Source: securityboulevard.com – Author: Nathan Eddy Failure to properly configure authentication led to malicious actors exploiting the database backups of Airsoftc3.com, a popular Airsoft enthusiast community site, according to Cybernews researchers, who discovered the breach in December. The breach exposed sensitive user data, affecting approximately 75,000 individuals within the community involved with Airsoft, a team-based […]
Failure to configure authentication allowed malicious actors to exploit Airsoftc3.com's database, exposing the sensitive data of a vast number of the gaming site's users.
Enlarge/ This gear is from the upcoming "Polar Patriots" Premium Warbond in Helldivers 2. It's an upcoming change the developer and publisher likely wish was getting more attention of late. (credit: Sony Interactive Entertainment)
There's a lot of stories about the modern PC gaming industry balled up inside one recent "update" to Helldivers 2.
Sony Interactive Entertainment announced Thursday night that current players of the runaway hit co-op shooter will have to connect their Steam accounts to a PlayStation Network (PSN) account starting on May 30, with a hard deadline of June 4. New players will be required to connect the two starting Monday, May 6.
Officially, this is happening because of the "safety and security provided on PlayStation and PlayStation Studios games." Account linking allows Sony to ban abusive players, and also gives banned players the right to appeal. Sony writes that it would have done this at launch, but "Due to technical issues … we allowed the linking requirements for Steam accounts to a PlayStation Network account to be temporarily optional. That grace period will now expire."
Enlarge/ Are you enticed by this kind of orderly madness with a clean graphical layout? Then I suggest you… settle in. (credit: Goblinz Studio)
You can't buy Mini Settlers right now, but I think you should play the free "Prologue" demo and wishlist the full game if you dig it. It's not quite like any other city builder I've played.
Mini Settlers is "mini" like minimalism. It is in the same genre, but quite far from, games like Cities: Skylines 2 (a choice with some proven merit). Your buildings are not 3D-rendered with real-time lighting. Your buildings are colored squares, sometimes with a few disc tokens stacked on them, tabletop-style. Your roads don't have traffic, but they have drivers (tiny squares) that take resources between nodes. When things go wrong, you don't get depressing news about pollution and riots; some people just leave their homes, but they'll come back if you fix what's wrong.
Mini Settlers announcement video.
Mini Settlers is not the game to play to satisfy your long-running suspicion that urban planning was your missed calling. In the (non-progress-saving) Prologue-free demo out this week, the mines and quarries have infinite resources. There is no "money" to speak of, so far as I can tell. Apple farms must be placed near apple orchards and water pumps by water, and the rest is up to you. The interface looks like a thought experiment in how far you can get from traditional city sim HUDs, but then someone implemented it.
In a wide-ranging interview with Chinese site Zhihu (machine translation), Elden Ring producer Hidetaka Miyazaki said "Shadow of the Erdtree" contains a lot of existing lore and content that was created for the original game but couldn't fit into the final package. Miyazaki said the team decided to release all of that unused content as one large DLC expansion, rather than multiple smaller bits, because "if they were sold separately, the freedom of exploration and sense of adventure would be reduced."
As for just how big the DLC will be, Miyazaki balked when the interviewer asked how long it would take players to complete. Miyazaki brought up memories of being called a liar after estimating in an earlier interview that the original game would only take about 30 hours of play to complete—crowdsourced game-length database HowLongToBeat puts the "main story" estimate closer to 60 hours.
The Steam Deck is a Linux computer. There is, technically, very little you cannot get running on it, given enough knowledge, time, and patience. That said, it's never a bad thing when someone has done all the work for you, leaving you to focus on what matters: sneaking game time on the couch.
GeForce Now, Nvidia's game-streaming service that uses your own PC gaming libraries, has made it easier for Steam Deck owners to get its service set up on their Deck. On the service's Download page, there is now a section for Gaming Handheld Devices. Most of the device links provide the service's Windows installer, since devices like the ROG Ally and Lenovo Legion Go run Windows. Some note that GeForce Now is already installed on devices like the Razer Edge and Logitech G Cloud.
But Steam Deck types are special. We get a Unix-style executable script, a folder with all the necessary Steam icon image assets, and a README.md file.
Enlarge/ New gods, same old drama. (credit: Supergiant)
Here at Ars, we were obviously excited by the late 2022 announcement of Hades II as a follow-up to our favorite game of 2020. But when early coverage of that sequel suggested major changes to the game's core combat, we were a bit worried that the developers at Supergiant risked messing up the core gameplay loop that made the original game so satisfying.
So far, it seems like those worries were unfounded. After spending a few hours playing through the game's recent technical test—which covers content up through the game's first major "boss" character—we found a confident sequel that keeps the original games familiar flow while adding just enough changes to avoid feeling like a rehash. If anything, the new systems in Hades II make the original game's positional combat more satisfying than ever.
Spoiler warning: The rest of this piece offers minor spoilers for the early parts of Hades II.
Once a simple social network for posting resumes and job listings and networking with peers, then a blog platform, and more recently an AI service, LinkedIn is now following in the footsteps of The New York Times in launching three new Wordle style daily puzzle games, which it no doubt fervently hopes will keep you coming back to the site at least that often.
