Pokémon GO’s ‘Strange Eggs’ Will Have You Walking Further Than Ever Before
For only the second time since the app’s launch back in 2016, Pokémon GO has received a new type of egg that can be used for hatching specific types of Pokémon. Introducing ‘Strange Eggs’.
These new eggs join the already-existing 2km, 5km, 7km, and 10km varieties, topping them all with a walking distance requirement of 12km to hatch. Ironically, these long-distance eggs have been introduced just weeks after developer Niantic decided to strip away features which were in place to help players stuck indoors because of the current pandemic – including the half hatch distance modifier for eggs.
The 12km eggs can be used to hatch Poison-type Pokémon, Dark-type Pokémon, and Pokémon that acquire one of those types via evolution, and currently serve as the only way to obtain some of the app’s newest arrivals such as Pawniard.
A welcome quarter hatch distance modifier is currently in place to celebrate the arrival of the new eggs, although this benefit will disappear starting from 19th October. The modifier is one of several things currently happening inside the game as part of a week-long Strange Eggs event:
– Strange Eggs have appeared in Pokémon GO! According to Spark’s early research, the following Poison-type Pokémon, Dark-type Pokémon, and Pokémon that acquire one of those types via Evolution can hatch from these Eggs: Larvitar, Scraggy, Trubbish, and Vullaby—though there may be even more!
– Defeat a Team GO Rocket Leader to receive a Strange Egg, and walk 12 km to hatch it. You’ll need to have space in your Egg inventory before your battle with Sierra, Cliff, or Arlo in order to receive a Strange Egg. Strange Eggs will continue to be available in Pokémon GO after the event ends.
– Eggs placed in Incubators during the event will require one-quarter the normal walking distance to hatch.
– For the first time since March, new Team GO Rocket Special Research will be available! Join Professor Willow as he and the team leaders investigate Team GO Rocket’s involvement with Strange Eggs, culminating in a battle with Giovanni himself! This is the last Team GO Rocket Special Research in 2020. If you currently have the The Shadowy Threat Grows Special Research from earlier this year, you’ll need to complete it first before you can obtain this new Special Research.
– Poison-type and Dark-type Pokémon will be appearing more often in the wild! Look forward to encountering Spinarak, Houndour, Poochyena, Gulpin, Stunky, Purrloin and more.
– Team GO Rocket will be more active than usual! Keep an eye out for Team GO Rocket taking over more PokéStops and Team GO Rocket balloons appearing more often.
– Take a snapshot for a surprise!
– Team GO Rocket Leader avatar items are now available in the shop. Perhaps you could use these avatar items to infiltrate and investigate Team GO Rocket! GO forth, Trainer!
To find these new eggs, you’ll need to defeat a Team GO Rocket Leader. Have you already managed to get your hands on some? Let us know in the usual place.
Here's Doom Eternal Streaming On A Smart Fridge Through Game Pass
Getting 1993's Doom running on unusual devices has become a fun meme, with the most recent example being a monochrome version of the classic FPS running on a pregnancy test. Now, thanks to Xbox Game Pass and its recent addition of Doom Eternal, it's possible to run the most recent Doom on even more devices--even a fridge.
Now that game streaming has come to Xbox Game Pass via Cloud Gaming, you can run your games through Android devices. It's not just phones and tablets, either--one player has got the service up and running on their fancy smart fridge.
In an Instagram post, Richard Mallard (Twisted420) showed off Doom Eternal running on his Samsung smart fridge. It's running through a Samsung Galaxy Fold 2, which has Smart View, allowing him to project the game through the fridge.
Apple announces iPhone 12, iPhone 12 Mini, and iPhone 12 Pro
The iPhone 12 rumour mill has finally ground to a halt, as Apple has finally announced the hotly-anticipated new model. Unsurprising to no one, 5G is the big ticket feature this time around. Also making a return is the angular, block-y style of the iPhone 5, albeit with the lovely curved edges made popular with the iPhone 6.
The result is arguably the most attractive iPhone yet. It’s also a slightly smaller device than last year’s iPhone 11, thanks to slightly smaller bezels. It’s still not quite as bezel-less as the latest Samsung devices though, and that massive camera and speaker placement at the top is still present. There’s always next year though, right?
Other new features include a stronger screen, which Apple refers to as a “ceramic shield”, that’s more resistant to scratches and breaking, and the Super Retina XDR display first seen in the iPhone 11 Pro back in 2019 makes an appearance in the base models this year. Apple is still banging on about the 5G support as we write this.
Apple also unveiled the new A14 Bionic chip, which, as is no surprise, is the fastest mobile processor yet. Apple riffed off a bunch of tech-speak about why it was so fast, but we didn’t really understand much of it. All you really need to know is that it’s around 50% faster than the nearest competitors, and supports 50% better graphics performance.
