You put the controller where? Check out the weirdest video game controllers we could find!
To quote the Angry Video Game Nerd, the most important part of a game is “being able to play it, of course.”
From the novel Atari joystick to the revolutionary Wii Remote, there have been hundreds of controllers over the years. Most controllers today have a standard layout with four face buttons, four shoulder buttons, and two joysticks.
However, some developers took it upon themselves to think outside of the box. What resulted were some mishmashes of plastic and circuitry that most people couldn’t have ever imagined. For this list, we took the weirdest options we could find that someone thought was going to revolutionize gaming.
Top 5 most bizarre gaming accessories ever made
5. The Wii Vitality Sensor
Out of all the major gaming companies, Nintendo has always been the most willing to experiment when it comes to hardware. The Wii Remote became a cultural phenomenon for its basic design and ease of use. Sadly, not every Nintendo controller can be the Wii Remote.
Enter the Wii Vitality Sensor: a product that would’ve clipped onto your finger to detect your pulse. The sensor would then send this information to the game, changing it in various ways. For example, a horror game could send something to scare you if it felt your pulse was getting too low. While an interesting idea in concept, the peripheral was mocked brutally by the gaming press when it was revealed at E3 2009. In the end, it ended up being canceled.
4. U-Force (NES)
What’s one thing all video game peripherals have in common? Buttons. Apparently, nobody told the developers of the U-Force, a bizarre accessory made for the NES back in the late ’80s.
The U-Force projects a “three-dimensional power force” from its black screens. Players wave their hands around to control their games. Each game required a different code to work (similar to the Power Glove).
While most games would be awkward to control by waving your hands around, certain games actually get more fun. For example, Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out has you punching into the power field to make your character punch on screen. For such a weird controller, the U-Force is shockingly functional.
3. Resident Evil 4 Chainsaw Controller (PS2 and Gamecube)
Easily the most gruesome controller ever made, the Resident Evil 4 Chainsaw controller is certainly something. Have you ever been to a friend’s house and they hand you a crappy knock-off controller? Imagine them handing you this. You’d run screaming out of the house before even stopping to think if the bloodstains were real.
The possibilities of this controller for shenanigans are hilarious. Can you imagine playing Kirby with this thing? Madden? Mario Kart? It’s just so brutal that there’s basically no game you can play without feeling weird besides Resident Evil 4. In fairness, that game is horrifying, so you’ll probably wildly swing your controller around in fruitless fear at least once or twice.
2. Steel Batallion (Xbox)
This is a controller that doesn’t mess around. Made in 2002 this controller has more than 40 buttons, three pedals, and two joysticks. Clear out the living room because this massive beast requires a ton of space to set up. You might as well plop the rest of the mech down if you’re gonna buy this behemoth.
Most of the buttons light up, and they offer feedback to feel as realistic as possible. Before starting every level in Steel Battalion, you must initiate the startup sequence on your controller. This involves hitting many switches and buttons. If you’re even remotely interested in giant robots (and who isn’t?) this controller is the coolest thing in the entire world.
To give you an idea of just how crazy this thing is, here’s the startup sequence in action:
1. Rez Trance Vibrator (PS2)
We’ve heard of rumble packs in games, but this is ridiculous.
Rather than feeling the vibrations from the intensity of the game in your hands, you’d feel them, uh, a little further south.
This controller was only released in Japan… for obvious reasons. This might’ve been an awkward one to ask Santa to get you for Christmas.
The designer of the Rez Trance Vibrator, Tetsuya Mizuguchi, said that the controller was never meant to be used in any X-rated way. However, users had other ideas and smoked a cigarette once they were done.
In conclusion
Okay, so this journey took us to a weirder place than we imagined. We hope that we were able to give you an insight into the weird world of game controllers. We also hope that you are inspired to keep the controller in your hands, and out of your… well, out of anywhere else you might want to put it.
Need to rebuild an iconic landmark that’s been struck by tragedy? Don’t worry, there could be an app for that.
As the dust begins to settle on the frenzied and emotional days that followed the tragic fire that struck the Notre Dame cathedral in Paris, a plan of action is beginning to emerge. With hundreds of millions of dollars already raised to aid Notre Dame’s resurgence, and an architectural competition launched to redesign the Cathedral’s lost spire, it is clear that Notre Dame will rise from the ashes of the fire that claimed it. Will it be the same though, or is a lot of the Cathedral’s historical significance lost forever?
Well, there are apps for this exact kind of thing. Over the last few years, a number of conservation projects have been established, designed to digitally capture sites of historical importance so that they can be kept for posterity’s sake. Let’s take a look at a few of these in greater detail and see just how they could help restore Notre Dame to its former glory.
Need to rebuild an iconic landmark that’s been struck by tragedy? Don’t worry; there could be an app for that
Last year, we first reported on the Open Heritage Project, which is a partnership between Google and the non-profit organization CyArk. The Open Heritage Project uses 3D laser scanners and drone-mounted DSLR cameras to capture areas of cultural and historical significance around the world that could be in danger due to political or geographical instability. Think about the destruction of Palmyra and Aleppo in Syria and you’ll have a good idea about the types of locations the Open Heritage Project is looking to digitally preserve.
