Asus has released its latest Ryzen-powered Chromebook, the Chromebook Flip CM5. The CM5 has a 15.6-inch screen, and Asus is pushing it as a device for cloud-based gaming. It’s available now at Abt and Newegg starting at $499.99.
The most exciting thing is that the CM5 supports both Google Stadia and Nvidia GeForce Now. Of course, it only has a 60Hz screen and Radeon integrated graphics, so it’s far from a “gaming laptop” of any sort. Still, Asus has made a few design tweaks to better evoke the aesthetic. Namely, the WASD keys are outlined in orange, which Asus says “lets users stand out while enjoying quick, intuitive gameplay in cloud-based games.” Some Windows laptops have done bold things with their WASD keys, but this is the first Chromebook we’ve seen with that feature.
Asus also emphasized the Harmon Kardon-certified audio system and Wi-Fi stabilizer technology, which should likely help create a more immersive gaming experience.
Image: Newegg
The CM5 has a 57Wh battery, which Asus claims offers up to 10 hours of battery life. You can configure the device with up to 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage as well. You can choose a Ryzen 5 3500C or a Ryzen 3 3250C, both of which come with AMD Radeon integrated graphics. The chassis itself is made of an aluminum alloy, which Asus describes as “mineral gray” with an “obsidian velvet” texture.
I’ll keep you posted on how this device performs once I’ve gotten my hands on a unit. In the meantime, I recently reviewed its sibling, the Chromebook Detachable CM3, which you can read about here.
(Pocket-lint) – OnePlus has be on something of an exploratory journey over the past 12 months or so. Rather than delivering one or two phones at a time and launching them both globally, it took a more regional approach.
That meant while some markets got the original Nord, others – like the US – didn’t, then OnePlus followed up with various models to suit different territories. It even continued this approach with the OnePlus 9 series, offering a 9R in India, but nowhere else.
This is pretty standard practice for most manufacturers, but wasn’t for OnePlus. At least, not until now. But obviously this transition to being a ‘proper’ smartphone manufacturer is working, because it’s back again with another Nord: the Nord CE 5G.
Plastic fantastic
Dimensions: 159.2 x 73.5 x 7.9mm / Weight: 170g
No official waterproofing
3.5mm headphone port
Blue Void, Charcoal Ink and Silver Ray colours
For a while there’s been this sense that when building a good smartphone, you have to start with the right materials. It had to be aluminium or steel and glass. Using plastic was as good as writing ‘cheap trash’ over the back of the phone in capital letters. But things have changed, thanks in part to the efforts of Samsung.
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With its Galaxy Note 20, S20 FE and this years S21, it showed you can use plastic materials in a way that doesn’t detract from the look and feel of the phone. OnePlus has taken the same approach with the Nord CE. Our unit in Blue Void has a lovely frosted/matte finish to it that’s very reminiscent of the Samsung approach, and we like it a lot.
It has an eye-catching blue finish with just the slightest splash of purple up the edges. There are two other safer colours in Charcoal Ink (Black-ish grey) and Silver Ray.
Being a frosted/matte finished plastic does have its advantages too. Firstly, it’s not at all slippery. So it’s not hard to keep a hold of one-handed, and it’s not likely to just randomly slide off the arm of your sofa. Secondly, it not as likely to crack or turn into tiny shards when it’s dropped or banged against something. It’s a very practical choice.
Also, it just feels, well, nice.
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That’s not the only practical choice made by OnePlus with the Nord CE. It’s both slimmer and lighter than the first Nord, so it doesn’t feel like a huge phone in your hand. It’s not exactly compact, but it’s easy to hold and comfortable enough to use. And it has a 3.5mm socket for wired headphones and headsets.
One choice that might not go down so well with long-time OnePlus fans is the removal of the alert switch. For years this simple slider button on the side has set the company’s phones apart from rivals, offering an easy tactile way to switch your phone to silent or vibrate. Apparently, that’s not considered ‘Core’ enough to make it on to a ‘Core Edition’ OnePlus phone.
In case you were wondering: yes, that’s what CE stands for.
