‘Pokémon Go’ may get 100 new Pokémon this week
Pokémon Go is about to get bigger, according to a handful of Starbucks employee guides that found their way online early this week. The images have not been verified by Niantic, the Pokémon Company or Starbucks, but Reddit sleuths claim that verified Starbucks employees have vouched for their veracity.
“The world of Pokémon Go is about to expand with new Pokémon and a new Starbucks beverage!” the “Barista need-to-know” guide says. The flyers indicate that Pokémon Go’s second generation will kick off on Thursday, December 8th.
In November, curious fans dove into Pokémon Go’s data and found references to 100 creatures from Pokémon Gold and Silver, plus code for the shapeshifting Pokémon, Ditto. This little pink blob of a character hit Pokémon Go at the end of November.
The employee guide also outlines a new corporate partnership between Pokémon Go and Starbucks. On December 8th, the flyers say the majority of Starbucks stores across the United States will become PokéStops or Gyms, and they’ll offer a new Pokémon Go-branded Frappuccino (which is basically a Vanilla Bean Frap with raspberry syrup and whole, free-dried blackberries). The drink will actually show up as an icon in Pokémon Go, apparently.
The guide prepares baristas for dealing with an influx of Pokémon Go players, some of whom may not order a drink while collecting Pokéballs and potions. Starbucks’ advice is to “make the moment right and use your best judgement” in dealing with Pokémon Go tourists.
Corporate partnerships aren’t new territory for Pokémon Go developer Niantic, the former Google company also responsible for the mobile AR game Ingress. Niantic used sponsored locations in Ingress and it’s previously discussed implementing a similar system in Pokémon Go. The game even launched in Japan with a McDonald’s partnership.
We reached out to Niantic for confirmation or clarification on the Starbucks guides, and were told the company doesn’t comment on rumor or speculation. At least this particular rumor will be settled soon: Keep an eye on your Pokémon Go app this Thursday.
Via: Eurogamer
Source: /r/TheSilphRoad
This is why ‘Destiny’ studio Bungie stopped making ‘Halo’ games
Destiny is a self-contained example of 21st-century video games: It’s online, ever changing and beautifully built by a team of practiced veterans. Destiny represents the evolution of Bungie, the studio that created Halo, and it also encapsulates the shifting nature of video games as a whole. Modern AAA experiences take advantage of online functionality more than ever before, but this connected gaming ecosystem is still new for the industry as a whole. Destiny helped normalize the idea in 2014, when players weren’t yet convinced they wanted an MMO-like experience on a living room console.
Bungie stepped away from Halo and its publisher, Microsoft, in 2007, in order to push forward in the industry rather than be tied to a franchise that had found success at the start of the century, according to community manager David “DeeJ” Dague. Today, Destiny has millions of active unique players per month, which Bungie keeps entertained via steady online updates and sprawling seasonal events.
“This has been the dream state that Bungie has envisioned for themselves for a long time,” Dague says. Bungie developers wanted to create a game they could consistently update, and they wanted to be able to respond to players’ desires in real time. Sparrow racing is a good example of this adaptability: Players naturally began racing their floating speedsters around Destiny’s worlds, so Bungie took the hint and added races to the game itself.
“We actually took it and turned it into a six-player death race through enemy territory, but we draw a lot of inspiration from the players,” Dague says. “Because Destiny is always online, always connected, we can reach out to where they thrive and we can give them new things to do. This is why we stopped making Halo games, this is why we wanted to envision a brand-new world that would enable us to do these sorts of things.”
Sparrow racing is back in The Dawning, the latest seasonal event for Destiny: Rise of Iron, which will be live from Dec. 13th to Jan. 3rd. The Dawning also features scoring for Strike events, new quests and, of course, new weapons, goodies and gear.
Rise of Iron is the latest expansion for Destiny, landing on Xbox One and PlayStation 4 this past September. This is another benefit of building an online game: Bungie not only gets to release a constant stream of new content but also charge players for every expansion. Rise of Iron, for example, costs $30, and that’s on top of the base game plus its three previous expansions. This ensures that a steady stream of cash flows into Bungie and publisher Activision throughout the year.
However, Rise of Iron marked a shift in Bungie’s approach to Destiny. The September expansion did not come out for the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions of Destiny, and it’s not going to. Until this point, Destiny had been the same game across modern- and last-generation consoles.
“We actually reached the point where, in order to add on to the world of Destiny, we were going to have to start to take away,” Dague says. “So it was PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 that we sort of froze the state of the game where it was at that time. It’s not receiving any updates.”
