PlayStation Classic Mini Pre-Order Guide And Release Date
Good news, retro gaming fans: Sony has announced it will release a miniature original PlayStation console that comes pre-loaded with 20 PS1 titles. Similar to Nintendo's throwback NES and SNES consoles, it's significantly smaller than the original (about 45% smaller), but the included replica controllers will be full size. The PlayStation Classic, as it's called, is set to release on December 3, exactly 24 years after the original system launched in Japan. It will cost $100 / $130 CAN.
The unit will ship with an HDMI cable, USB cable, and two wired controllers. Notably, it does not come with an AC adapter. Also, it ships with replicas of the original PS1 controller, which doesn't have analog sticks. In 1997, Sony released the DualShock controller for PS1, which many people regard as a significant improvement, thanks to its two analog sticks and vibration function. There's no word yet on whether Sony will release DualShock controllers for the PlayStation Classic.
Pre-Order PlayStation Classic
It's unclear how many PlayStation Classic units Sony will make available at launch. But since the NES and SNES Classic consoles were notoriously difficulty to find early on, it's probably wise to pre-order the PS Classic if you're interested in picking one up at launch. Here's where you can place a pre-order.
Posted by: xSicKxBot - 09-22-2018, 09:08 AM - Forum: Lounge
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Captain Marvel: What Are Her Powers? New Trailer Gives Some Insight
The first trailer for Captain Marvel has finally arrived after what seems like forever. At long last, Marvel Cinematic Universe fans have gotten a look at Carol Danvers (Brie Larson) in action as the superhero--along with a peek at the aliens she'll be fighting.
For who that don't follow the comics closely, though, you might be wondering what kind of powers Captain Marvel has. As can be seen in the opening seconds of the trailer, she is clearly impervious to most damage. Falling from space through a Blockbuster Video would kill any normal human.
In the comics, Carol has not only superhuman durability, but the strength and stamina to match--think Captain America, but even more powerful. As for weaponry, she has the ability to fire photon blasts from her hands, which can be seen in the trailer. She's also capable of absorbing massive amounts of energy.
One power from the comics not seen in the trailer is flight. Given that Carol Danvers was a highly-regarded pilot before becoming Captain Marvel, there's something wonderful about flight being one of her powers. Since the movie has given her a similar backstory, chances are that particular power will be on display in the film.
Whatever the case, it's clear that Captain Marvel is one of the most exciting additions to the MCU yet. It's no wonder she's who Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) paged at the end of Avengers: Infinity War.
Welcome to the Weekender, your weekly look at the best new games, sales, and updates. We’ve got three new releases of note and a bunch of sales to point out. Take a look and happy gaming!
Tabletop stock market and auction-themed game Stockpile has made its way from the physical realm to digital. Digidiced—makers of Terra Mystica, Cottage Garden, Agricola, Isle of Skye, and more—developed the digital version and it’s a solid edition. Gameplay centers on the auctioning of various stocks where you must outbid your opponents to win. Surrounding this, and simulating true markets, information is imperfect, and players have different levels of it. The goal, naturally, is to end the game with the most money. Stockpile features both a solo mode where you can play against three different levels of AI and online multiplayer where you can play other humans. Online play is asynchronous and is the selling point of the game. Solo mode is fine, the AI isn’t exceptional but it’s no pushover either, but other gamers certainly put up more of a challenge. My biggest complaints about the game are a cluttered UI where it is often hard to tell exactly what is going on. The game isn’t that complicated and it’s hard to imagine there wasn’t a better way to organize things. Also, the tutorial gets a bit long in the tooth, though this ultimately is a short-lived issue. Nevertheless, Stockpile is a fun game, especially multiplayer, and already includes the Continuing Corruption expansion.
The world has been plunged into darkness, but an old man’s discovery of a special lantern could change all of that. You guide the man, Obe, on a quest through an interesting and often terrifying world in Where Shadows Slumber, an adventure game. Where Shadows Slumber is full of puzzles and the lantern, and the interplay between light and dark, is central to those puzzles. It takes some experimentation but once you get the hang of it Where Shadows Slumber is a compelling adventure game and worth a look for fans of the genre.
