Killing children in ‘What Remains of Edith Finch’
Young Calvin Finch sits on a swing perched atop a steep seaside cliff while the afternoon sun warms the waves, grass and trees. Calvin’s left leg is in a cast, but he easily swings his feet back and forth, pushing higher and higher over the cliffside. He wants to do a full circle on the swing set; he knows it’s possible if he tries hard enough. Back and forth, back and forth. Cast kicking, he climbs higher, parallel to the ground and shooting back down, swinging his legs even harder. And then, with a final determined kick, he does it.
Calvin flies around and around, branches of the tree above him scratching his face and body, leaves and twigs falling to the ground. Suddenly, on the last high-velocity rotation, Calvin lets go of the chains, and his body soars over the cliff, cast and all. For a moment, he flies above the water, toward the setting sun. And then, he’s dead.
“I think there’s something inherently surreal about childhood,” says Ian Dallas, the creative director of What Remains of Edith Finch, a first-person video game set to debut on PC and PlayStation 4 in spring 2017. Dallas is the person who dreamed up the seaside cliff, the swingset and little Calvin Finch’s untimely, unintentional death.
What Remains of Edith Finch is obsessed with death. It feels more like a collection of short stories, each one about the mysterious demise of someone in the Finch family. The Finches are cursed: Beginning in the early 1900s, family members have been killed in strange, seemingly impossible ways, often at young ages. Today Edith Finch is the last of her name, and she’s convinced something is amiss in her life, so she travels to her family home in Washington to dig through her ancestral history.
Edith prowls through rooms and secret passageways that have been preserved like tombs for generations, with family members’ possessions frozen in time. One of these shrines is Calvin’s bedroom, once shared with his twin. Calvin’s side is bright and playful, featuring a space-exploration theme, including stairs that lead to a spaceship cockpit and an astronaut helmet.
Under the helmet is a letter from Calvin’s twin, explaining who Calvin was, how he lived and how he died. This is where the cliffside scene takes over the screen and players become Calvin, sitting on the swing set, kicking his legs as the letter is narrated over the tranquil scene. Press the controls forward and his legs pump forward; press back and his legs swing back.
It’s no secret that these motions will lead to Calvin’s death. What Remains of Edith Finch’s conceit is perfectly clear: This family is cursed, and these people will die. Yes, even the children. Still, the cliff is so peaceful and the motion so intoxicating that it feels OK to make Calvin swing higher and higher. Even though the player is effectively killing Calvin, everything feels right.
This is the tone that Dallas wanted to infuse into What Remains of Edith Finch: surreal joy and childlike wonder.
“It helps to set the players’ expectations up in the way that we want,” Dallas says. “There’s a reason we ended up with a lot of stories that ultimately deal with children. It was a little tricky with the Finch family tree, making sure people lived long enough to be able to have kids.”
Dallas isn’t a sadist with a penchant for fictional murder. What Remains of Edith Finch respects death in the same way it respects life. Every one of the death scenes is a sort of happy, fulfilling victory for the starring character, rather than a tragic end.
“There’s death but there’s also — in each of these stories, you as a player are coming into contact with the unknown because you have no idea what’s going to happen,” Dallas says. “Each story is completely different. But they all end in death.”
In this way, What Remains of Edith Finch holds a mirror to reality. Real life is filled with billions of unique stories that all, ultimately, end in death. But the game’s approach to these scenes — making each passing joyful, intriguing and beautiful — is cathartic, rather than morbid.
Dallas’ studio, Giant Sparrow, wants to make the world stranger. It started with The Unfinished Swan, a breakout independent game published by Sony Santa Monica in 2012, when Dallas and his team were still in school. Now, Giant Sparrow is working with Annapurna Interactive, the new video game publishing endeavor from the film studio behind Her and American Hustle.
