Balan Wonderworld, a new game from two of the original creators of Sonic the Hedgehog, is out today. But before you jump into the game, make sure you’ve installed its day one patch. It fixes sequences in a “potential flashing bug” that could present a seizure risk. On Thursday, a video of the game’s final boss fight was uploaded to YouTube, and in it, there are occasional moments where the entire screen is taken over by rapid white flashes without warning.
“We have received reports of a photo-sensitive epilepsy risk from a potential flashing bug if playing the game un-patched,” the Balan Wonderworld account said on Twitter. “The Day 1 Patch prevents this issue as well as enhances the overall play experience.”
Please ensure that you install the Day 1 Patch before playing.
We have received reports of a photo-sensitive epilepsy risk from a potential flashing bug if playing the game un-patched.
The Day 1 Patch prevents this issue as well as enhances the overall play experience.
— Balan Wonderworld (@balanwworld) March 26, 2021
The patch comes after Game Informer editor Liana Ruppert wrote about the dangerous video on Thursday. You might recognize Ruppert as the person who wrote about experiencing a grand mal seizure while playing Cyberpunk 2077ahead of its release, which led developer CD Projekt Red to release a patch a day after the game’s launch making changes.
Ruppert said people informed her of the Balan Wonderworld video on Thursday, and when she began watching it, “I immediately had to shut it off. Instantly, my right side dropped, and I could feel the onset of an episode.”
She then made a PSA on Twitterabout the video and heard some scary stories from others who watched it — even from people with no prior history of epilepsy.
Since that tweet went live, I’ve had numerous people reach out, including developers and other QA devs, saying that they aren’t even epileptic, but they felt “odd” after watching. My husband, who had no prior issues with epilepsy or neurological triggers, complained of feeling dizzy before he threw up. Several others reported the same.
I also watched the video in question yesterday and again while writing this article. My eyes have hurt for nearly an hour, and my stomach is a little upset even after just watching it in a small window on YouTube. I can see how someone at risk of seizures might be particularly vulnerable if they were playing the game on their TV at home and this bug happened. (I am not linking to the video because, in my opinion, it is just that bad.)
Typically, there are many opportunities to catch this kind of bug, such as in QA testing or through the platform certification process. Somehow, though, this seeminglydangerous bug seems to have slipped by all of those potential checks.
I will give the Balan Wonderworld developers and publisher Square Enix some credit since they’ve already addressed the issue with the day one patch. And CD Projekt Red also acted swiftly to fix Cyberpunk 2077. But these shouldn’t have been issues in the first place, and developers, publishers, and platform holders need more stringent processes to ensure that their games don’t present health risks.
If you are looking to buy Microsoft’s most powerful console to date, the Xbox Series X, you can try your luck again right now at Best Buy. The retailer also has the more affordable, all-digital Series S available for $299.99.
Due to the high demand, we expect the supply to run out very quickly, so don’t hesitate if you’re hoping to score one.
Xbox Series X
$500
Prices taken at time of publishing.
The Xbox Series X is Microsoft’s flagship console, serving as its most powerful (and biggest) option that costs $499.99. While the Series S is aimed at smooth 1440p performance, the Series X is focused on fast 4K gameplay.
$500
at Best Buy
Xbox Series S
$300
Prices taken at time of publishing.
The Xbox Series S costs $299.99. Compared to the Series X, it’s far smaller, less powerful, and it has half the amount of SSD storage built in. It also lacks a disc drive.
$300
at Best Buy
Once you’ve secured your next-gen Xbox, you might want to buy some additional items, such as games to play on your new console. I strongly recommend picking up a subscription to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, which includes a wide array of first- and third-party titles, including a slew of Bethesda games following Microsoft’s acquisition of ZeniMax.
Of course, if you plan to share this console with a loved one, I also recommend buying an extra controller, as the console only comes with one controller.
While on the topic of buying new stuff, it’s not a bad idea to get a TV that will take advantage of next-gen hardware. If you have money to spend, Best Buy is currently selling a Vizio 65-inch 4K OLED TV for $1,500 — that is $500 off its usual price.
Vizio 4K OLED TV
$1,200
$1,300
8% off
Prices taken at time of publishing.
Vizio is a newcomer to the OLED TV space, but it’s using the same beautiful LG panel as everyone else — and pricing it for much less. The Vizio OLED should be a perfect fit for either the Xbox Series X or PlayStation 5, thanks to its fluid 120Hz 4K gaming capabilities, and the perfect blacks will make your Netflix content look great, too.
You’ve probably seen the acronym “DLSS” appearing in more gaming and tech stories recently. You might know that it’s an Nvidia graphics thing, and that it might be coming to the new Nintendo Switch console that’s rumored to release later in 2021, according to a report from Bloomberg. But, really, what is it, and why does it matter?
DLSS stands for deep learning super sampling, and it’s a way for Nvidia’s RTX graphics cards to work smarter, not necessarily harder, by running games at a lower resolution, then using dedicated AI cores to improve visual quality with less of the usual performance cost. The deep learning component works on the fly to make your game look as if you haven’t lowered its resolution at all. This feature only works with supported PC games, of which there are over 20 at the time of publishing, including Cyberpunk 2077, Fortnite, Monster Hunter World, Control, and others.
On PC, the technique has proven itself to yield a sizable performance boost. Especially with the advent of ray tracing tech, DLSS has been a boon for letting gamers experience all of the latest visual effects on high-resolution displays without having to shell out an exorbitant amount for a GPU. It’s available for GPUs that (nominally) cost just a few hundred dollars, like the RTX 3060, as well as the previous-gen RTX 20-series cards (not that you can find any of them available right now). For a device like the Nintendo Switch that can’t cram in that much horsepower to begin with, you can imagine why it might be an amazing fit.
Nintendo’s current Switch uses a shrunken-down version of Nvidia’s Tegra X1 system-on-a-chip from 2015. Most games run at sub-1080p resolution when docked and usually less than the 720p resolution of the Switch’s display when in portable mode. Developers for the Switch are already used to making some sizable compromises to get their games working well on the portable console.
