In Blazing Chrome, bring your best pal and kick some metal butts to free the humankind while enjoying a classic run?n?gun, fully loaded with action and exciting fights.
Overcome impossible odds and survive certain death scenarios in the undercover spy thriller that VR has been waiting for. You'll need every advanced weapon, cutting-edge technology, and deceptive tactic in your arsenal. Good luck agent. [Oculus]
Nintendo Might Be Updating Some Components In Its Original Switch Model
Nintendo appears to be updating some components in its original Switch model, but it’s not the sort of upgrade you would probably expect.
According to The Verge, recent filings with the United States Federal Communications Commission suggest the currently available Switch will soon be receiving a new processor and flash storage chips. It goes onto explain how Nintendo has submitted a “Class II Permission Change” to the FCC, allowing it to adjust an existing product without having to get the system recertified for sale within the US.
The document itself makes mention of “SoC” – referring to the Switch’s system-on-chip (the Nvidia Tegra processor, containing the CPU and graphics) and the “NAND memory” – aka. the flash storage in the SSD. Nintendo is also unlikely to announce these internal changes publicly, in order to lower the chances of consumers deliberately seeking out newer and better-performing systems.
As The Verge explains, swapping out components in video game consoles is nothing new. Microsoft made some serious changes to its Xbox 360 line to ensure future owners didn’t ever have to witness the red ring of death.
This filing is not believed to be tied to the rumoured Switch Pro model and is reinforced by Doug Bowser’s recent comment, explaining how a proper upgraded Switch system was not happening right now. In saying this, it could have a connection to the recent chipset rumour, previously linked to the upgraded model.
Fedora job opening: Fedora Community Action and Impact Coordinator (FCAIC)
I’ve decided to move on from my role as the Fedora Community Action and Impact Coordinator (FCAIC). This was not an easy decision to make. I am proud of the work I have done in Fedora over the last three years and I think I have helped the community move past many challenges. I could NEVER have done all of this without the support and assistance of the community!
As some of you know, I have been covering for some other roles in Red Hat for almost the last year. Some of these tasks have led to some opportunities to take my career in a different direction. I am going to remain at Red Hat and on the same team with the same manager, but with a slightly expanded scope of duties. I will no longer be day-to-day on Fedora and will instead be in a consultative role as a Community Architect at Large. This is a fancy way of saying that I will be tackling helping lots of projects with various issues while also working on some specific strategic objectives.
I think this is a great opportunity for the Fedora community. The Fedora I became FCAIC in three years ago is a very different place from the Fedora of today. While I could easily continue to help shape and grow this community, I think that I can do more by letting some new ideas come in. The new person will hopefully be able to approach challenges differently. I’ll also be here to offer my advice and feedback as others who have moved on in the past have done. Additionally, I will work with Matthew Miller and Red Hat to help hire and onboard the new Fedora Community and Impact Coordinator. During this time I will continue as FCAIC.
This means that we are looking for a new FCAIC. Love Fedora? Want to work with Fedora full-time to help support and grow the Fedora community? This is the core of what the FCAIC does. The job description (also below), has a list of some of the primary job responsibilities and required skills – but that’s just a sample of the duties required, and the day to day life working full-time with the Fedora community.
Day to day work includes working with Mindshare, managing the Fedora Budget, and being part of many other teams, including the Fedora Council. You should be ready to write frequently about Fedora’s achievements, policies and decisions, and to draft and generate ideas and strategies. And, of course, planning Flock and Fedora’s presence at other events. It’s hard work, but also a great deal of fun.
Are you good at setting long-term priorities and hacking away at problems with the big picture in mind? Do you enjoy working with people all around the world, with a variety of skills and interests, to build not just a successful Linux distribution, but a healthy project? Can you set priorities, follow through, and know when to say “no” in order to focus on the most important tasks for success? Is Fedora’s mission deeply important to you?
Location: CZ-Remote – prefer Europe but can be North America
Company Description
At Red Hat, we connect an innovative community of customers, partners, and contributors to deliver an open source stack of trusted, high-performing solutions. We offer cloud, Linux, middleware, storage, and virtualization technologies, together with award-winning global customer support, consulting, and implementation services. Red Hat is a rapidly growing company supporting more than 90% of Fortune 500 companies.
Job summary
Red Hat’s Open Source Programs Office (OSPO) team is looking for the next Fedora Community Action and Impact Lead. In this role, you will join the Fedora Council and guide initiatives to grow the Fedora user and developer communities, as well as make Red Hat and Fedora interactions even more transparent and positive. The Council is responsible for stewardship of the Fedora Project as a whole, and supports the health and growth of the Fedora community.