Destiny will continue to live and evolve on Xbox One and PS4, but last-generation players are frozen in a pre-Rise of Iron galaxy. Roughly 5 percent of Destiny players are on Xbox 360 and PS3, Dague says.
“They’re still important to us, we still sustain the game on those platforms, but instead of degrading the player experience and starting to remove missions or destinations, we decided to keep it the way it was and continued to add to it on the modern decks,” he explains.
The definition of a modern gaming console is changing as rapidly as Destiny itself: Sony just launched the PS4 Pro, a 4K-capable console, and Microsoft is poised to drop its own beefed-up version of the Xbox One, codenamed Project Scorpio, next year. Dague didn’t comment on a potential 4K version of Destiny, though upgrading for these platforms would make sense for a franchise that’s all about taking advantage of the latest and greatest console gaming specs.
Destiny is a living game. It’s a far cry from a series like Halo, which still conforms to a traditional release model — the same one Bungie used when it created the franchise in 2001. Destiny evolves with players and with the industry, giving Bungie ample opportunity to constantly improve the experience.
“This is us living the dream,” Dague says.
VR treadmill creator cancels pre-orders outside the US
Virtuix’s Omni treadmill is very alluring to virtual reality fans who want freedom to walkwithout the fear of tripping over cables or running into walls. However, it’s also massive and complex… and that’s forcing the company to scale back its ambitions. Virtuix is telling its Kickstarter backers that it’s cancelling all Omni pre-orders outside of the US, as the logistics of shipping the treadmill are just too much. It’s not just the 175-pound, 48- by 43-inch shipping package that’s the problem — it’s honoring regulations and maintaining enough replacement parts to handle a global audience. The initial plans to ship worldwide were “naive and unfeasable,” the startup writes.
The company is at least going the distance to compensate international customers who’ve just had their years-long dreams crushed. In addition to refunding what supporters paid, it’s prorating the refunds to the tune of an extra 3 percent per year, compounded monthly. Virtuix isn’t ruling out international plans entirely, either. Its international presence will be limited to public spaces like arcades in the near term, but it wants to cater to other countries when it can.
This cancellation is something of an edge case in the crowdfunding world. Most of these startups are shipping far smaller or simpler products that won’t face nearly as many headaches. Even so, it’s a reminder that crowdfunded projects are frequently full of lofty promises made by entrepreneurs that don’t know what their finished product will look like, let alone how they’ll get it to customers using limited resources.
Via: Road To VR
Source: Kickstarter (backers only)
‘Altered Beast’ and ‘Streets of Rage’ coming to film and TV
Sonic the Hedgehog has apparently opened the floodgates on Sega adaptations. Sega Group’s production arm is teaming with Fear the Walking Dead producer Circle of Confusion on adaptations of ’80s and ’90s classics Altered Beast and Streets of Rage, according to Variety. Beat ’em up game Streets of Rage pits your rogue cop against big city crime boss Mr. X, while sidescroller Beast features a resurrected Greek Warrior that transforms into powerful werecritters after defeating a suite of villains.
Sure, the plots are cliche, but so are zombies, and The Walking Dead team made that work. Anyway, it’s more about tapping our childhood nostalgia, and those titles were among the most popular on Sega’s Mega Drive/Genesis platforms. “We look forward to seeing the centurion from Altered Beast rise from his grave, and the Streets of Rage heroes Adam, Axel and Blaze fight to take their city back,” said Stories International CEO Tomoya Suzuki.
Ironically, the original Altered Beast arcade version finishes with a cut scene showing that everything was just a movie, so we’ll be interested to see if they break that fourth (or fifth) wall again. Sega is also looking for partners on titles like Virtua Fighter, Crazy Taxi and Shinobi, and there’s no word yet on which studios or broadcasters are taking on Altered Beast and Streets of Rage. In other words, don’t expect to see them on the screen anytime soon.
Source: Variety
The Novint Falcon: Haptic joystick turned futuristic sex toy
I’m standing in the studio at Engadget’s San Francisco headquarters, holding the remains of a pulverized, cream-filled doughnut. The pastry’s sticky, off-white filling clings to the shaft of a bright pink vibrator, taped to the end of a silver, cone-shaped device with three arms that come together at a point and a horseshoe-shaped base. This disembodied robot boob is the Novint Falcon, a one-time game-changing game controller turned teledildonics legend.
NSFW Warning: This story may contain links to and descriptions or images of explicit sexual acts.