The cool thing about the Open Heritage Project is that it has digitally recreated many of the landmarks it has scanned. These can be viewed from your desktop and in some cases even walked around and explored via virtual reality technology. To give this a go, you can visit the Open Heritage Project website or download the Google Arts and Culture app.
Unfortunately, and rather ironically, a Parisienne Cathedral wasn’t considered sufficiently at risk for the Open Heritage Project to scan. The good news, however, is that they’re not the only gunslinger in town. An organization called Mapping Gothic has also been using digital scanning technology to preserve the Gothic architectural wonders of France and they have complete digital scans of Notre Dame, which they took back in 2015.
According to Extreme Tech, the Mapping Gothic team, led by art historian Andrew Tallon, used a similar digital laser scanner and high-resolution photography method to the one described above to capture an impressive digital recreation of the iconic French Cathedral.
“The actual laser modeling is done by mounting a laser from a tripod and shooting the gallery, taking time to measure the distance between the scanner and every point it hits. Each one of these points represents a distance — by mapping millions of points from a single location, historians can measure how the building expands and contracts during the day, as well as how it shifts over longer periods of time. By combining the point cloud data generated by the laser scanner with on-site photographs taken at the same time, Tallon has created extremely accurate models of the underlying structure and design of the cathedral, and identified points where the cathedral’s masons either deviated from the original plan or paused work to allow the ground to settle.”
National Geographic did a great video on Tallon’s methods when he captured the National Cathedral in Washington:
There is no news yet about whether the Mapping Gothic scans will be used to help rebuild Notre Dame, but they are there should they be needed. Interestingly enough, however, those scans are not the only recreation of Notre Dame out there. In fact, another one allows you to walk through the historic cathedral just like you can with some of the Open Heritage Project scans. Furthermore, this other recreation even allows you to climb all over the magnificent building. We’re talking here about Assassin’s Creed: Unity.
The thing about Assassin’s Creed: Unity is that it did a great job of recreating Paris at the time of the Revolution. The game looks great and a lot of work was put into making the virtual Paris look exactly like the real one back in the day. All except for one detail. At the time the game is set, Notre Dame’s famous Spires still hadn’t been added to the Cathedral. When making Unity, however, Ubisoft decided that it was too integral to the essence of the Notre Dame everybody knows and loves today so they put them in the game anyway. This makes the Unity recreation of Notre Dame complete, in the modern sense.
To build Notre Dame in the game, one particular member of the Assassin’s Creed: Unity team, Caroline Miousse, spent two years modeling the real thing. In all, it took up about 80% of the work she did on the game. According to The Verge, Miousse spent years fussing over every tiny detail, including the texture and placement of every brick, and even which paintings were on which walls. The results are quite spectacular and should be seen to be believed.
France wants to rebuild Notre Dame in time for the Paris Olympics in 2024. This is a very short period of time to rebuild a Gothic masterpiece and will be a tough task. As we’ve seen though, there is plenty of information available to whomever gets the job and should they wish, they’ll have all the data they need to rebuild Notre Dame exactly as it once stood, in all its former glory. On top of that, we already have both digital and virtual recreations and we can still get up close and personal to the famous French Cathedral even as investigators still try to figure out what actually caused the fire.
Google is using VR to help conserve the world’s cultural heritage
Build the mansion of your dreams, and make your friends jealous with Matchington Mansion!
If your dream is to have a big fancy mansion fall into your lap, it’s probably not going to happen. The good news is, you can live out this dream with an addicting app called Matchington Mansion.
In Matchington Mansion, you play as a character who has been gifted a huge mansion and told that it only needs a little love.
You have some help from your best friend Tiffany, an interior designer, who is excited to help you decorate and give you tips. Upon visiting the home for the first time, the door completely falls apart after just knocking on it. You then realize that maybe this home needs a lot more work than you thought.
Just then, a new character named Rex enters, and you learn that he believes that the mansion should have been left to him. He’s planning to get his hands on it somehow so he can knock it down and build a casino on the land. Once you shake him off, you go inside and discover that the mansion is an absolute mess.
Here is where the game begins! Play games of matching different shapes and colors of decorative pillows, books, and other items. Three of a kind is a match, and four of a kind creates a firecracker which explodes and knocks out more pillows.
Match five to create rainbows which clear pillows in whichever color that you choose from the entire board. When you win a round of matching, you earn coins and stars which you spend on decorating and renovating the mansion.
It may seem easy, but keep in mind that you only have a certain number of moves to clear the board. If you run out, you have to start the level over. The more levels you complete, the more decorating you can do. This advances the story and allows you to unlock more rooms in the mansion to clean up.
You can visit other players’ mansions, purchase new artwork, unlock mysterious chests with hidden keys, and work toward making the mansion the home of your dreams.
Tired of Dungeons and Dragons? Try one of these alternatives!
When most people think of pen and paper (or “tabletop”) RPGs, they immediately think of Dungeons & Dragons. While this may be the most popular, there are hundreds of tabletop games, with at least a dozen new games coming out each year.