While designing What Remains of Edith Finch, Dallas was inspired by HP Lovecraft and Jorge Luis Borges, short-story writers with a penchant for strange, supernatural horror scenes. The game is also (accidentally) reminiscent of another recent indie hit: Gone Home.
“It’s a young woman coming back to her family home in the Pacific Northwest in relatively modern times,” Dallas explains. “That’s a small pool. For us, I think it’s particularly great because the game is so different than Gone Home. When people come in with that expectation — any time people have an expectation, that gives us an opportunity to circumvent that and give them a little bit more of the unknown, which is so hard to find in the real world.”
The real world is insistent on making people feel comfortable, Dallas continues. What Remains of Edith Finch aims to infuse a little discomfort into our everyday lives.
“I would hope that people have a memorable experience,” he says. “I think, in order to have something memorable — when I think back on my own life, the things that I remember are usually not when things are going well. Often, there’s like some disaster but then it ends up being OK.”
It’s simple to make people uneasy in a game about killing children. Balancing that discomfort with happiness is where things get tricky. Giant Sparrow made sure to beta test What Remains of Edith Finch with parents, especially new ones; these people tend to have a different reaction to the game than childless players, Dallas says. They’re simply more sensitive to images of children dying — which is one reason What Remains of Edith Finch doesn’t talk about death directly. It shows death, but it doesn’t focus on the concept. Instead, it highlights the journey: the sun’s warm rays on the grass; the beautiful tree; the euphoria of swinging.
“All of these stories are about people being successful,” Dallas says. “They’re not the victim. Generally, they’re the people that are out there, causing the problem. They’re all pyrrhic victories — each story, it’s become this definitive, Finchian moment of knowing that you’re about to do something terrible, but marching joyfully to your inexorable end.”
The Morning After: Thursday, December 8, 2016
Hey, good morning! Last night, Nintendo showed off the Switch and its debut mobile Super Mario game, Microsoft laid down some big plans for 2017 and 10,000 Sprint stores are turning into PokéStops.
Nintendo successfully built a “Mario” title that makes perfect sense on a phonePreview: “Super Mario Run”
We’ve played Nintendo’s first real smartphone game (and so can you — starting today a demo is available at your local Apple Store) and can confirm: it’s just as much fun as everyone hoped it would be. We’ve played Nintendo’s first real smartphone game (and so can you — starting today a demo is available at your local Apple Store) and can confirm: it’s just as much fun as everyone hoped it would be. “Super Mario Run” integrates the character’s traditional gameplay into an auto-runner format, as players tap the screen to make him jump, hover or wall-jump through the levels. Once that’s mastered, the Toad Rally multiplayer system adds a surprising level of depth. Interested? The $9.99 game arrives on iOS December 15th (Android next year), and as Reggie Fils-Aime explains, it’s just the beginning.
It’s going to be an interesting year
Microsoft’s big plans for VR, AR and Windows 10 on ARM
Microsoft’s plans for 2017 are coming into focus, and they’re going to involve using the words “mixed reality” repeatedly. First, it’s released recommended PC specs for using those $300 Windows VR headsets on the way from Dell, HP and Lenovo. There’s also a Project Evo in the works with Intel to deliver systems ready for 4K gaming, Windows Hello and smooth mixed-reality experiences like HoloLens.
Finally, it’s readying a version of Windows 10 that runs on Qualcomm’s Snapdragon mobile CPUs. Don’t think of this as another stripped-down Windows RT effort however — it’s a full OS, capable of running both legacy x86 Windows programs and newer universal apps. The first PCs using it could be on their way as soon as next year.
Finally, a reason to go to a phone store.
Sprint stores are turning into PokéStops and Gyms
10,000 locations are being added to the US’ Pokemon Go world — and they’re all Sprint stores. It’s the country’s first sponsored location deal, and it’s unlikely to be the last. Don’t forget: new Pokemon are coming.
