Microsoft already has six TV series lined up for Xbox and more are coming
Filed under: Gaming, Home Entertainment, Microsoft
Source: Bloomberg
How would you change Nintendo’s Wii U?
The Wii was, undoubtedly, the success story of the previous console generation, encouraging millions of novice gamers to wave their arms around like a crazy person. The Wii U’s big gimmick, touchscreen gaming, made plenty of sense, considering the quantity of mobile and DS users out there, but it never seemed to take off in the same way. Launching well ahead of the Xbone and PS4, the general opinion of our reviewer was that it simply wasn’t ready for the big time, and sales seem to have backed that up. A year has passed now, so it’s high time that we asked you what Nintendo should have done differently? Sign up at the forums and talk us some change.
Source: Engadget Product Forums
Watch this massive game of Tetris play out on a Philly skyscraper (video)
Tetris is turning 30 (yes, thirty!) in June, so some folks threw it one epic pre-birthday party at Philly Tech Week’s kickoff event this April 5th. What’d they do, you ask? They used the 29-story Cira Centre building as a screen to play an enormous game of Tetris that could be seen in many parts of the city, as you can watch in the clip after the break. While this isn’t the first time someone rigged the facade of a building to play Tetris — there was that one time in France and another at MIT, which was actually a brilliant prank by its students — this is possibly the largest attempt, thus far.
Among those who got the chance to mess up badly in front of a gaggle of screaming onlookers was Hank Rogers, Tetris company president a.k.a. the man you have to thank for the game. Dr. Frank Lee from Drexel University, whose hobby is to plan skyscraper-sized versions of popular games, also got his turn. As you might have guessed, Lee oversaw this stunt’s construction, and he’s hoping it nets his university another Guinness World Record — he was also in charge of creating a giant game of pong using the same building in 2013, which holds the record for largest architectural video game display. Unfortunately, we can’t describe in words how glorious playing Tetris on a massive scale is, so just watch it all go down below.
[Image credit: michaelwm25/Flickr]
Filed under: Gaming
The Xbox One is getting another controller update, unfortunately
Really, Microsoft? You just asked gamers to go through the hassle of updating their Xbox One gamepads in March, yet there’s word on NeoGAF that the next patch — currently in testing — will once again bundle “new controller firmware.” Yes, the (hopefully optional) code should fix connection and headset quality issues that are even more of a pain, but it’s doubtful that Xbox owners will relish plugging in peripherals a second time to get reliability that should have been present on day one. At least users can take comfort in new system features added to the list of coming updates, including a button to check for future software updates manually and redeeming codes directly from Xbox Live messages. Let’s just hope that gamepad upgrades are less frequent from here on out.
Filed under: Gaming, Peripherals, Microsoft
Source: NeoGAF
Daily Roundup: 5-year-old hacks Xbox Live account, Amazon Fire TV teardown and more!
You might say the day is never really done in consumer technology news. Your workday, however, hopefully draws to a close at some point. This is the Daily Roundup on Engadget, a quick peek back at the top headlines for the past 24 hours — all handpicked by the editors here at the site. Click on through the break, and enjoy.
Watch a 5-year-old spam the spacebar to access his dad’s Xbox Live account
How difficult is it to break into a password-protected Xbox One profile? Well, 5-year-old Kristoffer Von Hassel managed to crack into his dad’s account account by simply pressing the spacebar. A lot.
Apple buys tech that could take Siri offline
TechCrunch is reporting that experts from the speech recognition firm Novauris are working with Apple to improve Siri’s vocal chops. Since most of Novauris’ work deals with locally processed recognition, it’s possible Apple’s voice tech may be in line for offline functionality sooner than later.
Amazon Fire TV teardown reveals an easily accessible media hub
That was quick. The folks at iFixit have already taken the Fire TV through the wringer, and it turns out the set-top box is relatively easy to fix. So, aside from a tricky outer casing, maintaining the internals should be a breeze for the average DIYer.
Samsung promises truly flexible electronics sooner with graphene breakthrough
Graphene’s back — well, according to Samsung, anyway. In the past, producing useable sheets of the allotrope has been a tricky business. But thanks to input from the South Korean manufacturer, the process could be refined for commercial applications.
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Filed under: Misc
Gaming deals of the week: 4.4.14
The weekend is here, so why not celebrate with a gaming purchase? If you hadn’t heard already, NVIDIA’s Shield is currently sporting a $50 price cut, and there’s a handful of other gadgets on the other side of the break that are ready to outfit your exploits. Some of the offers will only be around for a few days, so you’ll want to decide quickly whether or not to commit your funds.
If there are other gaming purchases that you’re after that we haven’t included here — join us and add them to your “Want” list. Every time there’s a price cut in the future, you’ll get an email alert!
NVIDIA Shield
Price: $200
Regular Price: $250
Engadget Score: 83
Buy: Amazon
For a limited time, NVIDIA’s Android handheld is seeing a $50 price drop at most retailers. For your monetary commitment, you’ll nab both PC game and media streaming, but in a hefty device that’s not quite as portable as we’d like. As you might expect, the going rate is on par with the 90-day low.