Other core design choices include: not having a physical fingerprint sensor. Instead, there’s an in-display one so there’s nothing on the back, breaking up that glorious matte blue surface. The camera housing is a pretty basic pull-shaped protrusion and the display has just the one hole punched through it for a single camera.
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Sadly, one last feature not deemed essential to a Core Edition phone is a subtle haptic motor for feedback. That means, with it enabled, keyboard taps are accompanied by a nasty feeling buzz, rather than a subtle tap. We quickly switched it off.
Display and software
6.43-inch AMOLED 90Hz display
1080 x 2400 resolution
OxygenOS 11
Screen resolutions haven’t changed much in recent years with most smartphones opting for some version of full HD. This particular flavour is 1080 x 2400, which is the same as on most other OnePlus phones. That means it’s plenty sharp enough for day-to-day tasks with individual pixels imperceptible.
It’s AMOLED too, which means it’s a pretty punchy panel with vibrant colours and deep blacks. In its default ‘vivid’ mode the screen often over eggs the colours a bit, but with this being a OnePlus phone running OxygenOS, you get to customise its balance quite lot. Switching to ‘sRGB’ mode balances things out a lot more, but does make it a bit less exciting.
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The 90Hz refresh rate ensure that when you touch the screen, or swipe at something in the interface, the response is immediate and smooth. It doesn’t reach the heights of the OnePlus 9 Pro’s 120Hz, and doesn’t feature the advanced adaptive refresh rate tech that adapts it to the content, but it’s impressively fluid and smooth for a mid-ranger.
That’s not the only element where you just about get the hint this isn’t a top tier panel.
For instance, despite being AMOLED, when the screen’s off (or black) it’s not quite as dark as the black frame around the panel, so you don’t get that blending effect, you can see where the bezel stops and the screen starts. There’s also a slight colour shift when you look at a white screen from different angles.
Just for a little perspective though, the fact we’re picking up on such non-issues as a slight negative shows two things: how competitive the mid-range market has become recently and how good this phone is for the money OnePlus is asking for it.
Part of the joy of OnePlus phones over the years is the customisation on offer from the OxygenOS software. We’ve already mentioned the ability to calibrate the screen to your exact liking, but there are also modes like Reading Mode which turns the screen monochrome for when you load up your favourite e-book app.
There’s not much new to report from a software side with the Nord CE. It’s the same as the software found in the OnePlus 9 series and OnePlus 8T that came before it. It’s OxygenOS 11 based on Android 11, which represented a major redesign when it first launched.
While OnePlus was often seen as a manufacturer offering a stock-like Android experience with lots of customisation choices, it no longer feels that way. Oppo’s ColourOS offers far more customisation of elements like the fingerprint scanner animation, always-on display, icon styles and shapes. OxygenOS by comparison feels quite stripped back and bare.
This does help it retain that feeling of ‘essentialism’ though. It has everything you need, presented in a clean and clutter free way. There aren’t any unecessary apps pre-loaded, and even core parts of the experience like phone, messages and software updates are now powered by Google’s own apps, rather than OnePlus’ own design.
Power and performance
Qualcomm Snapdragon 750G processor (8nm)
6GB, 8GB or 12GB RAM – 128GB or 256GB storage
4500mAh battery
30W fast charging
Where the Core Edition OnePlus Nord gets it right is the feeling of speed and fluidity under your fingertips. A big part of that, as mentioned, is down to the high refresh rate of the screen and the software. OnePlus has always done a great job of optimising its software animations to feel speedy.
That performance transitions well into games and apps too. Using it daily as a main phone, it never left us in any real need of more, despite ‘only’ having Snapdragon 750G. It’s not a top-tier platform, but just like the Snapdragon 765G that appeared in the first Nord, this one gets the job done without any trouble.
Playing Mario Kart Tour was a hassle-free and smooth experience, as was browsing the web, scrolling through Twitter and any other app we came across in our day-to-day phone usage.
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Similarly, the 4500mAh battery inside is more than strong enough to cope with the most demanding of days. For the most part, with light usage, we’d finish the day with something like 40 per cent of the battery left over. That’s with the usual hour or so of web browsing and social media, plus a chunk of gaming.
