elevation. Pay close attention and you'll see flying taxis zipping around too.
The competitors will all use the Wahoo Kickr V5 Smart Trainers. Zwift says these intelligently respond to climb gradients as well as simulated drift from other riders.
Since this is a virtual event, Zwift is able to shake things up a bit from traditional road races. Riders will have seven chances to pick up Mario Kart-style PowerUps during the race. They can deploy these at strategic times to temporarily increase the draft effect, boost aerodynamic efficiency or reduce the bike's weight.
Around 180 riders will compete across the men's and women's races. The winners will each receive a physical and digital championship jersey they can wear for sanctioned esports races and activities and while their avatar is active on Zwift. The event will be broadcast on Eurosport in Europe and on GCN+ and Zwift's YouTube channel around the world.
Zwift notes that all users had the chance to secure a spot in the UCI Cycling Esports World Championships through continental qualifier races. It says that while it's early days for cycling esports, some specialist riders have already emerged. As the metaverse continues to take shape, perhaps we'll start seeing more physical esports events in other disciplines.
Super Bowl 56 will occur this Sunday between the Cincinnati Bengals and the Los Angeles Rams. NFL's biggest event of the year is a television phenomenon that goes beyond just sports, be it million-dollar-commercials, the half-time concert or just an excuse to chow down on chicken wings. It used to be that the only way to watch was to either have a cable or satellite subscription, or venture out to your local sports bar. Fortunately, you now have a plethora of viewing options, including ways to stream.
Where and when?
Super Bowl 2022 will take place at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California on February 13th. The kick-off time is set for 6:30pm ET / 3:30pm PT. It'll be televised on NBC as well as Telemundo in Spanish.
How to watch with cable or satellite TV
Obviously, if you subscribe to either cable or satellite, you'll have no problem watching the Super Bowl this Sunday on your TV. This is good news if you'd rather not bother with signing up for a service online, or if you have a spotty internet connection.
How to stream the Super Bowl
Cord-cutters have plenty of ways to watch the big game this Sunday. One of them is through a live TV streaming service, as long as it carries NBC. Thankfully, a lot of them do. YouTube TV ($65/month), Hulu with Live TV ($65/month), DirecTV Stream ($70-plus/month), Sling TV ($35-plus/month) and Fubo TV ($65-plus/month) all include NBC. If you don't currently subscribe to any of these services and want to watch the game for free, you can sign up to one for a seven-day free trial period just to watch the game, and then cancel afterward. The exception is DirecTV Stream, which doesn’t offer free trials.
Alternatively, you can also watch the game through Peacock’s Premium ($5/month) or Premium Plus tier ($10/month). You can also catch it on the NBC Sports app and NBCSports.com, but only if you’re already a subscriber through other means. The aforementioned services and apps are available through your phone or streaming devices such as Roku, Fire TV, Apple TV or Google TV.
If you don't have pay-TV or a streaming service
What if you don’t want to sign up for pay TV or a streaming service? Your options are unfortunately quite limited. You can either watch the game through the NFL Mobile app or the Yahoo Sports app. Of course, you could also use an indoor antenna with your TV to simply watch the free over-the-air broadcast.
International viewers can use NFL's international game pass streaming service, which has a seven-day free trial. If you’d rather not go through that, however, check out this guide from the NFL to see if your country has a local Super Bowl broadcast partner.
What about 4K?
In 2020, Fox made history by broadcasting the Super Bowl in 4K and HDR for the first time (it was still shot in 1080p and HDR, but was upscaled to 4K in the broadcast). However, that is not an option this year. A spokesperson for NBC said that “The game will not be in 4K.” It did not give an official reason why.
Like millions of other people, I’ve been enthralled by Drive to Survive on Netflixwhich means I’m also newly obsessed with the world of Formula 1. I’m all in. I have the calendar reminders set. I watch all the practices if work permits. It has really become a thing, which means that since the season ended, there was a massive void in my sports viewing – save for the archive of F2 races on ESPN+. But watching a backlog of races is only so exciting when you’ve been following the sport and already know Oscar Piastri ran away with the title.
