No Man’s Sky Next released – Now what’s next?

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No Man's Sky Next released - Now what's next? 1

The future of No Man’s Sky is already in the works and planned after their huge multiplayer update No Man’s Sky Next arrived last week. In a recent news post on their official page, Sean Murray, Lead Developer, thanked his team for making it through the highs and lows and sticking by the game even after the horrible launch in 2016 and silence period towards the community afterward.

Hello Games has now included the community’s input in their ARG Waking Titan over the past year. They’ve let the players build and craft its own lore in the Euclid Galaxy which is built on regions on influences between fan-made factions.

Murray wants to continue this player-induced effort in the creation of the Galactic Atlas, which is a platform that’ll contain major points of interest found in the Euclid Galaxy which were nominated by the fans in a survey. Players can still continue to develop it in the new update and Hello Games will now continue their new “community season” for some fresh feedback. The studio will be weekly content and events for all players soon- free of charge.

No Man’s Sky Next is the latest update to the game. Sean Murray also jokingly replied to a tweet by PC Gamer over the excitement of the game in two years after its launch. The Next update is a free update for PS4 and PC. So if you’re looking for a reason to pick up the game again, grab it and try it out. The game also launched for the Xbox One for the first time on the same day the patch rolled out.

The Clone Wars gets a 12 episode commission on Disney’s streaming platform

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The Clone Wars gets a 12 episode commission on Disney's streaming platform 2

At this year’s Comic-Con, a panel celebrating the 10-year anniversary of The Clone Wars had a special announcement at the end of it- a surprise season of 12 episodes has been confirmed and commissioned to run on Disney’s streaming service which launches in 2019.

Back in 2003, there was the first animated series of the Clone Wars with Genndy Tartakovsky’s 2D take that ran until 2005 with a few Emmy awards in the process. The Clone Wars then came out in 2008, this time another fully-animated but 3D series of episodes developed by Dave Filoni which ran for 5 seasons on The Cartoon Network and got a final 6 episodes on Netflix in 2014.

Now that Disney is competing directly with Netflix and developing its own streaming platform, we’ll be getting another full season of 12 episodes. With Disney’s demonstration on Netflix, there’s definitely fan demand for their shows with its Marvel series.

Whether or not the 12 episodes will be reruns is unsure. Now that Disney has the own platform, they may create some original content. Besides The Clone Wars, there will be some live-action Star Wars directed by Jon Favreau that takes place somewhere between Return of the Jedi and before The Force Awakens.

It’s a good time to be a Star Wars fan.

Marvel: Ultimate Alliance games pulled from digital stores

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Marvel: Ultimate Alliance games pulled from digital stores 3

Marvel: Ultimate Alliance and Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2 have been pulled from all digital purchasing platforms- Microsoft Store, PlayStation Store, and Steam. A user on Reddit reported the rude awakening earlier on the 26th.

This isn’t the first time Marvel games pulled a game from online stores. Deadpool is another example that’s exhibited this behavior multiple times already- twice from Steam and is still currently not available for purchase on the platform at the time of this writing.

The Marvel universe consists of many titles in many different series. It consists of big-name heroes, villains, and dozens upon dozens of lesser-known ones. The Ultimate Alliance games allowed players to team up fantasy selections of these characters and battle the villains. The games were known for their attention to detail, artwork, level system, and the game’s cosmetic costumes.

But regardless of these features, Ultimate Alliance and its Ultimate Alliance 2 can’t be purchased at the moment on those platforms. Players can still buy it in a bundle on HumbleBundle, but there’s no telling if and when it’ll be pulled from there also. If you’ve been thinking about getting this game, you should buy it now because it could disappear for some time if it’s anything like the Deadpool game. Seriously.

Pathfinder Kingmaker delayed – Announces editions and what’s included in each tier

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Pathfinder Kingmaker delayed - Announces editions and what's included in each tier 4

Pathfinder: Kingmaker developed by Owlcat Games has promised further updates for backers. It was delayed until September and the devs posted the plans for the extra content for the game, especially the pre-order versions of the game and clearing up confusion.

There will be 4 total versions of the game and each of them will include several goodies, like a Season Pass for major DLC after the game rolls out. The basic edition is called the Explorer Edition which consists of the base game and some minor DLC. It retails for $39.99. Next up is the Noble Edition which is priced at $54.99 and includes the base game, a digital art book, soundtrack, two in-game portraits, and some premium in-game items. The Royal Edition is next at $64.99 and comes with a digital map of the game’s world, Stolen Lands, and an in-game pet and tabletop RPG Adventure Module written by Chris Avellone.

The Imperial Edition is the biggest daddy of them all. Priced at $84.00, it comes with everything and the Season Pass. A lot of the game’s content will be released through several DLC packs, with 3 included in this edition. Backers have requested races, classes, and other content as there are no current details about what’s int he DLC packs. Owlcat will likely be adding these fan suggestions to the game.

Owlcat also points out that there will be about $40 of DLC. Backers who pledge $95 or more for beta access or $110 for pre-order sessions will get the season pass free.

Pathfinder: Kingmaker is based on the Kingmaker Adventure Path and is the first real game made by Paizo with official rules. The game will launch in September for the PC.

Netflix may have hit its saturation point

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Netflix may have hit its saturation point 5

Netflix didn’t make its subscriber growth targets in the three months ending in June. It missed by about a million subscribers, which scared off some investors. There are rumors that the streaming giant may have finally hit a saturation point, where it strikes a balance between subscribers subscribing and subscribers leaving. In other words, Netflix has reached all the interested audiences available and there aren’t enough people to make any significant growth for the platform overall.