Doom Eternal running on the Switch.
Panic Button’s porting work on Doomand Doom Eternal, for instance, heavily rely on visual tricks like dynamic resolution, motion blur, and lower-fidelity textures to mask the Switch’s inherent weaknesses compared to other consoles — and to get them running at a playable 30 frames per second even on the Switch’s 720p screen, much less 4K. Other games struggle to come close to rendering at that resolution — Wolfenstein: Youngblood usually runs at a 540p resolution in portable mode, according to Digital Foundry — and even Nintendo’s own The Legend of Zelda:Breath of the Wild has notable slowdown, though the company has a few other shining examples that manage 60 frame-per-second gameplay.
With all of this context in mind, the recent rumors that the next Switch will tap DLSS to help it avoid those compromises has me excited. We don’t know whether Nvidia truly plans to stick an RTX-style graphics chip with Tensor Core AI processors into a Switch just to achieve DLSS, but doing so would make the next generation of Switch games (and perhaps preexisting games) look and run much better, whether in portable mode or displaying a higher resolution while docked.
Of course, games on the Nintendo Switch would likely need to be individually patched to support DLSS, like the fairly small amount of games on PC have been. If games that have DLSS support on PC get a Switch port, will that DLSS work carry over, I wonder? Or, unlikely as it seems, can Nintendo and Nvidia work together to make every game compatible with DLSS in some way to ensure boosted performance across the board?
Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge
DLSS 2.0 is the current version that’s available on PC, and it brought better performance and efficiency of RTX AI cores versus the first iteration. TweakTowncites a YouTube video from channel Moore’s Law is Dead claiming that a newer DLSS 3.0 version could be in development for GPUs built with the latest Ampere architecture. It’s said to automatically deliver AI enhancements to any game with temporal anti-aliasing (a technique that removes the flickering aliased edges of textures — especially when the camera is in motion), not just the games that have been patched for support. If true, it could make Nintendo’s job a lot easier bringing DLSS features to more games.
To get a sense of how the next Switch could benefit from DLSS without requiring immensely powerful hardware, check out this informative video below that the folks at Digital Foundry put together. It focuses on the game Control running with DLSS enabled at different resolutions. The bit that really stood out to me was when it showed just how good DLSS can make a 540p rendering of the game look when reconstructed into a 1080p image with ray tracing effects and everything set to ultra settings. I’ve time-stamped the video to that exact location.
If that’s what a PC can do with 540p, a Switch with DLSS might not need a huge overhaul to make its own collection of sub-720p games look a lot better than they do today, particularly on the Switch’s relatively small screen where DLSS’s minor wrinkles might be even easier to forgive than they are on a PC monitor. If it gets additional graphical muscle, it’s not a stretch to imagine today’s games competently running at a simulated 4K when docked to a TV as well. This kind of thing would be perfect to showcase at the launch of the sequel to Breath of the Wild, Splatoon 3, or Metroid Prime 4.
Since the original Nintendo Switch launched, 4K TVs have become more widely adopted. So, it’ll make sense if Nintendo wants to use hardware that’ll look better on modern televisions. And whatever the company chooses to put in its next Switch, it’ll ultimately still be a mobile processor with limitations compared to what the likes of the Xbox Series X and PS5 can do. Though, hopefully, it will be enough to ensure that future Switch games look far better than they currently do for years to come.
Josef Fares has strong opinions. The director of Hazelight Studio — whose latest co-op game, It Takes Two, is out today — rocketed into the spotlight at The Game Awards in 2017 with an off-the-cuff, impassioned speech about the joys of interactive video games that culminated in his meme-worthy “Fuck the Oscars!” line.
Years later, Fares (who, ironically enough, started off as a filmmaker) is still standing firm on his pro-game stance. “Look, my background is a filmmaker. The whole thing with ‘fuck the Oscars’ was actually kind of special,” he tells The Verge. “One, you have to remember when I was there on the set, everybody was talking, ‘Oh this like the Oscars, it’s like the Oscars.’ And I was like ‘Fuck the Oscars!’ because I was actually saying ‘Fuck the Oscars — because we should celebrate gaming now.’ It’s not that I have anything personal about the Oscars.”
It Takes Two is Fares’ third game, following Brothers:A Tale of Two Sons and A Way Out. Hazelight’s latest game takes a similar tack to A Way Out, in particular: it’s an exclusively co-op game that you can’t experience at all unless you’re willing to play with a friend or partner (either next to you on a couch or over the internet). According to Fares, the studio never even considered adding any sort of AI companion.
“They are designed from the beginning like that, so you have to communicate with someone,” he says. “It’s not possible to play with a random [person]. It’s not a matchmaking game where you are just randomly connected. If you want to play with someone you don’t know at all, you must have the ability to talk because if you’re not talking, you can’t progress.”
Communication is a fitting foundation for It Takes Two, which sees a husband and wife on the verge of divorce who are then magically transformed into a pair of Pixar-esque dolls and forced by a magical talking book to work out their differences.
A Way Out offered a thematically compelling narrative pulled out of a crime novel that was let down by dull gameplay that didn’t actually do much to take advantage of the cooperative nature of the game. It Takes Two flips the script: it offers a bizarre, almost nonsensical story lifted up by clever cooperative mechanics. Each of the two characters tends to split up their abilities between levels. For example, an early level gives players a pair of guns — one character can fire sap, while the other ignites it.
The more diverse gameplay isn’t an accident. “We’ve become better at finding cold co-op mechanics that can be combined,” says Fares. “So you really feel the need of co-oping. Also, I talked a lot about marrying the story and the gameplay… we tried to connect the abilities to the character as well. With May, for instance — it’s her toolbox, so she has the hammer.”
The result, though, is that It Takes Two is a much more complex game than A Way Out. To start, it’s a platformer. And while it won’t demand the kind of pixel-perfect skills as something like Celeste or Spelunky, it’s a harder game to get into than the relatively simple A Way Out. Add in the (admittedly more interesting) new mechanics that change from level to level, and the game runs the risk of overwhelming newer or less experienced players.