As a the Fedora Community Action and Impact Lead, you’ll facilitate decision making on how to best focus the Fedora community budget to meet our collective objectives, work with other council members to identify the short, medium, and long-term goals of the Fedora community, and organize and enable the project.
You will also help make decisions about trademark use, project structure, community disputes or complaints, and other issues. You’ll hold a full council membership, not an auxiliary or advisory role.
Primary job responsibilities
Identify opportunities to engage new contributors and community members; align project around supporting those opportunities.
Improve on-boarding materials and processes for new contributors.
Participate in user and developer discussions and identify barriers to success for contributors and users.
Use metrics to evaluate the success of open source initiatives.
Regularly report on community metrics and developments, both internally and externally.
Represent Red Hat’s stake in the Fedora community’s success.
Work with internal stakeholders to understand their goals and develop strategies for working effectively with the community.
Improve onboarding materials and presentation of Fedora to new hires; develop standardized materials on Fedora that can be used globally at Red Hat.
Work with the Fedora Council to determine the annual Fedora budget.
Assist in planning and organizing Fedora’s flagship events each year.
Create and carry out community promotion strategies; create media content like blog posts, podcasts, and videos and facilitate the creation of media by other members of the community
Required skills
Extensive experience with the Fedora Project or a comparable open source community.
Exceptional writing and speaking skills
Experience with software development and open source developer communities; understanding of development processes.
Outstanding organizational skills; ability to prioritize tasks matching short and long-term goals and focus on the tasks of high priority
Ability to manage a project budget.
Ability to lead teams and participate in multiple cross-organizational teams that span the globe.
Experience motivating volunteers and staff across departments and companies
Red Hat is proud to be an equal opportunity workplace and an affirmative action employer. We review applications for employment without regard to their race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, ancestry, citizenship, age, veteran status, genetic information, physical or mental disability, medical condition, marital status, or any other basis prohibited by law.
Red Hat does not seek or accept unsolicited resumes or CVs from recruitment agencies. We are not responsible for, and will not pay, any fees, commissions, or any other payment related to unsolicited resumes or CVs except as required in a written contract between Red Hat and the recruitment agency or party requesting payment of a fee.
On paper, Graveyard Keeper sounds like a fun concept. It’s a management/simulation game of a medieval graveyard, with a sense of humor perfectly encapsulated in its wacky braying-donkey app icon. (I choose to believe this is intended to make fun of the endless screaming-angry-man icons found on Clash of Clans-clones.) Unfortunately, Graveyard Keeper will probably not win many new players to the genre thanks to its confusing tone and fixture on arcane busywork.
The first question for a mobile adaptation is: how are the controls? In menus, you get to tap and scroll through interface elements directly, but in the game world you use basic on-screen buttons and a static d-stick instead of swipe-anywhere controls. The d-stick is better than many, especially as it features an animated bounce back when released that visually reminds you to replace your thumb in the center.
It’s fiddly, though, and perhaps a little too sensitive, and I often found myself stuck on scenery or walking around objects I just wanted to approach. It seems to me a system where movement were locked to a grid might work better. There also seem to be a few too many buttons. The ‘work’ and ‘select’ actions could be combined into one control, since work is always held down for several seconds and select is always merely tapped. With a swipe for the rarely-used attack command, the devs could reduce the on-screen controls to a mere menu button.
Unlike similar management games like Stardew Valley, Graveyard Keeper doesn’t have daily tasks to give rhythm to march of time. Certain events, like meeting important characters that only happen on particular days, are about as far as it goes. Compounding this problem, the game uses a weird alchemical-symbol system to track its six-day week, making it impossible to hold in your mind when things need to get done. Is the bishop free on male-symbol day or on sun-day?
Instead, Graveyard Keeper‘s tasks are long multi-step processes that inevitably require a lot of time grinding for experience or materials and building one of seemingly dozens of crafting stations. I played for days and only buried one body, occupied as I was with making every part of every tool out of logs, rocks, and raw iron. Then there are tech trees for gardening, preaching, and writing books among others, three different kinds of skill points, and “faith” and “science” are resources in themselves. There’s a certain zen to it at times, but at other times it feels like a lot of busywork. That said, there’s a great deal of freedom and an awful lot to do, so if planning out long multi-stage tasks is your jam, you’ll love it.
Tonally, the game is strange. It wants to be both goofy and morbid and it works sometimes, especially when the game uses its medieval setting to satirize modern life. The funniest part to me was the unending bureaucracy of stamps and permissions required to get anything done in this supposedly-medieval town. A good joke, but also one that’s frustrating to deal with from a gameplay perspective. I can’t sell this bit of meat I took from a cadaver unless I bribe a thief for the right stamp? Are we just going to gloss over the cannibalism aspect of this situation first? Part of the problem is that NPCs don’t have strongly-defined personalities beyond one-note jokes. (The skull is a drunk. The donkey is a communist.)