Also announced is the iPhone 12 Mini, which, as the name suggests, shrinks the iPhone down into a just over 5″ format, down from the 6″ iPhone 12. Aside from that, it’s an identical phone to the base model.
And, finally, in a move that surprises absolutely no one, Apple has announced the iPhone 12 Pro, and iPhone 12 Pro Max. Much like last year’s models, these focus primarily on providing a powerful series of cameras. The Pro model also includes a new telephoto lens, which is a bit of a beast.
You can watch the livestream below:
If you’re as interested in iOS games as we are, be sure to see our list of all the Apple Arcade games that are currently available. We also reviewed Apple Arcade’s newest addition, The Survivalists.
Though, if you’re a little more service agnostic, we also have a list of the best iOS games for you to peruse. We hope you enjoy the event!
Posted by: xSicKxBot - 10-14-2020, 06:48 AM - Forum: Windows
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New nanodegree program offers chance to develop machine learning skills
Earlier this year, we empowered over 10,000 students from all over the world to learn the basics of machine learning over the course of four months. We are excited to announce the next stage of skilling with the availability of an advanced machine learning nanodegree on Udacity. Starting today, students can enroll for the Machine Learning Engineer for Microsoft Azure Nanodegree Program.
This new nanodegree program offers students the opportunity to develop deeper technical skills in machine learning (ML). Students will strengthen their skills by building and deploying sophisticated ML models using Azure Machine Learning. They will learn how to train ML models, manage ML pipelines, and tune hyperparameters to improve model performance. Once the model is ready, students will learn how to operationalize the model with the right MLOps practices, including automation, CI/CD, and monitoring.
Students will get hands-on exposure with built-in Azure labs that are designed to help students put theory into practice, all within Udacity’s classroom environment. To round it up, students will have the opportunity to show off their talents by completing a capstone project based on a real-life data science scenario. By the end of this program, students will also be well-prepared to earn the Azure Data Scientist Associate certification.
We also want to congratulate the top 300 students of the introductory ML course who are receiving a scholarship for the Nanodegree program. Here are five such scholars sharing their experiences from the introductory course:
“This is an opportunity to master ML in Azure, get coached by industry experts, and build a solid machine learning portfolio for career advancement. I believe that the scholarship opportunity will bring me a step closer to actualizing my dream,” Ijeoma Ndu said.
Like Ijeoma, many of these students are looking to this nanodegree program to either further their careers or make a career switch. Join our scholarship winners in taking the nanodegree program. Sign up today!
Review: UnderHero – A Solid Anti-RPG Platformer With An Eye For Undertale
Five years ago, the indie gaming scene was changed forever with the release of Undertale, a sort of ‘Anti-RPG’ that focused on mocking traditional RPG tropes as much as it did celebrating them. Suffice to say, it resonated with a lot of people and it’s clear that the uniquely unconventional design had no small effect on UnderHero. Still, it wouldn’t be fair to refer to UnderHero, which released on Switch in February 2020, as ‘just’ riding on the coattails of more well-known games. This is very much an experience that demonstrates mastery of the game mechanics it executes, making for an indie game that you shouldn’t dismiss out of hand.
UnderHero picks up right at the end of a standard RPG, in which you control the hero as he makes the march through the main antagonist’s castle for the final battle. Things are quickly cut short, however, when a random minion drops a chandelier on the hero and kills him. From here, you then take on the role of the minion, as he sets off on his own quest to return the three macguffins collected to unlock the castle. Along the way, he’s guided by a magical talking sword hilt that belonged to the late hero, who encourages the minion to break free of his boss’ wishes and be his own hero.
It’s a fascinating premise to begin with, and its execution is greatly bolstered by the wry sort of writing that borrows liberally from Undertale’s playbook. Your quest as the minion is very much a send up of general video game and RPG tropes, frequently poking fun at such conventions while breaking the fourth wall plenty. One early sequence sees your minion needing to access the higher levels of a tree which he can’t reach by jumping. The solution is to take an elevator, but a fuse is missing, which kicks off an increasingly more ridiculous and contrived series of fetch quests to obtain the fuse. All of this is for nothing, however, as he soon just floods the tree with beer and swims up. It’s frequent moments like this which keep the narrative lighthearted and engaging, encouraging you to play further just to see what other off-the-wall scenarios and characters you come across.