Still, the resulting game is a unique one, despite the uneven storytelling. As Fares rightly comments, there’s almost no one else out there making these kinds of games. “Of course there are co-op games out there that have your campaign and your add-on co-op campaign and so on, but none are actually designing, writing everything from the beginning as we do at Hazelight.”
“I think that opens up… both creatively, but also the dynamics between the characters that you’re playing, that you’re using different abilities, how you can cooperate, and also what’s going on on the couch,” says Fares. “I think there’s so much stuff to explore there.” He views the experience as similar to watching a movie or a TV show: it’s something you do together. “So why not enjoy a story together in a game?”
And it’s that level of interaction that helps games stand out to Fares from film. “The whole idea is understanding that making the interactive experience [for a game is] totally different than a passive experience as a movie,” he says. “So I sometimes hear when they talk about ‘We should bring on more movie people [to make games].’ Sure, we can be inspired on how they tell stories and so on, but we need to find our own way to tell stories in an interactive way.”
And while Fares won’t give too many details on what Hazelight’s next project will look like or if it’ll be another co-op experience, he definitely thinks there’s more room for other developers to join in — and not just with optional cooperative experiences, like with survival games or shooters like Borderlands or Halo.
“We should have our single-player narratives; I love those. But I think there’s a market here, and I think people really appreciate this type of game, you know. To play something with someone that you love or a friend or a father or a mother or whatever — just experience something together and not just a shooter game, you know what I mean?”
It Takes Two is available now for PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X / S.
(Pocket-lint) – The PlayStation 4 is a superb console, and over the course of its lifespan it’s played host to some of the finest games ever released, so whether you’ve had a PS4 for ages or you’re picking up a new one you’ve got a lot to look forward to.
However, one problem the console can have is overheating – especially with games released in the last couple of years, it can really struggle and whirr its fans super loudly to keep up. That can be distracting, so getting hold of a cooling system can be a really good idea to keep the noise down. Here are some of the very best options.
The best cooling systems for your PlayStation 4
OIVO
OIVO PS4 Stand
A great stand that brings cooling alongside controller charging and storage.
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If you’re going to get a cooling stand for your PS4, you might as well go the whole way and get a stand that does more than one thing.
This great unit from OIVO has fans to keep air flowing through your PS4 at all times, but also a pair of really handy docks to charge your controllers while you’re not using them. Plus, at the back of the stand there are handy slots for game storage, making it a real power station.
Beboncool
Beboncool PS4 Stand Cooling Fan
Another almost equally impressive stand.
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If you want a stand that offers the same rough capabilities as the one above, but with a slightly bigger and sturdier foortprint, this could be a great choice.
Beboncool’s stand has cooling as well, alongside the game storage, so they’re pretty neck-and-neck in terms of what they offer – it might just come down to your taste in how they look!
Kootek
Kootek Vertical Stand
If you want a smaller stand, this could work nicely.
squirrel_widget_4343550
For those looking for a slightly smaller stand, and who don’t really mind about game storage, this option from Kootek is a great choice.
It’s got fans to keep your PS4 cool as you game, plus two controller storage slots, and those will also charge your gamepads. However, it’s much smaller than those above so is perfect if you’re shorter on space.
Pecham
PECHAM Vertical Stand for PS4
Two controller chargers and a great fan system.
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Another smaller stand is offered up by Pecham, which has also managed to fit in both controller charging and PS4 cooling.
You’ll get quiet but noticeable cooling for the PS4 itself, and room to store and charge two controllers as well, on a stand that’s a little bigger than the one from Kootek above.
Elecgear
ElecGear External USB Cooler
Great for those looking to keep things slimmer.
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This great little device from ElecGear is a useful option for anyone who doesn’t want a stand – it’s simple extra fans and clips onto the side of your console.
That makes it perfect if your TV and console setup is already finely tuned, and it hardly adds any bulk to the PS4 at all. Just be sure to pick up the right version according to what console you own!
Kingtop
Kingtop PS4 Universal Controller Charger
A great final option, with solid cooling.
squirrel_widget_2956614
Our final case is another one that offers two controller charging points and a simple cooling system using fans.
That makes it very much standard, although it has a fairly nicely designed look and feel and doesn’t take up too much space.
(Pocket-lint) – If you want to make a worthwhile difference to the sound of your TV, you’re spoilt for choice where soundbars at the lower end of the budget scale are concerned. Equally, if you feel your games console experience requires a sonic rocket, there are numerous LED-happy gaming soundbars ready to do a job for you.
But what if you want both – and you want something small and discreet enough to cause minimal disruption to your viewing and/or gaming environment(s) at the same time? Your shortlist has suddenly become quite a lot shorter.
You can now add the Panasonic SC-HTB01 – or Soundslayer, as it’s also rather excitably known – to your shortlist, though. It may be physically small, but it’s big on performance.
Obviously, the big news is how small the Panasonic is. It’s perfectly proportioned to sit discreetly underneath your TV or games monitor, and at this weight it’s hardly a burden to move it from one position to another. But it’s still big enough to be fitted with reasonably sized speaker drivers.
‘Design’ doesn’t really seem to be something that’s happened to the SC-HTB01 – rather, its drivers and accompanying electronics have been put into a housing which has then been mostly covered with acoustic cloth. Its plastics feel ordinary. It’s basically not much to look at – although it’s easy to imagine Panasonic thinking that’s entirely the point.
‘Bland’ isn’t the same as ‘badly made’ though – this, after all, is Panasonic we’re talking about. The Soundslayer may not be visually stimulating, but it’s properly screwed together and feels made to last.
Features
Decoding: Dolby Atmos & DTS:X supported
Modes: Game, Standard, Music, Cinema
4K HDR passthrough supported
There is a brief suite of physical connections on the rear of the soundbar. A couple of HDMI sockets – one input, one ARC-enabled output – a digital optical input, and a USB socket (for updates only).
