With Nintendo shuttering its Wii U/3DS eShop on March 27th, we want to take a look back at the 3DS, arguably the better of the two systems. The 3DS’ life span lasted roughly ten years, with the handheld launching in March 2010 and being discontinued in 2020.
It offered a variety of critically-acclaimed games, including Pokémon X and Y, Pokémon Sun and Moon, Pokémon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon, Pokémon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, and even Super Smash Bros., which includes Pokémon like Pikachu, Lucario, Greninja, Jigglypuff and more (can you tell I like Pokémon?)
Beyond Pokémon, the handheld featured such hits as The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D and Majora’s Mask 3D, The Legend of Zelda: Link Between Worlds, Metroid: Samus Returns, Fire Emblem Awakening, Mario Kart 7, Animal Crossing New Leaf and Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon.
With this week’s community question, we’re asking: what’s your favourite Nintendo 3DS game? Mine is Pokémon X and Y, the first Pocket Monster game where you could change your clothes, hair and skin tone.
In the comments below, let us know your favourite Nintendo 3DS Pokémon game.
Elden Ring now supports ray tracing on current-gen consoles and PC as part of update ‘version 1.09.’
To activate ray tracing, head to ‘Game Options’ and then select the option to turn on Ray Tracing. For PC, head to ‘Graphics,’ then enable ‘Ray Tracing.’
In the patch notes, Bandai Namco says frame rate and resolution may be impacted while playing with ray tracing turned on.
Here are the technical specifications you might want to check out for those on PC.
Over the March 17th weekend, Blizzard launched a closed beta for its upcoming top-down role-playing game, Diablo IV, and I spent a lot of time playing it. Development of the game is still in progress, so I won’t be reviewing it yet, but I have a lot of thoughts about my experience so far.
Diablo IV is interesting because it shifts away from the traditional RPG style of previous Diablo titles and borrows more from massively multiplayer online (MMO) games. The game’s world is big, looks great, and offers a lot you can do with your character. However, I also encountered several of the negative aspects tied to big online multiplayer titles, including long queue times and the looming fear of a pricey battle pass.
With this in mind, Diablo IV likely won’t be for everyone, including maybe even long-time fans of the series.
Sanctuary
Lilith, the Mother of Sanctuary (the world Diablo is set in), has returned, and your character will do whatever it takes to defeat the demon daughter of Hatred. This is the premise of Diablo IV‘s story, which is filled with entertaining cutscenes and, so far, surprisingly interesting twists and turns.
If I’m not playing a shooter or an ultra-difficult game like Elden Ring, I’m typically playing games that feature interesting storylines and cutscenes, and Diablo IV’s beta offered this in spades. During my time with the beta, I made it to the end of the playable campaign — there was still a lot for me to do outside of it. I particularly enjoyed Diablo IV‘s cutscenes because they showcased beautiful animations with detailed character emotions. It was thrilling to see Lilith first emerge from a bloody ritual. The Mother of Sanctuary looks haunting and beautiful, and when the full game launches, I’m looking forward to learning more about her, as she seems to be able to bend people to her will.
I also really like Diablo IV‘s overall art style. While Diablo III features a more hand-painted, cartoony graphical style, Diablo IV utilizes hand-crafted renders that offer a great blend of fantasy and realism that throw back to the look of Diablo and Diablo II.
Having recently played Weird West, I found that the two titles have several similarities, including their top-down gameplay and graphical style. Further, Sanctuary offers an eerily-dark sense of fantastical whimsy. For instance, part of the map is a frozen tundra, with a blizzard that renders snow beautifully without making it too distracting. At the same time, there’s a forest area with dreary yet charming trees — and tree monsters that could be described as monstrous versions of Middle Earth’s Ents.
While Diablo IV‘s creatures are overall cool, I grew tired of repeatedly seeing the same monsters towards the end of my time with the beta. I’m hoping the full game offers more variety in enemy types.
It’s worth noting that I’d occasionally encounter too many enemies on the screen at once, which can quickly become overwhelming, but in most cases, this can be solved with a few moments of spell-casting.
Earth, Wind and Fire
Speaking of spell-casting, I played as a sorcerer created from the ground up with the game’s character customization system. The customizer offers three classes: Barbarian, Sorcerer and Rogue. Necromancer and Druid will be available during the next Diablo IV beta. There are eight face presets, two body types, four face variations, 11 hairstyles, many skin tones, jewelry and more. As a Black person, I was able to make my character look Black, which I always appreciate. However, there aren’t many Black hairstyle options. By comparison, even Elden Ring’s character customization offers more depth.
Moving on from character customization, I selected the Sorcerer class because without spell-casting, what’s the point of a fantasy game? I’d heard that Sorcerers are Diablo IV‘s glass-cannon character, as they do a lot of damage but can’t take a hit and might have issues early on. I didn’t find being a sorcerer all that difficult and didn’t die until I reached level 23 after being a little too confident while completing a dungeon.
