Month: June 2024

What happened to the Xbox that only connected to the cloud? Now we have new details about Keystone

Thanks to a patent from June 2022, we have been able to see the first images.

Back in 2021, many will remember Keystone. Behind this name was an Xbox console whose main feature was that it could only connect to the cloud. The idea was on the table for quite some time, to the point that Microsoft ended up canceling it not so much because of its usefulness, but rather because the price at which it would be released would not be attractive enough for players to buy it (the goal was for it to cost 100 euros including the controller, but it was not feasible).

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Time has shown that cloud gaming is more present than ever, and you can even enjoy Xbox Cloud with just a mobile phone. Now, if you want to go back in time to learn more about Keystone, thanks to a published patent we have been able to learn more details about it.

Visually, this Microsoft console was going to be very similar to Xbox Series S and Xbox Series X, as shown in the images. In these, you can see that its square shape would be accompanied by a circular top, with certain similarities to the first PlayStation. Likewise, it also included a HDMI connection port and network cable, in addition to the classic button to pair the controller.

The patent images date back to June 2022, just a few months before Xbox boss Phil Spencer spoke openly about this console and why it was ultimately discarded.

Keystone was manufactured and tested by several Xbox workers, who were delighted with its performance. However, the aforementioned price prevented it from being mass-produced for commercialization. The question now is, will we see it at some point in the future? From here, we are certain of a resounding yes.

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Hades 2 continues to update its early access and receives great improvements

The bulk of the patch focuses on “improving the game’s combat” as well as the interface.

When Hades 2 was released in early access last May, we all knew very well that the game would receive many updates. After all, that’s what early access is for, to listen to players, see if it’s going in the right direction, and introduce relevant improvements. However, it is worth noting that we did not expect to see so many updates so soon, and now we are receiving the third one in just over a month and a half. Not bad.

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4.4
It is the first direct sequel developed by Supergiant Games, and the world is eager to play a game from these people again.

Supergiant Games has announced through a post on Steam what the main novelties of this patch are. In general terms, these focus on “improving the game’s combat“. How? Well, through the balance of weapons, items, Cauldron enchantments, and even some bosses. Normal and usual in these times. Likewise, new user interface icons have also been added to facilitate navigation and visualization of all elements.

The introduced updates are so many in terms of detail that we recommend you to check the patch notes from here.

2025, the date

Like any self-respecting early access game, Hades 2 will also release its version 1.0 at some point. When this will happen is still a secret, but it is known that 2025 is the chosen date by the studio to launch the game fully complete.

For now, what the American team has communicated is that at the end of this same 2024, Hades 2 will receive a major content update, with new areas, enemies, and much more. However, we will have to wait until the end of the year for that.

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4.4
This is the first direct sequel developed by Supergiant Games, and the world is eager to play a game from these people again.

Elden Ring could come to the cinema, or even other media

Elden Ring has been a tremendous success and, according to reports, From Software is interested in continuing to expand it through other media.

Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree, controversies about its difficulty aside, has been a huge success. Not only has it received unanimous acclaim from the press, but it is also achieving spectacular sales. Reaching 5 million units sold in less than a week, it is one of the most successful expansions of all time. If not the most. Proving that From Software has long ceased to be a company that makes games for a few.

It is no longer such a niche that the director of the studio and the game, Hidetaka Miyazaki, has been interviewed by the British national newspaper The Guardian. There, he has been asked about the expansion, the future of action RPGs, and even how he has prepared to tackle this DLC. This has left us with some funny quotes, like Miyazaki stating that “the truth is that I am very bad at playing video games,” and others that are genuinely interesting. Such as wanting to continue exploring the Intermediate Lands beyond the realm of video games.

According to Miyazaki’s explanation in the interview, he wouldn’t mind seeing another interpretation or adaptation of Elden Ring in another medium. But he has also added that, for that to happen, a potential partner with enough strength would have to appear to carry it out. Considering that From Software has no experience or interest in expanding beyond video game development, it would be their partner who would have to do the hard work of carrying out that adaptation or new interpretation.

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Elden Ring - Shadow of the Erdtree

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On the other hand, this is not something impossible. Although everyone automatically thinks of a movie, there are other forms of art. Elden Ring already has two successful manga adaptations in Japan. Adaptations to literature, anime or even a live-action series should not be ruled out, and they would be less expensive and difficult to produce than a movie. Even if, as Miyazaki rightly points out, it would be a matter of finding the right partner to carry out those projects.

In any case, what seems evident is that Elden Ring 2 is not something that is on the studio’s horizon. Although in the past they were not closed to the possibility, under Miyazaki’s leadership, From Software has preferred not to work on sequels as much as possible. With the exception of Dark Souls and the studio’s previous franchises, they have not made sequels to any of their titles. So, unless something changes, if we want to see more of Midland, they will probably have to find one of those powerful partners to carry out the project.

Some of the links added in the article are part of affiliate campaigns and may represent benefits for Softonic.

Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree confirms what we were expecting—it has sold really well

We all knew that Shadow of the Erdtree, the Elden Ring expansion, was going to sell well, but we needed to know how well: a little, a lot, superlative, etc. According to the new data provided by Bandai Namco, we can say that the expansion has been a huge success in sales.

