Feature: The Black Shark 2 Is A Phone That Thinks It’s A Nintendo Switch
Almost since their inception, mobile phones have played host to interactive entertainment. Older Nintendo Life readers may recall spending hours playing Snake on their battered Nokia whilst waiting for the bus to arrive, but more recently smartphones have totally revolutionised the way we play on the go – to the point where even Nintendo has joined the party, via a series of phone exclusive titles like Super Mario Run, Fire Emblem Heroes and Pokémon GO. However, there have been precious few attempts to marry phones and games successfully; Sony’s Xperia Play and Nokia’s N-Gage being two high-profile failures.
You can detach the left-hand controller and use it as a self-contained pad, held sideways
Still, where there’s a will, there’s a way, and the arrival of the Nintendo Switch – which, lest we forget, uses Nvidia chips which were originally intended for mobile tech like tablets and smartphones – has emboldened a new generation of device makers keen to blur the line between phone and games console and thereby create an entirely new sector in the increasingly competitive smartphone market. We’ve already covered the Huawei Mate 20 X, which was directly compared to Nintendo’s hybrid system during its unveiling, and companies like Asus and Razer have also released similar handsets recently. However, none of these has given us quite the same feeling of déjà vu as the Android-based Black Shark 2 – a ‘gaming’ phone which comes with optional slide-on controllers that bear more than a passing resemblance to the Switch Joy-Con we know and love.
As the name suggests, the Black Shark 2 isn’t the first phone in this line; the original Black Shark arrived last year. An off-shoot of the Chinese tech giant Xiaomi, Black Shark (the company, not the phone) is eyeing up the burgeoning ‘gaming phone’ space and has clearly been inspired by Nintendo when it comes to interface design – although the mechanics seen here are notably less sophisticated than the Switch. Rather than connecting directly with the phone itself, the left and right-hand controllers slide onto a snap-on plastic case and pair using Bluetooth; because of this, they require charging separately using a USB-C connection. Still, at least one of the Nintendo’s party tricks has been carried over – you can detach the left-hand controller and use it as a self-contained pad, held sideways. Heck, you can even connect it to your TV via the USB-C port at the bottom.
The analogue stick feels nice and responsive, as do the face buttons and the gloriously tactile quartet of shoulder buttons. There’s no stick on the right-hand pad – this is replaced by a touchpad which is intended as an on-screen mouse pointer – so you sadly can’t break off those pads for an impromptu local multiplayer match, which seems like a missed opportunity. Battery life is excellent, and the pads slide onto the aforementioned case with a satisfying click – even if there’s no physical connection present between the phone and the controller. The other cool thing is that the Black Shark 2 phone has a dedicated ‘Shark Space’ mode, which is triggered by flicking a switch on the side of the handset. This mutes all incoming notifications and frees up as much available memory as possible so you’re getting the most out of the hardware – hardware which, even when compared to the Switch, is cutting-edge stuff.
In terms of pure specs, it’s vastly superior to the tech found inside Nintendo’s console
The Black Shark 2 has a Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 chipset and up to 12GB of RAM; in terms of pure specs, it’s vastly superior to the tech found inside Nintendo’s console. It also boasts a 1080p, HDR-ready AMOLED screen which has excellent colour depth and striking contrast, all contained within bodywork which mixes metal, plastic and glass to neat effect. There’s even a set of LEDs arrayed around the casing which gently pulsate whilst you’re playing. (This is a common feature of gaming phones and laptops, so gamers must like this kind of thing, we guess?) Still not convinced? The Black Shark 2 has something called the “Mille-Feuille Full Area Liquid Cooling System” to prevent overheating and even has a ‘Ludicrous Mode’ which allows you to extract the maximum possible performance from the silicon. Gulp.
