Add-on brings Game Boy cartridges to your Android phone
Hyperkin toyed with gamers last year when it teased a peripheral that would play real Game Boy cartridges on your phone, but it wasn’t just kidding around — it’s making good on its word. The company is now taking pre-orders for a Smart Boy Development Kit that lets your Android smartphone play Game Boy and Game Boy Color cartridges. The $60 peripheral isn’t meant for everyday use — Hyperkin is hoping you’ll improve the open source code yourself. Nonetheless, it’s likely the closest you’ll get to reviving your childhood short of dragging the original hardware out of storage. Just be ready to wait until December 1st to get yours… and while Hyperkin originally talked about an iPhone version, Apple handset users are out of luck so far.
Via: SlashGear, Neowin, Gizmodo
Source: Hyperkin
‘Batman Arkham VR’ put me inside the Batsuit
Telltale wasn’t the only developer that brought Batman to E3 this year: The folks at Rocksteady Games packed The Dark Knight into their suitcases as well. Batman Arkham VR was a surprise reveal at Sony’s keynote earlier this week and drew a huge round of applause when it appeared on stage. Once I strapped a PlayStation VR headset (it’s a timed-exclusive to the platform this October), I could tell why the team worked so hard to keep it a secret.
I started out the demo standing in the foyer of Wayne Manor, staring at a pair of beat-up disembodied hands floating in front of me. Each pantomimed in time with the PlayStation Move wands in my own hands. Bruce Wayne’s butler Alfred Pennyworth walked in, said a few words and handed me a key for the Bat Cave’s secret entrance. Putting it in the nearby piano’s keyboard cover exposed the ivories, and I instinctively dragged my finger from one end to the other.
The platform I was standing on slowly descended toward Wayne’s clandestine lair, and stopped a few seconds later, with me putting on bits of the Bat Suit piece by piece. First a pair of gloves, then strapping Batarangs, a grapnel gun and an environmental scanner to Bats’ trademark utility belt.
And then I donned the cowl that has struck fear into the hearts of Gotham City’s countless fictitious criminals. Paired with longtime Batman voice actor Kevin Conroy (who brought Bruce Wayne to life in Batman: The Animated Series and each previous Arkham game), the process of suiting up went a long way to making me feel like I actually was the Caped Crusader. Then the elevator descended further into the Bat Cave, which was beset on all sides with waterfalls.
The bust of a Tyrannosaurus was off to the left — a nod to a comic book storyline from the ’40s — and a colony of bats swirled off in the distance. Just as I was settling into my new role, gazing around in childlike wonder, because, there I was in the Bat Cave, I was whisked back to the demo’s main menu. Naturally, it was a perch on the Gotham City Police Department’s roof, with the Bat Signal at my back.
The other portion of the demo had me piecing together a murder by using Bats’ high-tech forensic tools — familiar stuff for anyone who played last year’s Arkham Knight. Like that game, Arkham VR isn’t afraid to go dark: The victim is Dick Grayson, better known as Nightwing. The scene takes place in a garbage-filled alley and implements the augmented-reality-style Detective Mode (perhaps the most natural fit for a Batman game in VR) to scour the crime scene for clues. Rotating my arm clockwise and counterclockwise to scrub through the fight’s holographic reconstruction was cool too.
At one point, the brawl was happening right in front of me and I instinctively stepped back, out of the way. I didn’t need to, but it felt like if I didn’t, I’d be bowled over. Movement in VR that doesn’t cause motion sickness is incredibly tricky to get right, so the team at Rocksteady Games avoided typical locomotion.
I was able to look around wherever I wanted, but moving from one location to the next in the alley was handled by looking at a holographic PlayStation Move controller and pressing a button on the real one in my hand. The screen briefly faded to black before warping me to the next vantage point. It breaks the immersion a bit, but I’d rather a brief interruption if it means I don’t feel queasy. After discovering that the Penguin was behind the murder, I fired my grapnel gun at a passing blimp and was transported back to the main menu.
Throughout the experience, I found myself smiling like an idiot. Each previous Arkham game has been jokingly referred to as a “Batman simulator” by fans, but it wasn’t until I donned the Batsuit and investigated a crime scene in VR that it felt like I was actually in the Caped Crusader’s boots.
A studio spokesperson at E3 said that the full experience would take around two to three hours, once the game launches this October, but when I asked about pricing, he said that hadn’t been finalized yet. Hopefully, publisher Warner Bros. Interactive will make this a free update for existing Arkham owners or season pass holders. Or for people who don’t care for the traditional Arkham games but want to role-play as The World’s Greatest Detective in VR, price it at $10 or under.
Follow all the news from E3 2016 here!
