Tag: gaming

Categories
Mobile Syrup

Nintendo’s New Year 2022 sale offers Switch games for up to 80 percent off

Itfeels like the deals never end.

Nintendo’s New Year 2022 sale is offering a variety of Switch games for up to 80 percent off in the eShop. These deals are available until January 17th at 2:59am ET (January 16th at 11:59pm PT).

Below are some of the top offers:

Check out all of the deals here.

Image credit: Nintendo

Source: Nintendo

Categories
Mobile Syrup

PlayStation Store Holiday Sale ‘Round 2’ discounts even more games up to 75 percent off

For those with a PlayStation console, the second round of discounted Playstation games has now hit the store.

Games like Demon’s Souls, Ghsostrunner, God of War, A Way Out, Red Dead Redemption 2 and more are on sale. This sale ends on January 19th.

To check what else is on sale take a look at the store, or check out the first half of the sale, here.

Categories
Mobile Syrup

PlayStation patent points to coaching system for gamers who need to ‘git gud’

PlayStation may be working on a system that helps coach players to step up their game.

In a U.S. patent filed by Sony Interactive Entertainment in June 2021 and published six months later, the tech giant outlines “systems and methods for coaching a user for game play.”

Specifically, Sony proposes a way to gauge when the player has “fallen below a skill threshold,” at which time assistive gameplay recordings and images will be played. According to Sony, this could “reduce frustration of players of various game genres in learning a new game.”

It’s worth noting that the PlayStation 5 already offers a similar feature called ‘Game Help,’ through which players can access hints and videos as they play. However, this is only available in supported games and is exclusive to PlayStation Plus subscribers. Game Help is also a bit more limited in that it features pre-prepared tips for specific sections the developer. By contrast, the new Sony patent proposes a system that studies a player’s moment-to-moment gameplay and provides personalized assistance accordingly.

It’s important to stress that, as with any patent, this coaching system may very well not see the light of day. That said, it points to a larger trend of PlayStation filing patents for various tools that can help the player. Over the past couple of years alone, the company has patented everything from a Siri-esque ‘PlayStation Assistant’ to an Uber-like real-time game help service.

Image credit: PlayStation

Source: United States Patent and Trademark Office Via: VideoGamesChronicle

Categories
Mobile Syrup

Activision sues Call of Duty cheat maker as Warzone QA team strikes for third week

Activision has filed a lawsuit against a company called EngineOwning for allegedly distributing Call of Duty cheats.

According to the lawsuit, EngineOwning’s software enables those playing Call of Duty games to automatically aim weapons, discern the locations of players and more. Activision argues that the defendants “have been fully aware that their conduct violates Activision’s rights but nevertheless have brazenly continued their activities.”

For months, Activision has been cracking down on cheaters in Call of Duty: Warzone through a ‘Ricohet’ anti-cheat system and the banning of tens of thousands of offending accounts. However, Activision’s ongoing action against EngineOwning comes as subsidiary Raven is speaking out about its own grievances. ABetterABK, the workers alliance representing those protesting a multitude of issues within Activision Blizzard, note that the company has failed to address concerns at Warzone developer Raven.

On December 6th, over 60 members of Raven’s QA department walked off the job in protest of 12 QA layoffs at the company. The workers were laid off despite having their contracts in “good standing” — meaning that they didn’t underperform or commit a fireable offence. While Activision says the workers are free to protest without fear of retaliation, the protesting developers say leadership has failed to provide a response.

It remains to be seen what will come out of both Activision’s lawsuit surrounding Call of Duty cheats, and the protests of those who actually make the games.

Beyond Raven, though, Activision has been reckoning with a larger company-wide scandal related to an alleged frat-boy culture. In July, California’s Department of Fair Employment and Housing filed a lawsuit against Activision Blizzard following a two-year investigation, alleging that the company had a history of sexual harassment, discriminatory hiring practices and more.

Then, in November, The Wall Street Journal reported that Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick not only knew about these issues but actively tried to cover them up. Calls for Kotick to step down were quickly made, although the company’s board backed him and he has so far not done so.

As we wait for further developments, it’s worth noting that ABetterABK is running a fundraiser in support of striking Activision Blizzard workers, should you wish to donate.