Panasonic
Via HDMI, the Soundslayer can handle 4K HDR content as well as multi-channel audio up to a hefty 24bit/192kHz standard – so Dolby Atmos and/or DTS:X soundtracks present no problems. Wirelessly connectivity is handled by Bluetooth 2.1 – hands up who remembers when that was the cutting edge of wireless streaming technology?
The SC-HTB01’s equaliser (EQ) presets let you know where it thinks it belongs. Presets for ‘music’, ‘cinema’ and ‘standard’ attest to its flexibility – but within the ‘game’ preset there are sub-settings for ‘RPG’, ‘FPS’ and ‘enhanced voices’ (which is excellent when listening at very low volume levels).
Interface
Included remote control
It’s not a problem, in and of itself, that the Panasonic has no voice assistant or control app. It’s not a problem that everything, from subwoofer level and overall volume level to EQ preset and Bluetooth pairing, is taken care of by a full-function remote control handset.
Panasonic
No, the problem is that the remote control seems to have been selected on the basis that there were no more affordable options available. It’s small, hard, thin, unpleasant to hold, and very nearly as unpleasant to use.
Behind that mild-mannered exterior, two 40mm full-range drivers and two 14mm tweeters face forwards. On the top of the ‘bar there’s an upward-firing 80mm bass driver, alongside passive low-frequency radiators. Panasonic is striving for a ‘2.1’ channel effect with this five-driver layout, and has fitted the SC-HTB01 with 80 Watts of power with which to make it happen.
Panasonic
There’s also a bass reflex slot at the front of the cabinet, just in case that passive radiator doesn’t quite pull its weight. Naturally, this upward-firing configuration means the Panasonic shouldn’t be positioned with surfaces directly above it.
So how does all that come across? Well, if you’ve been using the audio system integrated into your TV or your monitor up until now, the SC-HTB01 will thrill you with the scale and drive of its sound.
The combination of judicious speaker driver placement and careful EQs means the Panasonic sounds bigger – and in every direction – than seems likely from a soundbar this tiny. There’s no mistaking its presentation for that of a dedicated Dolby Atmos soundbar, naturally, but the Soundslayer’s soundstage is taller, deeper and (especially) wider than it would seem to have any right to be.
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At the top of the frequency range it carries plenty of detail, and gives treble sound lots of substance to go along with their considerable bite. Further down, the midrange is nicely shaped and projects forward well – even without the intervention of the EQ presets.
It’s down at the bottom of the frequency range, though, that the Panasonic both triumphs and fails. This isn’t the first soundbar to have mistaken ‘overconfident bass’ for ‘excitement’ – and, to be absolutely fair, the SC-HTB01 controls the low-end stuff pretty well. It certainly doesn’t drone and doesn’t blossom into the midrange, either. But it definitely overplays its hand where bass is concerned – ‘punchy’ is one thing, but being repeatedly punched while trying to watch TV or concentrate on a game is quite another.
Panasonic
The big, bassy emphasis doesn’t help the Panasonic’s overall detail retrieval, which is a pity. It’s possible to independently adjust the ‘subwoofer’ level using the remote control, but the effect is not so much to reduce the soundbar’s outright wallop as to rob it of its dynamism.
That’s unfortunate, because the Soundslayer ordinarily has more than enough dynamism to maximise any game soundtrack you care to mention. It can put a huge amount of distance between ‘stealth’ and ‘assault’, which adds a lot to the gaming experience.
It works well for movies, too – when the soundtrack demands a shift from ‘quiet and contemplative’ to ‘massive attack’, the Panasonic relishes the opportunity. It’s so much more accomplished than the sound of your average TV, and consequently far more involving.
The temptation, naturally, is to go all-in on the volume – but that would be a mistake. The Soundslayer’s tonal balance, which at moderate volume levels is pretty well judged, takes a definite turn for the ‘hard and unforgiving’ if you decide to press on. Treble sounds get edgy and thin, and the bass stops punching and starts slapping. Stick to reasonable levels, in other words – it’s not only your neighbours who will thank you.
Verdict
Keep its limitations in mind and there’s lots to like about the Panasonic SC-HTB01. It may not quite be the ‘soundslayer’ it purports to be, but it’s a convenient and capable way of giving your games and movies a bit more sonic oomph. As long as you don’t get carried away with volume, anyhow.
Also consider
Yamaha
Yamaha SR-C20A
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Slightly bigger than the Panasonic, slightly less expensive too, but designed to do much the same job. It is similarly unruly when the volume get big, too, but overall is probably a marginally better bet.
Google is reportedly working on a new feature for Assistant called Memory, a combination of a to-do list, a notes app, a Pocket-like reading list, and Pinterest-style collection board into a single overarching digital locker integrated into the broader Google Assistant app. 9to5Google first revealed the feature, which is currently in “dogfood” testing for Google employees.
According to 9to5Google, Memory can save a huge variety of content, including “articles, books, contacts, events, flights, hotels, images, movies, music, notes, photos, places, playlists, products, recipes, reminders, restaurants, screenshots, shipments, TV shows, videos, and websites.”
While Assistant already has a Memory feature for saving information (like a bike lock combination or a favorite flavor of cake), the new iteration of Memory appears to be a major upgrade, one that seems to integrate the “Collections” feature that preceded it and be given top billing on the main menu bar alongside Assistant’s daily snapshot view.
The idea is that you’ll be able to save nearly anything, including links or screenshots, pictures of objects or handwritten notes, or digital to-do lists or reminders. Memory will then let you search, sort, and revisit everything you’ve saved.
Depending on what you’re saving, Memory will also include contextual information: save a recipe, for instance, and it’ll show the cooking time. Save a movie you wanted to watch, and it’ll include a link to the trailer. And of course, Google-based items you save (like Google Docs or uploaded Drive files) will get customized preview cards.
To store things to Memory, users can either use a Google Assistant command or a newly added home screen shortcut. Once added to Memory, saved items can be tagged (with categories like “Important” or “Read Later”) as well as sorted or searched to find a specific item.
Memory is still being tested, and Google hasn’t announced any plans for when — or even if — it’ll receive a public debut. In a statement to The Verge, a Google spokesperson commented: “We are constantly iterating and experimenting with new ways to improve the user experience, but we have no further details to share at this time.”