Kyle Machulis, hardware engineer and sex-tech enthusiast, is here to reenact a demo he posted to YouTube in August 2007. He may have been the first person to strap a dildo to the failed haptic game controller, but he wasn’t the last. Since its debut, the Novint Falcon has popped up in tech demos for VR sex suits, adult social networks and as a next-level cam-site interface. So how does a device go from PC-gaming sweetheart to would-be sex-toy wunderkind?
Nearly two years after its announcement, the Novint Falcon seemed poised to change the way we game. The alien-like controller, with its origins in a national laboratory, promised to bring sophisticated haptic feedback to your desktop, allowing users to actually feel the games they played.
It had been a bumpy road to market, but by the summer of 2008 Novint had picked up a number of major licensing deals, secured distribution through big-box stores like Best Buy and managed to impress the gaming and tech press through demos at CES and GDC. The headlines were largely positive, but no one was ready to call it a success just yet. After years of refining its vision and business model, the company had landed on a play for the video game market that could bring industrial-grade haptic controls to consumers worldwide. It just needed to secure another round of funding first.
“It really makes you feel like you’re in a game. It’s the first time you really are the character instead of just controlling the character,” Tom Anderson said.
In its short lifespan, the Novint Falcon was used in medical, industrial and architectural training and visualization. Heavyweights like Chrysler, Mobil, Chevron and Lockheed Martin adopted it, but according to Novint founder and CEO Tom Anderson, the vision for the company had always been consumer applications. Video games presented the perfect interface to introduce a device that Anderson speculated would “fundamentally change computing.”
“At the time, people said we were crazy, you know, these are $15,000 advanced robots — there’s no way that you’re going to take this down to a consumer price point,” Anderson says. “But to make a long story short, we did. We took the price down from $15,000 to under $150 to manufacture them and manufactured them in quantity in China.”
The company had a tough go during the dot-com crash but managed to stay afloat. Now, with its eyes set on the gaming market and a device that could be sold for roughly $250, Anderson and his team were ready to make a play for the consumer market. It was time to show the public what this thing could do.
“For video games, it’s an amazing technology,” Anderson says. “You can feel a gun recoil, you can feel a golf swing, you can feel every bump a car goes over when it slams into something in a racing game. It really makes you feel like you’re in a game. It’s the first time you really are the character instead of just controlling the character.”
The tech and gaming press echoed Anderson’s enthusiasm after the device made its round on the trade-show circuit.
The Novint Falcon, before the dildo.
Joystiq called the Falcon an “ingenious piece of design,” and then-Engadget columnist Ross Rubin said it was “one of the most promising PC interface peripherals to come along in years.” Everyone seemed to agree: The Falcon was a good thing that could only get better.
Even with a warm reception from the press, mainstream adoption would be an uphill battle. Not only was the Falcon significantly larger and more expensive than most controllers, it was also lacking the most important element: games. The device was introduced to market with a handful of fun but rudimentary mini-games and a port of Half-Life 2, but without big-name titles, it was going to be hard to drive mass-market appeal, and without a strong user base, it was near-impossible to secure integration with big-name titles.
“We’d go to a game publisher and say ‘I want you to support our new device,’ and they would say, ‘It’s amazing but come back to me when you have a million install base,’” Anderson says.
In order to break free of the “chicken and egg” conundrum, Novint started buying up the “3D-touch rights” to major video-game franchises. “We were buying something off of them they didn’t even know they had: the sleeves off their vests,” Anderson says.
The first publisher to take the bait was Electronic Arts.
“When we closed with EA everything was going perfectly, really,” Anderson says. “We were hitting all of our milestones, all of our investors were happy, we were about to get much broader distribution. We were talking to the consoles as well. They said, ‘If you can get game support, then we want to carry you with our devices.’ PlayStation, in particular, when we told them about the EA deal, we were ready to move forward and get support for the PS3. So everything was coming together perfectly.”
According to Anderson, Novint closed the deal with EA in May 2008. But it was already too late. The Great Recession was well underway and by the beginning of 2009, Novint was operating with a 10th of its staff, sales were weak and funding had all but dried up.
“We found ourselves in a car we couldn’t continue to put any gas in,” Anderson says. So he merged with ForceTek, which was looking to use the Falcon’s 3D touch technology to create a haptic exoskeleton. The time had seemingly come and gone for the Novint Falcon and Anderson exited the company soon after.
Years before, however, a floppy, purple silicone dildo had signaled a new direction for the Falcon. The semi-hard phallus haphazardly strapped to the end of the device’s three, rotating arms stabbed aimlessly into thin air, foretelling an unexpected if unwanted future for the one-time game-changer.