Gamers have a fascination with farming. This is beyond dispute. Stardew Valley is a hugely popular PC game and several free-to-play farm-simulation games do quite well on mobile. Pocket Farm aims to bring a similar experience, but to the premium audience. The game looks good, and there’s quite a bit to plant and build, but it’s missing some basic capabilities like an undo button or obvious way to remove existing structures. Navigation around the farm is also managed via a floating joystick rather than normal touch controls.
Entertaining roguelike Quest of Dungeons boils down the hack-and-slash genre to its core essence. A big bad needs beating. You have some skills in beating down big bads. Get to it.
Super old-school RPG Baldur’s Gate II Enhanced Edition is on sale, down from $9.99 to just two bucks. It’s not on sale on Android, but the original Baldur’s Gate Enhanced Edition is just $3.
If you’re ready to make some tough choices in a grim, dystopian future now’s your chance. Beholder, a game where you run an apartment building and must spy on and rat out your unpatriotic neighbors, is on sale for $2.99 (normally $5).
Card-drafting game Among the Stars made the jump to mobile back in May and includes asynchronous online play. This is only its second sale, normally $4.99, though the first sale only lasted a couple days.
Take to the seas as captain of your own ship, hire a crew of misfits and ne’er-do-wells, board and rob merchant vessels, battle and destroy rival captains, and raid shore-based settlements in Tempest. That’s the plan in Tempest where you go a questing as a pirate captain. It’s not the best pirate game that’s ever been on mobile, but Sid Meier’s Pirates has walked the plank of iOS 11 so if you need something to fill the void, this might be it.
Posted by: xSicKxBot - 09-22-2018, 02:51 AM - Forum: Windows
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Unlock limitless learning with Microsoft Education at Microsoft Ignite
Microsoft Ignite is just around the corner, and we are so excited to have thousands of education tech professionals from around the globe join us to learn about the latest tools, technology and ideas from Microsoft.
At Ignite, we’ll share how Microsoft Education can help your institution achieve better learning outcomes for all your students, transform classroom time, and get all of this accomplished on affordable, easy to manage technology.
Microsoft Education will have an interactive booth and 5 sessions where you can learn about the latest updates, connect with experts, and get your questions answered. Check out our curated guide below for education customers.
Not going to be at Ignite? No problem! All breakout sessions will be available to view via live stream and available 24-hours afterwards to viewon-demand. Simply click on the breakout session link below to get viewing. If you want to explore more sessions at Ignite, log into https://myignite.techcommunity.microsoft.com/ and find your sessions to add to your schedule to tune in live or on-demand.
Microsoft 365 Education is designed to simplify IT with a single, secure solution that unlocks creativity and promotes teamwork in your school. Come learn how Microsoft 365 Education creates a path to transforming classroom time and modern IT management, and how the student use benefit can help you provide all your students with the very best in collaboration and productivity tools while keeping your entire organization protected and safe with intelligent security.
In order to meet the needs of teachers and students in the classroom, enable better teamwork with staff, and meet rigorous privacy and security standards, schools require solutions to be simple and impactful without overburdening IT or over extending on budget. In this session, learn how Microsoft cloud services makes it easy for a school to implement a full cloud solution. From managing user identity, automatically synced to the school’s Student Information System, to zero-touch device management that’s 84% faster to deploy than traditional methods and can provide a personalized experience to every student, even on shared devices.
In this session, we share stories about schools and universities that are increasing student achievement by making learning more engaging, accessible, and fun. Join us as we demo a set of new and not-yet-released capabilities in Microsoft Teams, OneNote, Forms, and Flipgrid. We also show you other products that are designed to save educators time and to provide all students with opportunities to learn, collaborate, and develop their authentic voices.
In the past year, teachers and students from around the world have used Microsoft Teams to engage student voice, streamline staff collaboration, and connect in new, fun, and meaningful ways. Learn about new experiences in Microsoft Teams for education, from teacher controls to updates to assignments. Also hear how education customers from throughout the world have leveraged Teams for collaborative learning and for streamlining staff communication.
Every moment a teacher spends away from connecting with and teaching their students is a moment lost. Learn how Microsoft Education helps unlock teachers from the busywork of managing day-to-day tasks and gives them more time and tools to teach, because when teachers have more time to teach and more tools to help engage with students, they don’t just do more things, they do amazing things.
Microsoft Education Booth
Catch us at the Microsoft Education booth (MW 313), where we’ll be showing a variety of education specific technology and devices. We encourage you to stop by and share your questions and your feedback, which we count on in helping to make the best tools for education customers.