‘Battlefield 1’ learned a lot from ‘Star Wars: Battlefront’
When Electronic Arts and DICE released Star Wars: Battlefront last fall, fans complained that it was far too simple; a shell of a game. The reaction was justified, but as shallow as the game was, it wasn’t without merit. A lot of what Battlefront got right (a massive sense of scale, easier to control aircraft and monstrous mechanical instruments of war) has made its way into Battlefield 1.
The latter series has always prided itself on being a thinking-person’s shooter. But recent releases have become bloated, with a diminished focus on what made the franchise great in the first place. In particular, these recent installments have tended to emphasize spectacle over strategic gunfights, with each player serving a distinct role in combat. Some of Battlefront’s simplicity made its way into DICE’s version of World War I, but based on what I played at E3, that isn’t a detriment — it’s an asset.
Battlefront and Battlefield 1 were developed in parallel, so it’s no surprise that there was some cross-pollination. The overlap was sometimes unexpected, though. The Battlefield series has always had aircraft of some sort, but simply getting in the pilot’s seat didn’t ensure success; being a proficient (and genuinely helpful) helicopter or fighter jet pilot takes a lot of practice. Battlefront took an arcadey approach to controlling the sci-fi universe’s iconic spacecraft and made each ship easy to pick up and have fun with.
“There’s been a lot of crossover between how [we] think about air combat between Star Wars and Battlefield 1,” DICE general manager Patrick Bach said. “That doesn’t mean it’s the same. It’s actually far from it.”
Bach is right. Battlefield’s biplanes aren’t just X-Wings with machine guns bolted on. They’re fragile, heavy-feeling, and susceptible to small arms fire from the ground. And, most noticeably, they’re an awful lot slower to maneuver. “There’s much more of a physical presence to the biplanes,” Bach said. They’re a little easier to fly than before, sure, but I still crashed more times than I care to admit.
One of the most unique aspects of Battlefront were the lumbering AT-AT walkers from The Empire Strikes Back’s assault on Hoth. Bach said that even though they’re quite different, Battlefield 1’s tanks are the equivalent of Walkers. “They have a lot of stopping power and you probably behave the same way when you see a tank as you would when you see an AT-AT — you fight or you run; there’s no other option,” he said.
That doesn’t mean you’re helpless should you find yourself facing one down. Bach noted that foot-soldiers have more options to take them out this time around. “I compare it to meeting a dragon [in other games], and feeling like you can actually take it down, but it will be a struggle,” he said. “It’s almost like meeting a miniboss on the battlefield.”
Then there are the zeppelin warships. The difference between these and the Walkers is that they’re actually player-controlled and you can direct where they float above the chaos below — a departure from the autonomous AT-ATs. When a zeppelin arrives, it can dominate the area it’s floating above with massive firepower from player-occupied turrets. This is especially helpful when you’re playing Conquest and are defending control points from above. If you’re feeling gutsy, you could even exit the upper turrets and use a rifle to take potshots, on foot, from the top of the blimps. Based on my experience, however, I don’t recommend that. At all.
That’s because in a turret I had a bit of protection and a lot of firepower. That wasn’t the case when I was aiming down the sights of my gun.
Like the other aircraft — and unlike the Walkers — these blimps are particularly fragile. One teammate making couple of passes with their biplane guns, combined with anti-aircraft fire from the ground make short work of them. When the opposing team knocks one out of the sky, it erupts in a ball of fire and the wreckage will destroy whatever (unfortunately) is below it at the time. Seeing it happen as satisfying as tripping the Empire’s most fearsome ground unit and watching it fall on its “face.”
I haven’t loved a Battlefield game since 2010’s Bad Company 2. But during a single round of Conquest set on a map in northern France, I caught a glimpse of the game that had me smitten five years ago. I’ve been chasing that figurative dragon with each successive sequel since and come away disappointed. From the admittedly small portion I played, Battlefront’s influences haven’t hurt Battlefield 1; they’ve helped bring the series back to its roots.
The revamped class system distills each to its core duties, and the medic (my personal favorite) finally feels like a full-on support role again. It isn’t a combat medic with an assault rifle, similar to what Battlefield 4 did to the class in 2013; it’s just a medic. I tried rushing in and taking out enemies with a single-shot rifle and was mowed down time and time again, not helping my team at all. Once I remembered that the way to play was reviving downed teammates and dropping health kits during firefights, I was much more effective and having a lot more fun. It’s something I haven’t felt about the series in years.
I can’t help but feel that Battlefront helped DICE strip back some of the bloat that has creeped into Battlefield over the past few games. But for all the influences, Battlefield still feels like Battlefield. If you were worried about it being last year’s hollow LucasArts game with a World War I skin slapped on, don’t be.
Follow all the news from E3 2016 here!
Valve tests Steam Controller customizations and 3D VR screenshots
When Valve announced that it had sold over half a million Steam Controllers, it also noted a new feature on the way called Activators. With Activators, gamers can customize each press of an input on the gamepad, with tweaks for haptic settings, or distinguish between a normal press, a long press or a double tap — all on a single input. Now the feature is live for users in the Steam beta, to try out and see if there’s another level of precision for controller customization.