When Machulis repurposed his Falcon as a desktop fuck machine and posted a video of it to his blog, Slashdong, in 2007, he may have unwittingly set the stage for its reinvention. Machulis, who was working as an engineer on Second Life at the time, had been following the development of the Falcon over the years.
“I was and to this day — it’s something like 9 years old now — am still enamored with it, Machulis said. “It’s such an amazing experience, especially for the cost.”
“It’s made to go in your hand, not in your butt,” Kyle Machulis said.
Machulis got his hands on the device before its consumer debut and created a simple proof-of-concept program he now calls “crude and stupid.” He’s not wrong. The program takes advantage of the device’s force controls to thrust back and forth in a sort of wild stabbing motion, like a drunk teenager aimlessly thrusting his way through his first time. In the demo video he posted to YouTube, a bright purple, anatomically correct dildo is strapped to the end of the device, taking advantage of the modular control knob that would have allowed gamers to attach a gun for first-person shooters, for example.
The Falcon may look like a sophisticated robo-fuck machine to the untrained eye, but as I found out during our doughnut demo, it lacks the precision and force to properly penetrate a pastry, much less a contracted human orifice. That’s not to say it couldn’t be the proverbial “hot dog in a hallway,” but where’s the fun in that?
“It’s made to go in your hand, not in your butt,” Machulis says, pointing out that in order for the Falcon to operate with any level of precision, it has to communicate with the computer running the application thousands of times per second. But technical limitations only partially explain why the Falcon has yet to take off as a legitimate sexual aid.
In 2013, six years after Machulis’ video hit YouTube, a company called Happy Haptics Inc. announced plans for an adult social network called FriXion that would allow users to communicate with their genitals anywhere in the world. The company painted a picture of an adult Facebook that leveraged the Falcon outfitted with either a vibrator or a sex sleeve like a Fleshlight, for remote sex. The company promised one-on-one as well as group teledildonic experiences.
Happy Haptics released a number of proof-of-concept demos of its own, showing users manipulating the devices by hand to simulate sex and called on beta users to test out the social network. Then, in July 2015, the company went dark. It stopped updating its Facebook and Twitter pages with no warning. Soon after, Machulis reported that FriXion had been named in a patent suit along with a handful of other teledildonics companies for infringing on a vague patent covering any “method and device for interactive virtual control of sexual aids using digital computer networks.”
FriXion was foiled by a patent troll going by the name of TZU and it seemed the Falcon was doomed to the annals of vaporware. But like an old dick fortified by Viagra, the Falcon just won’t quit. In 2014, Motherboard called a modified Falcon “The Robot That Makes Virtual Sex Feel Real.” It was referring to a demo of the device by Japanese sex toy outfit, Tenga. The company strapped one of its signature sex toys to the device and synced it to an XXX anime video game that users would experience in virtual reality. Vice’s Brian Merchant admitted that he hadn’t actually penetrated the contraption, but seemed optimistic about its potential. He said his “brief encounter with Tenga’s wiry gadget was enough to see a glimpse of the future of onanism.”
Earlier this year, a totally not real and NSFW virtual-reality sex suit reignited the public’s fascination with the device. It turned out to be an April Fool’s joke by Illusion VR, the company behind Tenga’s earlier anime sex simulator. I described it in an earlier column as a clumsy combo of “the Novint Falcon, a Tenga sex sleeve, a pair of silicone breasts, what appears to be a Gear VR and a white spandex bodysuit covered in black velcro straps and power cords.”
Despite the ridiculousness of the thing and the no-duh timing of its release, major online news sources were beside themselves about the possibility of a full-body, haptic sex suit. Unfortunately for the Falcon, the Illusion VR hoax was just that.
While Tenga and Illusion were busy selling a fantasy to a public thirsty for sex robots, Chris Johns and his wife Tabitha Rae were building on a dream that put the Falcon at the center of its modest Madison, Wisconsin-based cam operation, Doitchrisyle.com.
According to Johns, the couple has gone through the appropriate channels to avoid a suit with TZU, and after a recent server crash is rebuilding its site to allow users to have virtual sex with Tabitha and a small stable of other performers Johns refers to as “virtual girlfriends.” Johns plans to sell sex-toy ready Falcons to customers, who will be able to manipulate a performer’s device using their own, or vice versa.