Now we just need a device with it built-in
Bluetooth 5 is faster, longer-ranged and (almost) here
Bluetooth version 5’s specifications have been cemented, clearing the way for device makers to use it in everything from phones and wearables to smart home equipment. It’s a huge upgrade to the version before it, and should ensure future Bluetooth headphones don’t choke on signal fumes. Useful at a time when all the headphone jacks are disappearing from our phones.
Like iMessages but with no obligatory iPhone
T-Mobile Digits brings calls and texts to all your devices
The Uncarrier’s new Digits program lets you add multiple numbers to your phone, and then use them across all your devices. Those who join the trial will need to have at least Android 5.0 or iOS 9 installed on their phones, and/or Mozilla Firefox or Google Chrome on their Macs or PCs, but then your texts and calls will work across all said compatible devices.
It’s selling faster than the PS3 did.
Sony has sold 50 millions PS4s and PS4 Pros
Console gaming continues to power on. Combining PS4, PS4 Pro and the new slim version console sales, Sony has sold 50 million consoles in just over three years. In comparison, it took the company over four years to hit the same milestone with the PS3.
But wait, there’s more…
- Nintendo’s Switch might play GameCube games
- Rumor: Apple is in talks to offer movie rentals two weeks after they debut in theaters
- Technology is coming for your retail jobs
- BBC tests 4K iPlayer with ‘Planet Earth II’
Fans set to launch new classic World of Warcraft server this month
At the end of August, Blizzard released Legion, the sixth expansion for its long-standing fantasy MMO World of Warcraft. One contingent of the game’s fans probably didn’t buy it: The 800,000-strong players who maintained an expansion-free “vanilla” version of the game on their own server, Nostalrius, until the megastudio shut it down last April. Some hope remained while Blizzard pondered whether to launch their own “pristine” servers without expansion content or third-party add-ons. But fans tired of waiting for a studio-blessed Legacy iteration of the game have once again created their own server, Elysium, which is set to go live on December 19th.
The new server won’t have anything new, which is the point: Players will enjoy a version of World of Warcraft rolled back to 2006, just before the launch of the first expansion The Burning Crusade. It’s largely built from the code used in the old Nostalrius server. After Blizzard had the old Legacy version shut down back in Spring, a 250,000-signed online petition convinced them to invite some Nostalrius administrators to a sit-down; in good faith, they withheld the server’s source code in hopes that the studio would release an official classic instance of the game for Legacy-loving players to use.
But according to the Nostalrius team, Blizzard didn’t follow up with them, and after no announcements for a non-expansion server at November’s Blizzcon 2016, they publicly released their classic server’s source code to the Legacy community. The Elysium Project, which included several Nostalrius team alumni, rolled the code and player information from the old server into its forthcoming release. After stress tests in the past weeks, the team announced that Elysium would be ready to launch in a couple weeks. Whether Blizzard will similarly serve this new Legacy server with cease-and-desist orders is unclear.
Via: Ars Technica
Source: The Elysium Project
‘Super Mario Run’ is just as much fun as we’d hoped
It’s no stretch to say that Super Mario Run (launching December 15th for iOS; an Android version will arrive next year) is one of the most notable mobile games in years. It’s Nintendo’s first real smartphone game and one of the only instances in which the company has developed a Mario game for non-Nintendo hardware. It’s the first of several mobile titles planned and could mark the start of a major business shift for Nintendo. But let’s put aside all these heady concerns about what Super Mario Run means for the company and answer the most important question: Is the game fun?
Based on the all-too-brief demo I had earlier this week, the answer is a resounding yes. With Super Mario Run, Nintendo has successfully built a Mario title that makes perfect sense for a mobile phone while still featuring surprisingly deep gameplay and a level of polish seen in a small percentage of games, regardless of platform.
The gameplay appears to be identical to what Nintendo first showed off onstage at Apple’s event this past September. Mario runs automatically from left to right, and the player can tap the screen to make him jump. The goal is to get to the end of a course, which seems to take a minute or two, while avoiding death and collecting as many coins as you can.