Pinpoint, Crossclimb, and Queenslaunched today in the LinkedIn mobile app and on its website. The games are somewhat unintuitively listed under the My Network section on both mobile anddesktop. (Alternatively, just click this link or type linkedin.com/games into your browser.)
Like Wordle, each game can be played once per day, with LinkedIn keeping track of your scores, streaks, and leaderboard positions along the way. You can also get competitive with your network by sharing your scores with your connections.
Pinpoint is about drawing connections. The game will reveal new clues with each wrong guess, and your goal is to find the common thread in each of the clues in as few guesses as possible. If all clues have been revealed and you still can’t guess the answer, you lose.
Credit: Michelle Ehrhardt/Lifehacker
Crossclimb is like a mix between crossword puzzles and trivia. The game will first give brief definitions for a series of words. Once you’ve guessed each word, it’ll be your job to rearrange them from top to bottom so that only one letter changes at a time. Then, you’ll be given one final clue to find the top and bottom words in the sequence. It’s a bit on the complicated side for a “daily check in” puzzle game, so it’s best to learn through playing.
Credit: LinkedIn
Queens is like Sodoku, but with crowns instead of numbers. Your goal is to place a crown in each row, column, and colored section without overlapping or having adjacent crowns. It’s possibly the simplest puzzle here, at least in terms of its rules, but for some reason, LinkedIn has seen fit to give it the longest tutorial of the bunch.
Credit: Michelle Ehrhardt/Lifehacker
Games might seem an odd fit for LinkedIn, but as ad revenue disappears and other social media websites do their best to keep users on their own platforms, developing games is proving to be a great way to make “sticky” content and keep engagement numbers high. According to Axios, The New York Times accrued over four billion plays last year on Wordle alone, so you can hardly fault LinkedIn for reaching for a piece of that pie.
Enlarge/ It's a good thing this kid is too young to bet on Skee-Ball, because his dad is getting beat. (credit: Getty Images)
Anyone who's been to a Dave & Buster's location in recent years knows the arcade's heavy reliance on so-called redemption games makes the experience more like an ersatz casino than the quarter-munching video game halls of the '70s and '80s. On the vast majority of D&B games, you end up wagering money (in the form of gameplay chips) to win virtual tickets that can be traded for trinkets at the rewards counter.
Now, the massive arcade chain has announced that players will soon be able to use the D&B app to directly wager on the results of arcade games through "real-money contests." The arcade giant, which has over 200 locations across North America, is partnering with "gamification layer" platform Lucra on a system that will let D&B Rewards members "digitally compete with each other, earn rewards, and unlock exclusive perks while competing with friends at Dave & Buster’s," according to Tuesday's announcement.
Neither Lucra nor Dave & Buster's has responded to a request for comment from Ars Technica, so we're still missing extremely basic information, like what games will support app-based wagering, minimum and maximum bet sizes, or what kinds of fees might be involved. CNBC's report on the announcement suggests the system will be launching "in the next few months" to players 18 and older across 44 states (and specifically mention Skee-Ball and Hot Shots Basketball competitions). Lucra's webpage simply says the integration will "provide... social connectivity and friendly competition," suggesting you'll probably face off against friends playing in the same location.
You can get this Bionik Pro Kit for Xbox Series X/S on sale for $39.99 right now (reg. $89.99). The gaming accessories kit includes a green CLR-50 over-ear gaming headset with 50mm drivers, an integrated microphone, and RGB coloring; a dual-port controller charger with back-lit power indicators and an adjustable USB cord; two 1,200mAh rechargeable battery packs with custom covers; a 10-foot LYNX cable with woven stitching and a reinforced Kevlar coating; and a USB cable extender to use with the accessories.
You can get this Bionik Pro Kit for Xbox Series X/S on sale for $39.99 right now (reg. $89.99), though prices can change at any time.
The Nintendo Switch 2 rumor mill seems to have been churning almost since the Switch originally launched, yet for the last seven years, Nintendo has been mostly silent on the issue. As such, it's easy to dismiss any new claims as mere speculation. Still I think some Switch 2 rumors are more solid than others, and may actually give us a glimpse into what Nintendo has planned for what is possibly the most anticipated new console in years.
The most recent rumors began with a Spanish outlet known as Vandal. where writer Ramón Varela dropped a breakout piece that includes several claims that haven't circulated before. Those claims were then corroborated and expanded upon by Mobapad, a company that makes Switch controllers and accessories.
While all rumors should be taken with a grain of salt (and a massive one at that), there is reason to put stock in Vandal's reporting. The outlet's piece on the "Switch Pro" in 2021 actually got many of the details correct, for what turned out to be the Switch OLED. While Vandal was incorrect in predicting the Switch OLED would output 4K when connected to a TV, it accurately reported Nintendo would increase the display size without increasing the size of the console, and that the company would use an OLED panel for the display rather than an LCD. It also correctly claimed the upgraded stand would resemble a Microsoft Surface's stand, and that the dock would have USB 3.0 ports, as well as an ethernet port.