Additionally, the SteamVR beta just added support for stereoscopic screenshots. Assuming you’re playing in VR, you can hold down the System button and pull the controller’s trigger to take a screenshot. The screenshots are still shared to the Steam Community in 2D, but another update will let properly-equipped viewers see them in 3D to get the same effect experienced when they were taken.
Source: Steam Community
‘No Man’s Sky’ developer ends ‘legal nonsense’ battle over name
There’s no sign that it contributed to the delay, but Hello Games founder Sean Murray said today that after “3 years of secret stupid legal nonsense,” his company’s game can be called No Man’s Sky. They had to settle with trademark owner Sky TV to use the name that it’s very protective of — remember when Microsoft had to rename SkyDrive as OneDrive for the same reason? According to Murray’s tweets, he’s learned a lot about trademark law, and might have a good idea about why Skynet never happened. Seriously though, the highly anticipated game should be on track for its rescheduled release date of August 9th, and we can’t wait to see it procedurally generated universe unfold.
This is the same folks who made Microsoft change Skydrive to Onedrive… so it was pretty serious
— Sean Murray (@NoMansSky) June 17, 2016
Source: Sean Murray (Twitter)
Twitch sues viewerbot sellers to curb fake popularity ratings
Twitch has long been the de facto prime source for streaming video game content, but with popularity comes internet crime. Seedy online outlets are selling bot followers in bulk to make accounts look more popular than they really are, which the streaming service monitors and bans where it can. But enough is enough: Twitch is finally suing seven of the most active sellers of online viewbot services.
What’s at stake, of course, is money. When an individual account gets popular enough, Twitch considers making them an official partner, meaning they earn money based on their viewership. The company sees this as a positive feedback loop to keep the site’s content quality high. Bot services artificially boost the viewer count for an account and populate their chatbox, simulating activity and diverting attention from legitimate accounts. If popularity is manufactured, the Twitch system loses viewers’ trust and they’ll go elsewhere.
Twitter and Facebook users have been able to buy similar bulk packages of fake followers for awhile, but Twitch’s reputation was built on a “by fans, for fans” grassroots legitimacy in which users vote with their views. As the streaming service adds more features to become a robust social destination and announces big eSports partnerships, keeping its community’s trust will be key.
But users have to stay honest too, says the company’s SVP of Marketing in a post. Ultimately, the best way to stop viewerbot sellers from ruining Twitch is for users to stop buying them.
Source: Twitch blog
A tour of Devolver’s E3 anti-booth
Devolver Digital sees itself as the punk rockstar of video game publishing. Although it’s never officially had a booth at E3, it has done the conference equivalent of sneaking round the back, setting up shop in a parking lot opposite the Los Angeles Convention Center and next to a Hooters. After our day on the actual show floor, the Engadget E3 crew descended on Devolver’s lot to check out what the publisher had to offer.
Absolver
Aaron Souppouris, Senior Editor
Before Shenmue was Shenmue, it was Virtua Fighter RPG. I was 14 at the time, and full of teenage dreams about what an RPG based on Sega’s famous 3D beat-em-up would look like. Without knowing it, French studio Slocap has built the closest thing to what I dreamed up.
Absolver is a massively multiplayer beat-em up. You design a character, then spec out its moves (which unlocked through exploration and play), and go fight. Each character has four distinct stances, and each stance has four moves. You can switch between stances mid-combo, and some moves have different effects like breaking guard. On top of this simple-to-understand, difficult-to-master attack system, you’ll also have guard, parries and weapons to learn.
You’ll be able to play solo, with random, seamless matchmaking on the fly, or team up with friends to run amok in miniature raids and quests. It was seriously impressive.
Strafe
Jessica Conditt, Senior Editor
Strafe might be my next addiction in quick-round video games. It’s a roguelike first-person shooter with graphics that look like a mix of Minecraft and the original Doom, but polished to perfection. The game is simple: You’re a scrap collector on the edge of the universe. There are monsters trying to kill you. You have a gun. The mechanics write themselves from there.
Even though its premise is simple, Strafe transcends ordinary territory via its cleanliness. The game is stripped down to the fundamentals of a shooter, with universal ammo dumps, explosive barrels and weapon upgrade machines scattered throughout the levels. It’s a roguelike, so once you die, you start all the way back at the beginning, and the levels take roughly 10 minutes each to clear. The blood and guts of all the creatures you kill remains on the ground, walls and ceiling forever in a single play-through, meaning you’ll never have to question if you’ve been through an area before. The monsters, by the way, are incredibly bloody.