There’s clearly a bit of Monty Python and the Holy Grail influence here, but the Pythons had the good sense to satirize the ignorance and bloodlust of a witch trial but then cut away before the actual execution. Not so in Graveyard Keeper, where your protagonist watches a burning without comment and is then tasked with putting up flyers for the next one. It’s darkness for its own sake, and rather off-putting.
Graveyard Keeper is a full-featured, PC-quality indie game, which is enough of a rarity on mobile to make it worth a glance. Fans of crafting will probably find a lot to like in Graveyard Keeper‘s incredibly baroque skills tree and endless tasks. It would be a good game for zoning out and listening to podcasts on a long plane trip. Players who are not on board the crafting bandwagon should probably try something like Stardew Valley.
Humble Unity Game Development Bundle–Featuring GameDev.Tv
There is a new Humble Bundle of interest to game developers, specifically Unity game developers. This is the Humble Unity Game Development Bundle, and it consists of a collection of Udemy courses by GameDev.tv, mostly on the subject of Unity, although a few other topics such as Git and Blender are also covered. As always the bundle is organized into tiers, where if you buy a more expensive tier, you get all of the content at the lower tiers.
The tiers in this bundle consist of:
1$ Tier
How to Get A Job in the GameDev Industry
Finish It! Motivation and Processes for Game & App Development
20$ Tier
Locked content Blender Environment Artist
Git Smart: Learn Git The Fun Way With Unity Games
25$ Tier
Complete C# Unity Developer 3D
RPG Core Combat Creator
Complete C# Unity Developer 2D
Locked content Unity 3D Game Kit – Make Games Without Coding
All contents in the bundle consist of Udemy product keys, so you need to have a Udemy account and you have to redeem the keys within a year of purchasing. As always you can decide how your money is allocated, between Humble, the publisher, charity and if you so choose (and thanks if you do!) to support GFS. The bundle is available here, you can learn more by watching the video below.
Posted by: xSicKxBot - 07-11-2019, 01:44 AM - Forum: Lounge
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Nintendo Switch Lite Model: Price, Release Date, Colors Revealed
Out of nowhere, Nintendo announced a new version of the Switch, and it releases quite soon. The Nintendo Switch Lite is a leaner version of the existing Switch model that sacrifices some features but slashes $100 off that system's price tag; it sells for $200 in the US. It releases on September 20 in a trio of colors, with a special-edition Pokemon version arriving in November.
The Switch Lite features a 5.5-inch screen that displays at a resolution of 720p. This shrinks the screen down slightly from the original Switch's 6.2-inch size. Additionally, the Switch Lite will no longer be able to connect to TVs via USB-C and HDMI. This means that the Switch Lite is being positioned as a purely handheld platform, as opposed to a hybrid like the original. Despite that, it will still bear the Switch name.
The headphone port is still there (Bluetooth headset support has not been added, sadly), and the button layout is largely unchanged. However, the Switch Lite no longer has detachable Joy-Con controllers. Furthermore, the Switch Lite will not have rumble or the IR motion sensors. Joy-Con controllers can still be connected to the Switch Lite. Nintendo has swapped out the four small buttons that serve as the directional inputs on the Joy-Cons for a traditional D-pad, however.
One other thing to consider is that Nintendo Labo, which allows users to build peripherals using cardboard, won't work since the Switch Lite is smaller. Other games will need to support handheld mode in order to function. Titles like 1-2-Switch and Super Mario Party will require you to purchase standard Joy-Cons in order to play them.
The Switch Lite is matte plastic and, according to CNET, which had a chance to go hands-on with it, has a "solid feel reminded me a lot of the recent Nintendo 2DS XL handheld. No detachable Joy-Cons means the sides of the Switch Lite don’t flex or creak as much, either."
When the Switch Lite launches on September 20, it will be available in grey, yellow, and turquoise. A limited edition Pokemon-themed design that has etchings and an off-white case will arrive alongside Pokemon Sword and Shield, though it will not include the game as part of a bundle.
Nintendo Switch Lite Specs
Nintendo Switch Lite console
Size
91.1mm x 208mm x 13.9mm Please note: 28.4mm at the thickest, from the tips of the analogue sticks to the ZL/ZR Button protusions.