That's not to say you can expect every claim in Vandal's latest report to be true. But it's good to know the rumors aren't coming from a source with zero credibility, and it certainly helps that a Switch accessory maker can back some of them up.
Old Joy-Cons, new connections
The rail design of the current Switch Joy-Cons is iconic: You align the Joy-Con's rail with the corresponding rail on the Switch, then slide and click it into place (hence, the Switch's famous "click" sound effect).
For the Switch 2, it seems likely Nintendo is sticking with a similar Joy-Con design, which makes sense: Detachable controllers are a fun way to make a portable console instantly multiplayer—although I hope they've figured out a way to prevent stick drift going forward. However, one big difference is the new Joy-Cons may connect with magnets, rather than by rail. Vandal doesn't share many details about how this magnetic tech actually works, but Mobapad says they're made with "magnetic suction" and use an electrical current. Perhaps there's some type of locking mechanism that clicks into place once the magnets do, similar to the locking system in the current Switch.
In any case, switching to a magnetic connection rather from a rails option would likely mean your old Joy-Cons wouldn't be fully compatible with the Switch 2, unless Nintendo or a third-party made magnetic rail attachments for them. That said, Mobapad believes the current Joy-Cons will be compatible at least via Bluetooth, and both outlets think the existing Pro Controller will be as well.
Mobapad also says the Joy-Con buttons are getting an upgrade. The SL and SR buttons are supposedly going to be metal, and Nintendo is adding a third button to each of the Joy-Cons. In addition, there will be a new function button below the HOME button on the right controller.
Full backwards compatibility
Vandal says that the latest rumors don't definitively say one way or another whether the Switch 2 will be backwards compatible with original Switch games, but report that manufacturers "believe and assume" that the console will be backwards compatible.
I'm with the manufacturers here: If Switch 2 isn't backwards compatible, that sounds like a disaster for Nintendo. The Switch was the first Nintendo console since the GameCube that wasn't backwards compatible with the generation before it. (It would've been difficult to fit a Wii U disc in the Switch's cartridge slot anyway.) But seeing as the Switch 2 is a likely spiritual successor to the OG Switch, it would be silly to expect customers to upgrade to the latest console generation without an option to play their existing Switch library.
Nintendo, you already made us buy all the best Wii U games as Switch ports. Please don't make us do it again.
Beefier hardware
Specifics on hardware specs are still pretty hard to come by in the Switch 2 rumor mill, but we do know the Nvidia is likely to be involved. An unnamed source told Reuters back in February that Nintendo was planning to use a custom Nvidia chip for the Switch 2, while a previous Vandal report indicates Nintendo is planning to use an Nvidia chip based on the GeForce RTX 30 series. If rumors are to be believed, this chip is known as the T239, a customized version of the existing T234 chip.
Vandal believes the hardware will support DLSS (deep learning super scaling), which uses AI to create upscaled frames, and that the Switch 2 will support ray tracing, a modern lighting technique that produces realistic lighting environments. These changes, plus a rumored 4K output, would definitely put the Switch 2 well above the original in the graphics department.
Even if we had the exact hardware specs in-hand, we wouldn't know for sure how powerful the Switch 2 really could be. That's because Nintendo will likely underclock the chip to balance the system's power with its portability, as it does the current Switch. If Nintendo allowed us to use the SoC's full potential, it would likely drain the battery too quickly and overheat the system. You can overclock your Switch, improving performance in demanding games like Tears of the Kingdom, but it isn't recommended.
All that to say, it's safe to assume the Switch 2 will increase the graphical performance of the current Switch, but the difference will not necessarily be seismic, especially if you're coming from a Sony or Microsoft console, or even the possible PS5 Pro. But Nintendo has never prioritized having the best quality graphics: As long as the next-generation of Nintendo's IP looks and plays great, and there continues to be support from third-party developers on the platform, the Switch 2 will do what it's supposed to.
Games should look good in handheld mode, too: Mobapad says the system will come with an 8-inch display, larger than even the 7-inch display on the Switch OLED. and 1080p resolution. All current Switches have a 720p display, so even though the Switch 2 won't run at 4K in handheld mode, it should look crisper than anything we've seen so far.
The Switch 2 is likely not coming this year
If you're waiting to pick up an OLED Switch because you think the Switch 2 is right around the corner, you might be waiting a while longer. Vandal and other sources believe Nintendo is planning on a early 2025 launch, which would put the gap between console generations at eight years.
Vandal says that accessory manufacturers believe Nintendo is waiting until they have a larger catalog of games for the Switch 2 before launch, which isn't a bad strategy: Nintendo launched the 3DS without enough killer games, and it tanked the handheld's first year. (It was also too expensive, but that's a story for another day.)
Whatever's Nintendo's reasoning for holding off on the Switch 2, it likely won't be on shelves in the immediate future, or in time for the holidays. If you've been holding out, you're missing out on a lot of great games, so unless you're OK waiting up to another year, you may want to pick up a Switch.
Enlarge/Assassin's Creed Mirage returned to the earlier games' focus on stealth assassinations in a historical urban environment. (credit: Ubisoft)
Apple has spent the last year trying to convince gamers that they can get a console-like, triple-A experience on the latest iPhones. The newest test of that promise will be Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed Mirage, which now has a release date and pricing information.