Sony and Sucker Punch’s PlayStation 4 hit Ghost of Tsushima is being adapted into a movie with John Wick director Chad Stahelski at the helm, Deadline first reported on Thursday. Sony confirmed the film’s development in a blog shortly after.
The game, which stars samurai warrior Jin Sakai as he fights a huge Mongol army to protect the island of Tsushima, is heavily inspired by classic samurai films like those from Akira Kurosawa, so it seems like natural fit for the big screen.
“We’re excited to be partnering with Chad and 87Eleven Entertainment, to bring their vision of Jin’s story to the big screen,” said Asad Qizilbash, head of PlayStation Productions, in a statement to Deadline. “We love working with creative partners like Chad, who have a passion for our games, ensuring we can create rich adaptations that will excite our fans and new audiences.”
“We are happy to partner with Sony Pictures to make this happen,” Nate Fox, game director at Sucker Punch, said in a statement on the PlayStation blog. “And Jin is in very good hands with the film’s director. Chad Stahelski created something special with John Wick. His vision for what could be, backed up by years of experience, combined to create some of the finest action scenes ever created. If anyone could bring to life the razor-sharp tension of Jin’s katana combat, it’s Chad Stahelski.” Fox also confirmed that the Ghost of Tsushima game has sold 6.5 million copies since its release last July.
Ghost of Tsushima is Sony’s latest game franchise to be adapted into a movie. Tom Holland is starring as Nathan Drake in a movie adaption of the Indiana Jones-like Uncharted series that’s set to release on February 11th, 2022. Sony’s upcoming big-screen take on Metal Gear Solid will star Oscar Isaac as Solid Snake.
Sony is also working on a TV adaptation of The Last of Us for HBO, which will star The Mandalorian’s Pedro Pascal as Joel and Bella Ramsey, known for her role as Lyanna Mormont in Game of Thrones, as Ellie.
With clear audio, a great microphone and an understated but attractive design, the Fnatic React+ is aimed at eSports gamers, but it’s a great all-around headset for media and working from home too. The bundled USB sound card adds great-sounding 7.1 virtual surround sound to PC gaming, and a 3.5mm jack means you can use it with other gaming devices too.
For
Very good virtual 7.1 surround
Simple, attractive design
Superb microphone clarity
Swappable ear cushions
USB-A and 3.5mm
Against
Vestigial inline volume/mic switch is redundant when using USB
No software
Earcups don’t swivel
The Fnatic React+ adds virtual surround sound to the feature set that made the original React popular with gamers: large, clear drivers with very good gaming audio quality and excellent stereo separation, a design that remains comfortable throughout long gaming sessions, and a microphone with top-of-its class clarity. All that is wrapped in an understated design that looks cool enough for eSports gaming but subtle enough for teleconferencing.
The React+ pairs the original React headphones with Fnatic’s XP USB sound card (no relation to Windows XP), which adds 7.1 simulated surround sound at the touch of a button, and an extra set of earpads. Yet, the cans are still cheaper than many of the best gaming headsets, at just $99.99 as of writing. The resulting package, while not without its quirks, offers superb performance for a headset in its price class.
Fnatic React+ Specs
Driver Type
53mm
Impedance
23 Ohms
Frequency Response
20 – 40,0000 Hz
Microphone Type
Cardioid boom, detachable
Connectivity
3.5mm or USB Type-A
Cables
3.9 feet (1.2m) 3.5mm cable
3.3 feet (1m) USB cable
6.5 feet (2m) extender/mic splitter
Weight
0.8 pounds (348g)
Lighting
None
Software
None
Extra
1x extra set ear cushions
Design and Comfort
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
For a design marketed directly at the eSports crowd, the Fnatic React+ headset has a tasteful, understated aesthetic that lacks any elements you’d likely describe as bling. There’s no RGB lighting here, just a tasteful matte-black plastic finish with white accents. There’s a Fnatic logo on each earcup, and the company name is subtly embossed on the side of and on top of the headband.
The one hint of color is the soft, bright orange mesh fabric inside the earcups, helpfully stamped “R” and “L” to assist in putting them on correctly when the microphone is unplugged. The React+ ships with comfortable, memory foam-filled, faux leather-covered earpads installed. But you can also swap these for the included velour earpads. Those will feel more airy, particularly helpful for gamers who get warm while playing.
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(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
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(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
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(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
The oval, enclosed earcups are mounted on adjustable metal hangers, which feel very solid and should hold up well to regular use. The earcups completely enclose your ears, providing very good passive noise isolation. They can swivel vertically for comfort when being worn, but there’s no horizontal swivel axis to fold them out and flatten them for easier transport or storage.
With either set of pads in place, the React+ headset was comfortable even on my rather large head. At 0.8 pounds, it’s not as lightweights as some wired headsets. The similarly specced MSI Immerse GH61, for example, is 0.6 pounds. Thankfully, the React+ didn’t feel overly heavy in use. The clamping force is solid enough to provide good noise isolation without becoming uncomfortable over time, which is not always the case with my big noggin. Meanwhile, a strip of memory foam padding across the inside of the headband aids in comfort.
When using the microphone, it snaps solidly into the left earcup, but if you’re playing a solo game, listening to music or watching a movie, you can easily pop it out.
The React+ also includes Fnatic’s XP USB sound card, which the company also sells separately for $23. The sound card is enclosed in a small, oval controller with a 3.5mm jack on one end and a 3.3-foot-long USB-A cable on the other. Its matte black design matches the headphones, with rocker switches for headphone volume and microphone level, a button to toggle 7.1-channel surround sound and a microphone mute switch on the side. The controller adds little weight to the headphone setup, and the rockers are well-positioned for quick adjustment when gaming.
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Overall, it’s well-designed, but an additional analog volume dial and microphone switch near the top of the headphone cable (left over from the original design that didn’t include the sound card) can cause frustration if you accidentally brush the analog volume dial and wonder why the volume dial on the soundcard suddenly won’t go high enough. That said, if Fanatic had omitted the analog controls from the React+ bundle, they’d be unavailable when using the headphones sans soundcard with other devices.