Once empty it fills up quickly, as is typical OnePlus style. It uses a 30W wired charger, which OnePlus has clunkily named ‘Warp Charge 30T Plus’. In actual fact, it’s almost the same as Warp Charge 30T, in that it can fill 70 per cent of the battery in abut half an hour. It’s been a mainstay feature for OnePlus phones for many years and something of a lifesaver when you’ve forgotten to charge your phone or when it drains unexpectedly.
Cameras
Triple rear camera system:
64MP primary camera
8MP ultra-wide (119-degree)
2MP monochrome sensor
4K recording at 30fps
16MP selfie
Ah, OnePlus and cameras. It seems to be an age-old complaint of OnePlus phones having a not-quite-good-enough camera system. They’ve definitely improved the quality over the past couple of years, there’s no denying that, and for the most part the primary snapper on the Nord CE is decent.
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You’ll get sharp photos with good colours and depth of field from the 64-megapixel sensor. It pixel bins down to 16-megapixel images automatically, so isn’t using all 64 million of those pixels individually. Not unless you enable it.
It has all the camera features you’d expect too. It’ll take portrait shots with excessive background blur, night mode shots, panoramas, timelapses, slow motion video and even has a ‘pro’ mode for adjusting ISO, white balance and shutter speed manually yourself.
There is one major weakness we’ve encoutered on the Nord CE’s primary lens however, and that’s focus distance. It really, really doesn’t like focusing on anything closer than about 13 or 14cm, which means close up shots of flowers, bugs, berries and the like are near-on impossible. You can see examples that would normally be simple shots, impossible because it refused to focus.
The only solution is either taking the photo from further away and cropping the photo in edit, or using the 2x zoom function to zoom in digitally when taking the photo.
We don’t expect super macro skills from an affordable mid-range necessarily, but we do expect it to at least handle close up focusing a bit better than this.
Without being too cricital though, having the 2x zoom and the seperate ultra-wide lens means you get enough versatility in shooting to make it useful in most situations. There’s a variety in focal lengths, but we do question the decision to put such a visually distinct different between them.
What we mean by that is there’s a noticeable drop in quality when switching from the main to the ultra-wide. Images lose some crispness, and appear visually more contrast heavy and darker, losing a lot of vibrancy in the colours while adding more noise, even in daylight. At times it also adds a hyper-real element to the colours where they just seem unnaturally saturated. It’s not the most consistent of cameras.
As for the third camera, that’s just a low resolution black and white sensor to act as a backup to the other two, bringing in some more light data.
Motorola’s new Moto G9 Plus is a stunner of a phone – find out why, right here
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On the front, the selfie camera is decent enough with OnePlus’ HDR capability shining when it comes to balancing out heavy backlighting behind you when snapping pictures of yourself. So even if the sky and clouds look too bright to get a decent shot of your face, the system does well to make sure that it’s not over-exposed and washed out.
Verdict
OnePlus Nord ‘Core Edition’ is something of an unusual phone in its position. The first OnePlus Nord in itself was supposed to represent the core essentials of OnePlus phones. Stripped down, but without real compromise. So in essence, the OnePlus Nord CE is a Core Edition of a Core Edition phone. But that’s perhaps overthinking it a bit.
What really matters is that for the money you’re getting a phone without any significant flaws. It’s fast and responsive, is well-designed, has a good camera and a good screen. It’s comfortably one of the best phones in its price bracket.
We question the removal of the alert slider though. It was one of the few remaining fixtures that helped OnePlus phones stand out from its competition. Without it, it feels like OnePlus is doing more blending in with the environment. It’s transitioned away from standout phone maker, to just another phone maker and the CE is the culmination of that effort.
Alternatives to consider
Pocket-lint
OnePlus Nord
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The original Nord is still here, and still packs a punch. It’s fast, fluid, smooth and has a more premium glass back, slightly more powerful processor and is now discounted because it’s a bit older.