Then there are the games. While it’s true that the general quality of smartphone games is lower than console titles, it’s quite interesting to find we have several direct means of comparison between Switch and the Black Shark 2. Fortnite is, of course, available, and runs at a higher resolution. Hello Neighbor also offers a direct point of reference, although it’s worth noting that it appears to run quite a low resolution on both smartphones and Switch. Elsewhere, Sega’s suite of free-to-play Mega Drive / Genesis classics look amazing on that punchy AMOLED display, but you’ll want to opt for the paid-for editions as the constant adverts can seriously get in the way of the gameplay. Then there are titles like PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, Real Racing 3 and Final Fantasy Tactics, all of which would be very welcome on the eShop – but aren’t available on Switch at present. There’s also the large selection of emulators available on the Google Play Store, which cover pretty much every retro format under the sun, right up to the PlayStation, Saturn and Dreamcast. It goes without saying that the catalogue of games on Switch is far, far superior, but it’s equally true that there are plenty of decent titles to play on the Black Shark 2 – even if none of them are up to the standard of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, and they lack the tight optimisation of ‘proper’ console releases.
Indeed, that last point is worth focusing on here, because actually configuring the Black Shark 2’s controllers to work with the vast majority of mobile games is a real chore. While some will auto-detect the analogue stick, most refuse to acknowledge it and we didn’t play a single game that successfully mapped all of the controls on start-up. Instead, you have to bring up a set of on-screen buttons and drag-and-drop them over the various touch-screen controls in order to bind them to the physical inputs of the controllers. Once you’ve done this, it’s plain sailing – but it’s a barrier to entry which means the Black Shark 2 user experience isn’t anywhere near as seamless as the Nintendo Switch.
The final sticking point is the price; the Black Shark 2 costs £500 in the UK, which is almost twice the cost of the Switch – and you don’t get the controllers in with that; they cost an additional £70. Of course, the catch here is that this is a phone as well as a games console, so you could argue that it offers better value for money as it does so much more than Nintendo’s system. But is it a better gaming platform? That’s highly debatable, and based on the evidence we’ve seen so far, Nintendo has little to worry about when it comes to smartphone-based challengers to its portable crown.
Thanks to Black Shark for supplying the gear used in this feature.
Viking RTS Northgard Lands On Switch Later This Year
Bordeaux-based Shiro Games has revealed that its PC real time strategy game Northgard is headed to consoles later in 2019, and that includes your favourite handheld hybrid.
The game went into Early Access on Steam in February 2017 and officially launched just over a year later. Steeped in Norse mythology, you’ll be discovering new lands, settling with your clan, battling hostile creatures and roaming around like a classic, rowdy Viking warrior. Did those guys ever just chill with a cup of tea and maybe a spot of fishing?
Sebastien Vidal, CEO and co-founder at Shiro Games had this to say in the press release
“We are very happy to reveal thatwe are bringing Northgard to all three consoles later this year. We have worked hard to optimize Northgard for the controller, and to be played on the go in the Switch version. All the content of the original version will be available at launch. This includes the campaign mode, leaderboards, all six clans and much more.“
Specific mention of the Switch version and optimisation gives us some hope that this isn’t just a quick and dirty port for Nintendo’s console. A promo shot for a boxed version suggests we’ll be seeing a physical release for this one, too:
Fancy a spot of sailing and pillaging? Have you played this game on PC? Let us know how you found it below.
Posted by: xSicKxBot - 05-31-2019, 03:37 PM - Forum: Windows
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‘Crackdown 3’ updates available for free now
It’s been an exciting few months since we first saw Agents band together to take on the cruel and corrupt TerraNova Corporation in Crackdown 3 with Xbox Game Pass and on Xbox One and Windows 10 PC, and today we’re excited to release, for free, the Crackdown 3 Extra Edition with boomtastic updates to Campaign and Wrecking Zone!
First up: Keys to the City, a deep menu of Campaign tools and cheats that gives you control of the world and access to a wide variety of overpowered abilities. Throw down with Elemental Fists, become invincible with God Mode or hit the jets with Super Speed! But why stop there? On your quest to reclaim New Providence, invite a co-op friend and create your own Faction Retaliations, or Lockdown the city and fight your way out with unlimited ammo and gadgets. Get creative by spawning enemies, vehicles, explosive barrels and other props wherever you’d like. When you have Keys to the City, the possibilities are endless!