While D&D might not be for everyone, there is bound to be at least one tabletop game that catches your interest. Here are some of the best alternatives to look into.
While most high fantasy games like D&D are set in the past, Shadowrun is set in the distant future. It retains many magical elements of standard high fantasy games, such as varying races and magical abilities.
The game’s backdrop is cyberpunk rather than a mythical landscape. The game also uses a freeform skill system instead of actual classes. This makes character abilities incredibly customizable. This is a perfect game for anyone who enjoys futuristic settings.
The main competitor to D&D, Pathfinder is another high fantasy tabletop game that uses the same engine as Dungeons and Dragons. In fact, Pathfinder was actually created as an extension of D&D 3.5 editions.
As such, the gameplay between the two is very similar. Pathfinder is typically a good choice for anyone who wants more options. D&D only creates a finite amount of content per edition. Certain races and classes have to be homebrewed if you want to play them in a D&D campaign.
Pathfinder has continued to build on the same content, giving you dozens of options to choose from. This makes it a particularly good alternative to 3.5 fans, as it’s basically the same game but with more content.
The story follows the same adventures of the original H.P. Lovecraft’s “Call of Cthulhu” story. Players are regular people dropped into a mysterious world. The classes are based on normal professions, and give unique abilities to the players based on their past.
Players have to worry about both their physical and mental health in order to survive. The game is well known for major player deaths throughout an entire campaign.
Have you ever wanted to live out an episode of “The Walking Dead?” Well, this is the perfect RPG to live out your zombie apocalypse nightmares with your friends.
As one of the most successful Kickstarter RPGs, Apocalypse World is the first game to use the Powered by the Apocalypse engine. The game has one of the most unique GM roles ever developed, as there is no prior planning for the MC.
The MC, along with the players, develop the backstory and settings of their post-apocalyptic world. Players each follow a player book based on their class and develop a shared history together. This game has been the inspiration for other popular RPGs like Dungeon World and Monster of the Week.
If you’re new to roleplaying games, then there is no better campaign to play then Beyond the Wall. This game features a simple and easy-to-learn system. The scenarios and character sheets are pre-built, so there is no need to take the time in coming up with new characters or situations. It requires no planning and low maintenance to keep the game going. This is the easiest RPG to get into when you want to have a small and fast campaign.
In conclusion
One of the best things that non-D&D tabletop games tend to have in common is how easy it is to be a GM. While D&D can require hours of planning before a game even begins, many of these games have preestablished settings and situations, making it a much easier adjustment. So, if you’re looking to GM for the first time, you may want to try one of these games before going to D&D.
Discover how the legend created these iconic characters.
The Metal Gear franchise stands out from other video games because of its cinematic storytelling, expansive narrative, and allegorical metaphors for the real world. It’s a zany, complex miasma of espionage, intrigue, triple-agents, secrets, plot twists, and over-the-top drama and action sequences (many of which were inspired by Hollywood movies), wherein gameplay gets steadily stronger as the series progresses to more recent titles. While the tactical espionage game is itself clever and fun, the other side of the coin is the plot and characters.
The mind behind the series is Hideo Kojima, a now-55-year-old man who studied economics at a university and got into gaming around the same time. His peers were surprised when he announced his intent to get into the gaming industry; Kojima had previously expressed an interest in directing film. He brought his love of film to gaming, and the result was one of the most detailed and cinematic series to ever land. With the exception of the 2004 Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes, Kojima wrote, directed, and designed every game in the Metal Gear series, from the 1987 Metal Gear all the way to 2015’s The Phantom Pain.
Kojima and Carpenter were friendly acquaintances, and when Kojima expressed an interest in making a video game protagonist based off Carpenter’s own, Carpenter had no problem with it, even quelling talk of copyright infringement. “I told them not to do that,” Carpenter told the irate lawyers, “I know the director of these games, and he’s a nice guy, or at least he’s nice to me.”
Kurt Russell’s “Snake Plissken” in “Escape from New York”
While Kojima was a huge fan of American film, he wasn’t as big of a fan of western gaming. “Western video game designers, they’re the ones with the interesting technologies,” said Kojima in an interview. “They know how to use the hardware and they are very imaginative. And they are artistic. But sometimes, because they are so artistic, they forget what games should feel like, that games need to feel right and they need to play well.”
For Kojima, a big consideration for his characters was that while they can live, breathe, and behave like people, they’re also living in a video game meant to be played by a wide demographic. “It’s like serving food in a restaurant,” he said; “you need to be sensitive to the customer. You need to be nice and providing service. Maybe that was lacking in the western games, and that was what [Shigeru] Miyamoto was so great at doing.”
Collaboration with Yoji Shinkawa
Kojima began working with Japanese artist Yoji Shinkawa as early as 1994 on “Policenauts.” Over the years, the two spearheaded the design of Metal Gear’s characters, working in close collaboration to achieve an image they both felt proud of. “I come up with the setting and convey the character’s name, age, habits, background, and language to Yoji,” Kojima said of the process. “Then he creates the designs based on that info, and I check them and give him feedback. His booth is right next to mine, so we’re constantly communicating with each other.”