I like that Diablo IV offers so many skill options; being able to cast a meteor, followed by a blizzard, and then shoot chain lightning not only looks cool but is also satisfying. Further, you can swap out a skill you don’t like with another, allowing you heavily customize your build — as long as you have ample in-game cash.
Sorcerers offer several enchantment slots, allowing you to enchant your character with a spell of your choosing. I decided to enchant my character with the Blizzard spell, causing a blizzard to form over my head every 15 seconds without spending any mana. I also tried slotting in spells like Fireball, which causes every few spells to feature an explosion, and this lightning teleport spell, which replaces the simple dodge mechanic with a teleport.
During the beta, you can only enchant one of your spells, but levelling your character to level 30 unlocks another slot. However, you’ll need to wait until the full game to use this feature.
Like the Sorcerer’s enchant ability, each class has its own special mechanics. The Barbarian, for instance, can use up to four different weapons simultaneously.
You can only slot in roughly six of these skills (or spells for Sorcerers), but your character can also have passive skills, and for sorcerers, the enchantment mechanic offers the player a lot to play with and try out. The robust amount of skills can also make it so that you and your friend can play the same class but ultimately have none of the same skills unlocked, which I appreciated. With Diablo IV being MMO-like, it’s likely that specific “meta builds” (builds that the community deems the best) will quickly take over, but it’s great there are enough options to still make your character strong if you want to diverge from that path.
There are also many different ways to customize the look of your characters, including weapons and armour that offer different stat boosts and effects.
Possibly too online?
Diablo IV feels like an MMORPG, which differs from previous Diablo titles. Like Diablo III, you’ll need a solid internet connection because you can only play the game online. While I didn’t have any friends join me over the weekend, your friends can enter your world, just like Diablo III. Where IV differs from its predecessor is that you’ll actually see random players in your Sanctuary playing alongside you.
You’ll also encounter other players in your town, which makes going to your weaponsmith or blacksmith a crowded experience. Further, you’ll also see characters interacting with enemies in the world, and you can join them in fighting creatures if you’d like. However, you won’t run into random players in dungeons, which I appreciated because I’m not interested in completing a dungeon with a group of randoms.
Grab your allies and get ready. Ashava's hungry. #DiabloIV's first World Boss spawns four times during Open Beta Early Access this weekend. pic.twitter.com/b1dQNUIpuu
There are also raids where you and your friends can try to defeat World Bosses. Over the weekend, players could fight the World Boss Ashava. Unfortunately, I missed out on this as raids only happen at certain times of the day. Some players reportedly got destroyed by Ashava, and I look forward to taking on World Bosses in the final game.
While MMOs are great, they aren’t for everyone. Given Blizzard is behind the biggest MMORPG ever, World of Warcraft, I have faith that the developer knows what it’s doing. However, on the beta’s launch day, I tried logging into the game and was forced to wait over an hour to get in due to queue times, and this was after several failed login attempts. I also encountered several server crashes that completely booted me from the game.
You will not survive alone.
Take on World Boss Ashava the Pestilent now in the #DiabloIV Early Access Open Beta, and again at 11pm and 1am PT.
This beta was only open to those who pre-ordered the Ultimate Edition of Diablo IV, along with media and streamers who received a code, and there were already long queue times. It’s likely that the situation will get worse with the upcoming Open Beta on March 24th-26th. It’s also possible that if the game gets big seasonal updates, we might also see long queue times on those days. That said, the queue times weren’t bad all weekend, and after that first day, the longest I had to wait was 10 minutes.
It’s also worth noting that I’m concerned about how the battle pass system for the title will work. If it’s anything like Overwatch 2‘s battle pass, it won’t be pay-to-win and will instead focus on costly cosmetics.
If you’re like me and not a big fan of MMOs like WoW or Final Fantasy XIV, you’re probably a bit concerned about sharing your RPG experience beyond a close group of a few friends. This is a valid concern, and I’m interested to see how Diablo IV‘s MMO-like features play out in the long-term.
Final thoughts
All tales of woe have to start somewhere. Welcome to Fractured Peaks. #DiabloIV
Overall, I had a lot of fun with Diablo IV‘s closed beta. It features cool cutscenes, a pretty world and ample customization. The variety of spells and interesting monsters also had me returning throughout the weekend. Knowing that there are still some spells I have yet to use and two other classes still to try out has me excited to check out the upcoming open beta and the final game.
I just hope I won’t be waiting for hours in queue times this weekend.
If you can’t check it out this weekend, Diablo IV launches on PlayStation 4 and 5, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One and PC on June 6th.
