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During CD Projekt Red's company strategy video yesterday, the studio covered all sorts of ways in which they feel they got things wrong during Cyberpunk 2077's development. Not just development, but Cyberpunk's marketing too. In the future, they say they'll wait until much closer to a game's launch to start firing up trailers and demos and in depth looks at gameplay. That means if there's another big Witcher game out there on the horizon, we may not hear about it for quite a while yet. Honestly? Good.
Sony has revealed that Oddworld: Soulstorm, Days Gone, and Zombie Army 4: Dead War are the PlayStation Plus games for April 2021.Announced on the PlayStation Blog, all three games will be available for download beginning Tuesday, April 6, and PS Plus subscribers will have until Monday, May 3, to add the games to their libraries. All three games will be available to download on PlayStation 5, but Oddworld: Soulstorm will not be available for PlayStation 4 subscribers. The game also won't be available to subscribers in the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, and South Korea.
Days Gone was originally released in 2019 as a PlayStation 4 game, but has since been given a PS5 update that allows the game to run at 60 FPS with a dynamic 4K resolution. You can check out our thoughts on the game in IGN's Days Gone review. If you're a PS5 PS Plus subscriber, you already have access to Days Gone as part of the PS Plus Collection.
Zombie Army 4: Dead War was released last year and you can read our thoughts on the game in IGN's Zombie Army 4: Dead War review. If you're excited to jump into this game next week, check out this Dead Zeppelin trailer and then check out this video featuring co-op campaign gameplay running at a 4K resolution and 60 FPS.
You have until April 5 to claim March's PS Plus offerings, which includes Final Fantasy 7 Remake, Farpoint VR, Remnant: From the Ashes, and Maquette. Oddworld: Soulstorm, Days Gone, and Zombie Army 4: Dead War will be available to download the following day on April 6.
Wesley LeBlanc is a freelance news writer and guide maker for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @LeBlancWes.
Sony has revealed that Oddworld: Soulstorm, Days Gone, and Zombie Army 4: Dead War are the PlayStation Plus games for April 2021.Announced on the PlayStation Blog, all three games will be available for download beginning Tuesday, April 6, and PS Plus subscribers will have until Monday, May 3, to add the games to their libraries. All three games will be available to download on PlayStation 5, but Oddworld: Soulstorm will not be available for PlayStation 4 subscribers. The game also won't be available to subscribers in the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, and South Korea.
Days Gone was originally released in 2019 as a PlayStation 4 game, but has since been given a PS5 update that allows the game to run at 60 FPS with a dynamic 4K resolution. You can check out our thoughts on the game in IGN's Days Gone review. If you're a PS5 PS Plus subscriber, you already have access to Days Gone as part of the PS Plus Collection.
Zombie Army 4: Dead War was released last year and you can read our thoughts on the game in IGN's Zombie Army 4: Dead War review. If you're excited to jump into this game next week, check out this Dead Zeppelin trailer and then check out this video featuring co-op campaign gameplay running at a 4K resolution and 60 FPS.
You have until April 5 to claim March's PS Plus offerings, which includes Final Fantasy 7 Remake, Farpoint VR, Remnant: From the Ashes, and Maquette. Oddworld: Soulstorm, Days Gone, and Zombie Army 4: Dead War will be available to download the following day on April 6.
Wesley LeBlanc is a freelance news writer and guide maker for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @LeBlancWes.
A selection of Microsoft's backwards compatible Xbox and Xbox 360 catalogue is now available to stream via xCloud.
Banjo-Kazooie, Fable 2, Gears of War 3 and Fallout: New Vegas are among the first 16 back compat games you can stream to Android phones.
Three of these - Jetpac Refuelled, Viva Piñata, and Viva Piñata: Trouble in Paradise - have also had touch controls enabled.
Does Sony have a responsibility to preserve its gaming history?
"We've listened to the feedback, going all the way back to our earliest cloud gaming preview, and making games from previous generations available on mobile devices has been one of the most requested features by the community," Xbox said in a blog post today.
"[We] are still committed to making games across generations available to you no matter the hardware."
Soulstorm is the second chapter in Abe's quintology (Oddworld: New 'n' Tasty, a full HD remake of Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee, is considered the first game in the quintology). You reprise the role of Abe the Mudokon, the accidental hero turned leader of a growing revolution.
Finally, there's Zombie Army 4: Dead War, the undead-shooting game from Sniper Elite 4 maker Rebellion which is being kept very much alive with lots of new additions. (You can definitely call these zombies.) Not a bad selection, all in all?