Read the review
Pocket-lint
Redmi Note 10 Pro
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The Redmi Note 10 Pro is one of 2021’s best value smartphones. It boasts similar specs and capabilities to the Nord CE, but is cheaper. Crucially, it has a bigger battery, bigger display and is water resistant.
Niantic is expanding from cute critters to giant robots. Today, the game developer announced its next project: a location-based augmented reality game called Transformers: Heavy Metal. The game is expected to launch globally this year, with a soft launch in select countries “soon.” Niantic says that it has partnered with Seattle-based studio Very Very Spaceship, which will be leading development.
You might be wondering just how towering transforming robots will translate to Pokémon Go-style gameplay. Here’s the basic description from Niantic:
In Transformers: Heavy Metal, players will join the Guardian Network, a group of humans who have banded together with the Autobots in a war against the Decepticons. As a Guardian, players will uncover hidden regions across Earth to find resources and battle Decepticons in turn-based battles, either solo or with friends.
While Niantic is best-known for the ongoing success of Pokémon Go, the company has also expanded by attempting to bring other fictional realms to video games. The first was the Harry Potter universe, with Wizards Unite, and more recently the developer announced a partnership with Nintendo that will include a Pikmin game.
The second day of E3 2021 has been busy with Xbox and Bethesda’s joint conference followed by Square Enix’s showcase, but plenty more game announcements came from the PC Gaming Show. If you don’t have time to catch up on the whole 90 minutes, we’ve rounded up a few of our highlights of intriguing and upcoming games that you’ll want to wishlist on Steam.
Rawmen
Basically Splatoon but with food, Rawmen is a third-person arena shooter where instead of guns, you fight with food against up to two to eight players. Sling soup at your opponents, become a human meatball by jumping into meat juice and rolling your way back home, or launch yourself in the air with doughnut bombs.
They Always Run
This space Western 2D action game sees you playing a three-armed mutant hunting dangerous bounties across the galaxy. From the visuals, the animation, the music, it’s just dripping with style, and plenty of ultra-violence as you hack and slash your way through each level.
Far: Changing Tides
Far: Lone Sails was a minimal, lonely, but powerfully meditative experience as you charted journey across a post-apocalyptic environment with nothing but yourself and a unique hunk of a junk of a vehicle. So a sequel, Far: Changing Tides comes as a lovely surprise. It looks even more beautiful, and this time you’re piloting a ship across a flooded world, while still trying to keep your machine moving forward by salvaging ship parts during your travels.
Next Space Rebels
A space rocket-building sim with a narrative, Next Space Rebels has the feel of a DIY amateur’s Kerbal Space Program, as you try to put together a rocket engine that can actually launch. Tied to this simulation however is a story conveyed through FMV cutscenes, as fictitious hacker group Next Space Rebels urge the global community to build and launch rockets themselves, and “democratize the universe.”
Soulstice
The name may imply a shameless Souls clone, but Italian developer Reply Game Studios is also taking inspiration from Japanese character-action games like Devil May Cry, as well as early ‘80s anime. Another influence may be PlatinumGames’ Astral Chain, as you’re controlling two characters simultaneously; two sisters called Briar and Lute, one possessing superhuman strength, the other a ghost with mystical powers.
Lemnis Gate
This turn-based time-looping first-person shooter tasks you to take control of each of your team members one at a time playing a round that lasts just 25 seconds. It was first announced last year but its release is just around the corner as the latest trailer has confirmed Lemnis Gate is coming on August 3rd to PC, as well as PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X/S, and Xbox One. An open beta is also coming in July, so players can get their heads around just how this time-bending gameplay works.
Square Enix announced that the first six mainline Final Fantasy games are getting remasters for Steam, Android, and iOS. The games will each be released individually as part of the “Pixel Remaster Series,” but Square Enix hasn’t shared release timing beyond the fact that they’re “coming soon.”
In a tweet, Square Enix said that the games will be getting a “pixel-perfect makeover,” which makes it sound as if these games will be improved versions of the originals that retain the original visual style (as opposed to the 3D remasters). But because Square Enix hasn’t shared much info just yet, we’ll just have to wait for the company to announce more information until we can be sure.