Lenovo unveiled several new gaming laptops and PCs meant to capture several price points. There are new machines under Lenovo’s Legion branding, as well as new LOQ (pronounced ‘lock’) devices that bring the Legion look and feel to entry-level pricing.
On the Legion side, Lenovo unveiled the Legion Slim 7i and 7 Gen 8 (pictured above), and the Slim 5i and 5 Gen 8. The Legion Slim 7 series offers up to 13th Gen Intel Core i9-13900H or AMD Ryzen 9 7940HS CPUs coupled with up to 32GB of RAM and up to an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 Laptop GPU.
The Slim 7 series sports 16-inch 16:10 Lenovo ‘PureSight’ displays with WQXGA 240Hz VRR and 500 nits brightness. Alternatively, customers can get a 3.2K 165Hz VRR display with 430 nits of brightness. The laptops also feature Lenovo’s ColdFront 5.0 thermal system to keep cool under heavy load, boosted by Lenovo’s onboard ‘LA AI’ chip to dynamically tune thermal performance.
Lenovo Legion Slim 5i
Meanwhile, the Slim 5 series has similar offerings but with slightly lower specs. There’s the 13th Gen Intel Core i7-13700H or AMD Ryzen 9 7840HS chips, GeForce RTX 4070 Laptop GPU, up to 32GB of RAM (expandable to 64GB aftermarket) and more. ColdFront 5.0 and the LA AI chip are also available.
The Legion Slim 7i starts at $1,769.99 USD (about $2,422.76 CAD) and the Legion Slim 5i will start at $1,349.99 USD (about $1,849.99 CAD). Both will be available starting April 2023. Meanwhile, the Slim 7 starts at $1,769.99 USD (about $2,425.24 CAD) and the Slim 5 starts at $1,199.99 USD (about $1,644.11 CAD). Both will be available starting in May 2023.
LOQing up the low end
Lenovo LOQ 16
As for LOQ, there are the 16i and 16a, 15i and 15a, and the LOQ Tower 17i. The LOQ laptops come in 15- or 16-inch screen sizes and offer 13th Gen Intel Core or AMD Ryzne 7000 series CPUs, the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 Laptop GPU and up to 16GB of RAM.
Displays offer up to 350 nits of brightness and 165Hz refresh rates with VRR and G-Sync support. Lenovo’s LA AI chip also makes an appearance to help tune performance.
Lenovo LOQ 15
Moreover, the LOQ laptops offer accessible RAM and PCIe slots for future expansion down the line.
The LOQ Tower 17i boasts up to the 13th Gen Intel Core i7-13700 CPU and up to the latest Nvidia RTX 40-series GPUs, expandable memory up to 32GB, and more.
Lenovo LOQ Tower 17i
LOQ 16i starts at $1,149.99 USD (about $1,574.91 CAD) with expected availability starting May 2023
LOQ 16a starts at $959.99 USD (about $1,315.19 CAD) with expected availability starting June 2023
LOQ 15i starts at $899.99 USD (about $1,232.81 CAD) with expected availability starting April 2023
LOQ 15a starts at $899.99 USD (about $1,232.81 CAD) with expected availability starting May 2023
Xbox Canada has launched a new podcast called Xbox Passport, a Game Pass podcast hosted by Leah Jewer, the co-founder of Girls on Games, and Steve Saylor, a notable accessibility advocate.
The inaugural episode of Xbox Passport features Larry Hryb (Major Nelson), the director of programming for Microsoft’s Xbox Live.
ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED! Now boarding, the best value in gaming!
In a surprise move, Valve has confirmed thatCounter-Strike 2 (CS2) will release this summer.
The game will release as a free upgrade to CS:GO and runs on the developer’s Source Engine 2. Valve describes the game as “the largest technical leap forward in Counter-Strike’s history, ensuring new features and updates for years to come.”
“Counter-Strike 2 is the largest technical leap forward in Counter-Strike’s history, ensuring new features and updates for years to come,” said Valve during a trailer for the game.
Rumours regarding a numbered sequel to the original Counter-Stike started circulating a few months ago. This is the first confirmation from Valve that the game is in development.
In the game, you play as a young King Arthur who must recruit allies to aid him on a perilous quest. Throughout this journey, players will be able to build a roster of characters that draw from Arthurian legend, including knights, mages and rogues. You’ll then be able to use them as a party in turn-based combat. The game also supports full 3D visuals powered by Unreal Engine 5, the latest version of Fortnite maker Epic Games’ popular development engine.
Notably, Legends Rise is coming to Android, iOS and Steam, marking the first time that the Canadian developer has done a simultaneous mobile and PC release. Cross-play will also be supported between platforms.
“Kabam has a rich history and proven track record of launching fun and enduring games on mobile — including Marvel Contest of Champions, Disney Mirrorverse, and Shop Titans — but as we look to the future, enabling our players to experience cross-platform progression and play is an essential part of what we want to offer our players,” said SeungWon Lee, Kabam CEO, in a statement. “King Arthur: Legends Rise represents the first game for this new direction.”
