Ubisoft’s ‘Steep’ will soon take you to the 2018 Winter Olympics

Ubisoft’s extreme sports, open-world game Steep is getting its first full expansion pack later this year. The “Road to the Olympics” add-on will, as the name suggests, take you into an experience tied around the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea. You’ll have the chance to represent your favorite country across different competitions, including the snowboard slopestyle and halfpipe, as well as ski cross and slalom. Based on the trailer released today, it looks like Steep’s Road to the Olympics could be a good time killer, especially since it’s an officially licensed product.

The new expansion pack is slated to arrive on December 5th, though Ubisoft didn’t say how much it’ll cost or whether season pass holders are going to get it for free.

Follow all the latest news from E3 2017 here!

Play ‘Snake’ in 3D with this awesome do-it-yourself holographic display

Why it matters to you

This awesome 3D holographic display is by far one of the best Instructables projects we’ve seen lately.

Want to relive the heady days of the late 1990s, but with some awesomely futuristic-looking tech instead of fear about the impending millennium bug and a soundtrack comprised of terrible nu-metal bands? Want to do so while putting your do-it-yourself skills to the test?

If so, you are the perfect candidate to enjoy a new Instructables project created by user Gelstronic. He is built a 3D point-of-view holographic display, called PropHelix, which uses a spinning helix of LED strips to create a versatile three-dimensional moving image. Each rotation of the LED helix creates 120 frames of movement for an overall effect that is straight out of the movie Tron.

One of the (multiple) uses for such a cool piece of hardware? Playing Snake of course, aka the beloved mobile game that munched up hours of time for anyone old enough to have owned a chunky Nokia cellphone.

“In my project, I use a spinning helix of LED strips,” Gelstronic writes about his project. “There are a total of 144 LEDs that can display 17,280 voxels with 16 colors. The voxels are arranged circularly in 12 levels. The LEDs are controlled by only one micro-controller.”

Although we just get a sneak peek at how a game like Snake looks in action in Gelstronic’s video, it looks pretty darn awesome. Next to having a 3D holographic version of Super Street Fighter II, it is hard to think of a title which inspires more nostalgia-tinged reverence among its target demographic.

Gelstronic could definitely have gone the Kickstarter route with his creation but has instead made the necessary files and instructions available for free online so that you can build your own. You need access to a 3D printer, a bit of Arduino experience and an assortment of other pieces to do so, but the effort would definitely be worthwhile.

Check out the detailed instructions here.

A ‘South Park’ mobile game is coming this year

If you’re bored with Pokémon Go and happen to be a fan of Comedy Central’s animated misfits, you’ll soon be in luck. Ubisoft’s RedLynx teamed up with South Park Digital Studios for South Park: Phone Destroyer, a free-to-play mobile game that’s set to arrive on Android and iOS later this year. Ubisoft says the game is designed so nothing is blocked behind a paywall and every part of the game is available to everyone — whether they choose to spend money or not.

The game itself is a card collection and battle title where you put together a team of characters to defeat your opponent. There’s strategy, PvP battles and terrible jokes right on your phone so the chaos can follow you wherever you go. We’re sure to hear an exact release date soon, but for now Ubisoft says the game will be available for download later in 2017. Ubisoft’s console and PC title, South Park: The Fractured But Whole, will finally arrive on October 17th after second a delay.

Follow all the latest news from E3 2017 here!

Source: Ubisoft

New Honor 9 boasts 12MP and 20MP dual cameras and up to 6GB of RAM

Why it matters to you

The Honor 9 isn’t just a high-spec phone, but it comes at a great price too — meaning it could be a good choice for your next handset, if it’s ever available in the U.S.

Honor took the wraps off of a new flagship phone to add to its arsenal — the company, which is owned by Huawei, unveiled the new Honor 9 — which looks a lot like the Honor 8, but with a number of serious improvements.

For starters, the Honor 9 boasts HiSilicon’s top-tier processor, the Kirin 960 — which is coupled with either 4GB or 6GB of RAM and either 64GB or 128GB of storage, depending on the variant that you end up going for. That storage is also expandable. Not only that, but the Honor 9 boasts a fingerprint sensor built into the front home button, rather than on the back, as was the case on the older phone.