Weight
Approx. 275g
Screen
Capacitive touch screen / 5.5 inch LCD / 1280x720 resolution
CPU/GPU
NVIDIA customised Tegra processor
System memory
32 GB Please note: approximately 6.2 GB of internal memory is reserved for use by the system.
Communication features
Wireless LAN (IEEE 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac compliant) / Bluetooth 4.1 / NFC (near-field communication)
Video output
-
Audio output
-
Speakers
Stereo
Control inputs
"Left Stick Can be pressed down and used as a button." "Right Stick Can be pressed down and used as a button." A/B/X/Y/L/R/ZL/ZR Buttons + Button / - Button +Control Pad POWER Button Volume buttons HOME Button Capture Button
USB terminal
USB Type-C terminal Used for charging the console.
Audio jack
Stereo output
Game card slot
Exclusively for Nintendo Switch game cards.
microSD card slot
Compatible with microSD, microSDHC and microSDXC memory cards. Please note: an update via an internet connection is required to use microSDXC memory cards.
Sensors
Accelerometer / gyroscope
Operating environment
Temperature: 5 - 35°C / Humidity: 20 - 80%
Internal battery
Lithium ion battery / battery capacity 3570mAh Please note: the internal battery cannot be removed. If the battery needs to be replaced, it can be replaced for a fee via Nintendo Customer Support.
Battery life
Battery life can last for more than six hours, but will vary depending on the software and usage conditions. For example, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild can be played for roughly four hours on a single charge.
Charging time
3 hours approx. Please note: this is the time taken to charge while the console is in sleep mode.
Reports of new Switch models being in production surface in June. At the time, Nintendo said it would not announce the new systems during E3, and they stuck to their guns on that. Reports have indicated that two new Nintendo Switch models are in the works. The first, a less expensive iteration with pared-down features, we now know is the Switch Lite.
However, it has also been reported that an "enhanced" version of the Switch targeted at "avid" gamers is also in production. Nintendo has not indicated this is the case and there are far fewer rumors, reports, and early rumblings relating to this more powerful version that there was for the Switch Lite.
Pokémon GO Outperformed Candy Crush and Clash Royale In Its First Three Years
Last weekend, Pokémon GO celebrated its third anniversary. So, what exactly has it accomplished in this amount of time? According to Sensor Tower Store Intelligence data, the game has now grossed an estimated total of $2.65 billion worldwide. This covers transactions across the App Store and Google Play.
It makes GO one of the popular western-made smartphone games to-date. Excluding China, Niantic’s game has surpassed both Candy Crush Saga and Clash Royale in the same amount of time. Clash of Clans still holds the top spot, grossing an estimated amount of $3.14 billion.
In terms of spending habits, players in the United States take the lead – making up around 35 percent of gross revenue (approx $928 million). Japan takes out second and is responsible for 29 percent of in-game spending (approx $779 million), and Germany is in third, accounting for 6 percent (approx $159 million).
Google Play is where most GO-related transactions take place and makes up 54 percent of player spending (approx $1.43 billion). The rest is from Apple users ($1.22 billion).
In 2019 alone, GO has grossed $395 million worldwide. This figure is up by 19 percent compared to the first half of 2018. On average, the player base spends $2.4 million within the game each day. Crunching the numbers, that’s about $5 per user split across 521 million downloads. Sensor Tower says the augmented reality mobile game is expected to surpass the $3 billion mark by the end of 2019.
Have you spent any money in Pokémon GO? Are you still playing it after three years? Leave a comment below.
Guide: Where To Pre-Order Pokémon Sword and Shield On Nintendo Switch
In today’s Pokémon Direct it was announced that Pokémon Sword and Shield is headed to Switch on 15th November in both Europe and North America. This will be the first new generation Pokémon series to land on the Switch – Generation 8, to be precise.
We got our first glimpse of brand-spanking new Pokémon, including the two legendary wolf-looking chaps known as Zacian (the one with the sword in his mouth) and Zamazenta (the one with a shield for a face). With the game now inked in for 15th November, you can pre-order the game today to ensure you don’t miss out on securing a physical copy. Below we’ve brought together some of the deals across both sides of the pond. Here we go…
Pre-Order Pokémon Sword and Shield in the USA
The major four US retailers have got their pre-order pages up. If you are a Best Buy member you can get $10 reward credit for pre-ordering one of the Pokemon games, which is nice.
Please note that some of the links on this page are affiliate links. If you click them and make a purchase we may receive a small percentage of the sale which helps support the site. Please read our FTC Disclosure for more information.
Pre-Order Pokémon Sword and Shield in the UK
Here are our preferred retailers in the UK to pick up Pokémon Sword and Shield from. The steelbook options look particularly tasty here, and offer slightly more value than the standard releases.
Let us know which new Pokémon caught your eye and if you’ll be slamming down a pre-order for Pokémon Sword or Shield (or both in that nice-lookin’ Double Pack) with a comment below.