The headset also comes with a 6.6-foot extension cable that splits the microphone and audio jacks for devices that don’t support both on a single connector.
The one design element I’d change, if given the chance, is that the 3.5mm cable is permanently attached to the headset. Without a removable cable, the headphones will be rendered useless if the primary cable is damaged by your cat, kids, or other sinister elements.
Audio Performance
The 53mm drivers Fnatic uses in the React+ are calibrated for gaming, with a separate chamber for bass frequencies to help separate them from mids and lows. This helps keep bass from explosions and gunshots from overwhelming other game sounds. Though the sound is relatively pure, mids and highs are slightly boosted, and the result is much better audio clarity from complex game soundscapes than you’d expect in headphones in this price range. Playing Metro 2033, Call of Duty: Warzone and Apex Legends, environmental sound and voices remained clear even in heavy combat situations.
This clarity isn’t lost when engaging the React+ virtual surround sound by pressing the surround button in the center of the USB sound card controller. The effect is convincing and adds a more enveloping quality to the audio without changing it to the point where clarity is lost.
Playing Watch Dogs: Legion, the surround sound significantly enhanced immersion as I walked and drove around the city. Even in the sedate environment of Microsoft Flight Simulator, the directional audio as I panned around my plane in external views was noticeably more enveloping than the default stereo audio heard with surround disabled.
The in-game soundscape of the React+ is excellent because the bass separation, large drivers and clarity across frequencies means you won’t miss important dialogue or environmental sounds in the heat of play. It’s a significant improvement over using headphones geared for music playback while gaming, where heavy bass emphasis can muddy the audio.
These cans also sound great when watching movies on the PC, as those same characteristics also keep audio clear during film and TV action sequences.
Conversely, the one area where the cans are more pedestrian is music. Albums like Logic’s The Incredible True Story and Kenrick Lamar’s DAMN. benefit from the boosted bass on more music-oriented headsets, and Pink Floyd’s classic Dark Side of the Moon sounded off with emphasized mids and highs of the React+ when compared to my (admittedly more expensive) Sennheiser Momentum 2.0 wired headphones.
With the leatherette ear cushions, the passive noise isolation from the large earcups is excellent; in my home office I only heard the loudest outside sounds when playing games. They also do a good job of keeping the noise from leaking out and disturbing others nearby. It is passive isolation, though, so if you use these to listen to music on your next flight, they can only block out so much. The velour cups are slightly less isolating than the leatherette.
Microphone
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
The detachable cardioid microphone includes a pop filter and has a flexible but stiff arm that stayed in position well and never came loose during gaming. There’s no noise cancellation, but it targets the mouth well enough that it didn’t pick up environmental sounds when I was gaming.
Fellow players reported that my vocals were very clear. And when I listened to audio from the microphone recorded on my PC, it sounded very pure, although perhaps a tiny bit higher in pitch than natural. As you’d expect from a headset marketed squarely at the eSports market, Fnatic does a great job with the microphone here.
In addition to a microphone mute switch, the XP sound card controller includes a mic level adjust rocker as well. This is great when you’re in-game, and your teammates complain about your mic’s volume. It’s much easier to quickly adjust mic sensitivity with the rocker instead of having to tweak it using audio settings on your computer.
Features and Software
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The headset uses a 3.5mm TRSS plug to connect to the USB sound card. You can omit the sound card and use the plug to connect to other devices. Fnatic says the headset is compatible with Macs, as well as Xbox, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 and (if you still have a headphone jack or adapter) mobile phones. The USB adapter is only fully supported under Windows, but we found the headset worked well plugged directly into an Xbox Series X controller and a Switch, though we missed the surround sound and the ability to adjust microphone levels.
There’s no bundled software, so you won’t be able to adjust equalization in-game. That said, the ability to toggle surround sound and adjust microphone and volume levels using physical buttons is more convenient when in-game than having to switch to an app.
Bottom Line
For a penny under $100, the Fnatic React+ performs like a more expensive headset. Audio is clear and sharp, both in your ears and coming from your microphone. The addition of effective, clear virtual 7.1-channel surround sound addresses the chief complaint about the original React (if you bought that, Fnatic offers a $29.99 bundle that includes the XP USB sound card and velour earpads to bring it up to React+ level), and the additional volume controls on the USB soundcard are a godsend if you need to quickly make adjustments during a frantic battle.
I’d love for the primary headset cable to be removable though. Not only would that make it less susceptible to being taken out by cable damage, but then we could omit the analog volume dial and microphone mute switch, which are redundant when using the USB sound card.
Overall, the Fnatic React+ offers superb audio for gaming and movies, decent–if unexceptional–music playback, and the headphones look cool without turning your head into a light show. So you’re not going to get strange looks if you’re wearing them during a Zoom call. The React+ also offers stiff competition to some of the best gaming headsets too, such as the HyperX Cloud Alpha. The React+ comes in at around the same price but adds 7.1 surround sound to the mix.
You can certainly find headsets with more features, but not in the React+’s price range. For gamers on a budget, this is a top choice.
Apple’s rumoured A14X chip could level up the performance of the next-generation iPad Pro, reports 9to5Mac.
A reference to the long-awaited processor, which is said to be “blisteringly fast”, was spotted in today’s iOS 14.5 beta release. The developer version of Apple’s next operating system mentions a chip named “13G”. But since no such chip exists, the mysterious “13G” is thought to refer to the A14X in disguise.
The tip seems to confirm a recent Bloomberg report, which claims the iPad Pro 2021 will boast “an updated processor that is on par with the faster M1 chip” found in the company’s current MacBook laptops.
If the latest leak checks out, it suggests the A14X – and therefore the next iPad Pro – could be unveiled sooner rather than later.
As it stands, the iPad Pro 2021 is tipped to launch next month. We’re expecting to see two versions, with the larger, 12.9-inch model boasting a Mini LED display. And with the A14X chip under the bonnet, there should be more than enough oomph to show off Mini LED’s LCD-beating contrast and colour reproduction.