Enter Formula E, the all-electric racing series that began in 2014 and is governed by the FIA, the same body that oversees F1. The first two rounds took place at the end of January in Saudi Arabia, offering two full E-Prix races in one weekend. I had never watched Formula E before that weekend, but I was so starved for racing I gave it a shot. Turns out, I’ve been missing a unique racing series full of entertaining quirks.
It’s a bit weird
You expect the cars to be different internally due to their electric power sources, but the overall design is also unique. Formula E got rid of the traditional rear wing in 2018, opting instead for a split-wing construction. These cars also have front wheel fairings that reduce drag and turbulence that comes off the front tires. The combination of those two elements alone give Formula E cars a much different aesthetic than those in F1.
Qualifying is quite different in this series, too. Starting this season, there’s a Group stage with two sets of 11 drivers, ranked in order of the current Drivers' World Championship position. They attempt to set the fastest lap time in a 10-minute session. The four fastest drivers from each group move on to the Duels stage. Here, eight drivers go head-to-head in a knockout style bracket with the winners progressing until one is left.
NurPhoto via Getty Images
The winner is awarded pole position, with the runner-up starting second, semi-finalists in third/fourth and the quarter finalists in fifth/sixth. Higher position goes to the faster lap time in those rounds. Remaining drivers from the polesitters group then fill in the odd positions on the grid and those from the other set start in the even spots. It sounds overly complicated, but the head-to-head matchups were fun to watch in Diriyah.
Then there’s a thing called Attack Mode, which has to have been designed by a gamer. During each race, a driver has to hit a certain area on the track that activates an additional 25 kW of power for a specified amount of time. That duration, as well as how many times the cars have to hit that spot during the E-Prix, are determined at each event. The catch is the Attack Mode area is out of the main racing line, so if someone is right on you, you may have to give up track position in order to fulfill your obligation. Plus, there’s a color changing ring around the halo on each car, so viewers know who has Attack Mode active.
Another interesting element is Fanboost. Here, viewers can have a direct impact on the race by voting for their favorite driver on social media. Voting starts a few days before the E-Prix and closes 15 minutes after the start. The top five drivers receive a five-second power boost that can be used during the second half of the race.
Races are quick
A friend of mine has a theory about European sports, and I think he’s spot on. You can watch an event, but individually they aren’t so long that one dominates the day (unless you watch several, of course). A soccer match is over in less than two hours, and Formula 1 races are about the same. Juxtapose that with the typical three-hour or longer NFL game or MLB matchup and you quickly see that folks in Europe are onto something.
NurPhoto via Getty Images
Formula 1 races have a time limit because the cars can’t be refueled during a race. Ditto for Formula E: the cars have a finite amount of power and when it’s gone, you can’t exactly charge them up during a pit stop. For that reason, the electrified series races, or E-Prix, are limited to 45 minutes. There’s no set number of laps, just a countdown clock that keeps teams abreast of how much time is left. Once that period is up, there’s one additional lap to the finish. Starting this season, officials can now add up to 10 additional minutes in the event of a safety car or full-course yellow during the main racing window.
U-S-A! U-S-A!
Unlike the current lineup of F1 drivers, there’s an American running in Formula E. New to the Avalanche Andretti team this season, Oliver Askew brings his IndyCar experience to the E-Prix circuits. When it comes to Americans within sniffing distance of an F1 car, Askew and Logan Sargeant, who currently races in F2 with Carlin, are the closest.
Who knows if I’ll keep up my new Formula E habit once F1 returns in March. There’s only one more E-Prix before a long break until April, and it’s this weekend in Mexico City. At the very least, I could see Formula E filling the void when there’s an off week between Grand Prix, which is exactly what it has done to get me through the final stages of the F1 offseason.
