Before dying, Lambert hands Joe a portable time machine and instructs him to find his younger self and explain to him what happened that day. Lambert, and that he is from the future attempting to prevent an extinction event. When cleaning the company's basement laboratories, Joe finds an elderly man dying in a chamber housing an odd device.
One day, his superiors assign him to take over the duties of his co-worker Frank, who has left the company. In 1972, a janitor named Joe works for the American company Archon. An example might be trying to find a way to open a door, and locating the means by time-travelling to locate an object that can overcome this. The game is divided into chapters, with each requiring the player to complete puzzles in order to advance to the next one. The main element of play includes a portable time machine that allows the protagonist to shift between the present and the future, allowing them to find objects in both to solve puzzles in each era.
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.The Silent Age functions on a simple point and click interface, in which players can interact with specific objects when the cursor is over them, and must solve a series of puzzles to advance, mainly by finding items needed to overcome obstacles. This week in the U.K., the president of the motoring association AA said prices are “crippling the lives of those on lower incomes, rural areas and businesses,” and the government must intervene.ĪP video journalist Terry Chea in San Francisco contributed to this report.Ĭopyright © The Associated Press.
In Washington last month, House Democrats voted for a bill to crack down on what they called price gouging by oil companies, but Republican opposition made Senate approval unlikely. On both sides of the Atlantic, pressure is growing on governments to do something to help motorists.
consumer prices in April were 8.3% higher than a year ago - only slightly better than March inflation, which was the highest since 1981. Pump prices are surging just as consumers try to cope with inflation in the cost of food, housing, cars, airline tickets and other needs and wants. The owner of one of the nation’s largest refineries, in Houston, announced in April that it will close the facility by the end of next year. Refiners have been reluctant to invest in new facilities because the transition to electric vehicles is casting doubt on long-term demand for gasoline. That has put pressure on remaining refiners to run hard to meet rising demand. refining capacity to drop by about 800,000 barrels a day since the start of 2020, according to government figures. The pandemic led to refinery closures that have caused U.S. We need every barrel of refining capacity we can get.” “We have very little margin for error this summer. “I’m afraid we’re not at the end of the road yet,” said GasBuddy analyst Patrick De Haan. In the meantime, any unexpected refinery shutdowns - for example, from a hurricane along the Texas and Louisiana Gulf Coast - could send prices spiraling higher. This week, gasoline prices in the United Kingdom hit a record 182.3 pence ($2.30) per liter, or about $8.80 per gallon.Īnalysts expect prices will keep rising until they get so high that demand falls - nobody knows exactly when or where that might be. The high of $4.11 a gallon then would be equal to about $5.40 a gallon today.Īmericans aren’t the only ones paying more to fill up. While the $5 mark on average is new, Americans paid more for gasoline back in July 2008, when inflation is considered.
He blames the government, and the war in Ukraine, for the high gas prices. “Less food, less playtime because I got to get gas. “It’s a lot of other things I can’t do because I have to pay for gas, you know what I’m saying?” McZeal said. The prices have forced him to change his behavior and make different choices, like turning down people who ask for rides unless they’re willing to kick in for gas. Quentin McZeal of Oakland, California, said it used to cost him $100 to fill up his tank and now it’s more like $140-$160. The lowest average is in Georgia, at $4.41. Several other Western states and Illinois are higher than $5.50. They track the cost of crude oil, which was rising even before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine drove oil even higher.įears of short supplies are being compounded by demand, which usually picks up around Memorial Day at the end of May - the unofficial start of summer and vacation trips in the U.S.Ĭalifornia has the highest average price, at $6.40 a gallon, according to AAA. Pump prices have been rising steadily for months, shooting past the $4 mark in early March.