But that’s not all… It wouldn’t be extra unless we talked about Wrecking Zone, Crackdown 3’s fully-destructible multiplayer battle arena. Today’s update brings a new vanity progression system to Wrecking Zone, with 100 tiers of items to customize your Agent! Earn Agency Points during matches to unlock holographic ‘LENS’ adornments, helmets, weapon skins—and more! We’ve also given the overall experience a fresh coat of paint, adding Agent customization screens, six different types of ‘Overdrive’ Skill boosts, and a host of other user interface updates. There’s never been a better time to jump into the cloud-powered destruction of Wrecking Zone!
On behalf of the whole Crackdown 3 team, thank you for playing, and we hope you enjoy this free Extra Edition update. You can read the complete list of update features here. Crackdown 3 is available now with Xbox Game Pass on Xbox One and Windows 10 PCs. For the latest news stay tuned to Xbox Wire.
Devil Engine Ignition Brings DLC To The Switch Shmup This Winter
Protoculture Games has announced an expansion pack for Switch shoot ’em up Devil Engine including new stages, new music and more. The game released in February this year and this expansion will launch later in 2019 alongside a PS4 version.
According to the company, the expansion will launch as DLC on Switch and include the following:
– 6 new stages, doubling the size of the game – New arranged soundtrack by a variety of veteran composers, such as Shinji Hosoe (Street Fighter EX), Saitama Saisyu Heiki (Koihime Enbu) and Loser Kashiwagi (CHO REN SHA 68K) – Fan favorite secret ship “Scathach” is now available from the start – All new ship “Boudicca”, exclusive to Ignition – New unlockable shaders and features to customize your game – A new announcer powered by Vocaloid technology
Protoculture also shared the following picture on its Twitter account highlighting the pedigree behind its arranged soundtrack:
We liked Devil Engine when we reviewed it back in February, awarding it an 8/10 and giving the following verdict:
[Devil Engine] has at least been designed in a way that encourages even the weakest players to keep trying and learn from their mistakes. The drip-feed of content is an effective incentive to pick yourself up and have just one more go, and although it is at times brutally difficult – even when compared to other tricky 2D shooters – it has the depth and variety to maintain your interest, and when you’re at a competent level it’s a heck of a lot of fun.
Although we considered it, Devil Engine wasn’t quite good enough to make it onto our list of the best shmups on Switch. We hope that this extra content will give the game a shot in the arm and make it a contender when it launches this winter.
Are you a fan of the vanilla game? Will you be investigating this extra content? Share your thoughts in the usual place.
Posted by: xSicKxBot - 05-31-2019, 09:32 AM - Forum: Windows
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Microsoft celebrates Pride, takes action for equity and visibility
Fifty years ago, on June 28, LGBTQI+ patrons and allies at New York City’s Stonewall Inn stood up for justice demanding an equal life free of persecution. This year, as more than 4,000 Microsoft employees march in Pride parades in more than 60 cities and 30 countries around the world, we invite you to join us in pushing inclusion forward.
To commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall uprising, we’re taking action for equity by donating to LGBTQI+ nonprofits. Plus, we’re releasing limited-edition products designed with and by the LGBTQI+ community.
YouTube Video
Microsoft has a history of LGBTQI+ inclusion
For us, Pride is an opportunity to reflect on our past and galvanize for action. We started our inclusion journey early in the company’s history, introducing sexual orientation in our non-discrimination policies in 1989. In 1993, we were one of the first companies in the world to offer employee benefits to same-sex domestic partners. In 2004, we added gender identity to our Equal Employment Opportunity statement and started providing gender affirming healthcare services. Since 2005, Microsoft has attained a top score of 100 on the Human Rights Campaign Corporate Equality Index, which indicates that Microsoft is establishing and applying policies to protect the LGBTQI+ community.
Our journey is just beginning
Today, Microsoft operates in over 120 countries, most of which still don’t provide legal protections for LGBTQI+ individuals. This year, Microsoft’s Pride campaign is all about the actions that our employees and customers are taking to advance inclusion. GLEAM (Global LGBTQI+ Employees and Allies at Microsoft), our LGBTQI+ resource group, worked with many of our teams to develop products to create visibility into the LGBTQI+ community.