Kabam says more information on the game, including release timing, will be revealed later this year. Those interested in signing up for updates can do so here. Pre-registration is also now open on Steam.
Amazon has launched its Luna cloud gaming service in Canada.
The platform debuted in the U.S. last March and is now finally expanding to Canada, as well as the U.K. and Germany.
With Luna, users can a variety of games on Fire TV, Fire tablets, PCs, Chromebooks, iOS, Android, Macs and more.
A few games will be available to stream at no additional cost for Prime members, including Mega Man 11. This selection will rotate every month.
Otherwise, there are three subscription options — referred to as “channels” — available for Luna:
Luna+ ($12.99/month with a 7-day trial) — includes dozens of games from various publishers, such as Devil May Cry 5, Resident Evil 2, Sonic Colors Ultimate and Yakuza Kiwami
Ubisoft+ ($22.99/month) — dozens of games from Ubisoft’s catalogue, including Far Cry 6, Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, Beyond Good & Evil and Watch Dogs: Legion
Jackbox Games ($6.49/month) — includes every Jackbox party game (Quiplash, Trivia Murder Party, Drawful and more)
Amazon’s channels approach is markedly different from what Google tried with its now-shuttered Stadia cloud gaming service, where you were primarily required to purchase games à la carte. It’s also more in line with the subscription model adopted by the likes Xbox Game Pass and Nvidia GeForce Now.
Additionally, Amazon is selling its proprietary Nintendo Switch Pro Controller-esque Luna gamepad on its website for $89.99. It’s intended to connect directly with Amazon’s services for a low-latency experience. However, some Bluetooth controllers, like PlayStation’s DualShock 4 and Microsoft’s Xbox Wireless Controller, are also supported. You can also use mouse and keyboard.
More information on Amazon Luna can be found here.
The closure of the two platforms’ digital storefronts is particularly noteworthy due to the rich, expansive catalogues — roughly $31,000 worth of games — that they possess. Naturally, then, there are a lot of games that people would like to purchase before Nintendo ceases to offer them, potentially indefinitely.
How to get started
However, that’s easier said than done. As MobileSyrup‘s Brad Bennett outlined earlier this year, you can’t actually use a credit card to buy games from the Wii U and 3DS eShops on the systems themselves. Last year, Nintendo removed that functionality, as well as the option to use a prepaid eShop gift card. This means that you’ll have to go to the My Nintendo Store website and add funds using a credit or gift card.
But there’s a catch. Your old Nintendo Network ID, which was used for the Wii U and 3DS, must be linked to your Nintendo Account. Nintendo introduced the latter system in 2017 with the Switch, and it’s been used ever since.
To link the two accounts, you’ll have to:
Go to the Nintendo Account site and sign into your Nintendo Account
3DS games can be purchased from either a 3DS/2DS system or the My Nintendo Store website. Wii U games, however, can only be purchased from the tablet-esque device itself.
As long as you buy any desired games by March 27th, Nintendo says you’ll be able to re-download them “for the foreseeable future.”
What should you buy?
Of course, with so many games available across a bunch of platforms, there’s a lot to play. That said, some worth checking out include:
Wii U: The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD and Twilight Princess HD, Xenoblade Chronicles X, Star Fox Guard 3DS: The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D and Majora’s Mask 3D, Fire Emblem Awakening (and Fates and Echoes), Pokémon X and Y (and Sun and Moon, etc), Animal Crossing: New Leaf, Metroid: Samus Returns, Mario & Luigi (Dream Team, etc)
Every month, Xbox brings new games to its Xbox Game Pass subscription service.
Typically, these come in waves, and now, Xbox has revealed what’s rounding out March, following the March 21st Game Pass launch of Ni no Kuni: Revenant Kingdom — The Prince’s Edition (Cloud, Console, and PC).
MLB The Show 23 (Cloud and Console) — March 28th
Infinite Guitars (Cloud, Console, and PC) — March 30th
Additionally, here’s what’s leaving Game Pass on March 31st:
A Memoir Blue (Cloud, Console, and PC)
Chinatown Detective Agency (Cloud, Console, and PC)
ClusterTruck (Cloud, Console, and PC)
Double Dragon Neon (Cloud and Console)
Kraken Academy!! (Cloud, Console, and PC)
MLB The Show 22 (Cloud and Console)
Power Rangers: Battle for the Grid (Cloud, Console, and PC)
An Xbox Game Pass subscription costs $11.99 CAD/month for either Console or PC, while a $16.99/month Game Pass Ultimate membership includes Game Pass for both Console and PC, Xbox Live Gold, EA Play and Xbox Cloud Gaming.
Find out what came to Game Pass earlier this month here.