The display on the Honor 9 is a 5.15-inch 1,080p display, which is not necessarily on par with other flagship phones on the market — but should still be relatively crisp. When it comes to the camera, you get a dual-lens shooter with a 12MP and 20MP sensor, which is similar to Huawei’s flagship, the P10. That camera boasts two-times optical zoom, laser autofocus, and a f/2.2 aperture. The front-facing camera sits in at 8MP, which should be plenty for most selfie-lovers.

The design of the phone is pretty nice, too. You get a choice of gray, blue, or amber gold colors, and it comes in at only 7.45-inches thick, which is pretty thin.

The phone also boasts dual-SIM support, NFC, and a 3.5mm headphone jack — which is apparently a feature to speak of these days.

Unfortunately, there is no word yet as to whether or not we will get access to the device in the U.S. but it will be available in China for 2,700 Yuan, or around $400, for the 64GB model, or 3,000 Yuan, which equates to $440, for the 128GB model. That is not really that bad of a price for a phone with flagship specs — so if it does eventually come to the U.S. it could be a serious contender.

‘Far Cry 5’ has a cult-fighting dog

The next Far Cry is based in America, and our first glimpse of gameplay at Ubisoft’s E3 2017 press event suggests a game where your band of misfit guns for hire are pretty darn important — and one of them is a dog. Amazing Grace formed the soundtrack for the Far Cry 5 intro, sung by one of the antagonists as he holds a pretty darn meaty gun in the middle of a church.

The gameplay teaser places the player right in the middle cult territory, with your team. From there, your squad approaches said cult church, which has a flaming cross casually hanging outside the front. Some poor soul gets beaned with a baseball bat while you approach the area cautiously. Then all hell breaks loose, regardless. We get introduced to Grace, your sniper support, Boomer (the dog!) who will fetch weapons for you — and tackle anyone in your way. There’s also Nick Rye, your air support. Co-op mode will recruit your online friends to help — perhaps in the form of a giant truck ramming those cultists.

If you’ve missed Fallout 4’s Dogmeat, there’s a new virtual canine companion that wants your love. And justice. Or something. Far Cry 5 launches on February 27th across PC, PS4 and Xbox One.

Follow all the latest news from E3 2017 here!

Wearable system with 3D camera makes visually impaired people more mobile

Why it matters to you

Smart technology innovations will make it easier for users with visual impairments to navigate their surroundings.

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is doing some amazing work in terms of accessibility tools for visually impaired people. Recently, we wrote about an affordable device for translating Braille in real time, and now MIT researchers are back again with a new wearable device designed to help visually impaired people more easily navigate their environments.

The device comprises a 3D camera, a belt with five vibrational motors, and an electronically reconfigurable Braille interface to give users more information about their immediate environments.

“In a nutshell, our system scans the world and finds the walkable space and obstacles in front of the user with visual impairment,” Robert Katzschmann, a graduate student in mechanical engineering at MIT, told Digital Trends. “The user does not need to explore the space by contacting each part with a white cane. What makes the system especially exciting is that it can detect obstacles of use, such as chairs and tables. All the information is presented to the user through the use of vibrations around his or her abdomen, and through the use of an electronic Braille character display.”

Using technology similar to that employed to (literally and figuratively) drives 3D cars, the device relies on a system able to interpret 3D camera data. It involves smart image recognition algorithms to, for instance, recognize whether a chair is empty or not — rather than just writing it off as an obstacle to be avoided. Information can be conveyed to users surreptitiously, a particular motor vibrates if a person comes within two meters of an obstacle. They also receive information — such as whether it is a table or chair that has been detected — through reconfigurable Braille pads.

“Primarily, the real-world applications are day-to-day scenarios [in which a] user with visual impairment is confronted with navigating a cafeteria, finding his or her way around in a hotel lobby, or finding an empty chair in the bus or train,” Dr. Hsueh-Cheng Wang, a former postdoctoral researcher at MIT and now an assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering at National Chiao Tung University in Taiwan, told us.