Shinkawa concept art for Snake
Kojima would draw inspiration and put ideas together (sometimes even from other members of the dev team) for both gameplay and character design, then he would hand the wheel over to Shinkawa to turn the ideas into a tangible visual design. “Once the basic design takes shape, I then leave things in his hands and check back when the model is done. Generally, we’re constantly moving in tandem – checking, verifying, and discussing designs at each and every phase.”
Snake
Snake long before his transition to Big Boss
“In all games, you have Snake. He’s not only my favorite character, he’s the one that’s closest to me,” said Kojima. “By always having Snake in every game, his background slowly develops over time. I kind of relate that to myself growing up.” Of all the characters in the saga, Snake is the one thread that ties it all together.
Astute fans will point out that while every protagonist (except for Raiden) is named ‘Snake,’ there are actually two protagonists with the same title: Snake (Big Boss), and Solid Snake. This point actually illustrates Kojima’s point even better; there are many elements to a person’s actual personality, and as Kojima (and the players) grew older, the degree to which they can relate to a character becomes strained. As a result, the original Big Boss was both the hero and the villain of the series.
Solid Snake (left) and Big Boss (right)
The first Snake
Kojima and Shinkawa actually disagreed on how Snake should look and feel in the original Metal Gear Solid. “I asked Shinkawa to create an older, hard-boiled, dandy character, but he said it’s better to have a younger character,” Kojima recalls. “So Solid Snake became about 20 to 40. I asked him to make the character nimble and muscular, with the body like a Van Damme. The result came out to be the one you will see in the game. He has to perform espionage, so I wanted the character to be like a cat but still have a strong presence.”
As for his personality, Kojima originally intended for Snake to be a blank slate. “While he started with no background, over 20 years, that personality has been slowly fulfilled. While this is a character that I created, recently I feel like he has developed his own personality, and established his own background,” he said in an interview.
What makes this sentiment so true is that not only have the events of the series molded and changed Snake throughout the games, but they’ve also brought the player through the same growth. By having a blank slate slowly grow richer with experiences and relationships, the player evolves alongside him, gradually learning who he is and relating to him more and more. This way his character is slowly filled as the player intertwines his own experience with Snake’s.
By Metal Gear Solid 2, Kojima realized a dilemma: He wanted to give more personality to Snake, but given the lack of control he had over the player’s decisions, felt it would be very difficult. “I wanted to give depth to the Snake character, which is very hard to do when the player is playing Snake himself,” said Kojima. “I got the idea of distancing the viewer from Snake to provide a more objective view of him. Thanks to this system, Snake grows in stature. When you play Raiden [in MGS 2], who is only a beginner, and then encounter Snake he suddenly seems more impressive.”
While the fan response to Snake (both Big Boss and Solid Snake) was generally positive, critics were less excited about the surprise MGS 2 protagonist, Raiden. Kojima knew the character was a risk, but strongly felt it was a necessary one. “I put my career on the line with Raiden!” he said. “I did it to entertain people, by totally destroying what I had built up, earned and achieved with MGS 1. I really wanted people to be amused by that, but they started bashing him and I guess I wasn’t happy.”
What made Raiden more interesting, however, was not so much the character, but his relationship with Solid Snake. As you might expect, that relationship was also inspired by movies.
Solid Snake and Raiden team up
One of the biggest inspirations for Snake and Raiden actually came from Godzilla and King Kong. Solid Snake was supposed to be a metaphor for Godzilla – the resulting product of man and science. Raiden, on the other hand, was closer to King Kong – lured by a woman, captured by a greedy villain (Solidus in MGS 2), and taken to the city. Kojima explained that the parallel continues at the game’s end, when Solid Snake frees Raiden, and he’s allowed to return from whence he came. Snake, on the other hand (still going by the Godzilla metaphor) cannot be at peace as long as Cipher and Metal Gear exist.
Otacon
Pull yourself together, Otacon!
“Otacon’s presence is very big for me too,” said Kojima of the wimpier engineer/mechanic from earlier Metal Gear games. “Otacon is not a heroic character; he doesn’t fight, he has no courage, he constantly gets rejected by women. But I think he has a very important role in the Metal Gear Solid series because of all that.”
Otacon was meant to serve as a foil to the glamorous and gritty spy turned war hero, Snake. “I am guessing that most people playing Metal Gear Solid are a lot closer to Otacon,” Kojima said wryly, “but through their actions, they feel they assume the role of Snake. By placing Otacon between the player and Snake, I think this adds a lot of depth to the game. That’s why I try to consistently push Otacon into being an important part of the story.”
Women in MGS
EVA is awesome … but does her jumpsuit need to be unzipped?
One of the biggest points of contention in Metal Gear is its portrayal of female characters, who are nearly always overtly sexualized and sometimes even physically harassed on-screen. Perhaps most controversial is Quiet, the scantily-clad sniper in The Phantom Pain. Kojima made an attempt to argue the reason for her design, but it doesn’t hold much water, even with other game development teams.