In designing this year’s Pride campaign, LGBTQI+ designers and allies at Microsoft reflected on the LGBTQI+ rights movement of the 1970s. Dozens of LGBTQI+ community members and their allies submitted designs for campaign buttons displaying everything from personal statements to political slogans. These buttons reflect actions that people at Microsoft are taking and are encouraging others to take.
Microsoft is releasing all the button designs as a downloadable archive so everyone can use them, add to them and share their Pride with everyone, wherever they are.
For the first time, we’ve also created limited-edition products and curated content to show our continued support for the LGBTQI+ community.
Surface – Inspired by the rich and varied tapestry of the LGBTQI+ community, make a more colorful impact with the limited-edition Surface Pro Pride Type Cover and Pride Skin available in the US, Canada, Australia, and the U.K. (only Type Cover).
YouTube Video
Windows – This Windows 10 special-edition theme was inspired by the many LGBTQI+ flags. Download the Windows Pride theme pack from the Microsoft Store.
Mixer – Discover Pride on Mixer with dedicated streams from select partners, unique stickers, and exclusive programs. Tune in on June 30th to live stream the Seattle Pride Parade!
Bing – Learn more about Stonewall on Bing with uniquely curated content featuring LGBTQI+ activism dating back to 1969 with this quiz. And see Pride take over the Bing homepage in select countries around the world.
Office – Show your Pride colors with the exclusive Office theme and unique Pride templates for PowerPoint.
Skype – Celebrate Pride with Skype’s new LGBTQI+ flag emoticons, stickers, and more.
Xbox – Show your colors and celebrate your love of gaming with the Xbox Pride Sphere Pin available at xbox.com.
Microsoft Rewards – Support LGBTQI+ youth in crisis by donating to The Trevor Project in June, and we’ll match it. Not a Microsoft Rewards member? Join today and we’ll give you $1 free to donate.
Microsoft Store – Visit your local Microsoft Store to take part in a Pride celebration, march with us, or learn more at educational workshops, events, and other activities.
Actions speak louder than words!
We’re donating $100,000 to the following nonprofits in Australia, Canada, United Kingdom, and the United States to celebrate and support their work on LGBTQI+ equity:
Established in 1985, ACON is Australia’s largest health promotion organization specializing in HIV prevention, HIV support and LGBTQ health.
Egale works to improve the lives of LGBTQI2S people in Canada and to enhance the global response to LGBTQI2S issues. They do this by informing public policy, inspiring cultural change, and promoting human rights and inclusion.
Mermaids is the only U.K.-wide charity working to support transgender or gender non-conforming children, young people, and their families. Their goal is to create a world where gender-diverse children and young people can be themselves and thrive. Mermaids promotes education and awareness, and offers information, support, friendship and shared experiences to those in need.
The Trevor Project is the world’s largest suicide prevention and crisis intervention organization for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and questioning young people under 25.
We’re also happy to announce that LGBTQI+ nonprofit, Destination Tomorrow, was awarded a grant from the Microsoft Store to support their inclusion efforts for people of color. See what happened when we took action to help them thrive.
YouTube Video
We invite everyone to join us in taking action for equality. Microsoft Pride 2019 products launch today! Follow along with our stories all month and learn more about actions you can take for equality by joining the social conversation using #MicrosoftPride.
Warhammer: Chaos & Conquest is out now, but don’t play it
By Ian Boudreau30 May 2019
Here’s some good news: A new Warhammer game is out for mobile, and in it, you get to play Chaos. It’s called Warhammer: Chaos & Conquest, and it’s available on both Android and iOS. The promotional materials bill it as an “epic massively-multiplayer real-time strategy game” set in the Warhammer fantasy universe, and the idea is that you’ll build a stronghold while spreading the rather forceful message of Chaos across the Old World.