Shadow Warrior 2
Nathan Ingraham, Senior Editor
I never played the original Shadow Warrior, but its sequel is a somewhat ridiculous but still entertaining throwback first-person shooter. Each level is procedurally generated, which means there’s a lot of opportunity for different play-throughs here, and the weapon selection is top-notch. As you’re a ninja, your main weapon is a katana — but you’re also equipped with a host of ridiculous guns that almost make it not worth using the sword.
But getting up close and personal makes the game a lot more fun, particularly when the bizarre alien monsters you’re fighting fly apart in a gross shower of gibs. There’s even a chainsaw, which lets you slice and dice enemies in a fairly disgusting but highly entertaining way. The format of the game may not be unique, but it manages to rise above the standard first-person shooter by not taking itself too seriously and throwing a boatload of fun weapons your way.
Serious Sam VR
Timothy J. Seppala, Associate Editor
Serious Sam has always been about two things: circle-strafing and destroying waves of cartoony, over-the-top enemies with equally absurd weapons. Like a gun that fires cannonballs, for example. It’s never been a particularly deep series, but it’s a solid way to waste a few minutes, or hours, if you’re playing co-op.
So playing Serious Sam VR: The Last Hope in virtual reality was a natural fit at E3. Playing on an HTC Vive (it was also available on Oculus Rift) simplifies the already pared-down game even further. There’s no circle strafing, instead I stood static and the waves of flame demons and armless-bipeds with toothy, gaping maws rushed toward my bullets with little regard for their personal safety. I’d be remiss if I didn’t tell you that I died a lot. But, the upside of this is that after each time, I was able to buy new weapons or refill ammo with money I’d accrued with the business ends of my dual pistols, shotguns, and yes, cannonball launchers. It’s dumb fun, and my trigger fingers got sore long before the smile wore off my face.
‘World Rally Championship 6’ in VR is full of off-road rage
Virtual reality makes everything better, right? Not so fast. I got a chance to play World Rally Championship 6 with an Oculus Rift and a bucking, hydraulic-powered racing rig with a steering wheel and pedals. As you’ll see in the video above, I spun out a ton and caught the VR sickness that’s been going around. That’s because with all the spinning I was doing, my eyes saw it, but my body didn’t feel like it was doing 360s. The result was me feeling sweaty and queasy after pulling the headset off. Oh, and I swore an awful lot too. Sorry Mom and Dad.
Follow all the news from E3 2016 here!
These were our favorite games, hardware and toys from E3 2016
Another year, another massive, exciting E3 showcase. The biggest names in the video game industry brought out their newest games and hardware, including two console announcements (and controllers) from Xbox and a ton of fresh games from PlayStation with an emphasis on VR experiences. There was no sign of Sony’s new PlayStation 4, but that was just fine.
Engadget’s E3 crew spent the week running around the show floor and convention halls, collecting all of the most important news and interviews. And playing some games, of course. OK, playing a lot of games. Don’t hate — check out the above video for our our favorites from E3 2016.
Follow all the news from E3 2016 here!
Razer’s OSVR headset is still a work in progress
When Razer announced the latest version of its HDK (“Hacker Development Kit”) virtual reality headset, it positioned it as a competitor to premium devices like the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive. On paper, that’s very much true: the HDK 2.0 has a 2,160 x 1,200 low-persistence OLED panel, a 110-degree field of view and a 90Hz refresh rate. It also has a low price of $399, which is way less than the Rift’s $599 and Vive’s $799 (both headsets come with accessories that go a way to explaining the price difference).
We tried on the HDK 2.0 for a quick game, and weren’t completely sold own the experience. Despite those lofty specs — numerically on par with both the Rift and Vive — the display didn’t match the quality of those in either of the more established sets. That said, it did offer a clear advantage over PSVR, which is to be expected given the improved resolution it offers.
Our social media editor Mallory Johns donned the HDK 2.0 for a play season of Redout, an F-Zero-esque space racer. Mallory’s been around the VR block, with hours of playtime logged on the Vive, Oculus, PSVR and Gear VR, but despite the 90-frames-per-second refresh rate, she found the experience nauseating, thanks in part to the lenses not playing well with her short-sightedness.
In terms of build quality, the HDK 2.0 feels very much a generation behind. It’s comfortable to wear, thanks to its lightness, but it’s more comparable to Oculus’ Crystal Cove headset rather than the finished article. There’s also the issue of compatibility. Valve supports the HDK (and OSVR in general) through Steam, so technically anything the Vive can run HDK can as well. But with only a tiny infrared tracker, and no dedicated motion controls. This is a problem that can be solved in the future, or with third-party add-ons, though.
Being a little rough around the edges is to be expected — OSVR is an ongoing project, and this is a development kit — but if you were looking for something comparable to the Vive or Rift in terms of quality on a budget, don’t expect the HDK 2.0 to be without compromise.
Mallory Johns contributed to this report.
Follow all the news from E3 2016 here!
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