Image credit: Activision

Via: PC Gamer

Categories
Mobile Syrup

Toronto-based DrinkBox’s Nobody Saves the World releasing January 18

Canadian-made Nobody Saves the World has an official release date: January 18th.

Toronto indie developer DrinkBox (Guacamelee!) made the announcement in a new trailer:

Nobody Saves the World is coming to Xbox consoles, Windows 10 and Steam, with cross-play co-op supported between each platform. Additionally, the action-RPG will be available on Xbox Game Pass on consoles, PC and through the cloud on day one.

In Nobody Saves the World, you play as a featureless “Nobody” who must stop The Calamity to, as the title suggests, save the world. The game features over 15 different forms that Nobody can turn into, ranging from a Knight or Horse to a Robot or Mermaid. There are also more than 80 Form abilities that can be mixed and matched, such as a Horse with a Ranger’s bow.

Mastering these mechanics will be essential to navigating the game’s expansive overworld, exploring a multitude of dungeons and taking on all kinds of quests.

For more on Nobody Saves the World, check out our interview with DrinkBox co-founder Graham Smith.

Image credit: DrinkBox

Categories
Mobile Syrup

Asus unveils 17-inch foldable PC, laptops, gaming peripherals and more

Asus unveiled several new products at CES 2022, including laptops and accessories. Among the more interesting of Asus’ announcements include a new 17-inch foldable PC.

Starting with the laptops, there are quite a few interesting options. First up is the ROG Strix SCAR and Strix G, two gaming laptops powered by the 12th Gen Intel Core i9-12900H and AMD Ryzen 9 6900HX respectively. Both laptops also sport Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 Ti laptop GPUs for excellent gaming performance.

Asus also unveiled its new ROG Zephyrus Duo 16, featuring the company’s ‘ScreenPad Plus’ secondary display, as well as the ROG Zephyrus G14, G15 and M16 ultraportable gaming laptops sporting the company’s new ‘Nebula’ display.

Next up are the Zenbook laptops, which include the impressive-looking Zenbook 17 Fold (pictured above). And yes, it does look like a bigger version of Lenovo’s ThinkPad X1 Fold from last year. Hopefully, Asus’ take on a foldable PC works better — the X1 Fold was a neat first try, but an exorbitant price tag and significant issues with performance and battery life made it a no-buy.

Asus Zenbook 14 OLED

Alongside the Zenbook 17 Fold, Asus unveiled some regular clamshell Zenbook laptops with OLED displays.

Rounding out the company’s announcements were a series of gaming accessories, including ROG Swift OLED monitors with up to 4K resolution and 120Hz refresh rate, ROG Fusion II 500 and 300 gaming headsets, the ROG Chakram X gaming mouse and the ROG Strix Flare II Animate gaming keyboard.

Asus showed off its Rapture GT-AXE16000 gaming router too, calling it the “world’s first quad-band Wi-Fi 6E gaming router.” As the name suggests, the Rapture broadcasts a 2.4GHz band, two 5GHz bands and a 6GHz band, with the 5GHz or 6GHz bands available as wireless backhaul if you want to set up a mesh system.

Those interested can learn more about Asus CES announcements here.

You can check out more news from CES 2022 here.

Images credit: Asus

Categories
Mobile Syrup

Sony’s next VR headset is officially called the PSVR 2

During its CES 2022 keynote, Sony finally shared more details regarding its next virtual reality headset, confirming that it’s called the PSVR 2 (PlayStation VR 2).

Though the tech giant didn’t show off what the next-gen headset will look like, it did reveal a lot of new information about the device, including the name of its gamepads, the ‘Sense Controllers.’ The PSVR 2’s new gamepads will feature the same haptic trigger feedback functionality as the PlayStation 5’s DualSense gamepad.

Sony also detailed that the headset features an OLED display with a 2000 x 2040 pixel resolution per eye, a 90Hz to 120Hz refresh rate and a field-of-view of roughly 110 degrees. Other features include four cameras built into the headset and an eye-tracking IR camera.

“Your movements and the direction you look at are reflected in-game without the need for an external camera,” said Sony in a recent blog post.

Along with outlining several facts about the PSVR 2, Sony also confirmed that Guerilla Games and Freesprite Games are working on a title for the headset called Horizon Call of the Mountain. No additional information was revealed about the upcoming title.

It’s unclear when Sony plans to release the PSVR 2 but rumours point to it releasing at some point in 2022.