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2.8
Elden Ring is an open-world role-playing game created by FromSoftware.

Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree has sold over 5 million units in just three days since its release. The figure is impressive, but even more so when you consider that Elden Ring has sold 25 million copies, meaning that 1 in every 5 players who own the base game already have the expansion… in its first 72 hours!

Despite the complaints received about the difficulty of the expansion, From Software has already responded by releasing a patch that lowers it in some areas.

Unless there is a major surprise, this will be the first and last expansion for Elden Ring. Looking forward to seeing what they have prepared for us from Japan.

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2.8
Elden Ring is an open-world role-playing game created by FromSoftware.

The origins of ‘Death Stranding’, in a restaurant and without any kind of script

Ahora hemos descubierto que tampoco es así para los actores que interpretan a los personajes. Es el caso de Norman Reedus, al que conoceréis por ‘Death Stranding’ y que aceptó el proyecto sin leer una línea del guion.

You may think that the world of video games is an unusual place, filled with glamour, where decisions are made in glass offices following incredible presentations. However, it’s not always like that. For programmers, certainly, it usually isn’t, but now we have discovered that it’s not like that for the actors who play the characters either. This was the case for Norman Reedus, whom you may know from ‘Death Stranding’ and who accepted the project without even reading a line of the script.

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Sushi Stranding

Basically… this came to be because there was no script when Hideo Kojima first decided to meet with him at a sushi restaurant and propose that he be the lead character of a project that hadn’t even started. Kojima himself stated on Twitter, “He said yes instantly even though there wasn’t even a script. The following month we scanned him and took screenshots for a trailer.”

The trailer was released at E3 2016, but the game wouldn’t be released until 2019. By that time, the actor was already well known for his role as Daryl Dixon, which he has played in three different series: ‘The Walking Dead’, ‘The Walking Dead: Origins’, and, you guessed it, ‘The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon’. But fame certainly didn’t stop him from taking on a risky project with no script, story, or anything similar. But he had passion. Let’s see who can say the same today.

Back then, Kojima remembers, “I was still skinny and below my recommended weight”. Reedus and he became friends, obviously. So much so, he responded to Kojima’s tweet saying “My dude”. Both will come together again in ‘Death Stranding 2’, because after the success of the first one, frankly… who could refuse a sequel?

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Can a chatbot replace a psychologist?

The successful operation of chatbots like the famous ChatGPT by OpenAI has made many of us wonder if something like this would be possible. Until today, the answer could be a “yes,” at least to some extent.

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According to Techcrunch, a study revealed that 80% of people who used ChatGPT for mental health counseling considered it a good alternative to traditional therapy. On the other hand, another report also revealed that the use of chatbots can be effective in reducing symptoms related to depression and anxiety. However, there is something that ChatGPT lacks: the human factor.

One of the keys to successful treatment is the established relationship between therapist and patient. It is very important to feel safe and have a professional who shows empathy and trust. In fact, it is essential for the patient to be able to face their problem and overcome it successfully.

However, not everyone has the necessary facilities to receive therapy. This is what small companies like Sonia want to solve with the use of AI. Its three founders, Dustin Kliebe, Lukas Wolf, and Chris Aeberli, are convinced that you can receive quality psychological assistance with the help of artificial intelligence.

As Klebe explains in TechCrunch, “to some extent, creating an AI-driven therapist is like developing a medication, in the sense that we are building a new technology instead of packaging an existing one.” Its application, Sonia, uses various generative models to analyze what users say during “therapy sessions” and respond accordingly.

Through cognitive-behavioral therapy techniques, the application assigns “tasks” to reinforce the reflections that arise from the conversations. It also helps identify the main factors that cause stress in the patient.

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Dead Rising is back! The remastering of the classic looks (more or less) incredible

Classic? How is Dead Rising a classic if it came out the day before yesterday, in 2006, 18 years ago? Sorry for reminding you of your age. It was necessary to understand why Capcom is remastering the most fun zombie game in history for PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. A supermarket, a bunch of zombies, three days to survive, and a Frank West who, frankly, has seen better days.

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En tu cabeza, zombie

At first glance, it’s a perfect game to tweak with today’s capabilities and, for the most part, the teaser for Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster (or DRDR for friends) is exactly as we imagined… except for the voice and appearance of its protagonist, which have been redesigned and don’t look very good. The good part is that they have time to fix it since the game doesn’t have a release date yet.

In fact, it seems strangely happy to fall into a shopping mall infested with zombies, when it is actually us who should have a good time, not him. Hopefully, this teaser will soon be forgotten with the arrival of the game itself and Capcom will have hit the nail on the head to keep a franchise that has sadly been on the bench since 2017, with the PS4 version of Dead Rising 4. Are we excited? Of course we are. Warm up the engine of your lawnmower.