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Facebook launches new controls that allow users to restrict who can comment on their posts in bid to 'limit potentially unwanted interactions' on the platform
Changes will allow users to restrict who can comment on posts they share
Other changes include a priority filter for the News Feed giving more control
The changes will initially appear for Android app users first, before rolling out to those on iOS devices 'in the coming weeks'
Facebook will allow users to restrict who can and can't comment on posts they share, in a bid to 'limit potentially unwanted interactions,' the social network said.
The change follows similar moves by Twitter, and means people who publish content visible to everyone now have the option to only allow comments from their friends.
Users will even be able to restrict commenting further than just friends, so that only those users and pages tagged in the post can comment.
Ramya Sethuraman, Facebook's News Feed manager, said it would particularly help public figures 'feel safe and engage in more meaningful conversations.'
Facebook will allow users to restrict who can and can't comment on posts they share in a bid to 'limit potentially unwanted interactions,' the social network said
HOW TO CHANGE WHO CAN COMMENT ON YOUR POSTS
By default, everyone can comment on your public posts, even people who don't follow you.
To change who can comment:
Go to the public post on your profile that you want to change.
Click the three dots in the top right of the post.
Click Who can comment on your post?
Select who is allowed to comment on your public post:
Public
Friends
Profiles and Pages you mention
If a profile or Page who wants to comment on your post isn't in your selected comment audience they won't be given the option to comment.
However, they will see you've limited who can comment on your post.
SOURCE: FACEBOOK
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The changes to commenting come as all social media firms continue to grapple with hate speech on their platforms.
'By adjusting your commenting audience, you can further control how you want to invite conversation onto your public posts and limit potentially unwanted interactions,' Sethuraman explained.
'This new tool is the latest example of how we're helping you control and curate your News Feed to best reflect who you are as your interests and priorities evolve.'
It will particularly benefit public figures, creators, and brands, giving them the ability to control who can comment on their organic, public posts.
People will be able to choose from a menu of options including 'anyone who can see the post' to 'only the profiles and Pages they tag'.
Facebook is also making it easier for people to decide how their News Feed is prioritised, with the introduction of a Feed Filter Bar.
Android app users can access the Feed Filter Bar when they scroll up on News Feed, with the same functionality available in the iOS app 'in the coming weeks'.
'You can choose to keep an algorithmically-ranked News Feed to keep seeing your favourites or switch it up to order your posts chronologically with the newest posts appearing first,' the firm explained.
Alternatively filter your feed to show just your Favourites, or the top friends and Pages whose posts you want to see more frequently.
The Favourites tool allows users to control and prioritise posts from the friends and Pages they care about most in News Feed.
By selecting up to 30 friends and Pages to include in Favourites, their posts will appear higher in ranked News Feed and can also be viewed as a separate filter.
Elsewhere, the tech giant is aiming to make the reasons for suggested posts clearer, by expanding the 'Why am I seeing this?' box with more context.
The change follows similar moves by Twitter, and means people who publish content visible to everyone now have the option to only allow comments from their friends
It will explain factors that influenced a recommendation, which range from the types of content a person has recently engaged with on the platform, to their location.
'This means that you'll be able to tap on posts from the friends, Pages, and Groups you follow as well as the posts we suggest to you and get more context on why they're appearing in your News Feed,' the firm said.
There are three main factors that go into determining which suggested posts appear in your News Feed, according to Facebook.
A post may be suggested for you if other people who interacted with the post also previously interacted with the same group, Page, or post as you.
Alternatively, if you’ve recently engaged with a certain topic on Facebook, the platform may suggest other posts that are related to that topic.
The other main area is location. You may see a suggested post based on where you are and what people near you are interacting with on Facebook.
FACEBOOK'S PRIVACY DISASTERS
July 2019: Facebook data scandal: Social network is fined $5billion over 'inappropriate' sharing of users' personal information
March 2019: Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg promised to rebuild based on six 'privacy-focused' principles:
Private interactions
Encryption
Reducing permanence
Safety
Interoperability
Secure data storage
Zuckerberg promised end-to-end encryption for all of its messaging services, which will be combined in a way that allows users to communicate across WhatsApp, Instagram Direct, and Facebook Messenger.
December 2018: Facebook comes under fire after a bombshell report discovered the firm allowed over 150 companies, including Netflix, Spotify and Bing, to access unprecedented amounts of user data, such as private messages.
Some of these 'partners' had the ability to read, write, and delete Facebook users' private messages and to see all participants on a thread.
It also allowed Microsoft's search engine, known as Bing, to see the name of all Facebook users' friends without their consent.
Amazon was allowed to obtain users' names and contact information through their friends, and Yahoo could view streams of friends' posts.