Like millions of other people, I’ve been enthralled by Drive to Survive on Netflixwhich means I’m also newly obsessed with the world of Formula 1. I’m all in. I have the calendar reminders set. I watch all the practices if work permits. It has really become a thing, which means that since the season ended, there was a massive void in my sports viewing – save for the archive of F2 races on ESPN+. But watching a backlog of races is only so exciting when you’ve been following the sport and already know Oscar Piastri ran away with the title.
Enter Formula E, the all-electric racing series that began in 2014 and is governed by the FIA, the same body that oversees F1. The first two rounds took place at the end of January in Saudi Arabia, offering two full E-Prix races in one weekend. I had never watched Formula E before that weekend, but I was so starved for racing I gave it a shot. Turns out, I’ve been missing a unique racing series full of entertaining quirks.
It’s a bit weird
You expect the cars to be different internally due to their electric power sources, but the overall design is also unique. Formula E got rid of the traditional rear wing in 2018, opting instead for a split-wing construction. These cars also have front wheel fairings that reduce drag and turbulence that comes off the front tires. The combination of those two elements alone give Formula E cars a much different aesthetic than those in F1.
Qualifying is quite different in this series, too. Starting this season, there’s a Group stage with two sets of 11 drivers, ranked in order of the current Drivers' World Championship position. They attempt to set the fastest lap time in a 10-minute session. The four fastest drivers from each group move on to the Duels stage. Here, eight drivers go head-to-head in a knockout style bracket with the winners progressing until one is left.
NurPhoto via Getty Images
The winner is awarded pole position, with the runner-up starting second, semi-finalists in third/fourth and the quarter finalists in fifth/sixth. Higher position goes to the faster lap time in those rounds. Remaining drivers from the polesitters group then fill in the odd positions on the grid and those from the other set start in the even spots. It sounds overly complicated, but the head-to-head matchups were fun to watch in Diriyah.
Then there’s a thing called Attack Mode, which has to have been designed by a gamer. During each race, a driver has to hit a certain area on the track that activates an additional 25 kW of power for a specified amount of time. That duration, as well as how many times the cars have to hit that spot during the E-Prix, are determined at each event. The catch is the Attack Mode area is out of the main racing line, so if someone is right on you, you may have to give up track position in order to fulfill your obligation. Plus, there’s a color changing ring around the halo on each car, so viewers know who has Attack Mode active.
Another interesting element is Fanboost. Here, viewers can have a direct impact on the race by voting for their favorite driver on social media. Voting starts a few days before the E-Prix and closes 15 minutes after the start. The top five drivers receive a five-second power boost that can be used during the second half of the race.
Races are quick
A friend of mine has a theory about European sports, and I think he’s spot on. You can watch an event, but individually they aren’t so long that one dominates the day (unless you watch several, of course). A soccer match is over in less than two hours, and Formula 1 races are about the same. Juxtapose that with the typical three-hour or longer NFL game or MLB matchup and you quickly see that folks in Europe are onto something.
NurPhoto via Getty Images
Formula 1 races have a time limit because the cars can’t be refueled during a race. Ditto for Formula E: the cars have a finite amount of power and when it’s gone, you can’t exactly charge them up during a pit stop. For that reason, the electrified series races, or E-Prix, are limited to 45 minutes. There’s no set number of laps, just a countdown clock that keeps teams abreast of how much time is left. Once that period is up, there’s one additional lap to the finish. Starting this season, officials can now add up to 10 additional minutes in the event of a safety car or full-course yellow during the main racing window.
U-S-A! U-S-A!
Unlike the current lineup of F1 drivers, there’s an American running in Formula E. New to the Avalanche Andretti team this season, Oliver Askew brings his IndyCar experience to the E-Prix circuits. When it comes to Americans within sniffing distance of an F1 car, Askew and Logan Sargeant, who currently races in F2 with Carlin, are the closest.