Astro A30
Price: $150
Regular Price: $200
Engadget Global Score: 90
Buy: Amazon
The 2013 version of Astro’s A30 headset just arrived back in the fall, and it’s now seeing a pretty attractive $50 discount. The cans sport MixAmps for adjusting game-to-voice levels, four separate EQ modes, customizable speaker tags and Dolby Digital 7.1. What’s more, this unit is currently tied for the second-highest headset score in our product database.
Call of Duty: Ghosts
Price: $30-$40
Regular Price: $50-$60
Buy: GameStop
If you’ve yet to nab up Call of Duty: Ghosts, GameStop is running another sale on the title from now through the weekend (ends on 4/6). Xbox 360 and PS3 versions are set at $30, while the Xbox One and PS4 options are priced at $40. Need further convincing? Check out the review from our pals at Joystiq.
Nyko Charge Base
Price: $23
Regular Price: $30
Buy: Amazon Xbox One, PS4
To keep those controllers juiced up now that you’ve splurged for the above COD title, Nyko’s Charge Base accessories can sort the requisite power. Both Xbox One and PS4 versions charge a pair of controllers so they’re ready whenever duty calls.
Filed under: Gaming
Game Boy Advance titles reach the Wii U’s online store
Don’t worry if you gave away your Game Boy Advance years ago — you now have an easy way to indulge your nostalgia for the early 2000′s. As promised, Nintendo has released its first batch of GBA Virtual Console games on the Wii U’s eShop at a cost of $8 per title. The early roster is small but instantly recognizable to veterans. Strategy lovers can check out Advance Wars, while Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga and Metroid Fusion are on tap for fans of role-playing games and side-scrolling shooters. And that’s just the start of Nintendo’s planned launches this month. The studio is releasing Kirby & The Amazing Mirror and WarioWare, Inc. on the 10th; F-Zero, Golden Sun, Super Mario Bros. 3 and Yoshi’s Island are on deck for the following weeks. We wouldn’t pick up a Wii U solely for the sake of the GBA catalog, but it should give you something to play while you’re waiting for more contemporary games.
Filed under: Gaming, Handhelds, Nintendo
Via: Joystiq
Source: Nintendo
Here’s how Titanfall’s Xbox 360 and Xbox One versions differ
We’ve long known that Titanfall was coming to the Xbox 360 in addition to the Xbox One but, aside from that sliver of info, there hasn’t been much to go on — unless you count release delays, that is. Now we’re learning that on paper, at least, it won’t stray too far from the Xbox One version’s shadow when it comes out next week. The last-gen version has all of the maps, modes and features of the Respawn-developed game, but naturally some concessions have been made to accommodate the 360′s nine-year-old hardware. As developer Bluepoint Games’ senior producer Daryl Allison writes, the game can’t hit the same frame rates as its sibling, but it runs “above 30 fps” — around half the speed you’d get on the Xbox One.
That’s a pretty considerable difference, and it’s akin to what DICE has done to port the last few Battlefield games to older consoles. What’s troubling, however, is that even though the game releases in a few days, we still haven’t seen any screenshots or videos of it in action. That alone should be reason enough to hold off on buying until reviews start cropping up.
Filed under: Gaming, Home Entertainment, HD
Source: Titanfall (official)
Watch a 5-year-old spam the spacebar to access his dad’s Xbox Live account
Kids: they’re our future, and apparently are also great at finding backdoors within video game security measures. Take 5-year-old Kristoffer Von Hassel from the San Diego area, for instance. His parents were curious about just how their son was accessing games on Dad’s password-protected Xbox One profile. Well, as KGTV in California reports, it was as easy as spamming the space key on the password verification screen. If you thought Kristoffer’s dad would be mad though, you’d be 100 percent wrong. The elder Von Hassel works in computer security and was pleased as punch when he learned how. The father and son team reported the backdoor to Microsoft, and Redmond rewarded Kristoffer with a year of Xbox Live, four games and $50. Had you been abusing this hack yourself and were wondering why it went away, well, now you have the answer. The most ironic aspect of the whole ordeal? In the video below, Kinect recognizes the younger Von Hassel’s guttural vocalizations and takes him to the Xbox One dashboard — most of the times we ask nicely to launch Titanfall nothing ever happens.
[Image credit: KGTV]
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Filed under: Gaming, Home Entertainment, HD, Microsoft
Via: Reddit
Source: KGTV, TechNet (Microsoft)
Final Fantasy XIV’s PlayStation 4 beta is now open to everyone
Fans of online role-playing games haven’t had much to do on the PlayStation 4 so far, but that’s all changing today. Square Enix has just opened up Final Fantasy XIV‘s PS4 beta test to everyone; from now until the morning of April 7th, you can battle monsters and ride Chocobos just by grabbing a free download from the PlayStation Store. This new beta phase runs on the same servers that PC and PS3 players use, so you should get a feel for real-world gameplay involving thousands of other adventurers. FFXIV doesn’t officially arrive on the PS4 until the 14th, but don’t fret about having to wait another week to play again — if the game enthralls you so much that you’ve pre-ordered (or already have an account), you can start playing on the 11th.
Filed under: Gaming
Source: Square Enix
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