Mirage will land on compatible iPhones—the iPhone 15, iPhone 15 Plus, iPhone 15 Pro, and iPhone 15 Pro Max—on June 6, according to Ubisoft (though the App Store listing says June 10.) That coincides pretty closely with Apple's annual developer conference, so we'd expect it to get a shoutout there. Ubisoft's blog post also says it will come to the iPad Air and iPad Pro models with an M1 chip or later.
The game will be a free download with a 90-minute free trial. After that, you'll have to pay $50 to keep playing, which is pretty close to what the game costs on PC and consoles. It will support cross-progression, provided you sign into Ubisoft Connect. Ubisoft Connect is not exactly beloved by players, but it's nice to be able to take your saves back and forth between other platforms if you can stomach it.
The game takes place in Mercer, a setting 145 years out from some vaguely Fallout-flavored nuclear devastation. Players will explore this setting across a full world map and eight quests, lovingly represented in pixel art via colored Excel cells.
According to Pear, the majority of the game is battle-focused, using a turn-based system based on Dungeons and Dragons. Battles appear via pop-up boxes, displaying sprite art for enemies alongside text boxes for stats and actions.
“Battling is the meat and bones of this game,” Pear says in a short video introducing his project. “It involves DnD style mechanics of initiative, AC, range, and movement.” While that might be a departure from recent entries like Fallout 3 and Fallout 4, it's a great throwback to the tabletop-inspired SPECIAL system of the first two games.
“Fallout but in Excel,” as an image on Pear’s website refers to it, isn’t actually Pear’s first time making a game using the unorthodox medium of Microsoft Excel. Prior projects include Excel-based versions of Pokémon and Baldur’s Gate III, as well as original projects including a horror game and a life sim game.
To play Pear’s Excel-based, Fallout-inspired RPG, simply download the workbook from his website and open it in Excel. Unfortunately, the game relies on Excel macros, so while Google Sheets and other Excel alternatives can open it, you’ll need Excel itself to play it. Luckily, we've got a guide on how to get Microsoft Office for free.
Enlarge/ CXC Simulations needed to come up with something special for Norwegian Cruise Lines, so it built an off-road racing simulator. (credit: CXC Simulations)
Racing simulators keep evolving as graphics get more and more realistic while physical motion systems innovate new ways to mimic the sensation of driving a real race car. The task of rendering the controlled environment of a well-known racing circuit makes most modern sims a bit easier to understand, and the physical footprints of screens, seats, VR goggles, and motion systems continue to shrink. But now, leading developer CXC Simulations has unveiled a massive sim that offers a more embodied experience of off-road racing. The project began in partnership with Norwegian Cruise Line, but CXC will now sell the Motion Pro Truck to the general public, albeit at a starting price of $600,000.
I visited CXC's headquarters in Los Angeles to learn more about how the wild physicality of high-speed off-roading translates to sim racing. After all, the company's most popular Motion Pro II sim setup typically features a compact racing seat, steering wheel, and pedals atop a small base platform, with the choice of one or three screens or a set of VR goggles. The Motion Pro II has proved popular since founder Chris Considine originally launched CXC out of his garage in 2007, to the point that his company now works with professional racing teams, enthusiasts, federal government agencies, the military, and law enforcement agencies on six continents.
I tested CXC's Motion Pro II, which is equipped with three 55-inch screens, and Considine loaded me into a Radical SR8 racecar at the Watkins Glen circuit. The realistic pedals and steering wheel feedback, as well as subtle tilting at the seat of my pants and seatbelts that tightened under hard braking, all contributed to a fun experience. And as someone who typically suffers from motion sickness, I never felt any nausea creeping in—while appreciating how much the wraparound triple screens contributed to a sense of speed that other single-screen sims entirely lack.
A mock-up posted by MobaPad provides one vision of how magnetically attached Switch 2 Joy-Cons might look (credit: MobaPad)
Thus far, Nintendo has offered only vague hints regarding whether or not the upcoming Switch 2 will run games and software designed for the current Switch. Now, an obscure Chinese peripheral maker is reporting that the new console will indeed work with existing physical Switch game cards and digital Switch game downloads.
The new report comes from MobaPad, a little-known creator of Switch controllers and carrying cases based in Shenzen, China. In a Sunday morning blog post, the company says it is "in the process of developing the next-generation console controller" for the Switch 2 and has "acquired a lot of first-hand information" about the console as a result (MobaPad shared similar insights days earlier on Chinese video site Bilibili and briefly on its English Facebook page).
Chief among MobaPad's purported revelations is that "the cartridge slot of the Switch 2 will support backward compatibility with physical Switch game cartridges, ensuring compatibility with players' existing game libraries, including digital versions." Game cards designed specifically for the Switch 2, on the other hand, "may not be compatible with the first-generation console," suggesting there may be a physical change preventing Switch 2 game cards from being accidentally inserted into an older Switch console.