The A14X chip is said to use a compact “System-on-Chip” design. There’s even been a leaked speed test by Geekbench that suggests the new chip is faster than the Intel Core i9 processor in the 2020 MacBook Pro (via AppleInsider).
Sounds impressive, but we’ll keep you up to date with all the latest leaks in the run up to Apple’s next launch event. We’re due a bumper crop of Apple devices this year, including the iPad Pro 2021, AirPods 3 wireless earbuds, AirPods Pro 2 noise-cancelling buds, iPhone 13 and new Apple TV.
MORE:
Read our in-depth review of the Apple iPad (2020)
Find the perfect Apple tablet for you: best iPads
Apple’s first over-ear headphones rated: AirPods Max
Google appears to be testing touchscreen controls for Stadia on Android. 9to5Google has analyzed the latest Stadia release on Android, and found multiple references to a “direct touch” feature. Once enabled, direct touch will allow Stadia users to tap, swipe, and pinch elements in games, or continue to use a Bluetooth or USB controller.
It’s not yet clear which games will support direct touch, although Stadia currently has very limited support for touchscreen controls in games like Monopoly that allow users to toggle a touch mode on. This new direct touch feature has only been discovered in the Android version of Stadia, but hopefully it makes its way to the web version for iOS, too.
Google hasn’t officially detailed direct touch for Stadia, so we don’t yet know how touch controls will be supported. Microsoft’s xCloud game streaming service has implemented a variety of touch controls across more than 20 games, allowing Xbox players to enjoy games without a controller.
Google also appears to be readying Android TV support for Stadia. 9to5Google notes that there are explicit references to Android TV in this latest Stadia app update. Stadia launched on Chromecast Ultra devices, but support for Android TV has been missing since Stadia’s debut more than a year ago.
Disney is officially bringing back its long-dormant National Treasure franchise with a new TV series for Disney Plus. Deadline reports that the series has been given a ten-episode greenlight and will reimagine the treasure-hunting franchise with a younger, more diverse cast.
The new series will reportedly feature a new main character, Jess Morales, a twenty-year-old DREAMer who will (in National Treasure traditional) “uncover her mysterious family history and recover lost treasure.” The show, set to be directed by Mira Nair, is also said to look to examine “issues of identity, community, historical authorship and patriotism.”
The original films — which starred Nicolas Cage as Benjamin Franklin Gates — take a decidedly apolitical stance to American history, using symbols like the Declaration of Independence as Americana-themed clues in the Indiana Jones-esque treasure hunt. A reboot that’s willing to more critically examine America’s place in history could be an interesting new spin on the franchise, depending on how it’s handled.
Also on board with the project is Jerry Bruckheimer, who produced the two original films, and Marianne and Cormac Wibberley, who were part of the writing team on both National Treasure and National Treasure: Book of Secrets.
The new project is also separate from the long-gestating third National Treasure film, which has been stuck in development hell for over a decade but would — at least in theory — see Cage and the original cast of the first two films return for another adventure.
Amazon is coming out with a third generation of its Alexa Voice Remote, and it includes some unwelcome new buttons that will take you to the Amazon Prime, Netflix, Disney Plus, and Hulu apps. If you’re one of the people who subscribes to and regularly uses all of those exact streaming services, this remote could be a nice upgrade. But for everyone else, the buttons will only add friction and annoyance to the Fire TV control experience.
We here at The Verge have talked about why we don’t like these buttons before. They turn your remote into a canvas for permanent advertising for services you may not even use, and they take up space that could be used for buttons that take you to services you do use. If you, say, don’t subscribe to Disney Plus or Hulu, then the buttons are, at best, useless to you and, at worst, waiting to be accidentally pressed, leaving you to back out of an app that’s begging you to subscribe.
The obvious alternative is to make the buttons mappable to the services you use and not put permanent branding on them. If the remote instead came with four buttons you could use to open your preferred streaming services, this would be a very different story. Alas, it is not. But hey, now the voice control button is an Alexa button for even more branding! (I will concede that this isn’t that bad, given that it was already called the Alexa Voice remote.)
The previous generation of the remote (which is still for sale), minus the branded buttons. Image: Amazon
I don’t want to make it sound like a few annoying buttons (that could actually be useful to some people) are the end of the world or that this new remote has no redeeming qualities. There’s actually one more new button that takes you to a “guide” showing you a cable-esque timeline of all the content available from the live providers you have, such as Sling, Hulu, or YouTube TV.
Unlike the branded ones, it’s small and not brightly colored, so it’s easy to ignore if you don’t need it (and it won’t be as prone to accidental presses). I just wish remote manufacturers would let us choose the functions we want on our remotes, especially since the streaming service landscape is ever-changing, and people have taken to subscribing to one service for a few months then switching to another.
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Sega’s latest retro gaming machine, the Astro City Mini, comes on the back of two very different products: the excellent, crowd-pleasing Genesis Mini and the baffling but adorable Game Gear Micro. The former was an obvious mainstream play, the latter a full-blown swing for esoterica.
The Astro City Mini manages to straddle both approaches. An all-in-one miniature re-creation of a specific type of arcade cabinet with 37 games preloaded, it probably wasn’t on many people’s retro console bingo cards. But the finished product is very well-executed and should be considered essential for Sega fans.
I got my Astro City Mini a few months ago when it was released here in Japan. I kept meaning to write about it, but I always found excuses to delve further into its catalog first. Well, now’s the time. Limited Run Games just announced that it’ll be selling, well, a limited run of the system for the US with localized packaging. Just 3,500 units will go on sale on Friday for $129.99.
Unlike the various consoles that have recently been re-created in miniature form, the Astro City wasn’t a specific system that anyone ever designed games for. It was a cabinet that Sega sold with the intention of letting arcade proprietors fit with various game boards, and it turned out to be one of the most popular and iconic cabinets ever produced. You can still find units today in many Japanese arcades playing host to any number of games.
