Crash Bandicoot™ N. Sane Trilogy – Valve

Crash Bandicoot™ N. Sane Trilogy – Valve

Darwin Project is Now Available on Steam Early Access!

Darwin Project takes the battle royale genre up north, where an impending ice age has given rise to a twisted new reality show in which ten participants must fight to the death under the Show Director’s gaze.

Starting at 6 p.m. PST today, members of the Xbox One Preview Update Alpha ring will begin receiving the latest Xbox One system update (1804.180227-1801). This update includes brand new features as detailed in our earlier post.  Read on to learn more about fixes and known issues in the latest system update.

Fixes:

Installation

• Fixed several issues to improve the reliability and usability of game installations, updates, and content management.
  
  • Fixed an issue which impacted transferring content between drives.
  • Enabling the download 4K updates checkbox will now cause 4K updates to show up in the Updates tab of My games & apps.
  • Fixed an issue where installations interrupted due to slow network conditions could fail to automatically resume.
  • Fixed an issue where a “You need to free up space” dialog was displaying too often.
  • Fixed a bug where all items in the install Queue could show as “Queued” without making progress.

Profile Color

• Fixed an issue which sometimes caused an incorrect Profile color to be used when powering on the console.

Known Issues:

Black Screen

• When resuming from connected standby (with the console in Instant-On mode), you may encounter a black screen on the TV or monitor. You can avoid this issue by powering on the console prior to powering on the TV or monitor.
• Workaround 1: If stuck in this state, unplug and reinsert the HDMI cord into the back of the console, then power the TV off/on.
• Workaround 2: Disable IR blasting in Settings to prevent this issue from reoccurring.

System Update

• When installing a system update, you may encounter an E200 error at the last stage of the installation.
• Workaround: Unplug and re-plug the power cord, then power on the console normally—the console should go through the standard start up sequence and land on the dashboard.

Pins

• If Microsoft Edge was pinned prior to downloading the 1804 update, attempting to launch Microsoft Edge from the existing pin will fail.
• Workaround: Delete the old Microsoft Edge pin and re-pin Microsoft Edge.

Dolby Atmos

• You may notice audio drops in receivers using Dolby Atmos for Home Theater.

Netflix

• If Netflix crashes when first launched, check for an app update on the Store or from My games & apps.

HBO Go

• If HBO GO crashes when first launched, check for an app update on the Store or from My games & apps.

Settings

• When accessing the Language & location page in Settings, it may take a long time for the page to load.

Store

• When browsing Add-Ons in the Store, the Show All page may appear blank

Pi-Hole

• Pi-hole users may encounter issues signing in, creating, or recovering accounts upon downloading the 1804 update. This is due to a new configuration file which is downloaded from a URL Pi-hole blocks by default.
• Workaround: Add clientconfig.passport.net to the Pi-hole allowed IP address list.

The dust has barely settled on that Nintendo Direct and the announcement for Mario Tennis Aces‘ release date – 22nd June, don’t you know – and now we’ve got another tennis star strolling out onto the centre court of Nintendo Switch. So polish up your racket because Tennis World Tour is swinging for aces on 22nd May.

So yes, it’s dropping exactly a month before Mario’s new sports romp, and the developer (Breakpoint) includes veterans from the long-dead Top Spin series, so you know you’re getting a proper tennis simulation with pedigree in its blood. Check out the developer diary below to hear how it’s bringing current-gen simulation to Switch and other consoles.

Let us know your thoughts on Tennis World Tour below. Is this town big enough for two big tennis games on Switch?

Yesterday, U.S. president Donald Trump held a meeting with video game executives regarding the issue of violence in video games, an event which was triggered by a recent series of high school shootings in the country. Trump himself has stated the opinion that the shooting in Parkland, Florida could have potentially been motivated by video games – despite numerous historical studies which have found such games do not result in violence.

During the meeting – which included Robert Altman, CEO of Bethesda’s parent company ZeniMax, Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick, and Michael Gallagher, chief of the ESA – the White House showed a compilation of footage taken from popular franchises such as Call of Duty, Sniper Elite and Fallout. The footage was taken directly from YouTube, with many of the clips still bearing the watermarks of the channels that originally hosted them.

You can watch the video below. Be warned that it does contain some scenes of violence, and paradoxically, the White House has chosen not to restrict access with an age gate, or make any attempt to warn viewers of the content contained within (something the video game industry does do). Taken entirely out of the context, the footage is shocking – but it should be noted that all of the games shown in it are subject to self-imposed age ratings already.

“This is violent, isn’t it?” president Trump is reported to have said to the video game execs present. 

Media Research Center President Brent Bozell said:

The president encouraged [game developers] to explore things they can do on their own to make things healthier in society, and that’s where it was left.

According to The Verge: 

Attendees said there was little serious talk of government restrictions on content (which would present significant legal challenges), and the conversation focused on more robust age restrictions or voluntary measures that could be undertaken by the industry itself.

The ESA has issued a statement which says:

We discussed the numerous scientific studies establishing that there is no connection between video games and violence, First Amendment protection of video games, and how our industry’s rating system effectively helps parents make informed entertainment choices.

Not to be outdone, the White House released its own statement shortly afterwards:

The President acknowledged some studies have indicated there is a correlation between video game violence and real violence. The conversation centered on whether violent video games, including games that graphically simulate killing, desensitize our community to violence.

Bozell was interviewed by The Verge afterwards, and said:

I don’t think there should be any government control over it. But there is some programming that contains just absolute mind-boggling violence. We’ve all seen it. Is it appropriate in a civilized world to have that? Or could the industry listen to the better angels of their nature and say, we just don’t want to do it, on a voluntary basis?

This isn’t a debate directly linked to Nintendo, and the vast majority of violent games appear on PS4, Xbox One and PC. However, Call of Duty titles have been available on past Nintendo consoles, and the Switch has its own selection of violent games – such as L.A. Noire, DOOM and Bayonetta 2. Therefore, these discussions could potentially have an impact on Nintendo as well as Sony, Microsoft and the many other publishers and developers operating within the games industry.