Who knows if I’ll keep up my new Formula E habit once F1 returns in March. There’s only one more E-Prix before a long break until April, and it’s this weekend in Mexico City. At the very least, I could see Formula E filling the void when there’s an off week between Grand Prix, which is exactly what it has done to get me through the final stages of the F1 offseason.
Salt and Sacrificewill make its way to PlayStation 4, PS5 and PC via the Epic Games Store on May 10th, developer Ska Studios announced today. Like its predecessor, 2016’s Salt and Sanctuary, Salt andSacrifice is an action role-playing title inspired by FromSoftware classics like Dark Souls and Demon’s Souls.
At the start of the game, your character is drafted into an organization known as the Inquisition and tasked with hunting down mages that have been corrupted by their magic into towering monsters. With each one you’re able to overcome, you’ll have the ability to craft new weapons and armor. Salt and Sacrifice puts a greater emphasis on multiplayer than its predecessor with the inclusion of sub-factions you can join within the Inquisition that focus on co-operative play and player-versus-player combat. That said, James Silva, the game’s creator, made a point of noting in a recent PlayStation Blog that you’re free to ignore that aspect of the game.
Between Elden Ringand Salt and Sacrifice, 2022 is shaping up to be another exciting year for fans of challenging action RPGs.
If you owned a Wii back in the day, you owned a copy of Wii Sports, packaged in with most versions of the console. It was both a showcase for the motion controls, an all-ages advertisement for the system and just a plain great time. Its enormous popularity has led many to ask, “will there ever be a sports game for the Switch” and in today's Nintendo Direct we finally got an answer.
Nintendo Switch Sports is an upcoming title for the Switch that features activities like badminton, volleyball, tennis, soccer, chambara (sword fighting) and, of course, bowling. It’s a direct sequel and/or descendent of Wii Sports, featuring similar aesthetics, music and yes, customizable Miis. This time around players will use the Joy-Con controllers for the motion aspect, and the game will even include a leg strap for kicking action.
The title supports local and online play, with friends and random matchmaking. Two updates are planned after launch — the first puts in the ability to use the leg strap to play soccer, and the second will add golf to the roster of sports. As for that initial release date? Pick up this game April 29th, making it a great gift for Mother’s or Father’s Day in the US. (Parents and grandparents loved Wii Sports, after all.)
Mario Strikers isn’t the most popular of the Mario sub-franchises, but it does have its devotees. Today was their day with the announcement of the latest game in the series, Mario Strikes Battle League, for the Nintendo Switch. This is only the third Mario Strikers game ever, following Super Mario Strikers on the GameCube and Mario Strikers Charged for the Wii, released way back in 2007. So yeah, it’s been a decade and a half since we last saw a Mario-themed soccer game, making today’s announcement quite a surprise.
However, as go all sports in the Mushroom Kingdom, Mario Strikers Battle League adds some distinct fantasy twists to the “most beautiful game.” The titular game, “Strike,” is described as a “heavy on offense” five-on-five sport. And by offense they mean aggressively so, with the ability to slam opponents, throw items and even use special attacks. Players can also customize their characters with gear for even more abilities — it’s a lot like the Mario Kart series in that aspect. This new installment will allow up to eight players per match, in four on four teams. And yes, there’s online play, with Club Mode to let you compete with friends, family and strangers over a season.
Because this is a World Cup year, you can expect to see this new title June 10th, though preorders begin today over on Nintendo’s site.
Hyper-capable AIs have been beating us at our own games for years. Whether it’s Go or Jeopardy, DOTA 2 or Nethack, artificial intelligences have routinely proven themselves superior competitors, helping advance not only the state of gaming arts but also those of machine learning and computational science as well. On Wednesday, Sony announced its latest addition to the field, GT Sophy, an AI racer capable of taking on — and beating — some of the world’s best Gran Turismo players.
GT Sophy (the GT stands for “Gran Turismo”) is the result of a collaboration between Sony AI, Polyphony Digital (PDI) and Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE), as well as more than half a decade of research and development.