September 2018: Facebook disclosed that it had been hit by its worst ever data breach, affecting 50 million users - including those of Zuckerberg and COO Sheryl Sandberg.
Attackers exploited the site's 'View As' feature, which lets people see what their profiles look like to other users.
Facebook (file image) made headlines in March 2018 after the data of 87 million users was improperly accessed by Cambridge Analytica, a political consultancy
The unknown attackers took advantage of a feature in the code called 'Access Tokens,' to take over people's accounts, potentially giving hackers access to private messages, photos and posts - although Facebook said there was no evidence that had been done.
The hackers also tried to harvest people's private information, including name, sex and hometown, from Facebook's systems.
Zuckerberg assured users that passwords and credit card information was not accessed.
As a result of the breach, the firm logged roughly 90 million people out of their accounts as a security measure.
March 2018: Facebook made headlines after the data of 87 million users was improperly accessed by Cambridge Analytica, a political consultancy.
The disclosure has prompted government inquiries into the company's privacy practices across the world, and fueled a '#deleteFacebook' movement among consumers.
Communications firm Cambridge Analytica had offices in London, New York, Washington, as well as Brazil and Malaysia.
The company boasts it can 'find your voters and move them to action' through data-driven campaigns and a team that includes data scientists and behavioural psychologists.
'Within the United States alone, we have played a pivotal role in winning presidential races as well as congressional and state elections,' with data on more than 230 million American voters, Cambridge Analytica claimed on its website.
The company profited from a feature that meant apps could ask for permission to access your own data as well as the data of all your Facebook friends.
The data firm suspended its chief executive, Alexander Nix (pictured), after recordings emerged of him making a series of controversial claims, including boasts that Cambridge Analytica had a pivotal role in the election of Donald Trump
This meant the company was able to mine the information of 87 million Facebook users even though just 270,000 people gave them permission to do so.
This was designed to help them create software that can predict and influence voters' choices at the ballot box.
The data firm suspended its chief executive, Alexander Nix, after recordings emerged of him making a series of controversial claims, including boasts that Cambridge Analytica had a pivotal role in the election of Donald Trump.
This information is said to have been used to help the Brexit campaign in the UK.
Prodrive, the Banbury-based race car builder and technology company, has confirmed that it has begun developing what it believes will be the world’s first ‘desert hypercar’ for private sale and aims to have a prototype running by the end of this year.
When complete, the super-exclusive machine is expected to find buyers at more than £1 million apiece.
David Richards, Prodrive’s founder and CEO, has confirmed exclusively to Autocar that the new car will be built at its HQ in Banbury by Prodrive’s own team of engineers and technicians, who have built many specialist and competition cars over the years and who are currently responsible for the Le Mans class-winning Aston Martin GT cars that race around the world.
The new Dakar-derived hypercar project (likely to be sold as the ‘Hunter’) is a direct result of the company’s debut success in January’s Dakar Rally, held in Saudi Arabia. The best-placed of its two Bahraini-backed BRX racers, driven by Spanish desert race specialist Nani Roma, finished fifth outright.
The Hunter, which Richards referred to as “the Ferrari of the desert” when he first mentioned the idea last year, has a body designed by distinguished ex-Jaguar chief Ian Callum. Richards said the road car’s appearance will be clearly related to the Dakar car (also a Callum design) but its body will be widened to take larger wheels and tyres.
The car will have broadly the same dimensions, suspension and structure as the competition car and will be powered by the same Ford-derived 3.5-litre twin-turbo V6 engine, which has undergone extensive development in Prodrive’s workshops. Its extra power results from early work on the Dakar cars, when technicians discovered that the power limit allowed for the competition, around 400bhp, was fairly easy to exceed.
Richards explained: “When we first had the road car idea, we were thinking of building a detuned version, but since January we’ve decided to go the other way, giving it around 500bhp – even more power than the race cars – plus a sophisticated transmission and a fully designed interior.
Clearly, it has to be more comfortable than the Dakar cars. We’re working on the exact spec. Ian Callum and his team are working on these things right now.
“Nobody’s ever done a car like it before. Imagine a road car capable of going across the sand dunes at 100mph – and keep doing it for 300 miles because the fuel tank is so big. It’s going to be quite exciting.”
Richards believes the Dakar performance of his BRX racers in January provided a look towards proving a planned new strand of high-tech competition-based business he spoke of when the initial three-year Bahraini-backed project was launched early last year.
“We did better than we could have expected,” he said. “The main elements of the car’s design performed very well, though there are plenty of things we can do to improve it given this year’s experience.”