Posted by: xSicKxBot - 09-22-2018, 01:44 AM - Forum: Lounge
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Video: Lessons learned from trying to gamify death
The Game Developers Conference is traditionally a place where devs gather to get excited about the potential of games. But what are the hard limits to how far games can go?
At GDC 2012, game dev Margaret Robertson explained how, in what might be the hardest game design challenge ever, UK studio Hide&Seek was asked to make a documentary game about the discovery of a corpse in a busy London block of flats: a woman had lain dead for three years without being found, without ever having been reported missing. She was 37 years old.
How does someone fall through the cracks, despite having family, friends and neighbors? And how do you make a game about a real woman’s death without producing something crass, simplistic or libelous? Robertson told the story of how she and her colleagues tried and failed, and of the fundamental contradiction that they discovered at the heart of gamification.
It wasn’t as bleak as it sounds, and it offered a lot of interesting one-of-a-kind insights into the nature of games and why people play them.
In addition to this presentation, the GDC Vault and its accompanying YouTube channel offers numerous other free videos, audio recordings, and slides from many of the recent Game Developers Conference events, and the service offers even more members-only content for GDC Vault subscribers.
Those who purchased All Access passes to recent events like GDC or VRDC already have full access to GDC Vault, and interested parties can apply for the individual subscription via a GDC Vault subscription page. Group subscriptions are also available: game-related schools and development studios who sign up for GDC Vault Studio Subscriptions can receive access for their entire office or company by contacting staff via the GDC Vault group subscription page. Finally, current subscribers with access issues can contact GDC Vault technical support.
Gamasutra and GDC are sibling organizations under parent company Informa
Posted by: xSicKxBot - 09-22-2018, 01:44 AM - Forum: Lounge
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Mobile game dev Outfit7 opens new Barcelona studio
Head’s up, game devs: The mobile game makers at Talking Tom developer Outfit7 announced this week that they’re opening a new studio in Barcelona, Spain.
If you’re a dev looking for work in Barcelona this seems like a notable event, but even if you aren’t it’s nice to see a new studio opening up in Barcelona as the Spanish game industry (which currently seems dominated by mobile and work-for-hire studios) continues to grow.
Outfit7’s new Barcelona location will be led by longtime staffer Dani Bajc, and it’s reportedly meant to work on “innovative new Talking Tom and Friends projects, as well as our several yet-to-be-revealed mobile games.”
The company, founded in 2009, found success early on with its Talking Tom mobile app, in which a shrill animated cat repeats whatever is said into the phone’s microphone. It’s since gone on to build Talking Tom out into a family-oriented transmedia franchise (including a smattering of F2P mobile games), and last year it was acquired by a Chinese firm for ~$1 billion.
Shortly thereafter, it was sold to another Chinese company (Jinke Entertainment Culture) for roughly the same price.
Portal Knights has been on quite the journey since we first launched on Xbox One and now we’re launching our biggest update yet! Oh… And what’s more, Portal Knights is also available as part of Xbox Game Pass.
For those who know nothing about PK, let me give you a real quick rundown on what to expect…
Portal Knights is our 3D sandbox action RPG game. Players can create, customize, and level up their characters, craft epic weapons, conquer enemies in real-time and build almost anything in-game! Portal Knights can be played alone, locally with another player in two-player split-screen mode or with up to three other friends online. Adventure alone or with friends; it’s up to you!
If you’ve played Portal Knights in the past, then you’ll know all this and what to expect. However, today we’re launching three new updates at once: The Adventurer’s Update, the Creator’s Update, and the Villainous Update. We’ve added a ton of cool stuff, too many things to list here, so we want to use this blog to highlight top 10 new features that you need to check out!
Let’s get started…
1 – Creative Mode
One of our biggest community requests is now in Portal Knights! Players can create their own islands from scratch and build with unlimited resources in our Creative Mode! What’s more, islands can be named, everything can be mined with a single strike, characters can fly, fall without consequences and much more! We honestly cannot wait to see what our Xbox One community builds in game.
2 – Mini Bosses
We’ve introduced three new mini-bosses to Portal Knights! Get ready to take on the Slime Queen, the Knight Hunter and the All-Watcher on your quest to take on the main bosses. They’re quite challenging, so if you find yourself struggling, invite a friend along to help out.