Enlarge/ More players have been emerging from this vault lately than have in years. (credit: Samuel Axon)
War never changes, but Fallout 76 sure has. The online game that launched to a negative reception with no NPCs but plenty of bugs has mutated in new directions since its 2018 debut. Now it’s finding new life thanks to the wildly popular Fallout TV series that debuted a couple of weeks ago.
In truth, it never died, though it has stayed in decidedly niche territory for the past six years. Developer Bethesda Game Studios has released regular updates fixing (many of) the bugs, adding new ways to play, softening the game’s rough edges, and yes, introducing Fallout 3- or Fallout 4-like, character-driven quest lines with fully voiced NPCs—something many players felt was missing in the early days.
It’s still not for everybody, but for a select few of us who’ve stuck with it, there’s nothing else quite like it.
Enlarge/ Scale is important, especially when talking about relative console sales. (credit: Aurich Lawson | Getty Images)
Yesterday, Microsoft announced that it made 31 percent less off Xbox hardware in the first quarter of 2024 (ending in March) than it had the year before, a decrease it says was "driven by lower volume of consoles sold." And that's not because the console sold particularly well a year ago, either; Xbox hardware revenue for the first calendar quarter of 2023 was already down 30 percent from the previous year.
Those two data points speak to a console that is struggling to substantially increase its player base during a period that should, historically, be its strongest sales period. But getting wider context on those numbers is a bit difficult because of how Microsoft reports its Xbox sales numbers (i.e., only in terms of quarterly changes in total console hardware revenue). Comparing those annual shifts to the unit sales numbers that Nintendo and Sony report every quarter is not exactly simple.
To attempt some direct contextual comparison, we took unit sales numbers for some recent successful Sony and Nintendo consoles and converted them to Microsoft-style year-over-year percentage changes (aligned with the launch date for each console). For this analysis, we skipped over each console's launch quarter, which contains less than three months of total sales (and often includes a lot of pent-up early adopter demand). We also skipped the first four quarters of a console's life cycle, which don't have a year-over-year comparison point from 12 months prior.
The site notes that this new design could make direct Switch 2 backward compatibility with existing Switch Joy-Cons "difficult." Even so, we can envision some sort of optional magnetic shim that could make older Joy-Cons attachable with the new system's magnetic connection points. Current Switch Pro Controllers, which do not physically attach to the Switch, should be fully compatible with the Switch 2, according to the report.
Vandal cites several unnamed accessory and peripheral makers who reportedly got to touch the new console inside of an opaque box, which was used to balance design secrecy with the need to provide general knowledge of the unit's dimensions. According to those sources, the Switch 2 will be "larger than the Switch, although without reaching the size of the Steam Deck."
Enlarge/ The Q*Bert's so bright, I gotta wear shades. (credit: Aurich Lawson | Getty Images | Gottlieb)
For years now, video game preservationists, librarians, and historians have been arguing for a DMCA exemption that would allow them to legally share emulated versions of their physical game collections with researchers remotely over the Internet. But those preservationists continue to face pushback from industry trade groups, which worry that an exemption would open a legal loophole for "online arcades" that could give members of the public free, legal, and widespread access to copyrighted classic games.
This long-running argument was joined once again earlier this month during livestreamed testimony in front of the Copyright Office, which is considering new DMCA rules as part of its regular triennial process. During that testimony, representatives of the Software Preservation Network and the Library Copyright Alliance defended their proposal for a system of "individualized human review" to help ensure that temporary remote game access would be granted "primarily for the purposes of private study, scholarship, teaching, or research."
Steam's refund policy has been a big hit with players since it was introduced in 2015. You can ask for a refund on any game within two weeks of purchase as long as you haven't played it for more than two hours. This policy is so famous, there are many speedrunners who try to finish games within this two-hour window and get a refund. Until now, this policy had a loophole: Play time didn't count for some pre-release games. This meant you could play any game in Advanced Access for as long as you liked and then refund it, so long as you didn't accrue more than two hours of additional game time after launch.
What is Advanced Access on Steam?
Steam defines Advanced Access as the ability to play the final version of a game before release. Think of it as being able to pay extra to get into Disney World an hour before everyone else. Plenty of games include a few days or even a week of Advanced Access in their deluxe purchase bundles, and to help make this clearer, Steam has added a new label on the store page for games in Advanced Access.
Credit: Valve Corporation
Advanced Access is different from Early Access, where developers release games that are still in development and use Steam sales as a means of funding. While Early Access games were not vulnerable to this loophole, some players abused the refund policy on Advanced Access games to get dozens of hours of play in before a game's official release, only to refund it and snag all that play time for free.
Steam has fixed the Advanced Access refund loophole
On Steam's refunds page, the company has changed its policy to stop players from exploiting this loophole. The updated wording is as follows:
REFUNDS ON TITLES PURCHASED PRIOR TO RELEASE DATE
When you purchase a title on Steam prior to the release date, the two-hour playtime limit for refunds will apply (except for beta testing), but the 14-day period for refunds will not start until the release date. For example, if you purchase a game that is in Early Access or Advanced Access, any playtime will count against the two-hour refund limit. If you pre-purchase a title which is not playable prior to the release date, you can request a refund at any time prior to release of that title, and the standard 14-day/two-hour refund period will apply starting on the game’s release date.