The team had two dominant problems, Richards said. One was unsuitable tyres: the size and type nominated for the BRX’s class were too small and vulnerable. The teams had to cope with more than two dozen punctures and Sébastien Loeb’s car actually failed to finish because it ran out of tyres. But the organisers are aware of the problem and the tyre regulations will change to a better-proven spec for 2022.
The other problem was navigation: the team’s WRC-trained European co-drivers weren’t used to the arduous conditions and lost large amounts of time finding their way through the course. That will need to improve, Richards acknowledged. But overall, the outcome was very positive for a new team and Prodrive is already optimistic about prospects for 2022.
Dubai and New Zealand available for a limited time.
IO Interactive has launched a new Hitman 3 starter pack, giving curious players the chance to check out bits of the celebrated stealth series for free.
Hitman 3's Free Starter Pack does a bunch of different things, but permanently provides access to the game's opening ICA Facility tutorial missions, giving players the chance to refine their stealth skills, earning XP and unlocks that can be carried over into the full game.
Alongside those early missions, however, the Starter Pack will also periodically grant free access to other locations in the World of Assassination trilogy.
Hitman 3 - Free Starter Pack Trailer.
For instance, Hitman 3's Dubai level and Hitman 2's opening Nightfall mission - which tasks players with infiltrating a highly secure luxury beach house in Hawke's Bay, New Zealand - are available for a limited time from today, 30th March.
All free content added to the Starter Pack will also be made available to Hitman 3 owners simultaneously, meaning they can play Nightfall right now if they don't have access already.
That's not quite the end of it either; Hitman 2 owners can also use the Hitman 3 Starter Pack to import all locations they've currently purchased (which potentially includes everything from Hitman 1 and 2) in order to take advantage of the new features seen in the newest instalment, including enhanced lighting effects and animations, plus Agent 47's new camera item.
Full details on importing levels and progress from Hitman 2 are provided in IO's announcement post, and the Hitman 3 Free Starter Pack is out now on Xbox, PlayStation, and PC.
Microsoft has announced that April 2021's Xbox Games with Gold are Vikings: Wolves of Midgard, Truck Racing Championship, Dark Void, and Hard Corps: Uprising.Announced on Xbox Wire, Vikings: Wolves of Midgard and Dark Void will be available on April 1, while Truck Racing Championship and Hard Corps: Uprising will arrive on April 16.Vikings: Wolves of Midgard, which will be available until April 30, was released in 2017 and takes players to a world based on "mythology with a fantasy twist." You will join a band of Viking warriors and take up the fight against Jotan and the beasts of Ragnarok.
Truck Racing Championship, which will be available until May 15, was released in 2019 and let's you take the wheel behind 45 giant 5-ton, 1,000 horsepower semi-trucks in 14 worldwide circuits.
Dark Void, which will be available until April 15, was released in 2010 and takes you to a sinister parallel world that is full of hostile aliens and deep mystery. In our Dark Void review, we said that it "is all over the place. The story’s never explained adequately, the combat’s pretty much always a chore, and flying isn’t nearly as fun as it should be. I don’t hate Dark Void, but I don’t care for it, either."
Have you played Vikings: Wolves of Midgard?
Hard Corps: Uprising, which will be available until April 30, is a retro run-and-gun action title that lets you "write your own legend in the grueling trenches of Arcade mode or upgrade and build your soldier in Rising mode." In our Hard Corps: Uprising review, we said, "It's definitely classic Contra, but at the same time feels new and exciting... If you've ever been into Contra or Metal Slug or action movies, Hard Corps: Uprising is for you."
If you've missed out on the Games with Gold for March 2021, there is still time to download Warface: Breakout, Vicious Attack Llama Apocalypse, and Port Royale 3.
Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com.
Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.
The Games with Gold lineup for April 2021 has just been announced. Action-RPG Vikings – Wolves of Midgard and simulation racer Truck Racing Championshipare on the way for Xbox One, while third-person shooter Dark Void and run-and-gun Hard Corps: Uprising will be available for the Xbox 360 and Xbox One via backward compatibility.
Vikings – Wolves of Midgard will be available for the whole month of April, from the 1st to the 30th, while Truck Racing Championship will be available from April 16th until May 15th. Dark Void and Hard Corps: Uprising will both be available for around two weeks, with Dark Void from April 1st until the 15th, and Hard Corps: Uprising from April 16th to April 30th.
Vikings – Wolves of Midgard is usually priced at $39.99/£33.49, with Truck Racing Championship at $59.99/£39.99, Dark Void at $14.99/£11.99, and Hard Corps: Uprising at $14.99/£9.99. All together, April's Games with Gold have an overall worth of $129.96 and 3,200 Gamerscore.