Naturally, there are a lot of variations on what you can make Mario do here beyond that: Holding longer when you tap makes him jump higher; you can tap again to get a brief momentary hover; you can wall-jump; landing on enemies gives you a chance to string together multiple jumps; and so on. There are a handful of environmental items that change things up as well — jumping off of certain bricks will send Mario soaring to the left instead of to the right, and standing on some bricks will stop Mario so you can assess the coming challenges and plan your route.
In the few levels I tried, getting to the end wasn’t a big challenge. But the replayability should be excellent here because I didn’t come close to grabbing all of the coins in the course — those among us with OCD tendencies are going to be playing these levels multiple times to perfect our route and jump timing. Furthermore, each course has five pink special coins to grab. Getting those unlocks five more purple coins in harder-to-reach locations. Getting those unlocks five black coins, again in even tougher places in the level. It’ll take at least three playthroughs to grab everything in a given level, and to get all the standard coins will be another challenge.
That’s one example of the game’s depth. The next comes when you factor in competition. The main game’s standard 24 levels are only one part of Super Mario Run. There’s also the “Toad Rally,” in which you compete against friends or people all over the world. Entering a Toad Rally competition costs tickets, which you gain in other parts of the game.
Once you’ve entered the rally, you start a timed course that doesn’t have an end and shoot to get as many coins as you can before time runs out. But you also need to impress the Toad judges by doing combo jumps and other more complicated tricks as you make your way through the level. The more you impress the judges, the more they cheer, and the more points you get.
In both the standard “World Tour” and Toad Rally, the gameplay is excellent. There’s enough of a learning curve that I didn’t feel like I could immediately master each level, but it certainly wasn’t hard to just pick up and start playing. Perhaps the trickiest thing for those of us who’ve played a lot of Mario will be remembering you don’t have to jump on Koopas and Goombas — by default, Mario will automatically vault over them. Jumping gives you more points and the opportunity for more combos, but you don’t have to do it.
The Toad Rally has another twist: You put a few members of your personal Toad posse on the line when you play, and if you lose, those Toads defect to the victor’s team. The number of Toads on your team serves as a good representation of how successful you’ve been in the rally — so you can use them to see how good a potential opponent is before challenging them to a match. Toads also serve as some in-game currency for buying little houses and other objects you can use to customize your very own Mario overworld map. There’s no actual game to be played here, but plenty of fans will likely enjoy tweaking the Mario home screen that they see every time the game starts.
Regardless of what part of the game you’re playing, the graphics look wonderful. I played the game on the iPhone 7 Plus and I’ve never seen Mario look quite so sharp and vivid (the last Mario games I played for more than a few minutes were on the original, standard-definition Wii). And there’s no hint of slowdown or performance hiccups here either. I would have liked to see how it performs on less powerful hardware, but we’ll have to wait until the game launches to see what devices you’ll need to have a good experience with Super Mario Run.
Nintendo decided to price Super Mario Run at $9.99 — more than most iOS games, but less than most games for the company’s own consoles. I think that’s a fair price, given the number of levels included and the replayability factor here. But if you’re wary, the free version of the game lets you play the first three levels and try your hand at a few Toad Rallies so you can see what it’s all about. Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime said it didn’t feel right to make people pay to keep unlocking levels when there’s so much momentum in the game to keep running through levels, so the company decided to skip all in-app transactions and go with the single one-time purchase.
Ultimately, the entry fee may seem a little high, but I suspect it’ll be one well worth paying — and I think lots of players will agree with me. Having a native Mario experience built from the ground up with the iPhone in mind is a huge win, and the game appears to be equally well suited to quick play on the subway and longer, in-depth sessions when you’re on the plane. I haven’t bought a new Mario game in years, but I’m ready to pull the trigger on Super Mario Run.
Update: If you want to try Super Mario Run out for yourself, Reggie announced on The Tonight Show that starting Thursday, a demo will be available at Apple Stores worldwide.