Following this missed target, the stock dropped a huge 14% as reported by the BBC. This came after an impressive run that the stock was gaining over the past year.

Currently, the giant as 130M subscribers globally and projected 6.2M, but only hit about 5.2M instead. The streaming service is expected to face even more competition in the coming year. HBO Chief Executive John Stankey told his employees that the company needs to move away from prestige-programming and focus on Netflix’s high-content volume strategy. Apple also plans to launch a competing streaming service that’s in direct competition with Netflix. Disney, which currently dominates Hollywood’s landscape in properties like Marvel and Star Wars and brands with high-value will launch its own streaming platform following Netflix.

Netflix currently accounts for 8% of TV viewing overall, but it’s nothing to consider a dominant force. It’s been an investor darling in the past and many who thought it would take over TV, but that’s not the case. Netflix is often thought of as the service that’ll take over cable, but the landscape is looking for something like the old cable model in a custom built your own package. Subscribe to your channels and pay a fee. It’s not possible to bundle all of it into a service and sell it for $15/mo like Netflix.

CEO Reed Hastings told investors that they can expect good news regarding frequency and length of viewing sessions. CNBC suggests that subscribers watch an average of 10 hours per week and traditional viewers watch 20 hours, with cable being the top dog.

Netflix will spend up to $8 producing TV shows and films this year. Several series are yet to be announced, but some include Disenchantment, House of Cards, and Making a Murderer.

Wasteland 2: Director’s Cut coming to Switch; What do you get?

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Wasteland 2: Director's Cut is coming to Switch.

Wasteland 2 is a sequel to Wasteland 1, which is a spiritual predecessor of the Fallout series. Wasteland 2 features some team-based RPG action that focuses on having alternative solutions to pretty much everything int he game. For example, if you need to get across a checkpoint, you can persuade the guards, pick the lock, herd animals to distract the guards, or just run and gun. The game offers multiple branching paths for every situation in the game. That’s what makes it kinda special. But it’s not that rare nowadays anyway.

You have a wide range of skills in your squad and you can choose to use them at your disposal. How you choose your actions affects the outcome of the entire game. It’s one of those games where everything you do literally does something later on in the game.

Player decisions seem to be the new trend nowadays.

Wasteland 2 is already available for purchase. However, Nintendo is releasing Wasteland 2: Director’s Cut, which includes extra perks, VOs, improved graphics, and a new precision strike system similar to the Fallout series style. Wasteland 2’s 30th-anniversary bundle was also recently announced and includes Wasteland 2, Wasteland 1: The Original Classic, and Wasteland: 30th Anniversary Edition Remaster which will include a remaster of the classic 1988 game.

Wasteland 3 is also in the works and will be announced in 2019 for other platforms.

Wrecking Ball joins the Overwatch Crew

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Wrecking Ball joins the Overwatch Crew 6

Wrecking Ball will join the cast of Overwatch on July 24, 2018, based on a Tweet from the official Twitter account. Every year, Overwatch gets three new heroes to join the craze on almost a scheduled basis. Wrecking Ball, aka Hammond, is the newest of the bunch.

He’s just been placed on the Public Test Realm for players to mess around with. Originally, he was announced back in late June. His origin story video shows off that he’s pretty much a vermin in a mech similar to how Rumble is in League of Legends.

Wrecking Ball is a hamster if you want to be specific. He’s one of many genetical experiments that have taken place on Horizon Lunar Colony. He tied his escape pod to Winston’s shuttle as it launched for the earth and landed on the Australian outback. He then fought in mech battles in Junkertown and now he’s one of the bets.

He’s considered to be a tank and has abilities suitable for his role.

His primary weapon is his Quad Cannons which provide offensive firepower and he can also tuck into a ball for faster speeds. Players can also use a grappling claw in ball mode to slam into enemies or quickly get better positioning.

He also gets an adaptive shield which grants him a shield HP gain depending on nearby enemies. Piledriver allows him to slam his mech into the ground like a semi-ground pound from Mario. Minefield is his ultimate and deploys proximity mines all around him which is perfect for zoning enemies in the nearby area.

You can check out more info about Hammond here. He’ll be live for official play on July 24. Welcome to the gang, Hammond!

Walmart rumored to be starting a streaming platform

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Walmart rumored to be starting a streaming platform 7

Walmart is rumored to be the next contestant in the streaming arena, based on the report from The Information. The retail giant is working on its own video streaming provider platform to compete with Netflix and Amazon Instant Video.

How does Walmart get into the already saturated market? By selling its service cheaper, of course.

The report states that Walmart plans to offer it at $8/mo or lower. Netflix and Amazon are dominating the East and West coast cities because that’s where the money is.

But Walmart wants to cater towards Americans living in the midwest and other areas where Netflix and Amazon haven’t had their stake yet.

Both Netflix and Amazon are charging about $8 at the bare minimum. Netflix recently raised the price for 4K streaming and its mid-tier plan and Amazon just increased the price for their Prime membership- which is required to get Amazon Instant Video. Walmart could sneak in and dominate the lower-budget market by offering its service to middle Amerca. They’ll have to compete with Netflix and Amazon regardless of what demographic they want to target.

However, Walmart may offer it for free using an ad-based kind of like the Roku device which runs by the same concept. Walmart currently owns Vudu which is a service for buying and renting movies. But its nowhere near the popularity of Netflix or Amazon.