The team behind the Deus Ex games is tackling one of Marvel’s most famous superhero groups next. At its E3 2021 keynote, publisher Square Enix revealed that Eidos Montreal, the studio behind games like Deus Ex: Human Revolution, is working on a game titled simply Guardians of the Galaxy.
The game puts players in the role of Star Lord (aka Peter Quill) in a third-person action-adventure experience. In a unique twist, Peter will be joined by the rest of the Guardians at all times, with the likes of Groot and Rocket being AI companions. The story takes place several years after some kind of intergalactic war, when the Guardians are still a relatively fresh group, having been together for less than a year.
Eidos also says that choice will play a large part: as the team’s de factor leader, you’ll have to make decisions that impact the story. During one sequence, for instance, you’ll have to decide whether to sell Rocket or Groot to some kind of monster collector. (Curiously, the Guardians were previously featured in a choice-based adventure game from Telltale back in 2017.) Early gameplay footage shows a game filled with big shooter battles, colorful worlds, plenty of ‘80s music, weird alien monsters, sleek starships, and lots of banter.
This isn’t Square Enix’s first foray into Marvel, as the publisher previously released an Avengers game primarily developed by Crystal Dynamics (Eidos Montreal also assisted on that game). Despite a well-received single-player campaign, the game was saddled with live-service elements and microtransactions that were largely criticized. Guardians of the Galaxy, meanwhile, will be entirely single-player, with no add-on DLC or microtransactions.
Marvel games don’t necessarily have the strongest track record, though that has been slowly changing. Most notably, Sony studio Insomniac released an excellent take on Spider-Man, and followed it up with an equally excellent spinoff starring Miles Morales.
Guardians of the Galaxy launches on October 26th for the PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.
Microsoft has announced a whole slate of games that will be joining Xbox Game Pass today, with 11 new titles available on the subscription service via Xbox and PC.
The new Game Pass titles were announced during Microsoft and Bethesda’s joint E3 conference on Sunday. The lion’s share comes from Bethesda, which adds 10 more titles to the service, in addition to the 20 Bethesda titles added to the service since it was acquired by Microsoft earlier this year. Six of these titles will also be accessible via Xbox, PC, and xCloud. PC players will also have access to Fallout: New Vegas starting today.
In addition, Yakuza: Like A Dragon has also been added to Xbox Game Pass, which is available today. The entire mainline Yakuza series is also already available on the service.
Here’s the full list of newly announced Xbox Game Pass games:
Arx Fatalis (PC)
Fallout (PC)
Fallout 2 (PC)
Fallout: Tactics (PC)
Fallout 3 (console, PC, Cloud)
Fallout: New Vegas (PC)
Dishonored: Death of the Outsider (console, PC, Cloud)
The Evil Within 2 (console, PC, Cloud)
Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus (console, PC, Cloud)
RAGE (console, PC, Cloud)
Doom (2016) (console, Cloud)
Yakuza: Like A Dragon (console, PC, Cloud)
In addition to these games, Back 4 Blood has also been announced for Xbox Game Pass when it launches on October 12th.
Forza Horizon 5 is the next title in the Forza franchise, and it’s coming to Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, and PC on November 9th, and will also be available from day one on Xbox Game Pass.
Developed by Playground Games, the open-world driving game 5 transports players to the diverse and stunning landscapes of Mexico, featuring rainforests and even driving on a dormant volcano.
While Forza Horizon 5 will also be available Xbox One — and surely the last Forza title for the platform — this latest installment promises to leverage the power of the Series consoles, with features like ray-tracing. After all, the stunning trailer really speaks for itself.
During the Xbox and Bethesda showcase, Phil Spencer also confirmed that Turn 10 Studios are hard at work on developing the next mainline Forza Motorsport title.
Microsoft announced The Outer Worlds 2, a sequel to Obsidian’s 2019 role-playing shooter, at its E3 2021 showcase on Sunday. The trailer provided very few details about the upcoming game — and in fact, poked fun at similar early announcements by openly addressing just how devoid of real details the trailer was.