Now here’s the bad news: It’s trash. This is a game that is based on making you wait for timers to tick down, and charges you currency – conveniently available to buy for real money! – to speed that process up.
For you, gentle reader, I’ve attempted to play Warhammer: Chaos & Conquest, because I felt that I should at least experience the “real time strategy” element of this new game before rendering judgment on the rest. And in the hour or so I’ve spent mucking with Chaos & Conquest, that aspect is nowhere to be found. This is a game about clicking “upgrade” and then waiting. There’s no strategy to be found here, or if there is, it’s buried under enough layers of pay-to-win fluff to render the search for it a waste of time.
Here’s a trailer, which features a bunch of stuff that never happens in the game itself:
The visuals are nice, I’ll give it that much I suppose. But none of it makes any sense whatsoever, and it’s all designed to suck money out of anyone deranged enough to get addicted to its utterly rote gameplay loop of watching numbers get bigger.
Consider this a public service announcement from your friends at Pocket Tactics: Avoid this nonsense like the plague, and remember that not everything Games Workshop slaps its name on is worth your time.
In 2017 Adobe announced the End Of Life for the Flash browser plugin was coming at the end of 2020. Flash developers still had the ability to deploy their applications to desktops and mobile devices using Adobe AIR technology. Today, Adobe announced the EOL for that platform as well.
As of June 2019, Adobe is transitioning ongoing platform support and feature development of AIR to HARMAN. This will coincide with an Adobe-issued update of AIR, v32, for supported mobile and desktop platforms. HARMAN has a long-standing history as an Adobe AIR partner, maintains knowledge of the platform and ecosystem, and is well-positioned to support AIR developers moving forward.
HARMAN (a wholly‐owned subsidiary of Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.) designs and engineers connected products and solutions for automakers, consumers, and enterprises worldwide. HARMAN’s software services power billions of mobile devices and systems that are connected, integrated and secure across all platforms, from work and home to car and mobile. Adobe has a long history collaborating with HARMAN, which is a key partner for Flash runtime migration and enterprise support as companies transition their existing ActionScript and Flex applications to new technologies. HARMAN has also been supporting customers with bespoke versions of Adobe AIR for the past decade.
Adobe will provide basic security support – limited to security fixes only for desktop platforms (Windows 7 and above, and Mac OS X) – for Adobe AIR v32 until the end of 2020. After that time, Adobe support for AIR will be discontinued and ongoing support will be managed by HARMAN and communicated by them directly. However, beginning with the release of AIR v33 by HARMAN, developers should contact HARMAN directly for AIR support on both mobile and desktop platforms – including bug fixes, platform compatibility, and new and improved functionality.
This means HARMAN will now control the future of the AIR platform and I would certainly expect Adobe tools to complete the transition away from supporting Flash, removing a great deal of the developer appeal in the first place. You can learn more about HARMAN’s future plans for the Flash/AIR platform here.
Posted by: xSicKxBot - 05-31-2019, 02:45 AM - Forum: Lounge
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Fortnite Week 4 Challenges: Dance On Dumpling Head And More
We're now in Season 9, Week 4 of Fortnite, and there are new challenges to be completed. As always, one set is available to everyone playing the wildly popular battle royale mode, while the second is exclusively available to those that have spent money (V-Bucks) to purchase a premium Battle Pass. Here's what's on tap for this week and what you have to do to complete them.
By completing the week's challenges, which you can see in full below, you'll earn Battle Stars. These level up your Battle Pass and, as it climbs in rank, you'll unlock cosmetics that can be used to customize your character.
This week players will need to do damage using a Sniper Rifle, dance in various locations (inside of a tomato head, inside a holographic Durr Burger head, and on top of a giant dumpling head), and get kills using legendary weapons. The least straightforward of these is the dancing one, since you'll need to know the map well enough to understand what those descriptions refer to. You can check out our guide for assistance on figuring out where to go.
If you've got a premium Battle Pass, you'll also have access to four additional challenges. They ask you to land at specific named locations (which is as simple as heading to one at the start of a match five different times), destroy loot carriers, eliminate enemies in specific locations, and visit named locations. The latter needs to be done in a single match, but these can be any named locations, so it shouldn't be too difficult as long as you avoid combat.