Nintendo’s Reggie Fils-Aime explains why it’s time to go mobile
Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime has garnered a reputation for being a larger-than-life character, whether he’s onstage presenting his company’s latest or getting ready for a one-on-one interview. He’s playing Super Mario Run on an iPad mini when our meeting begins, as if he just can’t stop to focus on the more mundane task at hand. “I’m gonna put this down now,” he says as we get started. “I had a great run going, too.”
It’s clear salesmanship, but it doesn’t feel dishonest. Fils-Aime is one of Nintendo’s most passionate and charismatic advocates, and the brief time I spent with Super Mario Run prior to this meeting made me believe Nintendo has successfully crafted an addictive experience that stays true to Mario’s roots while also feeling native to mobile devices. With that mission accomplished, Fils-Aime is ready to talk about the rather stunning reversal Nintendo has gone through in regard to mobile games. Rather than build only for its own hardware, Nintendo is now focused on making experiences for phones that don’t devalue the company’s franchises.
“The mobile business really has changed versus when Mr. Satoru Iwata [the late CEO of Nintendo] made those comments way back at GDC,” Fils-Aime said, referring to when Iwata dismissed the value of mobile gaming back in 2011. “As we sit here today, literally multiple billions of smart devices are out there in the marketplace … in places like India, throughout parts of Europe, parts of South America where we don’t have a robust dedicated console business. So it really is a different type of opportunity, arguably a mainstream opportunity, that we’re looking at now.”
Those comments sound very similar to what Google, Microsoft and Apple have all said about reaching the “next billion” consumers in developing regions coming online. Those consumers are getting online not with traditional computers but with mobile phones. And Nintendo views mobile as a huge opportunity in those markets as well.
Specifically, Fils-Aime mentioned Brazil as a perfect case where mobile can unlock a big market for Nintendo. He said the country has import duties that make a $200 Nintendo 3DS cost the equivalent of about $600 for a local consumer. “That’s a really tough business model — and yet they all have smart devices,” he explained. “As a way to satiate the desire for our IP, to introduce new IP, to effectively keep the market warm while we figure out how to do business there with our dedicated systems, [mobile] is a huge business opportunity for us.”
Image credit: Troy Harvey/Bloomberg via Getty Images
To that end, Fire Emblem and Animal Crossing will follow Super Mario Run to smartphones in Q1 of 2017, and it seems all but certain more mobile games will follow. Fils-Aime promises the company will provide both value and experiences you can’t get anywhere else, whether you’re playing on a smartphone or on Nintendo’s own hardware. “What we will do is create experiences specific to the device,” Fils-Aime said. “We’ve optimized [Super Mario Run] for the [smartphone screen] — and in doing so it really is taking an approach that is unique, is differentiated, and looks to maximize the value of our IP.”
Of course, Nintendo could have made specific mobile experiences four years ago, but now the opportunity is simply too big to ignore. In 2011, Iwata said that mobile games might help profit in the short term but ultimately not help Nintendo’s “mid- and long-term competitive strength.” However, with millions of consumers who can’t afford a Nintendo console but carry their smartphones everywhere, going mobile can provide a good fix until the company figures out a good way to affordably bring its hardware to various markets.
The launch of Pokémon Go this summer certainly helped Nintendo realize how big an impact a good mobile game can have on the company’s core hardware business. “We saw the impact on our 3DS hardware [and] the 3DS game sales,” Fils-Aime said. “We know that the launch of Pokémon Go generated a tremendous amount of play and anticipation for all things Pokémon; certainly we hope that Super Mario Run will do the same thing for all things Mario.” Further quantifying the impact of Pokémon Go, Fils-Aime said that 3DS hardware sales have increased year-over-year every month since June.
Still, there are going to be consumers who think: Why buy a Nintendo Switch when I can get Mario on my phone? But it’s not something keeping Fils-Aime up at night — while the company may have started crafting great mobile games, it still believes its hardware will be something no other platform can truly match.