“Gran Turismo Sophy is a significant development in AI whose purpose is not simply to be better than human players, but to offer players a stimulating opponent that can accelerate and elevate the players’ techniques and creativity to the next level,” Sony AI CEO, Hiroaki Kitano, said in a statement Wednesday. “In addition to making contributions to the gaming community, we believe this breakthrough presents new opportunities in areas such as autonomous racing, autonomous driving, high-speed robotics and control.”
Utilizing as novel deep reinforcement learning method, the research team taught its AI agent how to control a digital race car within the structure of the GT game, helping Sophy to understand vehicle dynamics and capabilities, as well as racing tactics like slipstreaming, passing and blocking overtakers and basic track etiquette.
“To drive competitively GT Sophy had to learn to control the car at the physical limit, optimize for braking and acceleration points, as well as find the right lines that squeeze the last tenth of a second out of the track,” Michael Spranger, COO of Sony AI, said during the presentation. “But raising also means that you're not alone on the track, so Sophie has to find lines to pass opponents, taking into account the opponent's reaction, as well as complex, aerodynamic interactions between cars.”
Sony trained its AI using deep reinforcement learning to optimize its ability to stay on track. “Sophy observes the environment, such as the car speed and acceleration, the relative position, of course borders and opponents, as well as the progress of the car along the track,” Spranger explained. “Based on these inputs, GT Sophy learns to take actions, such as using a throttle steering or braking.”
“To learn,” he continued, “Sophy gets a positive signal — a reward — when things are going well, when it is making focus on the track and overtaking other cars. [Sophy receives] a negative signal when things are not going well through continuous interaction with the game.”
The initial results were impressive, with Sophy beating 95 percent of the humans pitted against her within the first two days of training. What’s more, the AI continued to shave time off of her splits throughout the following week. In an exhibition race Wednesday against some of Japan’s top Gran Turismo drivers — with four Sophy variants going up against a quartet of humans — the AI took the checkered flag and two of the top four positions on the game’s Lago Maggiore circuit. The winning AI agent began the race in pole position and stayed there through all three laps, eventually beating the pack by more than five seconds. The AIs were not running on rails, however, as evidenced by one agent misjudging a passing attempt then understeering through a turn and promptly running head on into the wall and out of competition.
“This is not just a technical breakthrough project,” Sony Group CEO, Kenichiro Yoshida, said during Wednesday’s press event. “It really is about bringing AI into the hands of the game developers who are going to build new experiences for the players.”
Players will soon be able to pit themselves against Sophy, and potentially have her on hand as either an in-game driving coach or in-race teammate. Gran Turismo 7 for the PS4 and PS5 will be released on March 4th and Sony executives expect the AI to be added in a future update.
Grindr is tightening privacy controls for the Olympic Village in Beijing. Bloomberg has learned the gay dating app is blocking people outside the Village from using the location-based Explore feature to find athletes in or near the area. The move is meant to protect athletes from harassment or persecution so they can "feel confident" connecting with each other during the Winter Olympic Games, Grindr for Equality director Jack Harrison-Quintana said.
Anyone who uses Grindr inside the Village will see a pop-up telling them people outside the area can't browse the locale using Explore. "Your privacy is important to us," Grindr says in the alert. This is the first time Grindr has provided such a notice.
Previously, Grindr users anywhere could find Olympians through Explore. The openness created a serious problem for athletes from countries that either criminalize LGBTQ sexuality or have strong cultural prejudices against it. The issue is more than just hypothetical — Insidernotes TikTok and Twitter users found numerous athlete dating profiles during the Summer Olympics in Tokyo, and an American news site retracted an article that found LGBTQ athletes during the 2016 summer games in Rio de Janeiro.
The potential for abuse was already slightly limited after Grindr pulled its client from Apple's App Store in China due to concerns about cross-border data regulations (the app itself remains functional). If all goes well, though, the measure will let gay athletes connect during the Beijing Olympics without fearing what happens when they return home.