Previously, the 14-day/two-hour clock started only after the game's official release date. Now, you'll have to be careful if you're impulse buying games that look promising. At the time of writing, TopSpin 2K25 is in Advanced Access, so if you start playing it now, know that your refund clock will be ticking.
Enlarge/ "5ario" here won't be on the Garry's Mod Steam Workshop for long. (credit: Steam / LmaoSPW)
The popular long-running Source-engine physics sandbox Garry's Mod has begun to take down Nintendo-related items from the game's Steam Workshop page, following an apparent takedown request from Nintendo.
"If you want to help us by deleting your Nintendo-related uploads and never uploading them again, that would help us a lot," Newman jokes in the announcement post.
"Early Access" was once a novel, quirky thing, giving a select set of Steam PC games a way to involve enthusiastic fans in pre-alpha-level play-testing and feedback. Now loads of games launch in various forms of Early Access, in a wide variety of readiness. It's been a boon for games like Baldur's Gate 3, which came a long way across years of Early Access.
Early Access, and the "Advanced Access" provided for complete games by major publishers for "Deluxe Editions" and the like, has also been a boon to freeloaders. Craven types could play a game for hours and hours, then demand a refund within the standard two hours of play, 14 days after the purchase window of the game's "official" release. Steam-maker Valve has noticed and, as of Tuesday night, updated its refund policy.
"Playtime acquired during the Advanced Access period will now count towards the Steam refund period," reads the update. In other words: Playtime is playtime now, so if you've played more than two hours of a game in any state, you don't get a refund. That closes at least one way that people could, with time-crunched effort, play and enjoy games for free in either Early or Advanced access.
Enlarge/ Players will be able to throw down a few bucks to get the Python Mk 2 starting next month. (credit: Frontier Developments)
Elite: Dangerous players will soon be able to pay real money for access to in-game ships for the first time, a major change that already has some long-time players raging about a "pay-to-win" shift for the long-running game.
Since Elite Dangerous launched over nine years ago, the game has sold ships in exchange for in-game credits earned through gameplay. The separate ARX currency, which can be purchased with real money, has been reserved for cosmetic upgrades such as paint jobs.
That's all set to change next month, though, when owners of the Odyssey expansion will be able to purchase early access to the Python Mk II variant ship for 16,250 ARX (the equivalent of about $11 to $13, depending on how much ARX is purchased in bulk). Non-Odyssey owners won't be able to purchase the Python Mk II with regular credits until three months later, on August 7. At that point, the ship will also be available as an ARX-denominated "pre-built ship package" that "allow[s] you to kickstart your career in the latest ship, including a brand-new paintjob and ship kit."
The "Laugh it Up" emote is one of four that can now be blocked using a setting in Fortnite. [credit:
Epic Games ]
For online players tired of being harassed by randos over voice chat, animated emotes have long served as a "safe" way to communicate in-game via simple, pre-approved non-verbal messages. In Fortnite, though, a few of those emotes have become so "confrontational" (as developer Epic puts it) that individual players can now choose to block them with an in-game settings toggle.
The new "See Confrontational Emotes" setting, announced Tuesday, can be set to automatically block the appearance (and associated sound effects) of four emotes "that are sometimes used in confrontational ways," Epic wrote. Those four emotes are (links go to video examples):
By default, the toggle will be set to only display these emotes from friends in an online party, Epic wrote. That setting can be changed to always allow or always block those emotes at any time.
Enlarge/ Don't expect to see this on the iOS App Store any time soon. (credit: OatmealDome)
Last week's release of the Delta emulation suite finally gave iOS users easy, no-sideloading-required access to classic Nintendo game emulation up through the Nintendo 64 era. When it comes to emulating Nintendo's subsequent home consoles on iOS, though, some technical restrictions imposed by Apple are making it difficult to get a functional emulator on the App Store.
In a recent blog post, DolphiniOS developer (and longtimeSwitchhacker) OatmealDome explains how a Dolphin code fork—which ports the popular GameCube and Wii emulator to Apple's smartphone OS—uses just-in-time (JIT) compilation to translate the PowerPC instructions from those retro consoles into ARM-compatible iOS code. But Apple's App Store regulations against apps that "install executable code" (Section 3.3.1B) generally prevent JIT recompilation on iOS, with very limited exceptions such as web browsers. That restriction may have some valid security reasoning behind it, but it can also get in the way for developers of tools like third-party browser engines (except recently in the EU).
Enlarge/ The nukes went off in 2077 in Fallout's universe. The show tells us more about this event than we've learned from the games before. (credit: Amazon)
It's been just over a week since the Fallout TV series premiered on Amazon Prime, and one thing's for sure: It's a huge hit. You can hardly open a social media app without seeing content about it, the reviews are positive, and the active players for the Fallout games have doubled over the past week.
A few days ago, I shared some spoiler-free impressions of the first three episodes. I loved what I'd seen up to that point—the show seemed faithful to the games, but it was also a great TV show. A specific cocktail of tongue-in-cheek humor, sci-fi campiness, strong themes, great characters, and visceral violence really came together into a fantastic show.