DoitChristyle.com, which debuted at AVN in 2014, currently contains a grid of lingerie-clad models and the promise of a “hot and sexy new website, coming soon.” Johns says he has a limited supply of “less than 10,000” Flacons that will be available for purchase to VIP customers when the site relaunches at an undisclosed date. While he acknowledges it is no longer in production, Johns is confident that the Falcon will rise again.
“The select people that we have had try this experience have absolutely loved it — even the performers,” Johns says. “Quotes like ‘I’ll never use my hand again’ have been mentioned several times.”
He echoes the enthusiasm I’ve heard repeated ad nauseam since I first heard of the Falcon. Whether it’s being used as an industrial simulator, a haptic game controller or a futuristic sexual aid, just about everyone agrees, you just have to try it to understand its potential. Nearly 10 years in, however, potential is just about all the Falcon has to offer … potential, and a mutilated chocolate doughnut.
Twitch brings video calls to its game communication app
Twitch wants to move beyond live streaming to cover your game communications, and to that end it bought Curse back in August. Just what is it doing with its newly acquired app, though? Well, now we know: Curse is rolling out desktop support for both video calls and screen sharing on top of its existing voice and social features. You and four other people can now see each other while you play, and share what’s on your display if you want to brag about a victory or show vital info to your teammates.
The Twitch crew tells us that the video call features will initially be available on the Mac, Windows and Chrome, but mobile support is in the works. It’s also quick to stress that these are server-based calls, not peer-to-peer, so you’re not exposing your internet connection details to viewers when you invite them to a match. Will the Curse upgrade be enough to stop you from using rivals like Discord or Teamspeak? Not necessarily (your friends’ tastes will likely dictate what you use), but it could make Curse your preferred comms app if you regularly broadcast play sessions with friends.
Source: Curse
Zynga back in court over alleged insider trading
Social game developer Zynga is being dragged back into a lawsuit that claims select board members acted unfairly on inside information by selling shares before a stock price tumble in 2012. As Reuters reports, the Delaware Supreme Court is reviving a case that alleges co-founder Mark Pincus, and a group of his fellow board members, were aware of the company’s lacklustre performance. It’s said that Zynga had a rule prohibiting stock sales until three days after an earnings report. Those who stand accused were given an exemption, however, and sold 20.3 million shares for $236.7 million three weeks before the announcement.
That’s roughly $12 per share. Following the less than stellar results, Zynga’s stock price dropped to $8.52 per share. (It now rests at $2.95 per share, far below the highs of 2012.) The lawsuit by shareholder Thomas Sandys, who originally filed in 2014, has been re-opened because of a procedural hurdle re-examined by the Supreme Court. As Reuters explains, the Court of Chancery dismissed the case in February because Sandys was unable to prove that the majority of the board was too conflicted to bring the lawsuit. That might sound like a technicality, but it’s important because Sandys is suing on behalf of Zynga, through a method called derivative action.
In its review, the Court found six board directors were not impartial, rather than three. Should the case go forward and any settlement be made, the money will reportedly go to Zynga, rather than shareholders directly.
Zynga’s troubles stretch far beyond the courts, however. For years, the company has struggled to replicate the success of its Facebook behemoth Farmville on mobile. It’s tried buying popular apps, such as Words with Friends in 2010 and Draw Something in 2012, but nothing has changed its trajectory. The situation has fuelled a chief executive merry-go-round, starting with the appointment of former Microsoft executive Don Mattrick in 2013. He was replaced by Pincus in 2015, who made way for Frank Gibeau in March this year. As before, it’s looking for a hit with the staying power to boost its revenues and make it a gaming giant once more.
Source: Reuters
The Morning After: Tuesday December 6, 2016
Hey there, it’s the Morning After! Oculus Touch has two pretty good reasons to stay inside this winter, and Amazon is killing checkout lines.
Is this the future of retail?
Amazon premieres the “Just Walk Out Shopping experience”
Amazon already has internet shopping boiled down to a single click or voice command, so what’s next? Apparently, a grocery store. It’s opened an employees-only shopping location in Seattle that uses ” computer vision, sensor fusion, and deep learning” to track what people take. There’s no check-out lane here — just take your stuff and go, while Amazon bills your account and emails a receipt. The store will open to the public in early 2017, and if things go well, we assume it won’t be the last one.
Are we dreaming or is “The Last Guardian” finally here?
What to watch, stream and play this week
It’s a big week for gamers, as Team Ico’s long-awaited game is finally arriving on PS4, while Dead Rising 4 and Gigantic hit Xbox One and PC. Mythbusters fans should prepare for the first season of White Rabbit Project on Netflix Friday, and The Walking Dead wraps up for 2016 on Sunday night.