Walmart has also partnered with Microsoft to develop cashierless stores.

Staxel patch 1.3 – new quests, villagers, items, and a Friendship System

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Staxel patch 1.3 - new quests, villagers, items, and a Friendship System 8

Staxel has just released version 1.3 which includes a few new features like a Friendship System, new festivals, and a lot more content updates.

If you’ve never heard of Staxel , it’s a game where players are cohabitating an island that has graphics very similar to Minecraft. Players are free to do what they want in the world, such as building, exploring, and interacting with others. The game even lets player relocate a whole town or build a giant city if they wanted. It’s like Minecraft in an alternate dimension.

Staxel patch 1.3 - new quests, villagers, items, and a Friendship System 9

Staxel patch 1.3 - new quests, villagers, items, and a Friendship System 10

In the 1.3 update, the first update is the Friendship System. It allows you to track your relationship with the city folk and doing things like interacting with them and talking with them will only get you the occasional gift and special Friendship Quests. You can also gift them and even have one move into your home as a roommate. The villagers also now have improved interaction with each other so it feels more like a village.

Staxel also received some new content in the form of festivals. Festivals allow players to earn rare items and do special in-game events. The announcement made by the developers on the Steam page didn’t go into detail as to what they are, so you’ll have to play the game to find out.

Other content includes new quests, items, and villagers. You can check out the full patch notes for the full list of updates in 1.3. Staxel’s new patch is now available to all players.

Steam Bans over 90,000 Steam Accounts

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Steam removes movies and videos.

Valve has now banned over 90K Steam accounts in an apocalyptical purge that spanned over the past few days. This is all from Valve’s VAC (Valve Anti-Cheat) system. VAC is Steam’s proprietary anti-cheat system built into the majority of their first-party games and just a few third-party titles. It works by a complex process of monitoring gameplay data and banning any possibles signs of third-party tools or hack tools. It’s just like Punkbuster which is used in many popular games like the Battlefield series.

Valve’s swinging of the banhammer is nothing new. They come in waves and this time around they found over 60K players that were abusing games. SteamDB shows a data graph that depicts the huge and beautiful spike in user bans as Steam continues the cleansing process.

VAC bans are usually a one-time thing and there’s no way to restore your account back to fully active. Banned players lose a number of account privileges, such as playing on VAC servers, gifting other players, uploading content to the Steam community, voting on Workshop content, and more. They can still buy games, of course.

The biggest hit would be the loss of item trading. Games like CS: GO is one of many games where items fetch top dollar and are protected by VAC. Some items can be worth thousands of dollars. Players who were banned won’t be able to trade their items with other players. Valve will continue to ban hackers so if you have anything of value, don’t get caught or else risk getting slammed with Steam’s giant banhammer. It’s probably not worth it.

You can see some nice graphics depicting the ban here on SteamDB.

Classic Skype is being killed off; Users need to upgrade to new Skype

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Classic Skype is being killed off; Users need to upgrade to new Skype 11

Skype has long been the go-to VoIP program and now has a confusing distribution. You have the Classic client which dates back to the days before Skype was bought by Microsoft. And then you have a modern version which is the one equipped on today’s computer by default. Microsoft hasn’t really pushed for universal development across its Skype apps across all platforms- Windows, macOS, Linux, and mobile.

Just last week they’ve released a new version of the application which allows for some new features.

It can now allow video chat with screen-sharing in full HD up to 1080p with a maximum of 24 people at once. It also allows @mentions and chat alerts with full file sharing up to 300MB of content. It’s also easier to find historically shared files with a built-in gallery like a phone’s album.

Microsoft also plans to add integrated call recording, read receipts, and fully secure audio and video calls. They’ll also be adding support for the NDI API to allow Skype to be used as an audio/video source on streaming platforms like Twitch.

In August of this year, they’ll be ending support for the Classic version. Users will be forced to upgrade in order to continue using Skype. Perhaps this will speed up development now that they just need to focus on one platform rather than two. Some features are way overdue.

 

Chrome Browser getting a new UI overhaul with Google’s Material Design Theme

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Chrome Browser getting a new UI overhaul with Google's Material Design Theme 12

The Chrome Browser is getting a major UI redesign soon. New changes have already been live in the Canary build. The new version is focused on Material Desing across all its products for a similar look and feel. It’s officially dubbed the Google Material Theme after already being debuted in Android P and Gmail. Now it’s going to roll out to the Chrome Browser.

The tab and address bar are underway for some significant changes. The tab bar now shows a rectangular shape with rounded corners and tab separation is also different. If you’re using a single tab, there’s no distinct tab shape at all. The focused tab is white and the background of the tab bar is also white so it blends into one bar. If you’re using only a single tab, it makes sense.

Chrome Browser getting a new UI overhaul with Google's Material Design Theme 13

When you have multiple tabs, then the background switches to a light grey and then background tabs will get vertical pipe separators rather than their own tab.

Getting a new tab has also been replaced with a huge plus button rather the current blank, unlabeled button. On Macs, it’ll be on the left-hand side instead of the right.

The address bar is rounded now just like on Android phones. The autocomplete drop down is a rectangular box instead of a bar. A new account button for Chrome Sync is also more apparent and shows your profile picture instead of the name.

Material Design is Google’s new theme and they’re really pushing it out. It’ll roll out to Windows and Mac platforms soon after it gets into the Stable channel for release.