In tests, the researchers found that the chair-finding system reduced subjects’ collisions with non-chair objects by 80 percent, while the separate navigation system reduced the number of cane collisions with people in a hallway by 86 percent.

“We plan [next] to extend this work from indoor to outdoor environments, and detect more objects a blind user wishes to interact with,” Katzschmann continued. Long term, the hope is to commercialize the technology, so as to bring it to whoever needs it.

‘Beyond Good & Evil 2’ is really happening

It’s happening. It’s really happening. I can’t believe it’s real, but it is: Beyond Good & Evil 2. At Ubisoft’s E3 press conference, the long-awaited sequel was finally re-revealed with a brand new CG trailer. It starts with an anthropomorphic pig (is that Pey’j?) trying to strike a deal with a monkey in a rundown bar. It quickly turns sour, allowing the primate to escape with a mysterious woman on a hoverbike. The scene then peels back to reveal a clunky sci-fi city built on top of temples with broken and abandoned spaceship parts. It ends with the pair returning to a secret spaceship nestled in a misty valley, before blasting off in search of paradise.

Everything we know so far about Fallout 4 VR

What do I need to know about Fallout 4 VR?

At E3 2017, Bethesda released a new trailer for the highly anticipated Fallout 4 VR. There are still quite a few questions that need answering, but we already have a good idea of what the game is going to look like. Here’s everything we know so far.

Read more at VR Heads!

The OnePlus 2 isn’t getting Android Nougat, company confirms

Marshmallow is the end of the road.

Confirming what we all expected, Android 7.0 Nougat won’t be coming to the OnePlus 2 after all. It was just about this time last year that the OnePlus 2 was getting Marshmallow, but a similar platform jump won’t be made in 2017 according to a OnePlus representative who confirmed the news to Android Central.

Despite not moving up to Nougat as the OnePlus 3 and 3T did, the OnePlus 2 had received incremental Marshmallow updates as recently as two months ago, which kept hope alive. But alas, Marshmallow is indeed the end of the road.

The first platform update is all but guaranteed — it’s the second one that’s a question.

For a phone that is just shy of its second birthday, it’s a tough bit of news for the extremely dedicated OnePlus owner base to take. Phones are typically expected to get a single major platform update, but as we all know the second big Android update is far from guaranteed. There’s little doubt that the enthusiast community surrounding OnePlus will continue to release custom ROMs for the OnePlus 2.

OnePlus has of course updated the OnePlus 3 and 3T to Nougat, arriving very quickly after Google’s release, and the company has confirmed that Android O will come to those phones as well. If there’s one positive that could be picked out here, it’s that OnePlus has seriously improved its update reliability and cadence since the OnePlus 3 was launched.

Of course OnePlus has always had a reputation for focusing on looking forward — with the launch of the OnePlus 5 just a week away on June 20, it will be just about all hands on deck for the release of the latest phone.

A larger version of Google’s Pixel XL may be in your future

It’s probably not going to be called the Pixel XXL, but wouldn’t that be fun?

What’s better than a big smartphone? An even bigger one. And with the Galaxy S8+ and iPhone 7 Plus making waves in their own right, it’s possible Google hopes to jump on that bandwagon, too.

According to Android Police, there are rumblings that Google has shelved its plans to release one of its upcoming Pixel smartphones in favor of a larger device.

The device, which was originally codenamed Muskie, was supposed to be the followup to the Pixel XL. Instead, we’ll be met with Taimen, according to a rumor put out earlier this year by Droid Life. It’s expected to have a larger display and chassis compared to the Muskie.

The Walleye is likely still making its way into your hands later this year, as that’s the codename behind the smaller second-generation Pixel device Google will introduce. We’d reported a few months back that the moniker had already been mentioned in the Android Open Source Project’s gerrit, or code repository.

For those who aren’t aware, Google typically chooses the name of a water-dwelling creature as the alias for any upcoming smartphone and tablet.

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