Hard Corps: Uprising has the highest TA rating, with 3.68/5 from over 600 votes. Vikings – Wolves of Midgard follows up with 3.37/5, with Truck Racing Championship at 3.1/5, and Dark Void at 2.84/5. Vikings – Wolves of Midgard has the longest estimated completion time, and should take you around 60-80 hours. Vikings – Wolves of Midgard does seem a challenge, with 1% of over 7,000 TA players having completed it, so if you've battled through to the end and feel like sharing your walkthrough wisdom, why not volunteer? Truck Racing Championship should take around 20-25 hours according to the Truck Racing Championship walkthrough, while Dark Void should take 15-20 hours. We don't have an estimated completion time for Hard Corps: Uprising, although it seems, like Vikings, to be pretty tough; 1% of over 10,000 players have completed it.
Vikings - Wolves of Midgard
The Action RPG Vikings – Wolves of Midgard takes you to the Shores of Midgard, a world based upon the mythology and history of the Vikings, but with a fantasy twist. Battle the fearsome Jotan, hordes of terrifying undead monstrosities and the beasts of Ragnarok, as you strive to survive the growing cold that threatens to end all life, forever. Master mighty weapons, and earn blood in battle to offer in tribute to the Gods to enhance your powers.
Truck Racing Championship
The only official simulation that features all the unique characteristics of the ETRC and offers all racing fans a completely new driving experience: race a giant 5-tonne, 1,000-horsepower truck against 12 competitors while respecting the race rules to avoid penalties.
Dark Void
Step into ‘the Void’…. A sinister parallel world of hostile aliens, powerful weapons and deep mystery.... Dark Void’s unique combination of jet-pack powered dog-fighting and ground-based combat brings a thrilling new dynamic to video-gaming. Experience the seamless transition between flight and fight in this epic adventure from Capcom®.
Hard Corps: Uprising
(Online Interactions Not Rated by the ESRB) Thrilling retro run-and-gun action is back with a vengeance in Hard Corps: Uprising, a 2D side-scroller developed by ARC System Works that pays homage to classic Konami action series. Battle in the grueling trenches of Arcade mode, or the all-new Rising mode, where a point system allows you to purchase items and upgrades to help you achieve ultimate victory. Partner with a friend to lay down some serious carnage.
There's still a fair bit of time for one of February's Games with Gold, as VALA: Vicious Attack Llama Apocalypse is available until April 15th. Both Warface: Breakout and Port Royale 3 are available until tomorrow, March 31st, so you have a little time left to grab those. What do you think of April's Games with Gold? Let us know in the comments!
Xbox Live Gold and Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscribers will get four free games in April as part of Microsoft’s Xbox Games with Gold program. Next month’s games will roll out on April 1 with Games Farm’s action-role-playing game Vikings: Wolves of Midgard for Xbox One and Capcom’s flying shooter Dark Void for Xbox 360. All of April’s Games with Gold games are playable on Xbox Series X through backward compatibility.
Also coming in April are racing game Big Ben Interactive’s Truck Racing Championship and Konami’s Contra series spinoff Hard Corps: Uprising. Both titles will be available on April 16. Here’s the full April 2021 lineup for Games with Gold:
Vikings: Wolves of Midgard ($39.99): Available April 1 to 30
Truck Racing Championship($59.99): Available April 16 to May 15
Dark Void ($14.99): Available April 1 to 15
Hard Corps: Uprising ($14.99): Available April 16 to 30
Xbox Live Gold and Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscribers can still download three of March’s Games with Gold titles: Port Royale 3, Warface: Breakout, and Vicious Attack Llama Apocalypse.
What was rumour has now been confirmed, with Sony announcing it's to close the PS3 and PSP stores on July 2nd, with the Vita store to close soon after on August 27th, taking with them a whole bevvy of games that were only available via digital download. It's bitterly disappointing news, and while Sony confirmed you'll be able to re-download games in your library for an undisclosed time after - because who needs details? - for many there's now a limited window to pick up some true gems. What follows isn't meant as a comprehensive list of what's going to be lost - it'd be too depressing, for one - but rather a guide to what's worth picking up before it disappears.
The 2D Adventures of Rotating Octopus Character
What a beautiful, challenging thing this is: a game about moving an octopus between one wall and the next, collecting stuff, avoiding stuff, and marveling at the sheer variety on offer as the levels fly by. With simple controls and a fiendish design, this would work so beautifully on the Switch, but that's a hope for another day. For now, remember the many hours it spent bringing gorgeous frustration to Sony devices.