Moar emojis
Android 7.1.1 is bringing some Pixel features to other phones
The latest version of Android is rolling out to some Nexus and Pixel devices, and it comes with some new features. Of course, there’s an expanded set of emoji, a new image keyboard with GIF search for messaging apps and the previously Pixel-exclusive app shortcut feature.
Connected carjacking
Police got BMW to remotely lock a luxury sedan while the thief was inside
In Seattle, someone stole a BMW 550i after the keys were left in it, but they didn’t make a clean getaway. BMW helped police track the vehicle down in an alley, then lock the doors remotely as the thief slept inside the car.
Reach out and touch faith
Review: Oculus Touch
It’s taken nine months, but Oculus finally has motion controls that make its VR truly immersive. Devindra Hardawar was quite impressed by these controllers, calling them “great gamepads” that are “exactly what Rift owners need.” Their downsides include a lack of rechargeable battery and failure to enable true room-scale VR — unless you invest further. Maybe next time?
It’s like Latitude but different
Google launches “Trusted Contacts” location sharing app
Google’s new “personal safety” app for Android (coming soon to iOS) may test the boundaries of trust and privacy. Trusted Contacts is obviously just for people who you don’t mind giving access to your location, and it works both ways.
The contacts you enable can see if you’re active, and if necessary, request to see where you are. If everything is fine, you’ll see the notification and deny it, but if not, it will automatically share where you are (or your last known location) after a brief delay. Alternatively, you can share your location to contacts you choose, and it will keep broadcasting where you are until disabled.
Did they miss the Westworld season finale?DeepMind Lab and OpenAI’s Universe give scientists a way to test their AI “agents.”
Alphabet (parent company of Google, remember?) released the code of its DeepMind Lab on Github, providing a 3D game-like platform useful for AI research. At the same time, the Elon Musk-backed OpenAI team opened its Universe platform to the public, where researchers can let AI roam across browser tasks, Flash games and GTA V.
But wait, there’s more…
- VW’s “Moia” aims for on-demand self-driving cars
- Holiday Gift Guide 2016: The Workaholic
- Uber creates an AI lab to help fuel its self-driving dreams
Nintendo classic ‘Excitebike 64’ skids its way onto Wii U
Wii U owners, it’s time to charge your GamePad — Excitebike 64 is zooming its way onto the Virtual Console this week. Costing $10 (£9), the game arrives on Wii U this Thursday alongside Wario’s stylish Wii adventure, Wario Land: Shake It.
Released in 2000, this classic N64 motocross racer ushered Nintendo’s Excite series into the 3D era, offering an addictive combination of fun mechanics and depth. Featuring a 20-course season mode, a track editor and even a procedurally generated endless ride mode, this was a game that was ahead of its time.
With third parties all but abandoning the system, and Nintendo’s output drying up ahead of the launch of its next console, Wii U owners could do far worse than this racing classic.
Frustratingly, the Kyoto giant is still remaining tight-lipped about how its recently unveiled account system will work, leaving the fate of digital purchases looking uncertain. After forcing consumers to repurchase the same Wii Virtual Console games on Wii U, let’s hope that the new Nintendo Network ID account system will carry over Virtual Console purchases to the Switch.
Source: Nintendo e Shop
Oculus’ Touch controllers are well worth the wait
The Oculus Rift proved that high-end VR has a place in your home, but so far it’s lacked one major feature: motion controls. That’s something both the HTC Vive and Sony PlayStation VR offered from the start, and it’s gone a long way toward helping those platforms deliver more immersive virtual-reality experiences. Now with the long-awaited $199 Touch Controllers, Rift users can finally join in on the fun. Sure, it’s taken nine months for Oculus to actually put motion controls in the hands of consumers, but it’s clear that the company hasn’t been twiddling its thumbs. Instead, it’s delivered one of the most refined game controllers I’ve ever held.
Hardware
Even if you’re a diehard gamer, the Oculus Touch controllers probably don’t look like anything you’ve seen before. They’re more like how a sci-fi film would imagine a futuristic gaming-input device: beautiful, but unwieldy at first glance. The Touch controllers are made from smooth black plastic (they look a lot like the Xbox One’s controller), and they feel pretty sturdy. It’s hard to tell this is Oculus’ first attempt at a gamepad.