Enter the Gungeon’s free expansion Advanced Gungeons and Dragons coming July 19th

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Enter the Gungeon's free expansion Advanced Gungeons and Dragons coming July 19th 14

Advanced Gungeons and Draguns expansion is set to launch next week. It’s a free expansion to the cult roguelike Enter the Gungeon, which is available for Switch, PS4, Xbox One, and PC. The expansion will have a ton of content which includes new items, enemies, ammo types, rooms, synergies, drop rates, and a lot more. The … Read more

Nintendo building more “hack-proof” Switch Consoles

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Nintendo building more "hack-proof" Switch Consoles 15

A few months back, there was the word of a new “unpatchable” exploit on the Nintendo Switch which allowed hackers to run custom firmware, homebrew consoles, and of course, pirated games and software on the Switch’s existing hardware.

Nintendo has been reported that they’ve patched the exploit by selling newly-patched hardware in newer Switch models that have been fixed at the factory-level in order to prevent the exploit.

The report comes from SciresM, a well-known hacker in the Switch world, who wrote that some Switch units on retail shelves are not vulnerable to the exploit known as “Fusée Gelée.” SciresM also suspects that Nintendo has used the iPatch system on the GPU to burn the protective code into the boot ROM, which cuts of the USB recovery mode overflow error that was the previous entry point.

The iPatches are simple for Nintendo to patch in while the console is being produced in the factory, but it’s impossible to load onto the millions of Switch units that are already in circulation.

The newer “patched” units are running firmware version 4.1.0, which has been outdated since the 5.0.0 release in March. This means that they’re not really new in terms of firmware, but rather suggests that the “patched” units were already built earlier this year and Nintendo was on the case.

Nintendo is reported to have utilized data from various hacking groups like Team fail0verflow and Team ReSwitched to get the head start in order to protect their hardware before the hack was released to the public. These groups told the big N about the vulnerabilities before they released their hacks, which gave Nintendo some time to patch it in the next update. That explains the older firmware version.

Regardless, the older firmware is still vulnerable to a software-level exploit called deja vu, which was patched in systems with 5.0.0 or later. This puts Nintendo in a cycle between the two exploits.

So to keep things simple: the 4.1.0 units are “patched” against “Fusée Gelée,” but are vulnerable to deja vu. Whereas the new 5.0.0 units are safe from deja vu, but vulnerable to “Fusée Gelée.” Quite a pickle.

For now, Nintendo continues to ban hacked systems from its network.

Super Indie Karts “Ultra Update” races onto Steam Early Access

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Super Indie Karts "Ultra Update" races onto Steam Early Access 16

Super Indie Karts is a 16-bit kart racer that features drivers and tracks from a variety of games like Duck Game, Runbow, and Freedom Planet. The game is heavily inspired by the original Super Mario Kart with flat tracks and sharp, hairpin turns. 90s kids will remember that the original and Mario Kart 64 were the best of the bunch. And only 90s kids will be able to drown in the nostalgia of the VHS trailer for the Super Indie Karts’ Ultra Update. The update includes a whole slew of new features to the game which turns it into a more modern, yet retro classic.

Just jump around in this promo vid and you’ll see the similarity between the two games:

The “Ultra” release rolls out on July 19th and includes a whole new est of tracks that feature more obstacles, modern layouts, and an N64 design with polygonal shapes but keeps the original theme of the game. Super Indie Karts is obviously the type of indie mashup game you’d expect from a crowdfunded indie dev.

The game’s characters look the same with their original sprites but they’re on newly redesigned tracks. It sports various sets of tracks based on SNES graphics and another group of tracks in a futuristic VR-like setting. These are the main game modes.

For those who want some multiplayer action (some people only played Mario Kart for BlockFortresss, believe it or not), the game will also have a battle mode. The total number of tracks is about 50, which is more than any Mario Kart game on the planet to my knowledge (not including mirror tracks)!

Development of Super Indie Karts started in May of 2015 and has been slowly racing towards the finish. One Legged Seagull started a Kickstarter campaign. He wanted to include all the content he could before releasing the game to avoid another future sequel. Players will get the full feature upon release date, which is currently scheduled for 2018 on Steam and is currently available in Early Access.

Battle For Azeroth Pre-Patch; What’s new?

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Battle For Azeroth Pre-Patch; What's new? 17

World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth’s pre-patch will be released tomorrow, July 17th. After much speculation, Blizzard has revealed the survival guide for the pre-patch. It’s been a longstanding practice by Blizzard, dating all the way back to The Burning Crusade, which was the very first expansion ever made for WoW. Each time an expansion rolls out, they’ve gotten more creative and involved.

The version 8.0 pre-patch includes quests that set the scene for the whole faction war between the Alliance and the Horde. For players who want to do these quests, be sure to complete them before the official patch comes out because they won’t be accessible afterward. Artifact weapons will also be swept away with their effects integrated into class talents/abilities instead. This also means class changes. Classes will be revamped with new buffs and nerfs, but it shouldn’t be the level of Legion. The goal is to create more uniqueness between the classes:

“While we believe some specializations will need substantial iteration to achieve these goals, others will not, and our target is greater stability across the board.”

Other notable changes in 8.0:

 

  • A new open world PvP system – War Mode for PvP, off for PvE. No need to rerolls for wrong servers. Keeping it on will reward you with extra experience and rewards when questing
  • PvP talents and progression
  • Each profession will now have crafting categories separated by expansion
  • First Aid will be removed with bandages moved to Tailoring
  • A huge stat condensing, lowering numbers across the board to make them more readable
  • Sword swings will no longer produce six-digit numbers
  • Several abilities that were previously off the global cooldown are included

The full patch notes will be available before the pre-patch release. The Battle for Azeroth patch will roll out on August 14th.