There may not be much defense for a character like Quiet, but that’s not to say that all women in the Metal Gear are there just for the visual enjoyment of the male nerd demographic. Indeed, some of Metal Gear’s most powerful characters are women, namely The Boss, the antagonist and mentor of Snake in MGS 3 who schools him in virtually every way. Other characters like the deadly Sniper Wolf, the capable spy Eva, or the motherly Para-Medic are further examples. Is there blatant sexualizing of the female characters in MGS? Yes. Is this the case with every character? No.
As times change, so too must Kojima’s character design. The first Metal Gear game came out 31 years ago, and since then Snake has evolved and gone through several different incarnations. When Kojima was asked what, to him, was the ideal representation of Snake, his response was immediate: “Snake is and has always been nothing more than an extension of the player.” If you’ve played The Phantom Pain you may have noticed some pretty big character departures when comparing him to Snake during Peace Walker or Snake Eater.
Big Boss returns to being a man of few words.
The decision was a conscious choice, an attempt to return Snake to that blank slate that he started as, as the character slowly grows into the villain of the mid-series. A mostly silent protagonist (a la Mad Max in “Mad Max 2,” Master Chief in Halo, or Karl Fairburne in Sniper Elite) was agreed upon to thin the line between player and character in an effort of creating a more immersive narration. It’s weaning the series narrative away from Snake and pushing it more towards the world and supporting cast who will soon step into the spotlight. After the events of The Phantom Pain “it’s the characters around [Snake] who will expand the story,” says Kojima.
Who’s your favorite Metal Gear character? Let us know in the comments below, and stay tuned with Softonic for more character analysis, and the latest in gaming news.
While we wait for an official Borderlands 3 trailer, the teaser provides some free goodies.
Soon enough, we will be back to shooting Psychos in the face and fending off hordes of Bullymongs in another loot-n’-shoot adventure on Pandora.
Gearbox Software released a teaser trailer for a new Borderlands game on March 27, with a message at the end to tune in March 28 at 2 p.m. EDT for a full-fledged game trailer. You can watch the teaser trailer below.
Rather than flat-out calling the new game “Borderlands 3,” the trailer instead dubs the game “Mask of Mayhem.”
The trailer may be hinting at what might be key plot details by showing a hoard of Psychos kneeling before two vault hunters holding up an inverted vault symbol.
Fans speculate that the two nameless vault hunters might be the main villains of the game. It is unclear whether Handsome Jack, the main villain from Borderlands 2, will make a triumphant return, but a quick shot of his mask may hint that the wise-cracking baddie will make an appearance
For the savvy viewer, the trailer does have several hidden messages waiting to be found. If you slow down the video when light starts flashing around the 16-second mark, you can translate it in Morse code which relays the message, “Count the Sirens.” Sirens are powerful characters in the Borderlands universe, and only six can exist at a time, according to Borderlands lore. As we currently know of only two living Sirens (Lilith and Maya), we can assume that more are on the way.
Throughout the trailer, there are hidden lines of code which form the full shift code C35TB-WS6ST-TXBRK-TTTJT-JJH6H. If you redeem the code in Borderlands 2 or Borderlands: The Pre Sequel you get the message, “Thank you for being excited enough to dissect the new bandit mask with the grace of Dr. Zed! As a reward, you have been granted Salvador’s Community Day skin and 5 Golden Keys! There are more skins to be granted, so good luck out there, Vault Hunter!”
The final hidden message is a small line of Braille, which reads, “Like, follow, and obey.” The line is faintly visible in bottom right of the shot of Mordecai, Brick, and Tina. This might just be a draw to follow Gearbox and Borderlands on Twitter, or it can be a hint of something more sinister.
The last first-person-shooter Borderlands game to come out was Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel in 2014, and the last Borderlands game of any kind was “Tales From the Borderlands” from Telltale Games, which came out later that same year. Needless to say, fans have been waiting patiently for the next game in the series.
Indian lawmakers target the battle royale standout.
Some might say that PUBG’s 15 minutes of fame had come and gone a long time ago, but right when it has just started to hit its peak in popularity in India, several cities have banned it.
PUBG, or PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, is a battle royale game in which players compete against each other one on one to be the last man standing. Equip standard weapons like guns and grenades or more unique ones like frying pans (which, incredibly, can deflect bullets if used at the right moment) to get rid of other players. Run around the maps or zoom around in cars, motorcycles, and other vehicles. The maps that you play on are quite large, and while you’re focusing on not getting killed you also have to keep an eye on the circle around the playable area which begins to shrink. Once outside of the circle for too long you begin to take damage, and if you’re not inside the safe zone in time, that can kill you instead of another player.
Although India’s gaming scene was once underdeveloped, mobile phones have become more affordable, leading to explosive demand for games. Some countries like China have age restrictions for games like PUBG. But the sudden rise of India’s game demand outpaced its laws. Some Indian lawmakers believe games like PUBG cause bullying and violence. While many say the game is a lot of fun, Indian media have said that it’s a breeding ground for psychopaths, and recently, college students were arrested just for playing it.