Gameplay feels like something of a mixture between a Metroidvania and a Paper Mario game, which makes for a nicely balanced experience. Most of your time is spent navigating 2D worlds and platforming your way through myriad obstacles, all while picking up occasional upgrades and coins along the way. The upgrades boost parameters like your health or attack stats, while the coins can be spent at the “Evil Store” for potions, buffs to your weapons, and more. This makes for a solid feedback loop of continual power growth fostered by exploration, although one annoyance is the lack of an easily accessed map system. The labyrinthine dungeons aren’t too difficult to parse, but you can only look at a map at fixed signposts along the way, which needlessly makes navigation more difficult if you happen to lose your way. There were a couple times where we wasted a few minutes walking in circles before finding the correct path, something which wouldn’t have been an issue if the map was always accessible. Still, the issue never became more than an irritation, and the enemy encounters helped to break up any monotony.
Most of the world has enemies patrolling around, and this is where the Paper Mario bit comes in. Your minion can attack at any time, but his actions are governed by a slowly regenerating stamina bar that decreases a fixed amount with each action. Your ability to dodge is tied to this, too, meaning that you have to constantly be weighing the cost of an attack against the likelihood that your foe will strike before you can regenerate enough stamina. You can use a shield to block or parry damage independent of your stamina, but the shield can only take so many hits before it needs to be repaired, and the timing for a parry is narrower than a standard dodge.
Whether you’re on offense or defense, the battle system is based on deftly timing your button presses, with correct presses rewarding you with better outcomes. Dodge an enemy attack at the right time and your stamina meter will temporarily refill at a faster rate, which allows you to pull off more attacks in a shorter window. Then, for your attacks, the timing is based on the beat of the music, where blows that land on the beat will deal more damage. Each enemy has different strengths and weaknesses, along with a variety of tells that telegraph what attack is coming next, which makes for a combat system that stays enjoyably dynamic no matter where you are in the story.
Your minion has a variety of attacks at his disposal, each of which are meant to be used in different situations. A quick slice with the sword is your standard attack, but he also has a slingshot for reaching those high-flying enemies. And if you think you’ve got a bit of time before the next attack comes from your foe, you can opt to use the slow-charging, but powerful hammer swing to do massive damage. It’s usually pretty clear what tool should be used when, which leaves a feeling that perhaps more depth could’ve been explored with this setup, but it’s perfectly satisfying in practice. Our one complaint, however, is that the controls for the slingshot prove to be needlessly sensitive, making it more of a pain to use that over your other weapons.
As for it presentation, UnderHero employs a rather unique look that doesn’t feel quite like pixel art, even though it clearly borrows heavily from that visual style. At any rate, each environment is intensely detailed and rich with color, with simply animated sprites that convey little personality quirks well. It all seems to perform smoothly, too, though we noticed occasional graphical hiccups every now and then. There was an occasion or two where a jump that barely should’ve landed on a platform resulted in seemingly passing through its edge and falling, or where getting caught in a gap that wasn’t quite wide enough to fall through would result in our minion juddering madly as he hung in the air. Such instances are rare, but they pop up every now and then, indicating that perhaps one more pass for polish may have been in order before UnderHero went gold.
Conclusion
Despite minor flaws with presentation and control, UnderHero proves itself to be a rewarding experience that frequently surprises with its ingenuity and writing. This isn’t exactly a ‘go out and buy it now’ kind of game, but if you like the sound of it, you likely won’t be disappointed by the content on offer here. It’s not perfect, but a well-paced story, engaging combat system, and beautiful world make UnderHero a game that rarely disappoints, and we’d recommend it to anybody looking for a good ‘deep cut’ for their Switch library.
Posted by: xSicKxBot - 10-14-2020, 06:48 AM - Forum: Lounge
- No Replies
Prime Day 2020: Best Webcam Deals On Amazon For Live Streaming And Work
It's been tough tracking down a decent webcam these days. With the increase in remote work and the amount of people relying on video calls to visit with family and friends, the best name-brand webcams remain in high-demand and often out of stock. If a webcam has been on your wishlist for a while and you don't mind-lesser known brands, Amazon Prime Day is as good an opportunity as ever to grab one for a decent price.
Below we've rounded up some of the best webcam deals during Amazon Prime Day this year, whether you need one for live streaming games, chatting with friends, work, and more. Check out our Amazon Prime Day deals hub for more as the sale continues today and tomorrow.
This is one of the cheapest webcams available on Amazon—discounted nearly 50% off for Prime Day—that doesn't sacrifice too many features for the price. You get 1080p, HD video quality, a built-in microphone with noise reduction, and it's compatible with a wide range of operating systems. It's USB-powered and doesn't require any drivers or software to install, making it easy for even the least tech-savvy person to set up. This is great to get for a family member who wants to video call with you, but probably won't be using a webcam for anything fancier than that. You also get what you pay for though. As one of the cheaper webcam options on Amazon, it may not be the highest quality or longest-lasting option.