Source: Sony 

Categories
Mobile Syrup

Here’s an explainer on Wordle from someone who just learned what it was

Over the past few weeks, you might have seen people you follow on Twitter randomly posting about something called “Wordle.” The game has apparently blown up over the holidays, but if you’re like me, you also might not have had any idea of what it was.

With that in mind, let’s stumble our way through it together. To put it simply, Wordle is a free word-based puzzle game that you can play in your browser for free — no download required. That certainly makes it easier to access, although actually playing it can likely be somewhat challenging.

Basically, Wordle gives players six chances to guess a random five-letter word. Letters will be highlighted in three different colours to denote the following:

  • Green — the correct letter in the correct spot
  • Yellow — a correct letter in the wrong spot
  • Grey — a letter that doesn’t show up anywhere in the word

One of the unique elements about Wordle is that it’s the same puzzle for everyone each day. This adds a social element to it, as people can discuss how they got on with the daily puzzle. To that point, you can even share a solution-free summary of your results to show how you fared.

It’ll show up like so:

Notably, U.K. Redditor Josh Wardle told The New York Times that he originally created the game for his partner before making it available online for everyone. He also says he’s already queued up the game with around 2,500 words, so it’ll be good to go for quite some time. Despite that, he promises that he has no intentions of monetizing the game.

Categories
Mobile Syrup

Xbox reveals collaboration with nail polish brand OPI

Xbox’s latest collaboration isn’t with Rockstar, Monster or Doritos. Instead, it’s with OPI, a popular nail polish brand.

This refreshingly different partnership features 12 different colours with game-inspired names like “Achievement Unlocked,” “The Pass is Always Greener,” “Can’t CTRL Me” and “You Had Me at Halo.”

Similar to Microsoft’s recent partnership with Rockstar Energy, each nail polish purchase unlocks in-game content in Halo Infinite and Forza Horizon 5, including a purple Spartan skin and an orange and pink car colour.

Buyers will also be entered for the chance to win an Xbox Series X/S gamepad inspired by the OPI line’s various colours.

The nail polish line is launching in the U.S first and will make its way to other regions on February 1st. The OPI – Xbox Nail Lacquers start at $10.50 USD (roughly $13.30 CAN) and Infinite Shine colours cost $13 USD (about $16.51 CAD) at utla.com starting in January 2022, and they will also be available at other beauty retailers in Februray.

Image credit: Newswire

Source: Xbox, Newswire

Categories
Mobile Syrup

What’s new on Xbox Game Pass on console, PC and mobile in early January 2022

Every month, Xbox adds new games to its Xbox Game Pass subscription service.

Typically, new games are rolled out in two waves, and now, Xbox has revealed January’s first batch of Game Pass catalogue additions.

Notably, BioWare Edmonton’s Mass Effect: Legendary Edition leads the early January Game Pass lineup.

  • Gorogoa (Cloud, Console and PC) — January 4th
  • Olija (Cloud, Console and PC) — January 4th
  • Embr (Cloud, Console and PC) — January 6th
  • Mass Effect Legendary Edition (Console and PC) — January 6th
  • Outer Wilds (Cloud, Console and PC) — January 6th
  • Spelunky 2 (Console and PC) — January 13th
  • The Anacrusis (Game Preview) (Console and PC) — January 13th

Additionally, here’s what’s leaving Xbox Game Pass on January 15th:

  • Desperados III (Cloud, Console, and PC)
  • Ghost of a Tale (PC)
  • Kingdom Hearts III (Console)
  • Mount & Blade: Warband (Cloud, Console and PC)
  • Pandemic (Console and PC)
  • Yiik: A Postmodern RPG (PC)

It’s also worth noting that PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds will be removed from Game Pass on January 10th, but it’s then going free-to-play for everyone on January 12th.

Xbox Game Pass is available on Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PC and Android and iOS in beta. Game Pass for Console and PC Game Pass each cost $11.99 CAD/month.

Meanwhile, Xbox Game Pass Ultimate costs $16.99/month and is required for streaming (which Xbox refers to as ‘Cloud’) to mobile devices and browsers. On top of that, this tier includes Game Pass for both Console and PC, as well as subscriptions to Xbox Live Gold and EA Play.

Find out what came to Game Pass in December here.

Image credit: EA