This hasn’t stopped most players, though. Even if there has been a crackdown on PUBG for PC and console, the mobile edition is harder to stop, thanks to all those phones. This is very important, considering the fact that India’s mobile game market is expected to break $1 billion by next year.
Bluehole Inc., the South Korean company that created PUBG, hopes to work with Indian authorities to find a solution and foster a healthier gaming community.
Can Apple overthrow Netflix, Visa, and the digital news ecosystem?
Today was “Show Time” at the Steve Jobs Theater in Cupertino, and the company proudly announced four new innovations they’re bringing to the public – some won’t be here until Fall 2019, others you can get right now. Take a look:
Tim Cook announced at today’s keynote that Apple News has become the leading news app on mobile devices, with over 5 billion articles read per month. Now the company is aiming to widen the news net by adding a subscription service that also includes popular magazines and digital media. Cook praised “the power of journalism and the impact it can have on our lives,” and the new Apple News+ service adds big names like Time, Vogue, People, National Geographic, Popular Science, Billboard, The New Yorker, Sports Illustrated, and Fortune.
You can now access your favorite magazines on your phone
The service covers “over 300 magazines across all sorts of topics,” said Apple’s Vice President of Applications, Roger Rosner, “all in a single package. Once you’re in the tab, all you have to is tap on a cover and you’ll be brought to the table of contents. Some articles may even have moving images like in Harry Potter, or animated headers or cross-outs, and there will also be a section specifically tailored to your preferences and previous viewings.
See your recommended articles and publishers all in one place
Subscribing to this many magazines would take over $8,000 a year, but through Apple, it’s all available to you for a monthly fee of $9.99. The first month of the service is free, and it’s available in the U.S. and Canada right now. Apple News+ will reach Australia and the UK later on this year.
Apple Card
Apple cuts out the middle man, offering their own new credit card
Cook said Apple Pay is the “simplest, most secure, and private way to pay.” The service has seen a great response since its launch. According to Cook, it will soon pass 10 billion transactions in over 40 countries. To take its success to the next level, Jennifer Bailey, the VP of Apple Pay, announced that Apple has “completely rethought the credit card [to encourage] a healthier financial life.”
Track and manage your spending easier than with Apple Pay’s new update.
This innovation comes in the form of the Apple Card, a new credit card that’s the result of Apple’s new partnership with Goldman Sachs and MasterCard. The new card comes with a unique number stored in a security chip, and can only be verified through touch or face ID any time you use it to make a purchase. The card also focuses on user privacy, and Apple guarantees they have no way to track what you bought with the card, how much you paid, or when the transaction was done. The Apple Card doesn’t even have any numbers or cvc; all that information is in the wallet app.
The new Apple card is sleek, safe, and secure.
The Apple Card was made to help users avoid high interest rates and to help keep better tabs on payments. The new Daily Cash feature also allows users to receive 2% daily cash any time you use Apple Pay, 1% any time you use the Apple Card, and 3% any time you purchase directly from Apple.
Enjoy immediate cashback with every purchase you make with Apple Card
The amount of Daily Cash you can receive is unlimited, and the Apple Card will be located in the wallet app starting this summer.
Apple Card: Designed for iPhone. Sign up on iPhone, begin using it immediately anywhere Apple Pay is accepted. Uses machine learning to provide easily recognizable transactions. Shows spending trending. Daily Cash gives you cash back, every day you spend. Added to Apple Cash.
The upcoming Apple Arcade service offers over 100 unique games to subscribers.
Apple’s App Store is now visited by half a billion people each week, and the most popular category is games. According to Tim Cook, iOS is now the largest gaming platform in the world, and over a billion people have downloaded games from the app store: a collection of over 300,000 games, both free and paid.
Apple is directly collaborating with game creators to bring this collection to subscribers.
Apple Arcade aims to shine the spotlight on the paid games, which are often overlooked and overshadowed by the more enticingly-priced free games. These are “games that redefine games, both curated and backed by Apple” says the company, and Apple Arcade will offer over 100 games when you subscribe – games that are not available anywhere else, and new titles will be added frequently. Even better news is that all the games can be played on or offline, and will never have ads, additional purchases, or track or mine any of your user data.
Apple is proud to have teamed up with these companies and more to make Arcade possible
Apple Arcade will be available in over 150 countries around the world this Fall, though Apple did not yet specify pricing.
Apple TV+
Apple TV+ is an upcoming subscription that adds both unique and simplified content to your home.
Lastly, Tim Cook introduced a new paid subscription service to Apple TV: Apple TV+. Like Netflix, this lets users “pay for only the channels they want – all in one app with the password you already have.” It enables you to “watch everything on-demand and add-free, online or offline” with a subscription that also allows for family sharing.
Apple’s tv streaming platform is about to become much more user-friendly and accessible
Apple TV+ has redesigned the app so that it’s both easier to use, and also offers exclusive content that’s both recommended to you and that’s completely fresh and new. It’s got movies, sports, news, network tv, HBO, Showtime, and even a kids mode that makes Apple TV+ “a safe place to explore together.”