Still, I had some questions at that point: Would the franchise's penchant for satire and its distinct political and social viewpoint come through? Where was all this headed?
Enlarge/ Like the Beach Properties DLC itself, this property looks a bit unfinished and in need of some focus. (credit: Paradox Interactive)
Perhaps the first clue that something was not quite right about Beach Properties, the first $10 DLC "expansion" for the already off-kilter city-building sim Cities: Skylines 2, was that it did not contain a real beach house, which one might consider a key beach property. The oversight seemed indicative of a content pack that lacked for content.
C:S2's developers and publisher now agree and have published a letter to Cities fans, in which they offer apologies, updates, and refunds. Beach Properties is now a free add-on, individual buyers will be refunded (with details at a FAQ page), and Ultimate Edition owners will receive additional Creator Packs and Radio Stations, since partial refunds are tricky across different game stores.
"We thought we could make up for the shortcomings of the game in a timeframe that was unrealistic, and rushed out a DLC that should not have been published in its current form. For all this, we are truly sorry," reads the letter, signed by the CEOs of developer Colossal Order and publisher Paradox Interactive. "When we’ve made statements like this one before, it’s included a pledge to keep making improvements, and while we are working on these updates, they haven’t happened at a speed or magnitude that is acceptable, and it pains us that we've now lost the trust of many of you. We want to do better."
One mod in this storied genre that caught our eye this week is the "Short Stack," a scale model of the Nintendo Wii that packs the 2006 console's internal hardware into a 3D-printed enclosure roughly the size of a deck of playing cards.
"You could fit 13.5 of these inside an original Wii," writes James Smith (aka loopj), the person behind the project. All the design details, custom boards, and other information about recreating the mod are available on GitHub.
Enlarge/ For just $199, you could be having as much fun as this paid model.
Meta has announced it's permanently lowering the price of its aging Quest 2 headset to $199 for a 128GB base model, representing the company's lowest price yet for a full-featured untethered VR headset.
And the Quest 2 is far from the company's state-of-the-art headset at this point. Meta launched the surprisingly expensive Quest Pro in late 2022 before dropping that headset's price from $1,499 to $999 less than five months later. And last year's launch of the Quest 3 at a $499 starting price brought some significant improvements in resolution, processing power, thickness, and full-color passthrough images over the Quest 2.
Enlarge/ Seeing power armor in the Fallout series inspired many players to jump back into their own suits (and start stockpiling fusion cores). (credit: Amazon/MGM Studios)
Long-time Fallout fans are used to long waits between titles, and, depending on their preferences, inconsistent results. But when Amazon's Fallout series showed up on Prime and absolutely nailed it, it spurred a lot of players to crack open their libraries and commence some post-apocalyptic replaying. And maybe first-time playing, too.
Fallout 76, the online multiplayer title that is the most recent full release, saw perhaps the biggest delta. The game hit its all-time peak of 43,887 simultaneous players on Wednesday, April 17, according to SteamCharts, roughly one week after the Amazon series' debut. For the year leading up to that peak, Fallout 76 had hovered around 7,000-10,000 players through most of 2024, and then jumped after the series' debut. Of course, that number only counts PC players, and only those on Steam; the game, which launched simultaneously on consoles, and is available on Microsoft's Game Pass, likely has many more players.
Delta is an outgrowth of developer Riley Testut's earlier sideloadable GBA4iOS project, which recently had its own unauthorized clone removed from the App Store. Before Wednesday, iOS users could load Delta onto their devices only through AltStore, an iOS marketplace that used a Developer Mode workaround to sideload apps from a self-hosted server. European users can now get that AltStore directly on their iOS devices (for a small 1.50 euro/year fee), while North American users can simply download Delta for free from the iOS App Store, with no ads or user tracking to boot.
All that history means Delta is far from a slapdash app quickly thrown together to take advantage of Apple's new openness to emulation. The app is obviously built with iOS in mind and already integrates some useful features designed for the mobile ecosystem. While there are some updates we'd like to see in the future, this represents a good starting point for where Apple-approved game emulation can go on iOS.
Apple is finally loosening its strict stance towards video game emulation, meaning iPhone users can now play retro video games right on their phones, even if those games don’t have official mobile apps yet. All it takes is a simple download from the App Store and some setup within the emulator, and your iPhone will be one step closer to being the best gaming phone around. And one of the first emulators to get the official Apple sanction, Delta, makes the whole process surprisingly easy.
What is an emulator?
First: What is a game emulator, and how could it possibly be legal to play Super Mario World or Sonic the Hedgehog 2 on your phone? Well, as devices like the Super Nintendo or Sega Genesis age, it becomes easier for programmers to reverse engineer them and make apps that can mimic all of their hardware and software interactions, but this time entirely through software.
Basically, an emulator can run a virtual Super Nintendo inside your iPhone, which can then run Super Nintendo games as usual. It can be a taxing and sometimes glitchy process, since your device doesn’t just have to run the game, but also a whole console at the same time. Modern computers are powerful enough, though, that plenty of emulators still eclipse original hardware in some respects, being able to play games at higher-than-usual resolutions or speeds and even save them at a moment’s notice—perfect for portable play.