CD
Alien Zombie Death
PomPom Games should be considered indie royalty, and the disappearance of Alien Zombie Death should be a cause for wailing and the tearing of garments. This is a side-on shooter in which you move between different lanes, blasting away at on-coming baddies and occasionally collecting something. It's brilliant. PomPom is no stranger to having its games nuked by Sony, incidentally. Rebel, a beautiful PlayStation Mobile game, and a shooter in which you can't shoot at all, is still in regular rotation on my Vita.
CD
Daytona USA HD
Thankfully this superlative version of one of Sega's most iconic 90s racers lives on via backwards compatibility on Xbox, though that only puts its imminent absence on PlayStation in relief - here's an all-time great, brilliantly restored in HD with all the wow and pizazz that once melted the faces of young observers at the Trocadero perfectly intact, as are its selection of all-time great tunes. Get it, and get it now.
MR
Frobisher Says
Oof. This hurts. By killing off Frobisher Says, Sony is killing the unofficial introduction to all things Vita. This beautiful hand-crafted spin on WarioWare took its players around every one of the handheld's bizarre means of input. It did all this while being genuinely funny, too, offering weird specifics, wonderfully scrappy art - the kind of thing that feels like it's been doodled in the margins of a school textbook - and a great sense of feedback. And I think it was free at the time too. Oof, Sony. Oof.
CD
Gravity Crash
Cor, but Gravity Crash is video games, isn't it? The neon lines pick out alien worlds and deadly foes. The black of space seems to glow. Conserve fuel, gad about, blast anything that moves in a shower of fireworks. Even if the game wasn't a treat, it would still be a delight just to look at. And that Lunar Lander heft to the movement gives it a wonderfully grumpy personality.
CD
The Last Guy
Another example of the out-there brilliance of Japan Studio that once was at the heart of PlayStation, The Last Guy is a slight but nevertheless hugely enjoyable experiment. An offbeat top-down action game that has you shepherding crowds through a zombie outbreak, its use of satellite imagery gives it an edge that hasn't dulled to this day. It's a strange, beautiful and very playable thing, and exactly the sort of game that Sony doesn't seem too interested in anymore.
MR
Noby Noby Boy
There once was a time when PlayStation was a byword for carefree, creative oddities that pushed at the boundaries of what we expect from a video game, and they don't get much more creative or carefree than the work of Katamari Damacy creator Keita Takahashi. Noby Noby Boy is perhaps his strangest yet, a freeform toy that had players consuming their surroundings in an attempt to lengthen their character - and to work together to reach out to the stars and beyond. Thanks to the combined efforts of the playerbase, Noby Noby Boy reached the sun way back in 2015, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't take a chance to play this fantastic thing.
MR
PixelJunk Racers
The best of the PixelJunk games? Certainly the most loveable. This is a slot car game with all the lane-changing and horn-tooting that suggests. But it's also a playground of modes and rules and tweaks. And it's also a beauty: look down upon these matchbox worlds with their smooth arcs and sun-bleached buildings. The perfect venue for polite chaos to erupt in.
CD
Super Rub 'a' Dub
I'm not going to pretend that Super Rub 'a' Dub is a game you should rush out and play right now, nor am I even going to suggest it's half-decent (though being from Sumo Digital, you know it can't be all bad). Rather Super Rub 'a' Dub is an important part of PlayStation history, having been inspired by the tech demo that heralded our first look at the PlayStation 3, and something that felt like an indelible part of its identity.
MR
Resident Evil original trilogy
Yes, you've played these all to death before, and yes it's perfectly possible to find these through other means - but thanks to Sony's flaky commitment to backwards compatibility, the demise of the older PlayStation stores means that the PS1 versions of Resident Evil Director's Cut, Resident Evil 2 and Resident Evil 3 Nemesis will no longer be available for purchase. It's one small example of the massive loss that occurs when services such as this are switched off - and if you want to pick up other digital PS1 titles whose physical copies now reach a pretty penny, such as Xenogears or R-Type Delta, your time is limited.
MR
Trash Panic
A double blow to the heart, this, as Trash Panic is not only a fine example of the oddities that used to be offered up for download - it's also one of the best examples of Sony's Japan Studio doing what it did best. A fittingly scrappy take on Tetris, it's short on polish but absolutely huge on charm and does not deserve to be forgotten.
MR
TxK
So you'll never exactly be short of ways to play one of Jeff Minter's many takes on the Tempest formula, but you will soon be robbed of the chance to play one of his very best efforts. TxK stands out as one of the Vita's very best, and certainly one of the finest ways to show off its glorious OLED screen which pops with all the phosphorous brilliance of an original vector Tempest cab. Put some headphones in, lose yourself to its soundtrack and to what amounts to a master at the very top of his game. TxK is pretty much close to perfect.