A number of guest celebrities greeted the audience at today’s event, including Oprah Winfrey, who’s bringing a new book club to Apple. And Steven Spielberg is partnering with Apple to revive the “Amazing Stories” series he produced in the mid-80s.
Steven Spielberg made a surprise appearance, championing Apple TV+ and introducing his new show.
The ad-free subscription service will be available across 100 countries starting this fall, with “commitment to quality story-telling” that can be watched on all devices both on and offline. This also includes series such as “Little Voice,” “The Morning Show,” “Sea,” “Little America,” and the Sesame Street spinoff “Helpsters” for kids.
Apple TV+ will also feature “Helpsters” among other programs for children.
We’ll also get the general software update that will bring Apple TV to all devices this May. For the first time, this software will also be usable on Mac (but that will be later this year). Apple has also partnered with leading Smart TV partners in hopes of integrating Apple TV and Apple TV+ with this growing market as well. Again, no prices were given yet, though a family plan was mentioned.
Apple teams up with big names in Smart TVs with Apple TV+
This announcement marks an exciting new series of innovations from Apple, with the general theme of a safer, more private experience between the company and user, while simultaneously attempting to bolster the community’s internal networking and the sharing of culture to a medium that’s (as Winfrey put it) “in a billion pockets.”
Will you be subscribing to any of these new products? Let us know in the comments below which you’ve got your eye on, and stay tuned for more news as it’s made available.
Which battle royale game gives you the most bang for your buck?
With over 50 million players and counting, Apex Legends has taken the online gaming community by complete storm. When you have a well-crafted battle royale game backed by a triple A company and the game is released as free to play, it’s no surprise that the title would rise to the top. It’s a milestone for sure, but obviously, EA and Respawn Entertainment aren’t the first to do it. It’s a formula that PUBG did, that H1Z1 did it, and Fortnite has been absolutely killing it with. So now for the question that’s on everybody’s mind now that Apex Legends is on the up and up: “Is Fortnite on its way out?”
It’s definitely way too early to say, but the competition is surprisingly fierce – probably fiercer than Epic Games had expected. To EA’s credit, releasing Apex Legends during the slow period of Fortnite’s long seventh season was a stroke of genius. Many bored Fortnite players picked up Apex Legends just to see what the hype was about, and whether this battle royale game was better than the reigning champion. Evidently, many found this to be the case, as it’s climbed up to the top of both Twitch’s ‘most watched’ and ‘most popular’ lists, Fortnite falling to third on both counts:
One might think that the opening weeks aren’t any real indication of a game’s longevity or quality, but the frank truth is that PUBG never did recover from Fortnite’s initial splash. Like any good battle royale player, though, Epic Games was quick on the trigger, and is already working to reel their audience back in.
How?
With lots of money (offered to players as rewards through tournaments) and by directly incorporating some successful Apex mechanics into Fortnite, namely the game’s ping system. Rumors are also circulating about Epic Games putting in Apex Legends’ respawn system in a coming update.
An upcoming respawn mechanic in Fortnite might look like this.
So who wins when two titans duke it out, trying to endlessly one-up each other?
We do!
A new free contender in the battle royale genre? That just means more opportunities to hop online and see which game we like better! In the end, that’s kind of the best way to look at things: Neither game is objectively better than the other; they both offer different facets to the experience.
Comparing Fortnite to Apex Legends
Graphics
Apex Legends takes on a less “arcadey” aesthetic than Fortnite
Apex Legends is obliquely set in the Titanfall universe, and carries some of the grit and more realistic character models with it. Fortnite fully embraces its unique visual aesthetic, and bumps the zaniness to 11 with players running around dabbing, riding chicken parachutes, and dressed as bananas.
Perspective
3rd-person shooter, or 1st-person shooter? You pick.
Fortnite plays in 3rd-person, while Apex Legends is the more classic 1st-person shooter. This means the player perspective in Apex Legends in smaller, and their view cone thinner. As with the graphics, Apex Legends is trying to push for a more realistic, less arcade experience.
Fortnite has building
There is no building or resource mining in Apex Legends
Players making the switch from Fortnite to Apex Legends will immediately notice the lack of a building mechanic. Some will be frustrated with the limited mobility (Apex doesn’t have vehicles, either), but others will glad to return to the genre’s shooter roots without having to worry about building battles or resource acquisition.
Apex legends has classes
Eight classes, eight play styles. More are on the way.
Apex Legends has eight (with more incoming) different Legends you can play as, each with their own unique perks and passives. This dramatically changes player encounters, and adds a fresh element to the mix (though Fortnite players might argue that building served much the same purpose).
The strength of the pack is the wolf, the strength of the wolf is the pack.
Sure, you can free fall onto a different part of the map than your buddies, but that happens pretty rarely. In Apex Legends you’re not alone; you’re on a squad of three players who are your only chance of getting back into the fight if you’re downed or killed. This offers a (weighted) chance to get back in the ring that many players will be excited to have, but other players may find it frustrating to kill the same players multiple times per game.