“Now, we see our hero, but only their silhouette, because the developers haven’t finished the design,” an ominous voice says in the ridiculously over-the-top trailer. “Or finished the story. Or finished any gameplay that’s actually ready to show. In fact, the only thing they have finished… is the title.”
A post on Xbox Wire does reveal just a bit of information about the game, though. “Taking place in a new star system with a new crew, we are excited to bring everyone back to The Outer Worlds franchise,” Obsidian studio head Feargus Urquhart said in the post.
Urquhart mentioned Avowed, its upcoming fantasy RPG announced at last July’s Xbox showcase, but only to say that there’s no update to share right now. “For those who are wondering about Avowed, the team is hard at work making something we’re sure fans of our games and the Pillars of Eternity universe are going to love,” Urquhart said. “While we are not showing anything right now, we are looking forward to showing off what we have been working on soon.”
Supergiant Games’ excellent roguelike Hades, which was one of the best games of 2020, is coming to Xbox and PlayStation consoles on August 13th. It will be available for Xbox One, Xbox Series X / S, PS4, and PS5. And if you’re an Xbox Game Pass subscriber, you’ll have access to the game on August 13th as well.
Supergiant is also offering physical editions of the game in partnership with Private Division. The Xbox physical edition will work on both Xbox One and Xbox Series consoles, and there will be separate physical versions for PS4 and PS5. But if you pick up the physical or digital PS4 version of the game, you’ll be entitled to a free upgrade to the PS5 version.
The upcoming physical versions of Hades. Image: Supergiant Games
The PS5 version of the game will also take advantage of some of the DualSense controller’s special features such as haptic feedback and adaptive triggers, Supergiant Games creative director Greg Kasavin said on the PlayStation blog.
As for performance, “the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 versions of Hades run at 1080p at a target 60 frames per second,” Supergiant Games said on its blog. “The Xbox Series X/S and PlayStation 5 versions run at 4K at a target 60 frames per second.” The Xbox and PlayStation versions of the game won’t support the PC cross-save feature that the Nintendo Switch version has, however.
Back 4 Blood has been confirmed as an Xbox Game Pass title available to play from day one when it launches on October 12th. It’ll be available on PC, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, PlayStation 5, and PlayStation 4.
The new trailer for the co-op zombie shooter revealed during the Xbox and Bethesda E3 showcase also announced new swamp and PvP modes. Those who want to try out the spiritual successor to Left 4 Dead will be able to take part in an open beta running from August 12th to 16th. Players who pre-order the game will be get early access to the beta from August 5th to 9th.
More gameplay details are expected later today during Warner Bros Games’ Back 4 Blood showcase.
Square Enix will be taking part in the E3 2021 festivities with its own games showcase on Sunday, June 13th. It’ll feature a brand-new game announcement from the Eidos-Montréal team that’s responsible for some of the latest Tomb Raider and Deus Ex titles, as well as Marvel’s Avengers. The showcase will also feature Babylon’s Fall, the latest title developed by PlatinumGames announced at E3 2018, as well as more news on Life is Strange: True Colors and Marvel’s Avengers. If we’re lucky, perhaps we’ll even see some more news on Final Fantasy XVI and a second installment of the Final Fantasy VII Remake.
When does the Square Enix E3 2021 showcase begin?
The event will start a 3:15PM ET / 12:15PM PT on Sunday, June 13th.
Where can I watch the Square Enix announcements?
The event will be streaming from the publisher’s YouTube page, as well as on Twitch. It’s also hosting the stream on E3’s site.
Team Xbox will take to the stage alongside Bethesda to showcase a 90-minute presentation of games for E3 2021. It’ll last 90 minutes, and it’ll apparently show off games coming to Xbox this holiday season, games that’ll soon be coming to Xbox Game Pass, plus some other announcements. Microsoft is calling the event its “biggest moment of 2021 so far,” so Xbox fans shouldn’t miss this one.
Here’s how you can watch it:
When does the Xbox and Bethesda game showcase begin?
It’ll start at 1PM ET / 10AM PT on Sunday, June 13th.
How can I watch the Xbox event?
