Free games

• Epic Games

• • Rime
  • • 2017
    • Play as a young boy who has awakened on a mysterious island after a torrential storm. You see wild animals, long-forgotten ruins and a massive tower that beckons you to come closer. Armed with your wits and a will to overcome—and the guidance of a helpful fox—you must explore the enigmatic island, reach the tower’s peak, and unlock its closely guarded secrets.

SUPERHOT is tempting me over to the dark side of VR

• The Oculus Quest, a standalone 360 room-scale wireless VR headset that uses the fancy Oculus Touch controllers, had a brand new version of SUPERHOT VR release this week
• Developers say the gameflow has been completely rebuilt into what it was originally meant to be, letting you move through levels naturally instead of breaking them up into pieces that don’t require walking
• • SUPERHOT VR on PSVR uses “pyramids” to split up the action, so that you don’t have to move around
• Best part is, any backers of the original SUPERHOT kickstarter are getting this version for free as well!
• • Backers should already have received an email prompting them to link their backer email to their Oculus account email, but if you haven’t you can send that information to: pleasecanihavethequestgame@superhotgame.com
  • Even if you don’t have a Quest headset, it might be worth getting the accounts linked now so that you have the game on your account for the future

Microsoft is joining the open world AR business With Minecraft Earth

• ME is an upcoming free to play mobile game that’s looking to use AR to bring your Minecraft creations to the rest of the world
• It’s all built on the existing Bedrock engine, so everything from Redstone machines to how physics affect water and sand will all work the same as the usual Minecraft experience
• The big difference is that, using AR and GPS, your creations can be visible and modifiable by other people that you invite into your session
• • They’re not permanent, but you can temporarily share the structures with friends and even save a copy of what you built and send out links for people to play with on a table or in giant scale in an open space
  • The idea is to eventually have persistent structures around the world, but that will need a few more advancements in tech and especially in content moderation
• Resources are gathered via “tapables”, randomly placed pickups that appear around you, in addition to gathering points linked to real-world locations
• • According to game director Tori Olafsson, “Every lake is a place you can fish, every park is a place you can chop down trees”
• There will also be dynamically spawning adventures designed for multiple people to get involved in, ranging from peaceful and friendly to riskier dungeon delves
• One thing to note here is that there’s no PVP- all blocks spawned drop for all players, so there’s no competition for resources
• And with Microsoft’s computer wizardry they’re bragging that you can see everyone’s avatars walking, including the tools they’re using at the moment, and do things like stand in front of your friends to block them from attacking a virtual sheep
• • You’re essentially in the game, and your camera works as a lens you can see it through
• All said and done this seems pretty cool and very ambitious, though from the sounds of Microsoft’s plans for the tech they may end up harvesting your location and camera data to ostensibly improve the product in the future
• • This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it’s always good to be aware of what you’re sharing with these companies and what they’re using it for
• And this could relate to a tidbit I found, where Microsoft and Sony are apparently teaming up for some future projects leveraging Microsoft’s cloud computing and Sony’s game and image sensor expertise
• Minecraft Earth will hit beta on iOS and Android sometime this summer

The American beta for Mario Kart Tour on Android kicked off this week, and thanks to the internet we’ve got a good idea of what you can expect on release

• It looks like they’ve taken a normal Mario Kart game and changed the controls to make it similar to Super Mario Run- acceleration is automatic, and you just swipe your thumb or tilt your phone to steer
• • The default controls take care of drifting automatically as well, but there’s also a manual option
• The tracks are all taken from previous games, and only run two laps instead of three
• Then we get to the money-making part of the game
• • It seems to be using a gacha system similar to Fire Emblem Heroes, where you use in-game currency to get random drivers, karts, and gliders
  • The big problem is that, unless Nintendo changes it before release, rare drivers actually have advantages like special items or track-specific bonuses
  • There’s also a stamina system to limit how many races you can do each hour
• Those pieces are even more controversial than usual now that Belgium has legally categorized video game loot boxes as gambling- Nintendo has announced they’ll be shutting down both Fire Emblem Heroes and Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp in Belgium as of August 27th.
• • Compared to what Blizzard did with Overwatch and Heroes of the Storm last year, simply disabling paid lootboxes in Belgium but allowing users to still earn them in game, that move seems like overkill
  • Presumably that also means they won’t be seeing this game any time soon
• The beta is planned to continue through June 4th, and we’ll see what the payment situation is like when the final release of Mario Kart Tour hits iOS and Android sometime this summer