Fortnite has more people per match
Since Apex Legends isn’t a free-for-all, there are fewer players
There are 100 players in a Fortnite Battle Royale match, and there are only 60 players per match of Apex Legends, a little over half the people, and therefore half the chaos. Combine that with the fact that many players go solo in Fortnite, and you’re looking at a much more frenetic experience.
Cosmetics
We’re probably not going to see Caustic or Wraith ‘swipin’ it.’
Like Fortnite, Apex Legends is 100% free to play, but offers aesthetic upgrades to player skins, weapon skins, finishers, and emotes. Fortnite’s got a huge array of character customization, ranging from cool, to pop culture references, to absolutely ludicrous. Everyone’s got a lot of personality in Fortnite, and so far that’s not the case with Apex Legends. This comes as the result of Apex Legends already having eight established and fully voice-acted characters, though.
Each Legend has a fully voice-acted personality.
Right now Fortnite also has the advantage of multiple game modes, a larger community, and most importantly a name and culture behind it. Apex had a great launch and established themselves as a true competitor to Fortnite, but Fortnite is a game that’s held that top spot for years. Given the huge cultural phenomenon that Fortnite has become – and moreover, its continued popularity this long after launch – it’s not going to be that easy for Apex Legends to swoop in and steal the crown.
In the meantime, enjoy the fruits of the competing companies’ labors, and drop into whichever game is your favorite. Let us know in the comments below which game that is, and we’ll see you online!
Unfortunately, every title from Halo 3 on (excluding Halo Wars) was only available on Xbox. Fans who wanted to drop back into fray as Master Chief had to cough up the cash for a new gaming console. The series has been a big name for Microsoft, and was one of the major titles that helped to launch the Xbox platform in the first place. Last week on their official Twitter account, Halo announced that it would finally be returning to its roots:
PC gamers will be able to dive back into the series via Halo: The Master Chief Collection (coming soon to Steam!), a catalog of Halo games that was re-released for the Xbox back in 2014. From that point, 343 is going to springboard into adding more Halo games to PC, moving forward chronologically: They’re going to be starting with the prequel Halo: Reach and ending with Halo 4. Microsoft has said all the games will be available in the Master Chief Collection bundle, but will also be sold individually.
Halo: Reach introduced popular series mechanics such as the jetpack, assassinations, Invasion mode, and the DMR.
Microsoft and 343 Industries hinted that further information would be given at SXSW in Austin this past weekend at the Halo Invitational championship finals. While the info was not expressly about PC inclusion, they did reveal the launch of a new Halo Insider program, a community-based closed beta where fans can sign up for early access to the Halo Master Chief Collection on PC.
Get an Insider account to provide feedback, get exclusive opportunities, and talk with the dev team!
343’s Community Manager Brian Jarrard said in a statement that “this is our way to bring the community on-board with this journey with us, to have a chance to get early access and play these titles on PC on Steam with us, and give feedback right to the development team.” For any Halo fans who want their voice to be heard during this period of time before Halo’s return to PC, speak now and speak often; the dev team is listening for feedback and bugs. “Fans want more than just a port,” says Jarrard, “and that’s really important.”
Bungie employees hard at work on Halo 3’s multiplayer
Halo is one of the most popular shooter series for the gaming industry, and has been going strong even since their decision to market solely to the console crowd, selling over 65 million unitsand grossing more than $3 billionin sales. Microsoft is hopeful that by bringing the PC crowd back into the Halo fandom that they’ll be able to spur some community momentum towards the upcoming Halo: Infinite, which the company revealed back in June (no release date has been given yet, either).
Microsoft has not yet revealed when the upcoming games are set to launch on PC, but the company did promise it’s availability both on the Microsoft Store and on Steam. Which installment in the series are you most excited to play on PC? Let us know in the comments below, and stay tuned for more Halo updates!
Out of all the major gaming companies, Nintendo has always been the most willing to experiment when it comes to hardware. The Wii Remote became a cultural phenomenon for its basic design and ease of use. Sadly, not every Nintendo controller can be the Wii Remote.
What’s one thing all video game peripherals have in common? Buttons. Apparently, nobody told the developers of the U-Force, a bizarre accessory made for the NES back in the late ’80s.
You have some help from your best friend Tiffany, an interior designer, who is excited to help you decorate and give you tips. Upon visiting the home for the first time, the door completely falls apart after just knocking on it. You then realize that maybe this home needs a lot more work than you thought.
Just then, a new character named Rex enters, and you learn that he believes that the mansion should have been left to him. He’s planning to get his hands on it somehow so he can knock it down and build a casino on the land. Once you shake him off, you go inside and discover that the mansion is an absolute mess.
Here is where the game begins! Play games of matching different shapes and colors of decorative pillows, books, and other items. Three of a kind is a match, and four of a kind creates a firecracker which explodes and knocks out more pillows.
Soon enough, we will be back to shooting Psychos in the face and fending off hordes of Bullymongs in another loot-n’-shoot adventure on Pandora.
The last first-person-shooter Borderlands game to come out was Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel in 2014, and the last Borderlands game of any kind was “Tales From the Borderlands” from 