“Go back and look at the Nintendo Switch video that we aired back in October and ask yourself: Can you do that on a smart device?” Fils-Aime asked, somewhat rhetorically. “Can you have a big-screen experience and then, ‘I gotta go jump on the train — I’m going to take it with me and continue to have that great experience’?” Again he answers his question: “No, you can’t do that. We believe in creating a differentiated experience for all the platforms that we participate in, and if we do that, the consumer will see how these experiences are different and how there’s room for all of them in their entertainment time.”
In some ways, the combo of the Switch and Nintendo’s mobile game strategy seems to be an admission that mobile games are going to kill dedicated handheld consoles sooner than later. Nintendo did surprisingly well with the 3DS, but it seems likely that it’ll use mobile for quick gaming fixes and the Switch for in-depth experiences going forward. And since the Switch can be used on the go as well, those used to the deeper experiences a 3DS can provide shouldn’t worry about being stuck with quick-play games like Super Mario Run when they need a portable gaming fix.
We still need to find out more about the Switch before we can say if Nintendo’s new strategy will be successful. But after the confusing and poorly received Wii U, it feels like Nintendo might be able to recapture the public’s imagination. It’s a tall order, but 20 minutes with Mario on the iPhone had me missing all the fun I’ve had on Nintendo systems in the past. With the Switch right around the corner, now’s the perfect time for Nintendo to get old fans back into the fold — if games like Super Mario Run can do that, the move to mobile will surely have paid off.
Nintendo Switch makes its live TV debut on ‘The Tonight Show’
After you check out our discussion with Nintendo’s president Reggie Fils-Aime, you can get a good look at the new Switch console in operation () on the Tonight Show stage. Reggie and host Jimmy Fallon played the yet-to-be-released console, taking a trip through The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild showing off its ability to go portable with the press of a button. Additionally, after previewing a bit of Super Mario Run action, Reggie announced that starting today, you can visit Apple Stores worldwide and try out a demo version before the game launches December 15th.
There’s not a lot of new information if you’ve been paying attention, but it does give a good idea of what using a Switch will be like when it ships in March. As an extra bonus, check out the second video to see Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto playing the game’s theme song along with The Roots.
Source: The Tonight Show (YouTube)
Microsoft has big plans for VR and AR in 2017
Ever since Microsoft announced earlier this year that it would be opening up its Windows Holographic platform to other device makers, the company has been an intriguing presence in the world of virtual and augmented reality (or “mixed reality,” as it’s fond of saying). After all, Microsoft could offer some healthy competition to the likes of Oculus and HTC, which launched their own VR headsets and platforms this year. Today at the WinHEC conference in Shenzen, the company is finally giving us a clearer sense of how it plans to bring mixed reality to more consumers.
For one, it’s finally revealing the official system specifications you’ll need to run the $300 Windows 10 VR headsets, which will be built by the likes of Dell, HP and Lenovo. At a minimum, you’ll need an Intel Core i5 CPU with Hyperthreading, 8GB of RAM, USB 3.0, HDMI or DisplayPort connections that support at least 2,880 by 1,440 resolutions at 90 Hz, and an Intel HD Graphics 620 chipset or a DirectX 12-compatible graphics card.
That’s mostly on par with the specs hinted at by the “Windows Holographic Test Run” app last month, though notably that listed 4GB of RAM as a minimum requirement. Both the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive have similar requirements, but they demand mid-range GPUs (and curiously 4GB less RAM than Microsoft). Microsoft will also make dev kits for the Windows Holographics headsets available at the Game Developers Conference in February.