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Whee, from TikTok, fails to take off: few downloads and scarce advertising

At the beginning of this month, TikTok launched a new social app called Whee, designed for sharing photos and communicating with friends similarly to Instagram. The app allows the use of photo filters and includes a messaging feature, but the company’s plans for this application are rather uncertain after a pretty slow start with relatively few downloads and no visible promotion through Apple’s search ads, according to data from Appfigures echoed by TechCrunch.

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Since its launch on June 18th, Whee has remained largely invisible in the App Store due to a lack of marketing actions. The app has not managed to enter the list of top free apps on Apple or the top 500 social apps in the markets where it’s available, although this has started to change slightly. Until Tuesday, Whee recorded only 13,000 global downloads on iOS and about 10,000 on Android, according to Google Play data.

For now, Whee’s main market on iOS is Malaysia, with 2,400 downloads, followed by Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Peru, and Indonesia, with figures ranging from 800 to 1,200 downloads per country. These figures indicate that the downloads probably come from people who stumbled upon Whee by chance. Since social apps belong to a smaller market with fewer apps, Whee has managed to enter the Top 500 of social apps, although it has never reached the Top 10.

Appfigures also notes that ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok, has not yet advertised Whee through Apple’s search ads, a strategy that could improve the app’s visibility. Furthermore, user reviews from those who have found Whee are mixed, averaging an overall rating of 3.6 out of 5 based on 31 reviews, of which only 10 have written reviews.

The arrival of Whee could be a strategy by ByteDance to maintain its presence in the United States in the face of the possible ban of TikTok in the country, something similar to what it tried with Lemon8, another of the company’s social apps that didn’t work. Will it be a new case of “here today, gone tomorrow”?

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‘The Legend of Zelda’ triumphs once again and becomes the most desired game of the season

Pero hay un futuro lanzamiento que los ha eclipsado a todos. Y no importa que sea cenital, que no tenga la profundidad de los últimos títulos de la saga ni las quejas previsibles y tiquismiquis de unos pocos.

Sometimes it seems like we have more games we want to play than free time to do it. Just in the next few months, titles like ‘World of Warcraft: The War Within’, ‘Star Wars Outlaws’, ‘Astro Bot’, ‘Silent Hill 2 Remake’, and ‘Assassin’s Creed Shadows’, which are not few, will be accumulating on our shelf. But there’s a future release that has overshadowed them all. And it doesn’t matter if it’s top-down, if it doesn’t have the depth of the latest titles in the saga or the predictable and nitpicky complaints of some.

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For Hyrule!

I’m talking, of course, about ‘The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom’, which already dominates the most desired and most anticipated games lists. According to IGN Playlist, which usually gets it right, in second place is ‘Doom: The Dark Ages’ and in third place is ‘Astro Bot’, leaving ‘Gears of War: E-Day’ off the podium. It’s been 38 years since the release of the first ‘Zelda’ on NES, and if one thing is clear, it is that the audience always wants more.

Everything seems to suggest, moreover, that the Nintendo Switch end-of-party fireworks (accompanied by sagas like ‘Metroid’, ‘Mario Party’, and ‘Mario & Luigi’) will make the audience want to keep playing Nintendo instead of forgetting about the company after a few months of abandonment (as it easily could have done).

In fact, ‘Mario & Luigi: Fraternal Connection’ is ranked 6th on the list, ‘Metroid Prime 4: Beyond’ is in 10th place, ‘Super Mario Party Jamboree’ is in 19th place, and much further down, ‘Donkey Kong Country Returns HD’ is in the 24th spot. There are always those who want to declare Nintendo dead, but over the past four decades, there is only one absolute truth in the world of video games: never believe Nintendo is finished.

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NASA hires SpaceX to dismantle the International Space Station

NASA has chosen SpaceX to build a “space tug” to safely deorbit the US sections of the International Space Station (ISS) at the end of its operational life in 2030. According to the statement from the US space agency, this vehicle will be responsible for the controlled deorbit of the ISS to ensure its safe reentry into Earth’s atmosphere.

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The contract, valued at $843 million, has been given to SpaceX to develop the “U.S. Deorbit Vehicle”. This spacecraft will guide the station, which has a size comparable to a football field, on its final trajectory towards Earth. “It is crucial to prepare for the safe and responsible deorbit of the International Space Station in a controlled manner,” NASA said, highlighting the need to avoid risks to populated areas.

Inhabited since 2000, the ISS has been a key laboratory for over 3,300 experiments in microgravity, allowing research that’s impossible on Earth, in fields such as medicine and technology. However, the station is aging and experiencing problems that NASA and Roscosmos, the Russian space agency, have been unable to solve, including the appearance of multiple microscopic leaks.

International Space Station from space
International Space Station from space

In a recent study, NASA evaluated alternatives to the destruction of the ISS, including dismantling it in orbit or raising it to a higher orbit using a spacecraft like SpaceX’s Starship. However, any preservation attempt proved to be technically and economically unfeasible. NASA also mentioned that the operational life of the ISS could be extended beyond 2030, but this would require reaching agreements with its international partners.

With a development and construction cost of approximately $150 billion and annual operating expenses of $4 billion, NASA believes that private space stations, funded through the Commercial LEO Destinations (CLD) program, could be a more cost-effective alternative to replace the ISS in the future.

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