That meant Sega had a lot of freedom when it came to choosing which titles to include on the Astro City Mini. Ultimately, it settled on 37 games that represent an idiosyncratic, diverse selection of the company’s arcade history, from big hitters like Virtua Fighter to lesser-known titles like Dark Edge that have never received home releases before.
The Mini hardware is chunky and solid, with Sega’s typical attention to detail. You can even buy a $39.99 “style kit” that includes a customizable marquee, a little stool, and a riser with a coin slot so that it can be used as a money bank. If there’s one thing Sega has been very good at lately (other than pumping out Yakuza games), it’s crafting cute replicas from its hardware heyday. The Astro City Mini is no different.
There are a couple of quirks, however. For some reason, Sega saw fit to use a 16:9 display even though none of the games run in widescreen; most of them are 4:3, and some are vertically oriented shooters. The only content that actually fills the screen is the main menus. You can fill in the pillarboxes with some themed borders, but the choice of panel feels like a big compromise. There’s clearly space for a 4:3 screen here, as SNK’s similar but much smaller Neo Geo Mini has a decent 4:3 panel with more vertical height than what you get on the Astro City Mini.
The Neo Geo Mini had terrible HDMI output, however, while the Astro City Mini looks far better on a TV screen. The image quality is much cleaner, and you do at least get some benefit from the wider menus, which let you shuffle through some screenshots and read some basic information about each game before launching it. (I’ll note here that while most of the games on the Astro City Mini are in Japanese, the text in most of them is fairly minimal, and the system menus can be fully switched to English.)
One element that the Astro City Mini does, unfortunately, share with the Neo Geo Mini is its lack of built-in battery, which is a bummer for a system with its own screen. It’d be a lot more convenient and practical if you could use it without tethering it to a wall or a USB battery pack. The situation is actually worse than with the Neo Geo Mini because Sega decided to go with Micro USB instead of USB-C.
But there is one area where the Astro City Mini obliterates the Neo Geo Mini, and it’s far more important to the overall success of the product: the built-in controls are fantastic. While SNK inexplicably used an analog-style stick for its 2D arcade cabinet, Sega has outfitted the Astro City Mini with a small but gloriously clicky stick along with hyper-responsive, tactile buttons. It feels like a high-quality arcade stick that’s been hit with a shrink ray, and in combination with the riser, it instantly elevates the Astro City Mini from “fun desk toy” to “legitimately good way to play these games.”
If you plan to play the Astro City Mini mostly on your TV, you might want to pick up a $27.99 extra controller — not least because the regular USB pads I tried didn’t work. Fortunately, the Astro City-themed ones that Sega designed are very good, with a smooth, circular D-pad and an arcade-style six-button layout. There’s also a full-size Astro City arcade stick that Sega released in Japan, though Limited Run Games isn’t selling it.
The Astro City Mini’s game selection isn’t necessarily what I was expecting, not least because most of the titles were released before the cabinet actually made its debut in 1993. The oldest game here is Flicky, which came out in 1984 on Sega’s System 1 board, and the newest is 1994’s Puyo Puyo 2 for the C2. Other than 1993’s polygonal Virtua Fighter, the lineup can basically be seen as a well-curated journey through Sega’s pre-3D arcade history. There are notable omissions like OutRun, though that probably has as much to do with the stick-based control scheme as anything else.
All of the games included are the original arcade versions rather than the generally inferior ports seen on the Master System and Genesis. That means that, unlike most re-releases, you’re getting canonical versions of big Sega games like Space Harrier, Fantasy Zone, Shinobi, and more. The emulation generally seems to be good. The only game that stood out to me otherwise was Virtua Fighter, which has a little lag and runs at a higher resolution than I expected.
For me, the main selling point of the Astro City Mini is the games that got limited or nonexistent home releases. Dark Edge is a boundary-pushing pre-polygon proto-3D fighting game that looks and plays like nothing else. Cotton is a great scrolling shooter that only came out on the TurboGrafx-CD and the Neo Geo Pocket Color in the West. Arabian Fight is a technically impressive beat-em-up that never left the arcades. Rad Mobile is Sega’s first 32-bit game and the first to feature Sonic the Hedgehog (albeit as a toy dangling from your car’s mirror), but its only home release was for the Sega Saturn and never left Japan. The Revenge of Death Adder is the most advanced entry in the Golden Axe series, yet it was arcade-exclusive until now.
The Astro City Mini’s lineup isn’t comprehensive, but it never really could have been. It’s easy to wonder about titles that were left out. If Virtua Fighter made it on, why not Virtua Racing, for example? And were three Columns games really necessary? What’s here, though, is a strong collection that combines major names with deep cuts and should keep any fan of arcade games occupied for a long time.
The Astro City Mini is an odd, niche product with some weird flaws, but I can’t help but love it. The games are great, and the hardware is fun to play with, which is ultimately what really matters. I think it lands in a nice middle ground between the nostalgic appeal of the Genesis Mini and the obscure charms of the Game Gear Micro, while making for a better coin bank than either.
That’s why I’m glad it’s getting a US release, however low-key. If you’re a certain kind of Sega fan, or a fan of arcade gaming in general, you’ll want to pick one up.
You have just two days left to lock in Disney Plus at its current price. Beginning on March 26th, Disney Plus subscribers based in the United States will have to pay $7.99 a month or $80 per year to access the robust library of movies and TV shows available on the streaming service. The company originally announced the pricing change in December of last year.
The new pricing for Disney Plus is a $1 increase, while the Disney Bundle, which includes streaming access to Disney Plus, Hulu, and ESPN Plus, will also be impacted, increasing from $12.99 per month to $13.99 per month for ad support, or from $18.99 per month to $19.99 per month for the plan with ad-free Hulu.
This is the first time Disney Plus has received a price hike, but it’s not surprising as more content comes to the streaming service in the coming months and years. Yesterday, Disney announced that both Black Widow and Cruella will simultaneously release on Disney Plus as $30 Premiere Access titles alongside their theatrical releases. This month, the streaming service also surpassed 100 million subscribers, less than a year and a half after the service launched.
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