 

EA acquires mobile “hardcore” game company Industrial Toys

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EA acquires mobile "hardcore" game company Industrial Toys 18

Electronic Arts has just bought the rights to a new game developer called Industrial Toys, a game company known for developing mobile games. EA just acquired the 14-man team and they’ll be joining EA’s Worldwide Studios Organization, which currently houses other devs like Respawn Entertainment, BioWare, and Motive Studios.

Industrial Toys was founded in 2012 by an ex-Bungie person of interest. In fact, he was the founder of Bungie. That’s right. Alex Seropian and Tim Harris along with Brent Pease. Seropian and his team founded the company to make games for the touchscreen market and that their goal was to “make more hardcore games for mobile platforms” based on an interview with Joystiq.

Their studio has so far focused just on mobile games with their most popular title being Midnight Star, which is a first-person gallery shooter for iOS released in 2015. Its popularity has lead to the game to great heights with its multiple DLC packs- Midnight Rises and Midnight Star: Renegade. EA Worldwide Studios Group GM and SVP Samantha Ryan states:

“We’re thrilled to have them join our studio organization, pursue new ideas together and bring amazing new games to our players.”

So far, we don’t know what Industrial Toys’ first project will be- whether they’ll develop their own franchise with the company’s properties or continuing their current portfolio of games. EA isn’t shy about buying out companies. They’ve recently bought Respawn Entertainment and also bought the cloud-streaming technology rights from GameFly earlier this year in May. They’ve also made deals with ESPN to create an eMLS for FIFA 18, and Disney XD  to broadcast competitive Madden streams.

Surface Go announced – Get pricing, specs, and details

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Surface Go announced - Get pricing, specs, and details 19

Microsoft announced the newest member of the Surface line of computers- the Surface Go.

After many weeks of rumors, speculation, and leaks, it’s about time that the tech giant went ahead and confirm the news. The latest attempt before the Surface Go was the Surface 3, which was a budget tablet but didn’t really take off. The Surface Go is likely what the Surface 4 would’ve been if the same branding was used.

Let’s talk specs.

The Surface Go features a smaller screen compared to the Surface Pro. It has a 10” 1800 x 1200 display and an Intel Pentium Gold 4415Y (two core, four thread Kaby Lake CPU). It also has only 64GB of storage via eMMC. It’s pretty much a weaker version of the Pro. It’s even got a reduced battery runtime at 9 hours.

But all this makes it a lot more affordable- it’s priced at $399 for the base model versus $799 for the base Surface Pro.

Besides the specs, it still has all the same Surface design elements. It’s got the variable kickstand, 8MP rear 5MP front cameras, Windows Hellow facial recognition, Surface Connect magnetic charging dock and port, 10-finger multitouch display with Surfcae Pen support. It even still has the microSDXC card reader and 3.5mm headset jack with a USB 3.1 gen 1 Type-C port. Because it has a samll size, it’ll accompany new smaller Type Covers and won’t work with the Surface Pro fittings. A new Surfaece Mobile Mouse will be launched for it if you need an external pointer.

The target demograhpic remains the same- professionals ans students. With a more affordable model of hte Surface line, it can compete with mid-priced laptops and gain more exposure for the Surface products.

Preorders for the Go will offer two hardware variants at four price points available in the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, UK, Ireland, France, Germany, Austria, Belgium, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Switzerland, Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden, Poland, Taiwan, Italy, Portugal, Spain, Malaysia, and Thailand.

At $399, you get the base model which has 4GB RAM/64GB eMMC storage and Windows 10 Home. For an extra $50, you get Windows 10 Pro. For $150 etra, you get 8GB RAM/ 128GB SSD.

The Surface Go Type Covers are also available at $99 or $129 for the fabric-covered Alcantara materials. The pointer is $24.99. Hardware is due on August 2, 2018.

Later on, the Surface Go will include LTE and 256GB SSDs. It seems like Microsoft is trying to expand to the educational market with the lower price point- making it easier for students to afford the device and utilize its capabilities to the fullest. It’d be a shame to let it go to waste at this price point.

Image via Microsoft.

Source: ArsTechnica.

The Princess Guide confirmed for release in 2019; Get the details

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The Princess Guide confirmed for release in 2019; Get the details 20

NIS America just announced that it’ll be released The Princess Guide to the Nintendo Switch and PS4 sometime next year. It was previously called Your Four Knight Princesses Training Story and has renamed to fit a Western market. It’s developed by Nippon Ichi was released March 8th in Japan. It was part of NIS America’s lineup at the Anime Expo this year.

The game is basically an action RPG where you play as a knight whose job is to tutor one of four princesses in a land with spawling monsters. The selection of princesses varies in personality and style. You can choose from Alpana, who’s a dragon princess. Or Liliartie, who’s a merchant full of greed. Depending on your playstyle, each princess offers something new to the table and every princess can be trained by scolding or praising them for their actions.

Your actions determine their skills on the battlefield when you encounter enemies. You can command her directly on the field and see how your choices affected her outcome.

The game got some modest reviews in Japan so far. Nippon Ichi wasn’t announced at NISA’s press event earlier this year, so this game is a definite surprise. This is their first game that’s been confirmed to release. Anyone who likes this kind of “princes maker” game should be in for a treat- not to get it confused with the Princess Maker games.

There will also be a collector’s edition for both consoles.