Alex Kipman, the creator of HoloLens, describes the $300 headsets as “mid-range” devices that’ll detect six degrees of motion, a similar experience to what you get with the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive. As for truly high-end VR experiences, Microsoft also announced a partnership with the Chinese headset maker 3Glasses, which will offer Windows Holographic on its S1 device in the first half of next year. The S1 looks similar to the Rift and Vive, but it sports two independent 2K display panels and a faster 120Hz refresh rate. Technically, that means it should deliver a smoother and sharper VR experience than the competition, but of course other factors also weigh in heavily in VR, especially ergonomics.
As for HoloLens itself, Kipman says Microsoft is working on making it available in China. The company has just submitted the headset for government approval, and he has “every expectation” that Chinese consumers will be able to get their hands on it in the first half of 2017. Perhaps more interesting than the HoloLens itself, though, is seeing how other companies remix the technology in different ways. Back in June, Microsoft’s Windows and Devices group head Terry Myerson told us a consumer version of HoloLens “may come from us, or it may come from a partner, and either way that’s fantastic.”
Microsoft and Intel are also partnering on “Project Evo,” an initiative to bring together their many PC offerings to deliver systems that will support things like 4K gaming, far-field microphones, smooth mixed-reality experiences and security features like Windows Hello. It all sounds pretty amorphous — haven’t they been trying to build these things into PCs for a while? — but hopefully it could lead to more fully featured PCs of all shapes and sizes. Most intriguingly, Intel also plans to have its integrated HD Graphics chipsets supporting mixed reality by the end of next year, according to its consumer head Navin Shenoy. That means we could see mid-range VR-ready laptops sometime in 2017.
The first season of Telltale’s ‘Batman’ wraps next week
Just a year after it was announced, the first season of developer Telltale Games’ Batman series is drawing to a close. Its final episode “City of Light” will makes its debut on December 13th on Android, iOS, PC, PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4, Xbox 360 and Xbox One. And, based on how you played the penultimate installment, you’ll start episode five in pretty different places, according to Telltale.
More than that, the developer has issued a new patch for the game’s rocky PC version, replete with “numerous” performance sliders. The game’s first episode is free on Steam as well, so you can see precisely how it’ll run on your machine before plopping down the $25 cost of entry for the entire run.
Of that premiere bit, our own Nick Summers said that the game “feels closer to the comics, balancing the measured Bruce Wayne and his often brutal alter-ego Batman.” Now, there’s little stopping you from finding out if you agree.
Sony revives its $50 PS4 price drop for two weeks
Disheartened that you missed out on a price-cut PlayStation 4 around Black Friday? You’re about to get a second chance. In a near-repeat of what happened last year, Sony is resurrecting its $50 discount on the Uncharted 4 slim PS4 bundle between December 11th and December 24th. Yes, you’ll still get the console for $250 in the US if you’re a last-minute shopper. And Canadians get an extra break — while the PS4 costs $330 in local currency, they have until December 29th to go shopping. You’re stuck if you’d rather buy a PS4 Pro, but this remains a solid deal if you’re not interested in 4K and just want to see what all the fuss is about.
Via: Polygon
Source: PlayStation Blog
The sequel to ‘Alto’s Adventure’ is an ‘Odyssey’
Built By Snowman has a busy year ahead of it. In addition to the recently announced Distant, the studio is also working on a sequel to its ultra-soothing endless-snowboarding game Alto’s Adventure. Alto’s Odyssey will be out sometime in 2017 but aside from that there aren’t any details of what to expect.
“Whether it was creating new versions of Alto for different platforms, or updating the game with things like Photo Mode and Zen Mode, Alto’s village is a place we’ve been coming back to every day,” a blog post teases. So, it might be safe to expect that Odyssey will bring those features back to multiple platforms next year.
Judging by the gorgeous piece of promo art (above) that was released, it looks as though the scope could be much larger than Adventure’s procedurally generated slopes. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but hopefully the sequel doesn’t lose sight of what made its predecessor so special.
Via: Alto’s Adventure (Twitter)
Source: Built By Snowman, Alto’s Odyssey
AIVAnet 