MR
Where is My Heart?
OK, Where is My Heart is technically - as in literally - available on Steam, but this game belongs on PSP, its creamy colours shimmering through that beautiful widescreen display, its music tumbling out of the speakers. An ingenious platform game about a trio of animals, Where is My Heart chops your view of the action into little squares and then puts the squares in the wrong place. It's surprisingly difficult to untangle the action, but as you do, you truly start to inhabit the game's spaces. Brilliant.
It turns out that the Mi 11 Ultra isn't the only weird phone coming out of Xiaomi this week. In the second part of its two-day keynote, the Chinese company unveiled its first foldable phone, the Mi Mix Fold, which follows the same inward-folding, dual-screen form factor as Huawei's Mate X2 and Samsung's Galaxy Z Fold 2. What makes this device stand out, though, is the "liquid lens" on one of its rear cameras.
Xiaomi
The Mi Mix Fold packs an 8.01-inch 2,480 x 1,860 (4:3) foldable panel, which supports Dolby Vision, HDR10+ and a maximum brightness of 600 nits. Xiaomi said it picked this particular size and resolution, as the combination offers the highest screen-to-body ratio for regular videos — 75 percent for a 16:9 video, versus 70 percent on the Samsung and 63 percent on the Huawei. The company also claimed that this flexible screen has been tested to last for at least 1 million folds, whereas the precision hinge is good for at least 200,000 bends.
When closed, the Mi Mix Fold offers a smaller 6.52-inch 2,520 x 840 AMOLED screen, which also supports Dolby Vision and features a higher 700-nit brightness. You'll find a 20-megapixel punch-hole selfie camera at the top right corner here, too.
Xiaomi
The Mi Mix Fold features a camera island similar to the ones on the Mi 10 Ultra and Mi 10S, but rather than having four shooters, this foldable uses just three — a 108MP main camera (using Samsung's ISOCELL HM2 sensor), a 13MP ultra-wide camera (123-degree FOV) and an 8MP "bionic" camera — to offer four photography modes.
This is achieved by the "bionic" camera's liquid lens, which uses a motor to precisely manipulate a packet of fluid, in order to switch between telephoto mode (3x optical zoom or 30x hybrid zoom) and macro mode (down to 3cm). Xiaomi added that this fluid works fine in temperatures ranging from -40°C to 60°C (or 104°F to 140°F). Of course, the image quality of this camera remains to be seen, so hopefully we'll get to play with a Mi Mix Fold soon.
Xiaomi
To help boost image quality across all the cameras, Xiaomi also developed its own image signal processor, the Surge C1, which the company claimed delivers faster autofocus, auto white balance and auto exposure. This is the company's second in-house chip, which has been a long wait since the Surge S1 mobile processor featured on the Mi 5c from 2017.
At its core, the Mi Mix Fold has pretty much all the ticks for a modern day flagship, with one or two bonuses thrown into the basket. You get a Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 5G processor, up to 16GB of RAM and up to 512GB of storage. There's also a generous 5,020mAh battery with 67W turbo charging support, with both being the highest figures in the current foldable market. To get the most out of the big flexible screen, this phone comes with not two but four speakers, and these are tuned by Harman Kardon.
Xiaomi also boasted a "butterfly-type" cooling system which, in addition to vapor cooling chamber, thermal paste and graphite sheets, consists of a "micro airbag" structure that somehow boosts heat dissipation across the entire device.
Xiaomi
On the software side, Xiaomi's MIUI 12 (based on Android 10) here offers a "Desktop Mode" that hopes to boost one's productivity on the large screen. This turns the usual Android home screen into a Windows-like desktop, which comes with a "start menu," a command center and multi-window support.
Even back in the usual Android interface, there are apps that support drag-and-drop in split screen mode. For instance, in Weibo, you can look at a weibo post on the left and have the comments shown on the right. You can even drag photos from the gallery app on the left to a WeChat conversation on the right. Alas, given that this phone is destined for just China, it's unlikely that the everyday apps for the rest of us will get to fully utilize these handy features.
Last but not least, the Fold offers a one-click Stealth Mode to ease your mind. When toggled, this force-closes all the cameras, microphones and GPS tracking.
Xiaomi
Xiaomi is already taking pre-orders for the Mi Mix Fold ahead of the April 16th launch, starting from 9,999 yuan or about $1,520 for the 12GB RAM + 256GB storage model. That's a significant drop from Galaxy Z Fold 2's $2,000 mark, let alone the Mate X2's 17,999 yuan ($2,740) base price. There's also a 10,999 yuan ($1,670) model with double the storage.