Netflix getting rid of user reviews – permanently

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Netflix getting rid of user reviews - permanently 21

User-written reviews on streaming giant Netflix will soon dissipate into thin air. Based on a report from CNET, Netflix has plans to completely remove user-generated reviews from its platform this summer. It’ll take place in a few different phases- by July 30, writing reviews for shows and movies will be halted. In August, existing reviews will be completely wiped from the servers.

Netflix stated that the reviews had “declining usage over time” and therefore have become obsolete. Therefore, they’ve decided to remove the written reviews and stick with the thumbs up/down system. It’s also been reported that they’ve notified any user who has used the feature recently.

The ability to write and read user reviews have been already limited to the desktop version of Netflix. They don’t show up in any of Netflix’s apps across any platform, but the rating system is still intact on both the desktop and apps.

Previously, they used a star rating system which was replaced with a thumbs voting system. They claim that it’s easier to use the thumb system and it’s more accurate for personal recommendations of shows and movies, which may increase user engagement. A report from Variety says that the company saw a whopping 200% increase in ratings when they switched to the thumb rating system.

Netflix has also been testing a new subscription tier in Europe. It’s called Ultra and it allows an account to watch Ultra HD content for just about $20 USD.

Planet Coaster Vintage DLC pack coming July 10; What’s new?

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Planet Coaster Vintage DLC pack coming July 10; What's new? 22

The new DLC for Planet Coaster is set to launch on July 10, 2018, based on a post on their official site. Planet Coaster is the modern RollerCoaster Tycoon and is one of several newer entries into the theme park simulator genre. It’s developed by a team of people that features many of the same members who developed RCT 3.

So far, a few DLCs have been released and plenty of free updates keeping the game fresh since its initial release back in 2016. The new DLC is called the Vintage Pack and is a paid content release.

It’ll feature two new wooden coasters- the Zephyrus which is a fast wooden coaster and Aces Sky which has biplane carriages and navigates sideways through a huge wooden tunnel. It’ll also have five new regular rides, such as Round The World which is similar to a standard Ferris wheel, Loop Da Loop which is an old-school twin-cabin swinging inverter ride, and Test Flight which is an inverting plane that allows guest control. Hurricane and Centrum are both carnival classics that make up the remainder of the new regular rides in the Vintage Pack DLC.

There are also new machines that can be added to the park with this new update. Gumball and popcorn and even an animatronic that predicts the future can all be added throughout the park in order to keep guests happy and your income flowing. You can also set the odds of these machines in order to increase your profit margins or make the tradeoff for guest happiness.

And lastly, the pack adds a bunch of vintage scenery to the game (to no surprise) and wall sets will be available with this update.

If you’re not interested in this DLC or you’re just not a DLC buyer, there will also be a free update to the game that brings recolorable staff, photo filters, free coasters, and more. Thank the developers for keeping the game interesting and updated.

Confirmed: Rend leaving beta and entering early access July 31

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Confirmed: Rend leaving beta and entering early access July 31 23

Rend’s is set to launch on Steam’s Early Access program on July 31st. The game will cost $29.99 and will instantly allow access to all the content available. The closed alpha is now over and the game is entering the next step in its lifecycle.

Developer Frostkeep Studios laid out the roadmap for the game back in May. The jotted down the major milestones of the alpha and feedback that was taken into account. Now the game is set to launch after being developed and built based on meeting those goals and feedback reports.

The community feedback was a huge portion in shaping how the game was developed. Co-Founder and CEO of Frostkeep Jeremy Wood states that early access “marks a pivotal moment” for the studio. They actually use the program for the way its intended t be used- to garner feedback from the players and develop the game according to how the players want it to be built. Now, it’s about to be released to the masses and even more player feedback will be available for Frostkeep to analyze and build Rend around.

“Our standard for Early Access is simple: the game must be in a state such that if we were to never touch its code ever again, Rend would be considered a finished, complete game worth its buy-to-play-only price. We believe this was the original vision for Early Access and we will hold ourselves and our games to that standard. You should too.”

You can see more updates on Rend’ here. They recently posted about their new UI system and the new creatures and biomes you’ll encounter.

Here’s a developer interview conducted by TechRaptor:

Tesla partners with California utility company PG&E to build another facility

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Tesla partners with California utility company PG&E to build another facility 24

California’s utility company Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) requested that the state approve four lithium-ion battery storage initiatives last week. One would be built by Tesla and owned by PG&E while the others would be operated by a third-party. Tesla and PG&E project is a huge battery storage facility that would deliver 730MWh of power.

Tesla’s contrast with PG&E hints that it could be increased to 1.1GWh. It’s expected to discharge 182.5MW over a span of 4 hours, but it could be increased up to 6 hours with just 1.1GWh of storage owned by PG&E. Tesla is the current pioneer in electric power. Last year, Tesla built the largest lithium-ion battery in the world. It’s located in S. Austrailia and has a 100MW of battery storage.

This kind of storage allows more renewable energy because it’s independent of wind speed fluctuations or weather conditions such as a cloud cover. The battery would delivery necessary power during those fluctuations. The project will be located in California near Monterey Bay at the Moss Landing. PG*E expects it to be finished by 2019 with the approval of the California Public Utilities Commission.

One other project is being built by energy company Vistra. They want to build the world’s first grid-scale lithium-ion battery installation that can store more than a GWh of energy. The company hasn’t chosen a provider for its batteries yet, but it plans to use existing points at Moss Landing just like the PG&E/Telsa project.

