Nintendo tour lets you try 3DS games this summer
If you or your kids are jonesing for something to do this summer but would rather play Super Mario Bros. than go on vacation, Nintendo has your back. It’s launching a free Play Nintendo Tour that, as the name implies, gives you a chance to play a range of 3DS games in a kid-friendly environment. On top of getting to try some of Nintendo’s better-known titles (ranging from the shiny new Kirby: Planet Robobot to an older title like Mario Kart 7), the 12-stop US tour has contests, photo ops and prizes.
Each stop lasts for just a few days. Things kick off in earnest between June 17th and 19th, when the tour begins in Los Angeles, and wind down just before school (September 2nd through 5th) in Alpharetta, Georgia. You’ll have to be in the right place at the right time, then, but it could be worth the trip if you’re raising a family of gamers.
Source: Nintendo, BusinessWire
Valve has sold over 500,000 Steam Controllers
If you’ve been wondering how many people bought into Valve’s bid to redefine the PC gamepad, you’ve got an answer: about half a million. That’s the number Valve gave today in the Steam Controller’s June Update post. That’s a lot of controllers, but nowhere near enough to overthrow the dual-stick status quo. It is enough, however, to give Valve a diverse user base from which to harvest valuable user feedback. “With every controller that comes online we get the opportunity to get more feedback on how to make the Steam Controller even better.”
Valve says it’s been listening to that feedback, too — outlining the major improvements it’s made to the Steam Controller since its release in November of last year. Most of the update is old news for avid Steam Controller users, but welcome additions all the same: recent updates have enabled users to configure their controllers in desktop mode, added a rumble pass-through feature for games that support force feedback and enabled user-configurable “Action Sets” that can change controller mapping on the fly. Valve also says that more games are launching with Steam Controller support out of the box, citing Doom and Dark Souls III as recent examples.
Finally, to prove it’s been listening to the community, Valve confirmed another feature that’s on the way: Activators. As described, this would allow users to “assign actions to press-and-hold, double click, toggle and more.” The option isn’t available to users just yet, but you can already find activators at work in Doom’s default Steam Controller profile, where double tapping the weapon cycle button calls up a specific gun. Are these changes enough to make you brave the Steam Controller’s steep learning curve? Let us know in the comments below, or click through to the source to see Valve’s full June update.
Source: Valve
‘Skylanders Imaginators’ lets you create your own heroes
Just because Disney is calling it quits on Infinity doesn’t mean that the era of collectible-driven video games is over. Activision has unveiled Skylanders Imaginators, and its centerpiece is the ability to create your own hero using a wide array of body parts and gear. At last, you’re no longer limited to whatever the developers can dream up. You won’t get a real-world figurine that matches your exact character, unfortunately, but there will be “Creation Crystals” you can buy to bring your champion to other consoles.
The game mechanics revolve around this customization, too. You have to develop your character through Senseis (who are available as toys, naturally) that refine your skills, unlock content and otherwise help your personalized avatar advance.
Activision releases Imaginators on October 16th in North America, and October 14th in Europe. Importantly, this is likely to be one of the few major games reaching last-generation consoles this year. It’ll reach the PS4, Wii U and Xbox One, but it’ll also come to the PS3 and Xbox 360 — you won’t have to upgrade your kids’ console (much to their chagrin) to make sure they can play.
Source: Activision Games Blog, Skylanders
‘Alto’s Adventure’ zen mode is built to help you relax
Alto’s Adventure is already something of a tranquil experience between its endless snowboarding and beautiful pastoral landscapes, but developer Snowman wants go even further. It’s introducing a “zen mode” to Alto that removes scores and lets you continue from wherever you crashed — all you have to do is enjoy the experience. There’s also a more relaxing soundtrack in this mode, and you’ll even get a photo tool that lets you zoom in and peek behind foreground objects that might clutter the scene.
The update will arrive on June 2nd for all iOS users. As for Android? That’s coming “soon,” Snowman promises. Alto might not be your first choice for a chillout session (a soothing album and a quiet room would be my pick), but this should help for those moments when you’re more interested in tuning out than beating your previous run.
Via: The Verge
Source: Built by Snowman
Boss-battle game ‘Furi’ gets a soundtrack full of electro artists
You might not know much about The Game Bakers’ upcoming one-on-one action game Furi, but you’re about to hear a lot more about it in a very literal sense. The studio has revealed that its boss-battles-only title will have a soundtrack created by a slew of known electro artists, including Carpenter Brut, Danger and The Toxic Avenger. The Game Bakers are confident enough in it that they’re both selling the soundtrack (€15/$17 for digital, €30/$34 vinyl) and holding a concert in Paris on July 8th.