You can watch it at Xbox’s Twitch, YouTube, Facebook, or Twitter pages. It’s available in other ways around the world, too. Microsoft says it’ll be available “simultaneously on channels across the globe, including Bilibili in China, Jeuxvideo in France, and VK in Russia, OTT platforms including Samsung TV+, Xumo, PlutoTV and Vizio, and regional Xbox pages on Facebook and elsewhere.”
The show will be broadcast in 1080p at 60 frames per second, but Microsoft says that videos in 4K resolution at 60 frames per second will be uploaded to the Xbox YouTube channel following the stream.
Upload VR returned to E3 with its third annual showcase of the most inventive and intriguing games coming to VR. As the medium continues to mature year after year, it continues to be a platform for developers to innovate. While not all of the games shown were brand new announcements, we picked five of our favorites from the showcase that you can look forward to immersing yourself in soon.
Song in the Smoke
First announced for PSVR earlier this year, Song in the Smoke is a VR survival game and a departure for developer 17-Bit, better known for cartoony indie games like Skulls of the Shogun and Galak-Z. In a new developer diary, studio CEO Jake Kazdal explains how VR made him want to create not just a game but a fully living and breathing world. It’s coming to Oculus Rift and Quest, and PSVR, this summer.
Unplugged
VR is home to many terrific rhythm games, but Unplugged may have the coolest hook. It’s a game about playing air guitar, and by that, it means you really do only play with your hands thanks to hand-tracking technology on Quest and other supported PC VR. Better yet, the new trailer shows you can play The Offspring’s ‘The Kids Aren’t Alright.’ It’s coming this fall.
Nerf Ultimate Championship
Who remembers playing Nerf? The reveal trailer admittedly doesn’t give too much away but it looks stylish, those Nerf guns look terrific, and it’s from Emmy-awarding winning VR studio Secret Location. It’s an Oculus exclusive coming in 2022.
Sushi Ben VR
This stylish cel-shaded game sees you trying to save your favorite sushi bar from going out of business. However, instead of serving up sushi, your task is actually to convince other people to come eat there, so there’s much more of a narrative focus, brought to life with some vibrant manga-style comic book panels. It’s coming in 2022.
A Township Tale
Coming to Oculus Quest on July 15th, A Township Tale is an open world RPG designed specifically for VR, which wonderfully acknowledges how you and everyone else don’t have any legs. You’ll be able to forge a new identity, whether as a blacksmith, minter, woodcutter, warrior or archer, in an immersive fantasy world.
Devolver Digital made its return to E3 with another no-holds-barred satirical swipe at the games industry, taking shots at subscriptions, games as a service, and even NFTs. Dubbed the Devolver MaxPass Plus — “the new era of monetization as a service” — the spoof showcase features the infamous Devolver executive Nina Struthers and her cohorts extolling the ridiculous virtues of its new service.
But besides being the most irreverently entertaining segment of E3 (so far), the publisher also included some new game announcements. Here are the most notable:
Trek to Yomi
The first of these was the cinematic Trek to Yomi, with a trailer that’s refreshingly not actually a pre-rendered cinematic. The black-and-white game follows a young samurai who is sworn to protect his town and the people he loves against all threats. The game is coming to PC, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X/S, and Xbox One in 2022.
Wizard with a Gun
Wizard with a Gun lives up to its title as an online co-op sandbox survival game where you face dangerous creatures armed with magic and guns. It’s coming to PC and consoles in 2022.
Inscryption
Inscryption comes from the creator of Pony Island and The Hex, which combines deckbuilding with roguelike mechanics, escape-room style puzzles, and psychological horror. It’s coming to PC later this year.
Devolver Tumble Time
Despite the satirical trailer, Devolver Tumble Time is actually a real physics-based puzzle game featuring a roster of characters from Devolver Games. It’s a free game coming to mobile, although there will probably be ads to watch, because nothing is ever really free.
Demon Throttle
Demon Throttle is an 8-bit game from developer Doinksoft, the creators of Gato Roboto. Besides its old-school gameplay, what makes this title stand out that it’s not only a Nintendo Switch exclusive, it’s a completely physical-only release from Special Reserve Games.
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