All of these projects depend on the CPUC’s approval. A response is usually expected within 90 days following the project proposal. If approved, the project should be relatively quick given that it’ll be completed within a year from now.

PS VR Shooter Firewall Zero Hour release date, pre-order specials, and formats

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PS VR Shooter Firewall Zero Hour release date, pre-order specials, and formats 25

Firewall Zero Hour, a new squad-based shooter from First Contact Entertainment will launch on August 28th, 2018.

The release date was confirmed on a post on the PS blog. The creative producer of the game Damoun Shabestari talks about the game’s formats, release date, some gameplay features.

From the trailer of it, it looks like a Rainbow Six game in VR. It shows off some of the team-centered gameplay and impressive visuals.

Players play as a mercenary contractor who works with their team to attack or defend sensitive data in laptops. Communication, teamwork, and cooperation will be necessary in order to be successful. The game will also have training modes and AI for those who aren’t used to this type of strategic gameplay.

Shabestari describes the game as a “4v4 team-based tactical PS VR Shooter” where the objective is to “either acquire or protect a cache for sensitive data.” Each mission will award XP and in-game currency called Crypto for the player. Items unlocked with XP aren’t owned yet, weird enough. XP unlock weapons, attachments, equipment, and more.

The post also talked about some pre-order goodies and game formats. If you buy it earlier, you get a special Zero Hour Pack which includes some specials. A physical PS Aim bundle will be available for purchase also which includes the special DLC and a PS Aim controller. More features TBA. Stay tuned for details.

Microsoft’s “Surface Phone” Andromeda Will Have Dual Screens and Hinge

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Microsoft's "Surface Phone" Andromeda Will Have Dual Screens and Hinge 26

Recent patent filings and leaked timelines from Microsoft have surfaced and it seems like they’re working on a new dual-screen phone with the codename Andromeda. APIs on the W10 preview provide some more evidence and clues to what it can do. The new “Surface Phone” will likely have two screens and be the first mass-produced phone of its kind.

WalkingCat, a Twitter user, found an API for devices that support dual screens and a hinge. Applications can check the positions of the hinge and the screens- it can be concave, convex, flat, full, or simply shut. This suggests that it’ll be a full 360-degree hinge similar to convertible laptops like the Lenovo Yoga. It’ll likely have various functions depending on the positions.

However, rumors have it that the software giant wants to have a phone similar to the Surface Pro with a brand-new form factor just the like the laptop. Andromeda’s form factor is expected to be like a smartphone with the same form factor as the Surface but on a smaller level.

Whether or not the form factor rumors are true with its hinge and dual screens, they still need to create something that’ll garner attention from the public enough o buy it. What’s the point of having two screens if you have no applications being developed for it?

Tinder beefs up security in response to “disturbing vulnerabilities”

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Tinder beefs up security in response to "disturbing vulnerabilities" 27

Tinder has beefed up security in its popular “dating” app due to a letter from Oregon Senator Ron Wyden asking for the app to fix security loopholes and other privacy and data incursions.

Match Group, which owns Tinder, has responded to Senator Wyden by documenting recent changes to the app as of June 19th. Jaren Sine of Match writes that “swipe data has been padded such that all actions are now the same size.” Other issues on Tinder were called out by a research team at Checkmarx stating that it had “disturbing vulnerabilities” and the possibility of privacy invasion and blackmail.

The vulnerabilities, found in both the app’s Android and iOS versions, allow an attacker using the same network as the user to monitor the user’s every move on the app. It is also possible for an attacker to take control over the profile pictures the user sees, swapping them for inappropriate content, rogue advertising or other type of malicious content (as demonstrated in the research).

While no credential theft and no immediate financial impact are involved in this process, an attacker targeting a vulnerable user can blackmail the victim, threatening to expose highly private information from the user’s Tinder profile and actions in the app.

In February, Wyden addressed the issue and requested Tinder to pad data to obscure it as it moves from server to app and vice versa. Tinder has hardened security in response to Sen. Wyden. Sine states in a letter to Sen. Wyden:

“Like every technology company, we are constantly working to improve our defenses in the battle against malicious hackers and cyber criminals.”

Tinder is now safer to use, but that never means full privacy. At least they’re making strides to a more protected platform.

Super Bomberman R’s newest update adds tons of craziness

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Super Bomberman R's newest update adds tons of craziness 28

Super Bomberman R recently ended its contract with Nintendo Switch exclusivity and has been released on PS4, Xbox One, and PC. Each platform has their own exclusive characters and Konami has decided to up the ante with some extra fun.

The game has transformed into a Super Smash Bros. style game of Konami’s past character, rather than the top-down old-school Bomberman-style gameplay. With a new take comes new surprises- the newest one being David Hayer’s reappearance in Bomberman R.

Solid Snake fans can choose from Snake and Naked Snake. Raiden, Lance, and Bill are also diving head first into the game, showing off the craziness that is Bomberman R. Owners of the Switch version can play as MAX, which is a Bomberman character that’s exclusive to the Switch. A lot of other characters from Konami’s lesser-known games such as Goemon, Gradius, and Tokimeki Memorial have also been released in the free update. Accessories for each character from Metal Gear and Contra are also available.

Danica Patrick from Sonic Racing Transformed is now available. And even weirder, WWE wrestler Xavier Woods has been added to the game with his original voiceovers. This is just plain silly. But who cares. This ain’t about lore. It’s about nonstop action.