The game itself hits both PCs and the PlayStation 4 sometime in the summer. It’s too soon to know whether or not Furi can match the early hype, but the trailer hints at frenetic gameplay in a distinctive setting — both good signs in our book. We’re planning to cover the game at E3, so we’ll let you know whether or not it merits your attention.
Source: Bandcamp, The Game Bakers
Xbox One price drops to $299 ahead of E3
If Microsoft is hoping to quell rumors of new Xbox hardware at E3, it isn’t doing the greatest job. The company has permanently cut the prices of Xbox One consoles by $50 across the board, lowering the base price to $299 — even some of the nicer multi-game 1TB bundles now sell for $319. These are tremendousprices, of course, but they’re coming just a couple of weeks before E3. While this could just be an attempt to goose sales during the historically quiet summer, it’s only going to fuel talk of a possible smaller 2TB system that would become the new flagship. The price drop is great if you’re looking for the most affordable Xbox One possible, but it’s otherwise worth holding off a little while… especially if you want to see what Sony brings to the table.
Via: Polygon
Source: Xbox.com
Watch PlayStation’s E3 2016 event in a movie theater
It’s almost E3 time, and that means something big for theater-going PlayStation fans: Sony’s PlayStation E3 Experience is back. This year, you can watch the company’s gaming presentation on June 13th at over 85 theaters in not only North America, but Latin America as well. Everyone who gets in will walk out with some obligatory swag, including a currently-mysterious digital “gift basket.” Tickets will be free when they’re up for grabs on May 31st at 1PM Eastern, so you’ll want to move quickly — there will be plenty of gamers curious to see Sony’s future products on the biggest screen possible.
Source: PlayStation Blog
Real-world ‘Pong’ might just beat the video game
If you miss the days of playing Pong with old-school dial controllers but would rather not track down a vintage console or arcade cabinet, today’s your lucky day. Daniel Perdomo and crew have built a real-world Pong machine that replicates the pioneering game with physical parts. Despite what it looks like, it’s not just an Atari-themed air hockey table. Instead of letting physics take over, the machine maps virtual ball and paddle movements to objects. All the eccentricities of Pong gameplay are intact, just in a more tangible (and arguably, far more immersive) form. LEDs track the score, while the controllers are rejiggered hard drives.
Perdomo doesn’t just want this to be a one-off project. He’s hoping to find a hardware manufacturer to produce further tables. If that happens, there’s a real chance that you could have a Pong table in your rec room — perfect for those moments when a round of darts or pool isn’t enough to captivate your house guests.
Via: Gizmodo, Popular Mechanics
Source: Daniel Perdomo (YouTube)
The new ‘Doom’ hides sinister images in its soundtrack
It’s no secret that the new Doom is chock-full of Easter eggs and other surprises, but the latest is one you wouldn’t find just by wandering around the game’s tortured halls. Intrepid fan TomButcher has noticed that at least one tune in the soundtrack, “Cyberdemon,” shows both pentagrams and the number 666 when you visualize the music’s frequencies through a spectrogram. Composer Mick Gordon recently teased that this hidden sinister imagery might be present in a video (below at the 3:29 mark), but there’s no doubt about it now. Clearly, he remembers the days when the original Doom’s hellish artwork had some parents in a frenzy.
Music aficionados will be quick to note that stealthy image insertion isn’t new. Aphex Twin (aka Richard James) legendarily inserted his own face into the spectrogram for a track on his Windowlicker EP, for a start. All the same, it’s good to know that the art of sneaking in subtle audio references is far from dead — even if you’re unlikely to see this feat in many other games going forward.
Via: Reddit
Source: TomButcher (Imgur)
Twitch Clips share your favorite stream moments
Twitch viewers know the problem: you’ve seen something amazing on a stream that you’re dying to share, but you’d rather not make friends watch the whole stream (or remember the exact time) to relive the moment. What to do? After today, it should only take a few clicks. Twitch is rolling out a Clips feature that creates a shareable video capturing the 25 seconds before you tap the button, and 5 seconds afterward. After that, you get a web link that takes people directly to the broadcaster; if the feed is no longer live, you’ll go to the exact moment the clip began in the finished video.
Only partnered channels get to use Clips right away, and then only for “select” viewers. It’ll take a few weeks before everyone has access. When it reaches a wider audience, though, it’ll represent a big step toward giving Twitch the social video sharing that you’re used to from services focusing on pre-recorded videos.
Source: Twitch
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