3 – Interactive Furniture and Mannequins
Up until now, our hard-working Portal Knights haven’t been able to sit down or rest up while adventuring. Now, players will be able to sit on chairs, thrones, beds, etc. What’s more, when lying down, time will now speed up, allowing you to get through the night much quicker than before. Not only that, but our Knights can now display their armor and weapon collections on mannequins!
4 – Pet Stations
Pets can now be placed around pet homes! The ability to let pets roam has been a highly-requested feature for some time now, so we’re excited to bring it to Xbox One. Head over to Funny Jongo (found on Garnet Peaks) and speak to him! He’ll be able to offer you a wide range of stations, perfect for your sidekick!
5 – Epic Chests
We’ve introduced some pretty awesome Epic Chests as part of our latest update. These chests will spawn at the very end of dungeons and contain valuable resources to help you on your journey. Not only that, but there’s a chance you’ll come across weapons that are unobtainable in any other way! What will you come across? Be sure to let us know!
6 – Giant Cities
Get ready to explore new, giant cities! The Warrior’s Guild – Fort Finch, Pirate City – Landlubber’s Leap and The Ranger’s Guild – Bodkin’s Point all introduce new NPC’s offering quests, rewards for the player, pets, character customization styles and much more!
7 – Spectral Knights
As you head off on your adventure, you’ll encounter mysterious Spectral Knights. Unique in appearance, these mysterious spirits will help Portal Knights, offering tips, guidance and advice. Be sure to interact with them, they can and will assist you on your journey.
8 – Over 40 new weapons and armor
Get kitted out for battle and choose from over 40 new armors and weapons which have been integrated into an improved crafting progression tree. Keen explorers may also find armor items hidden away in dungeon chests so make sure no stone is left unturned! Once players reach the Portal Knights Sanctuary then exotic armor can be crafted – a must have for taking on our hard mode bosses!
9 – Inventory Management Improvements
The team has made some significant changes to the Portal Knights inventory system, in response to community feedback. Enjoy side by side chest management, use consumables directly from your backpack and get to grips with some quick move options. Overall, these changes should make managing your inventory much easier!
10 – Home Décor Items
We’ve included a load more décor items as part of our latest update! Items include mine carts, tracks, shop signs, a drawbridge, water pump, water drain, awnings, and potted plants, to name a few! Be sure to check them out.
So there you go, these are our top 10 new features in Portal Knights! Do make sure you head over to our website for more info on our latest update. (We simply couldn’t list them all here.)
Oh and before we forget… Players will need to regenerate their universes before checking out this new content! But, do not fear! Your home island is completely safe.
Finally, we’d like to take this opportunity to thank our existing community for waiting so patiently for this update and for their continued show of support. It means the world to us! And to our new players, we are super excited to have you on board. As always, we are open to community feedback so please, head on over to our social channels and let us know your thoughts. We can’t wait to speak with you all and to hear your thoughts.
To those interested in checking out Portal Knights for the first time, now is the ideal time to do so!
60 Parsecs! is Now Available on Steam and is 10% off!*
60 Parsecs! is an Atomic Space Age adventure of scavenge and survival. Keep your crew alive and ready for action. Make difficult choices, face soup shortages and other horrors of outer space. And maybe reach your destination. Or not.
Fixed an issue where Barons were providing Legendary rewards outside of Heroic adventures
Barons in Heroic adventures now reward one guaranteed Legendary per day
Subsequent kills grant Legendary rewards at a reduced rate
Weapons/Items
Fixed an issue where players can get stuck with the Origin Story or the Last Dance weapons if they use the character level boost after obtaining them in Homecoming
Fixed an issue where BrayTech Legendary Scout Rifle dismantled into Mod Components
Dreaming City
The Offering to the Oracle now sorts to the Pursuits bucket, rather than Consumables
Removed the weekly bounty that required players to redeem an Offering for the Oracle
The Dreaming City weekly challenge now requires only two weekly bounty completions
Fixed an issue where some enemies would improperly spawn chests after being killed
Players can no longer obtain Dreaming City rewards when repeating the mission “Awakening”
Fixed an issue where Telesto could be used to accelerate progression of objectives in the Blind Well
Gambit
Players may now progress the “Cayde’s Will” quest step by defeating either invaders or general enemies with Hand Cannons