But if you want something extra special, there's a Ceramic Edition (pictured above) decorated with Kevlar texture, and it packs a whopping 16GB of RAM plus 512GB of storage. The price? 12,999 yuan which is about $1,980. Note that due to the material, this one is a little heavier — 332g (11.7oz) instead of 317g (11.2oz).
Alas, all Mi Mix Fold models will only be available in China, so good luck finding one.
Apple just announced that its Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) will take place on June 7th through June 11th this year, and that like last year it will be an online-only event.
The announcement, as is typical for Apple, is opaque when it comes to details, but there might be a tantalizing hint: is the memoji character’s glasses simply showing a reflection from their laptop? Or could Apple finally be gearing up to announce its long-rumored VR headset or AR glasses?
“We are working to make WWDC21 our biggest and best yet, and are excited to offer Apple developers new tools to support them as they create apps that change the way we live, work, and play,” said Susan Prescott, Apple’s vice president of worldwide developer relations, in a press release.
WWDC is when Apple typically details changes coming to iOS, iPadOS, macOS, tvOS, and watchOS with the occasional hardware surprise. Last year, it also dedicated a significant portion of its keynote to announcing its Mac lineup’s transition to its own Apple Silicon processors. With this transition still underway, it seems likely that Apple will have an update to share about its progress.
It’s not surprising that Apple has opted to make its global conference for developers online-only given that the impact of COVID-19 is still being felt around the world. Facebook’s F8 developer conference will be virtual this year, and San Diego Comic-Con and the 2021 Anime Expo have also confirmed that their physical events will not take place. But some organizations are attempting to make limited physical events happen like Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.
Bang & Olufsen has announced Beoplay Portal, its first wireless gaming headset. The product maintains the company’s signature sophisticated look, and it has more features than your average headset.
These were created with the Xbox ecosystem in mind, and with a push of its pairing button, they can connect to the Series X, Series S, Xbox One, or to a PC that has the Xbox Wireless adapter plugged into it. Additionally, they support a concurrent connection via Bluetooth 5.1 for other devices (including other consoles if you supply the Bluetooth adapter). This way, you can take calls without totally detaching from game audio.
Similar to the Bose QC35 gaming headset that released last year, the Beoplay Portal look like high-end wireless headphones (and in many ways, act like them, too), and come with a high-end price. These cost $499 and are available now in the black colorway at Best Buy, the Microsoft Store, and through Bang & Olufsen’s site. Two other colors, gray and navy, will be available starting April 29th.
This model has adaptive active noise cancellation (ANC) and a gaming audio mode that automatically activates when connected wirelessly to a console or when wired via USB-C to a PC (the port through which the headset also gets its charge). These also have a 3.5mm headphone jack.
The Bang & Olufsen app for iOS and Android has some new features that the Beoplay Portal benefits from, like microphone optimization and a game / chat audio balance. The company reports that its “Own Voice” feature allows for voice monitoring while keeping out extraneous noises thanks to its adaptive ANC. These have 40mm drivers with Dolby Atmos support for virtualized surround sound.
Build quality is another area where Bang & Olufsen is trying to distinguish itself from other gaming headsets. The memory foam ear pads are wrapped in lambskin leather, and it uses bamboo fiber textile to cover the headband padding. Elsewhere, there are a few anodized aluminum details on the Portal, like the touch-sensitive discs on the outside of each ear cup that are used to control them. Impressively, the company says the headphones weigh 282 grams, which is lighter than the mostly plastic Xbox Wireless Headset that, until now, I considered to be lightweight at 312g.
This gaming headset can last up to 12 hours per charge when you’re connected through both Bluetooth and Xbox Wireless protocol, and using the active noise cancellation feature. If you’re just using Bluetooth and noise cancellation, Bang & Olufsen says you can expect up to 24 hours of use.
Given the high asking price, I’m skeptical that these will be worth the cost for most people — especially those who intend to use them exclusively for gaming. It seems like a better value if you want to use them as your everyday headphones, too.
I’m also skeptical about the “virtual boom arm” the Beoplay Portal employs instead of a traditional articulating boom mic. It says its beamforming microphones allow for “crystal clear” conversations, and help to amplify your voice while filtering out sounds in the background. This is something I’ll need to test to see if it’s as good as Bang & Olufsen claims.
Do you need a $500 gaming headset? Probably not. While there are plenty of differences in terms of features and build quality, most people should be suited well by Microsoft’s $100 Xbox Wireless headset. But I’ll be reviewing these to see for myself what five times that amount can get you in a gaming peripheral.
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