If you're a professional looking for a higher-quality webcam option with more features than the average conference cam, the Vitade 960A is a good option. Its touch-activated ring light offers three adjustable brightness settings (plus an off mode) so you can look your best no matter where you're broadcasting from. Other features include autofocus and light correction. A long cable makes it easy to set up wherever you need to, but unfortunately, it doesn't have a built-in privacy shutter like some of the higher-end webcams, and its rounded design may make it difficult to install a custom one. If that's not a concern, this is still a solid option for the price range. You can also grab an extra 5% off by selecting the coupon on its store page.
This is an excellent price for a professional-grade HD webcam, especially when paired with some of its features: a built-in noise canceling microphone, a 360-degree swivel which allows for easy positioning, and a privacy shutter, which should give you peace of mind while you're working.
This 1080p HD webcam from Gesma might not be marked down the most compared to some of the other cams on this list, but with over 5,300 reviews (over 80% positive), it is undoubtedly one of the most popular options for its price range. If all you need is solid HD video quality and good sound quality for online classes, meetings, or personal calls, it offers all of that, with no frills. Plus it's small and has a long cable, making it easy and flexible to set up.
While the Angetube 967 doesn't come with a tripod, its thread mount makes installing one super easy. Pair that with its adjustable ring light and autofocus options, and the Angetube is a solid option if you're looking for something with extra features that's still more affordable than high-end models from Logitech and Razer.
The Spedal MF920 Pro is a pretty reliable webcam all around: full HD 1080p picture, noise-canceling microphone, autofocus and low light correction, and easy setup meet the standards of its price point. What sets it apart from the other options on this list is its wide-angle lens. Offering a full 120-degree field of view, the Spedal MF920 Pro is an excellent option for capturing larger groups like a conference room or a family gathering. It can also swivel a full 360 degrees, making it even more versatile. Its white and grey color scheme (most webcams come in plain black) is a rare plus too.
Surviving Mars: Deluxe Deal, Ghost Recon Sale, GalaQuiz
Surviving Mars: Digital Deluxe Edition at 78% OFF
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The 215th GalaQuiz will be LIVE soon, win up to $50 in GalaCredit!
[www.indiegala.com] The GalaQuiz will take place in less than 10 minutes from this announcement Today's GalaQuiz[www.indiegala.com] hints are up. The theme will be Odd One Out #4 Redux.
Yes, yes. It’s happening. All of you proved once and for all that enough commenting, pleading, and campaigning will get you anything. As long as that thing is an update specifically to the cave and mountain systems in a game made of blocks. The Caves & Cliffs Update as it is now officially named comes with improved cave generation and features things like lush caves and dripstone caves. There will also be a brand new archeology system, which adds a very cool sense of history and storytelling element to the game. You’re digging now, but soon you’re going to be excavating.
Something has to populate these caverns, so we also threw in crystals, telescopes, bundles, the sculk sensor block and a new hostile mob – the warden! Does Minecraft really need more hostile mobs? Isn’t it enough that the llamas spit at you?
The cliff in Caves & Cliffs means that the Mountain Update that you voted for last year will be included in this one. We got a first look at the mountain goat that will populate these peaks, and I like it even though I think it resembles me a little too much. I’m not saying a certain Dutch pixel artist did this on purpose, but if he did then he got his revenge. You win this round, Boerstra.
Video: Game art remastered – From Crash, to Kerrigan, to Corley Motors
In this 2018 GDC panel, Yujin Kiem, Cory Turner & Brian Sousa share their insights, experiences, and eventual success of remastering Crash Bandicoot, StarCraft, and Full Throttle.
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.
The development team behind Crucible, Amazon Game Studios’ effort to break into the free-to-play multiplayer shooter genre, announced Friday evening it would halt development of the game after years of work.
Amazon has been attempting a push into video game development with limited success thus far and Crucible’s cancellation is another setback for the company.
“We’ll be discontinuing development on Crucible,” the dev team said in a blog post. “…Ultimately we didn’t see a healthy, sustainable future ahead of Crucible. We’ll be transitioning our team to focus on [the MMO] New World and other upcoming projects from Amazon Games.”
The last known Amazon Game Studios cancellation was the brawler Breakaway in 2018. The company dropped major news at the end of September this year announcing Luna, Amazon’s cloud gaming platform that will compete with Microsoft’s xCloud and Google Stadia.
Crucible launched in May this year and the following month, Amazon moved the game back into closed beta, essentially undoing the launch.
The company said it would be refunding all purchases made. Servers for custom games will close down noon PST on November 9 following a final playtest and community celebration.