Free
Deal damage with Sniper Rifles to opponents (500) -- 5 Battle Stars
Stage 1: Dance inside a holographic Tomato head (1) -- 1 Battle Star
Stage 2: Dance inside a holographic Durr Burger head (1) -- 2 Battle Stars
Stage 3: Dance on top of a giant Dumpling head (1) -- 2 Battle Stars
Destroy a Loot Carrier in different matches (3) -- 5 Battle Stars
Stage 1: Land at Polar Peak (1) -- 1 Battle Star
Land at Lazy Lagoon (1) -- 1 Battle Star
Land at Salty Springs (1) -- 1 Battle Star
Land at The Block (1) -- 1 Battle Star
Land at Lonely Lodge (1) -- 1 Battle Star
Eliminate opponents in Haunted Hills or Dusty Divot (3) -- 10 Battle Stars
Visit different named locations in a single match (5) -- 10 Battle Stars
Fortnite's 9.10 patch launched on May 29 and introduced the Burst SMG, which is available in common, uncommon, and rare varieties. It can be found in chests and vending machines, and as floor loot. The Burst SMG has a 24-round magazine and uses light ammo. The Suppressed Submachine Gun was thrown into the Vault to make room for it, however.
It looks like developer Epic Games is also teasing an upcoming event, as players noticed a giant eye on the island. The eyeball can be found beneath Polar Peak, and will watch you and follow your movements if you're close enough. It could be that this monster will eventually break out and stomp around the game world.
If you need a hand completing challenges from previous weeks in the season, take a look at our complete Fortnite Season 9 challenge guide. We're updating that with guides on a weekly basis, so you'll find the methods for how to complete the trickiest challenges in there.
Verlet Swing Arrives On Switch In A Fortnight With A Bucketful Of Weird
Well this is an odd one. Verlet Swing is coming to Switch in two weeks and appears to be a first-person fusion of Spider-Man and Salvador Dali. Sure, why not?
Coming from Flamebait Games, it’s described as ‘an eccentric world where weird stuff happens’. It appears that you use a grappling hook to swing around surrealist environments filled with statues, marine life and floating foodstuffs. You swing around 100 levels carefully navigating the bizarre gauntlet – colliding with any piece of the dreamscape means instant death.
The game’s been available on PC for a while, but beyond these surreal pics and the trailer above from last year, there’s not a lot to go on. Intriguing!
– 100 levels of fast-paced swinging action – Increasingly surreal levels to swing through – Progressively difficult gameplay. Only the best of swingers will reach the final levels! – Test your swinging skills with leaderboards and Challenges mode
We’re still trying to to work out if this one is trying too hard, or not trying hard enough. That said, the Steam version has got a Very Positive rating at the time of writing, so it might be worth investigating this oddity when it launches in two weeks’ time. It’ll cost you $14.99 to dive into this dream / nightmare of flying fish, pizza and Polybius, and perhaps it’ll satisfy the Spider-Man fantasies we’ve been having since the PS4 game came out.
Does this interest you or does it look like someone went to a Dali exhibition and got a bit carried away with themselves? Share your thoughts below.
Fire Piranha Plant Joins The Mario Tennis Aces Roster In June
You’ve dominated as the Piranha Plant in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, now take to the court as Fire Piranha Plant in Mario Tennis Aces. Yes, that’s right – the pesky Mario enemy that shoots fireballs in multiple directions will join Camelot’s tennis game next month.
As you can see in the video above, Fire Piranha Plant is a complete natural on the court, holding a racquet in its mouth and returning shots with relative ease. Its special shot is also the perfect way to finish an opponent. Interestingly, this is the second playable Piranha Plant to be added to the game, right behind Petey Piranha.
If you want to play as Fire Piranha Plant, all you have to do is participate in next month’s tournament. Otherwise you’ll have to wait until July to unlock the character.
Are you looking forward to trying out Fire Piranha Plant in Mario Tennis Aces? Tell us below.