Nintendo’s also released a bunch more details on the upcoming Super Mario Maker 2

• The game will launch on June 28th, and there will be a standalone version as well as a bundle that includes a year of Nintendo Switch Online
• • The bundle will be pretty handy, since there are more than a few features locked behind an online requirement- including uploading your levels and searching/downloading other users’ creations
  • They’re apparently supporting an offline mode once you’ve downloaded levels, but there’s no word on if you’ll need to connect and run a check-in to keep them available
• On the plus side, there are officially versus and co-op modes that have up to four players competing or teaming up to beat the objective, be it reaching the goal, picking up coins, or a certain number of 1-UPs
• • Both modes have players shoving and bouncing off eachother, so really they’re all versus
  • They also work via local network, so you can get multiple Switches going, but with a big caveat- apparently at least one system has to be online to confirm a paid NSO account.
  • • This is a first for Nintendo, and it could put a damper on pick-up games really taking off in weird places like convention lineups
• They’ve also shown off the new tools that level creators will have at their mercy, like some really granular controls on slopes, animated snake platforms, on-off switches, varying water levels, and a completely separate Super Mario 3D World palette that has so many unique pieces that it can’t be applied as a re-skin
• There will also be a campaign mode with 100+ levels designed by Nintendo staff
• And we’ll be seeing a lot more of this on June 8th, when Nintendo runs their invitational SMM2 competition at E3

After an ambitious and tumultuous go at gaming, the Ouya is officially shutting down

• The Ouya itself was an aggressive product, originally launching on Kickstarter back in 2012
• • The idea was that it would be a completely open game console for your living room where every title was free to play, with the intention that it would offer AAA gaming without licensing or publishing fees
  • The reality was a disappointing box that arrived late and mainly ported mobile Android games to your TV
• So the Ouya as a device was discontinued three years later in 2015 after Razer bought the founders and merged the content into their Forge microconsole ecosystem
• • So Ouya was technically still around, but mainly as a brand name and publisher for Android games. Everything was done through the Forge TV hardware
• Now Razer is shutting down the whole works at the end of June- as of June 25 2019 you won’t be able to download any more games through the online service
• • Downloaded games may still function if they don’t have an online check-in at launch, but that will be up to developers
• Owners of the Forge TV and MadCatz Mojo consoles that used these services should still be able to connect to Google Play, but it’ll be up to developers to migrate their games from the Ouya storefront

Sony’s given us a couple sneak-peeks at the next generation of Playstation, and they look solid

• In an investor demo they show the PS5 running tech demos based on Spider-Man about 10x faster than the PS4 Pro
• It will apparently also support resolutions up to 8K, come standard with an SSD, and will be compatible with both the existing PSVR and PS4 games

Tidbits

• Anyone with a Macbook that has the butterfly keyboard switches (2015 and newer) will be happy to hear that if you’re having any keyboard issues (stuck keys, multiple letters appearing with one key press, etc) you should be eligible for their free keyboard repair program
• Health Canada has officially cleared the ECG app and irregular heart rhythm notifications on the Apple Watch Series 4, so we could be seeing an update enabling them in the near future
• • This comes with a classification marking the watch as a Class II medical device, in a “low to medium risk” category alongside things like contact lenses
• Psychonauts 2 backers received another production update this week, with some cool news: The first gameplay segment will be shown at E3 in Los Angeles next month!
• Lenovo showed off a Moto Razr phone reboot with a folding display at a press event this week, but with one problem- it was a fan-made concept video downloaded and edited without permission
• • It looks like some of the watermarks were removed, with a Lenovo bumper added at the end, but you can pretty clearly see some watermarks they missed on the phone’s screens with the creator, Waqar Khan’s, Twitter handle
  • Technically Lenovo didn’t actually announce anything like it, but showing the video at a press event when they clearly don’t have anything concrete to show is pretty skeezy to say the least

Alan Recommends The ‘Burbs

• It’s a comedy horror thriller from 1989 starring Tom Hanks, Carrie Fisher, Corey Feldman, Wendy Schaal, and a bunch of other solid actors
• Pokes fun at suburbia and the weird people that live there, with some really smart writing that keeps you on your toes

Literally Misleading

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