New gameplay modes have also rolled out. Grand Prix now has a Checkpoints option which changes the game to a King of the Hill style mode where you have to rush towards locations on the map in order to gain points. Fans of the game will have a lot to keep them busy this time around. Are you super excited for this update?

Nyko’s PixelQuest Kit turns your Switch into an arcade cabinet

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Nyko's PixelQuest Kit turns your Switch into an arcade cabinet 29

Nyko has announced new plans to release a new arcade kit for the Nintendo Switch. It’s specifically called the PixelQuest Arcade Kit, which consists of unassembled cardboard that can be used to create a small arcade cabinet from the retro era. Similar to other Nintendo Labo kits, this will allow players to easily slide their Switch display right into the cardboard and has built-in cutouts for ventilation and access to the Switch’s ports.

Although it’s a first-party Labo kit, Nyko has a good history of developing licensed third-party products for Nintendo products. The kit will contain 8 pieces of perforated cardboard, 2 stick tops, 2 Joy-Con inserts for the shoulder bumpers, and plenty of assorted arcade stickers to design your own cabinet the way you want it to look. So far, it seems like a good choice for old-school or retro Nintendo gamers that like a blast from the past.

Nyko has the honors of producing one of the few independent Labo kits. There are currently just a few third-party kits you can buy, but they’re mainly in Japan where Labo has been a huge success. In the West, it’s one of the first third-party kits you can buy right now.

The PixelQuest Arcade Kit will retail for $19.99 on November 27th, 2018. Stay tuned for updates.

Sony Pictures goofs by uploading whole film instead of trailer

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Sony Pictures goofs by uploading whole film instead of trailer 30

Sony Pictures Entertainment released a new trailer for its new limited release film Khali the Killer online in order to get more viewers to watch the film- whether it be on Blu-Ray, select theaters, or streaming platforms.

But there was a big oopsie.

Sony released the whole film instead. Not just the teaser.

The movie is a violent crime film based on western movies and ’70s films. It was originally released on DVD last year in reverse order like many indie films do. It’s not set for theater release until this year. But seeing it uploaded in its entirety online is just a big goof. Seriously.

To put some salt in the wound, it wasn’t removed quickly either. It was online and accessible to the public for several hours and there were tons of comments poking fun at Sony. The full presentation is about 1.5 hours and some people even got to see the whole thing- for free.

Whether or not it was done intentionally is unknown. Some believe it was done to attract viewers over a marketing play, while others say that Sony is still recovering from some other hacks and problems its encountered recently- like having thousands of employees’ private information leaked in 2014. Things like this could really hurt shareholders.

Sony has not commented on the error as of yet.

Image via Sony Pictures Entertainment.

ASUS ROG Smartphone – price, specs, and details

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ASUS ROG Smartphone - price, specs, and details 31

The ASUS ROG smartphone has some impressive features. If you’re a gamer and you want the most gamer-forward smartphone on the planet, the ASUS ROG is a worthy contender. We’ve scoured the web and got our hands on some of the finer specs on this phone and compiled it into one place for easy reading.

Display

The phone has glass on the front and rear. It has a black glass display that offers the phone extra protection and a nice little shimmer to it. Gaming smartphones have unconventional designs and the ROG is no exception. It has speakers on the top and bottom for surround sound and a single front camera with some photosensors.

It’s powered by a 6-inch super AMOLED touchscreen with a 1080 x 2160 pixel resolution with a 402 PPI density. It has an 18:9 aspect ration with a refresh rate of a buttery-smooth 90Hz for full gaming immersion and HDR support.

Hardware

It’s powered by the Qualcomm SDM845 Snapdragon SoC with an octa-core CPU clocked at 2.9GHz. As for the GPU, it’s loaded with the trusty and reliable Adreno 630GPU. It’ll take nano sim cards (up to two).

Dimensions and Weight

It measures 158.5 x 76.2 x 8.6mm and weighs 200g.

Operating System and Storage

Android Oreo OS is the core operating system with the ASUS ROG gaming UI. It’s been tweaked for better performance and allows an overclocked CPU with 8GB of RAM and a choice of 128GB or 512GB of onboard storage.

Camera

The phone has a standard 12MP camera in the back with an 8MP front-facing cam with a slew of features like PDAF, face detection, and dual tone dual-LED flash. IT can record 4K, 2K, and standard 1K video. The rear camera can capture 2160p video at 30FPS and the front can do 720p at 30FPS. The rear cam can also do panoramas, touch focus, geo-tagging, autofocus, and face detection. Pretty much standard now.

Battery

The battery is a 4,000mAh removable unit with a 24 hour 3G talk time. It charges 66% in 35 minutes with Quick Charge 3.0 technology. It also has dual USB Type-C ports.

Sensors/Connectivity

Digital compass, accelerometer, proximity sensor, light sensor, gyroscope, fingerprint scanner (rear), 3.5mm jack, loudspeaker, USB Type-C 3.1, USB Type-C 2.1, and face unlock.

Software

Video streaming, active noise cancellation, image/video editor, document viewer/editor, MP3/WAV/WMA/eAAC+/FLAC player, MP4, WMV/H.265, FM radio, A-GPS, GLONASS, BDS, maps.

Networking

It’ll support 2G GSM, 3G WCDMA, 4G LTE. It’ll also support GPRS, EDGE, 3G/WCDMA/HSPA, WLAN, HSPA+, WiFi hotspot, 4GLET, and NFC.

Suggested Price

The ASUS ROG smartphone will retail for approximately $780-$950 USD, though this unconfirmed at the moment. It’ll only be available in Black at the time of this writing.