Once you get past the unique design and get your hands on them, though, you’ll notice something surprising: They’re actually incredibly intuitive. The Touch controllers are contoured for your left and right hands, and once you grab their rounded handles, your fingers will naturally fall into place. Both feature analog sticks; two face buttons; triggers, which your index fingers rest on; and grip buttons, located underneath your middle fingers. Additionally, the left controller features a menu button right below the analog stick, while the Oculus home button sits on the right controller. Their prominent circular rings help with motion tracking, but you won’t ever need to hold them.
You also get another Oculus sensor in the controller’s box, which allows the Rift to handle VR experiences in which you’re standing and moving around. It’s not quite room-scale VR like the HTC Vive, though you can buy a third sensor for $79 to make that happen (or a fourth for very large spaces). Because the original Rift sensor sits on the far right side of my office desk, I set up the second on the far left.
Since they’re both smaller and lighter than the Vive and PS VR’s gamepads, the Oculus Touch controllers are also better suited for extended virtual-reality sessions. Admittedly, size and weight isn’t a huge issue with the competition, either, but the Oculus controllers feel significantly more comfortable. I’d also attribute that partly to better ergonomics. HTC’s Vive controllers fit into your hands well, but they’re very large. And the PlayStation Motion controller wasn’t built specifically with VR in mind, so it’s a bit tougher to use when your eyes are covered with a headset.
Each Touch controller is powered by a single AA battery, which fits inside the base via a magnetic latch. As usual, I would have preferred it if Oculus had included removable, rechargeable batteries instead (perhaps with micro-USB support to make life easier). I can understand not building in rechargeable batteries, like on the HTC Vive and PS VR, because they make for much more expensive replacements if anything goes wrong. But it would be nice to re-energize these controllers as easily as the other gadgets in my life. According to Oculus engineers, the controllers should last around 30 hours on a single battery without haptic feedback, and 20 hours with haptic feedback.
In use
Setting up the Touch controllers was simple: I plugged the additional sensor into a USB 3.0 port and followed the on-screen instructions in the Oculus app. I was surprised to learn that both sensors have to be facing straight forward to work with the Touch devices — mostly because I was used to having them point toward me from a corner of my desk. Similar to the Vive’s setup, you’ll also have to trace out the boundary of playable free space in your area. That information is used for the Oculus Guardian feature, which creates virtual walls when you’re in VR to keep you from bumping into obstacles.
Once everything is configured, you’re thrown into “First Contact,” a retro VR experience that steps you through the Touch controller’s capabilities. It teaches you how to recognize all of the individual buttons, grab objects and make gestures like pointing your fingers all while playing with things like virtual fireworks. It’s a good way to whet your appetite, because plenty of games will use similar input schemes.
When it comes to motion tracking, the Touch controllers kept up with hectic things — like shooting several enemies virtual gun — or more-precise movements, like setting down an object gently on a table. On my desktop, which is powered by an Intel Core i7 4790k CPU running at 4GHz, 16GB of 2400MHz DDR3 RAM, and an NVIDIA GTX 1080 GPU, I didn’t have any issues with spotty motion tracking, even in instances where I had to aim at something behind me. It felt significantly more stable than the PlayStation VR’s motion tracking, which relies on a single depth-sensing camera and less-powerful hardware.
What really surprised me about the Oculus Touch controllers, though, is that they’re also very good game controllers. The analog sticks rotate smoothly and have a ridged outer ring, which keeps your thumbs from slipping off. The four face buttons and triggers all deliver a solid amount of feedback (once again, they remind me of the Xbox One’s gamepad).
Of course, those are just my thoughts after playing with them for a few weeks; the real test of a controller is seeing how it feels after a month or so of strenuous play. I’ve only had a few weeks with these (and for the record, my battery life for each is around 20 percent).
One aspect that I didn’t appreciate as much in earlier Touch demos: Each button on the controllers is capacitive, so it can tell when you have your finger on a button while not pressing it down. It can also detect if you lift your fingers off a button — which is useful for things like the pointing gesture I mentioned above. Thanks to this refined finger detection, the controllers do a better job of keeping you “present” in VR experiences. And it’s also something I expect we’ll see in other gamepads in the future.
I’ve had game controllers in my hand since I got an NES at age 5, but the Oculus Touch are the first to feel as if they’re practically extensions of my body.
The games
At this point, we’re well into the second major wave of VR releases (the first coincided with the launch of the Rift and Vive; this one was kicked off by the PS VR). Oculus says 53 titles will offer Touch support at launch, including existing games like The Climb and Job Simulator. As for next year, you’ve got games like Arkitka.1 and Giant Cop: Justice Above to look forward to. Plenty of Vive Steam VR titles will also work with the Oculus Touch, even if they’re not available in the Oculus store.
One thing is for sure: Your Touch controllers won’t be gathering any dust soon. Here are my impressions of a few titles available at launch:
‘I Expect You to Die’
VR was practically made for locked-room puzzles, and I Expect You to Die doesn’t disappoint. Developed by Schell Games, it puts you in the role of a spy who always finds himself in sticky situations. At first, it’s a booby-trapped car that you need to drive out of a plane, but it’s not long before you’re stopping superviruses from wiping out millions. It’s a fine showing for the Oculus Touch controllers because it demonstrates how well they can manage fine, methodical movement.
At one point, you have to maneuver something through an array of laser sensors, all while spraying window-washer fluid to make the lasers visible. Shortly after that, you’re handling beakers of potentially exploding material. You’ll die a lot, but as with the best games, it’ll usually be your fault — not the controller’s.
‘Serious Sam’ VR
“I just spent 30 minutes in VR and boy are my arms tired.” That’s me after every Serious Sam VR session.
The original game was an insane mashup of action-movie machismo, big guns and boatloads of carnage … so you’d imagine that would translate to VR pretty well. The VR version is just as bombastic, but because you’re actually physically aiming guns and dodging an assortment of projectiles, it’s also quite the workout. I could only play it for around a half hour at a time without getting exhausted. But for those glorious minutes, I was in shooter heaven. It’s exactly what my 13-year-old self dreamed of.
Serious Sam is the fastest-paced VR game I’ve played, and it’s a testament to the Oculus Touch’s tracking capabilities. Even as I was whipping guns all around my office and spraying bullets everywhere, the controllers never skipped a motion-tracking beat.
The Unspoken
A Doctor Strange fan’s dream come true, The Unspoken is a multiplayer magic battle game that puts you right in the shoes of a destructive spellcaster. Most of your time will be spent throwing fireballs at your enemies and shielding incoming fire while teleporting around a stage. But you’ll also have to do things like make motion gestures for powerful spells and hammer out mystical items mid-battle. It’s a prime example of the versatility of Oculus Touch — they’re able to keep up with the fast-paced action while also being accurate enough for complex gestures.
‘Robo Recall’ (demo)
While the full game will be available free next year, the Robo Recall demo I played was sublime. Developed by the Unreal Engine masterminds Epic — people who really know their shooters — the game puts you in the role of an enforcer who has to take down rogue robots. And, yes, you can bet that’ll involve plenty of guns and explosions.
Like many VR games, you move around by teleporting (a mechanic that’ll hopefully get refined before launch, because reorienting yourself is a pain). The real focus, though, is on shooting — and it’s spectacular. The Oculus Touch controllers are incredibly accurate, both when it comes to fast-paced blasting and slowing down to nail an accurate shot. And like Epic’s Bullet Train demo (which was used to show off Touch prototypes), you can also slow down time, yank bullets out of the air and throw them right back at those nasty bots.
Quill
Much like Google’s Tilt Brush, Quill is Oculus’ attempt at a VR painting app. It was originally created to help develop the VR short Dear Angelica, but it has since evolved into a worthy virtual drawing tool in its own right. I’m not the best person to judge the merit of artistic tools, but I can say that the motion tracking of your virtual brushes seems on-par with Google’s app. And even for those who can’t draw, there’s still something magical about doodling in three-dimensional space.
The competition
It’s pretty clear what Oculus is up against: the HTC Vive and the PlayStation VR. Sony’s option is still the cheapest pathway to consumer VR — and if anything, the Touch controllers make the Rift an even more inaccessible platform. Because they’re another $200 on top of the Rift’s $600 cost, it puts the platform on the same level as the $800 Vive.
The choice really comes down to which headset and platform you prefer. If you want to walk around in VR environments today, the Vive’s hardware can do that. The Rift, together with the Touch, will let you only stand and take a few steps around a small space. You can also play games on both platforms, no matter which headset you own. Personally, I’ll probably end up spending more time with the Rift, because the headset is so much more comfortable to wear.
Wrap-up
Oculus had one job: Bring motion controls to the Rift. With the Touch controllers, it managed to do that well. And, surprisingly enough, the company also proved it could make a damn fine game controller. If you’ve already invested in a Rift, the Oculus Touch is a no-brainer purchase. And if you’ve been holding out for VR platforms to iron out some wrinkles, it’s a sign that the virtual-reality ecosystem’s growth isn’t slowing down anytime soon.
AIVAnet 