Thanks to an old U.S. Court case, emulators are also legal, so long as the emulator just mimics the consoles themselves rather than distributing any games or operating systems.
How do I play Nintendo (and Sega) games on my phone?
Delta will automatically add box art for your gamesCredit: Testut Tech, Nintendo
Which brings us to how to actually use Delta to play retro games on your phone. Delta is actually a fairly mature app, and using it is pretty intuitive. It’s been available to sideload for almost half a decade now, with today simply being its first day Apple has allowed it on the App Store.
Delta can run games from the Nintendo Entertainment System, the Super Nintendo, the Nintendo 64, all Game Boy systems, the Nintendo DS, and even the Sega Genesis. The catch is that you’ll need to provide the game files yourselves.
Delta’s site tells you which file formats it supports, but as for where to get your games, you’re on your own. Emulation enthusiasts assure players that U.S. law allows them to make digital backups of games they own, and there are plenty of devices and techniques for doing just that, although the practice has yet to face much legal scrutiny.
Once you have a compatible game file on your phone, you simply need to tap the “+” button in the top right corner of the app, select the file, and you’re good to start playing. Delta will automatically find box art and sort your systems for you.
Note that for Nintendo DS games, you’ll also need to add a bios file to Delta, which you’ll also need to get on your own. Once you have one, just tap on the gear icon in the app’s top left corner, scroll down until you see “Nintendo DS” under “Core Settings,” then add your files under “DS BIOS FILES.”
What kind of features does the Delta game emulator have?
Delta's settings allow for multiple players, controller skins, and moreCredit: Testut Tech
This is where things get fun. Because of its age, Delta is a robust app with support for touch controls, Bluetooth controllers, haptic feedback, fast forward, cheats, save states, and even cloud backups. You can connect anything from a PS5 controller to Nintendo Switch Joy-Cons to play games on Delta.
When you first load up a game, things will probably look pretty normal. You’ll see the gameplay either up top or in the middle of your screen (depending on whether you’re holding your phone vertically or horizontally). Below or to the sides of your game will be your controls, done up in a snazzy pre-made skin (which you can also swap for custom imported skins later). But hidden among the standard controls should be the menu button. Here, you can enable cheat codes, alter the game speed, set a certain button to be held down, and manage your save states.
Save states are maybe the most convenient feature an emulator can have. They allow you to save a game at absolutely any point, separate from the game’s own save system. It’s a neat trick enabled by the virtual nature of the setup—the program just remembers how it was operating at any point in time, and can recall it later.
Now you don’t need to worry about finishing a level before your bus arrives, and if you’re feeling nefarious, you can save right before a tough boss fight so you can retry right away if you lose without having to replay the whole level again. Your call.
To adjust more settings than the in-game menu button will allow, just navigate back to the Delta main menu (your game will pause) and click the gear icon in the top left corner, where you’ll be able to set up controls for all your players, home screen shortcuts, and optionally link your files and saves to a Dropbox or Google Drive account.
Why is Delta important?
Delta comes with a number of pre-made touch control layouts and skinsCredit: Testut Tech, Nintendo
More emulators are likely going to hit the App Store soon, but Delta is the first to stay, as well as the most robust and likely to stick around. Previously, a Game Boy Advance emulator called iGBA was pulled by Apple for violating its spam and copyright rules, which might have something to do with the code’s alleged connection to Delta’s predecessor, according to a statement Delta developer Riley Testut gave to The Verge. A Nintendo Entertainment System emulator called Bimmy was also pulled by its developer “out of fear.”
While emulators are legal, having to fight large companies like Nintendo in court can still be a daunting task, as evidenced by the recent shutdown of Switch emulator Yuzu. Delta's team, however, has been at this for a while, and doesn't show any signs of stopping soon.
Allowing Delta to hit the App Store is also smart on Apple's part, since Google already allows emulators on the Android Play Store. The app's presence will help Apple's ecosystem shore up its retro coverage while the iPhone maker works with larger developers like Capcom to continue to bring recent big budget releases like Resident Evil 4 to its devices.
Touch controls work well, but a Bluetooth controller makes retro gaming on iPhone even better. Here are some great options:
Amazon’s TV adaptation of Fallout is among the best game-to-screen adaptations ever made; it's so good, even people who’ve never played a Fallout game, or any game, are hungry for more of the franchise's unique vibe. If that’s you, and you want to dive into the Fallout game universe but don’t know where to start, read on for a list of which games to play first, and what to know about Fallout before you begin.
What to know about the Fallout games before you start playing
There are a lot of games in the Fallout universe, between six and nine, depending on how you count them, but Amazon’s Fallout isn’t a direct adaptation of any of them. The series is an original, standalone story set within the larger Fallout universe, as is each of the individual Fallout games, so you could play any title and not miss important information. That said, all Fallout games aren't created equally, especially if you're a fan of the series, so choose wisely.
Fallout 3 is the best, first Fallout game for fans of the Fallout TV series
While the first two games birthed much of the franchise's unique style, Fallout 3, the first “modern” Fallout game, crafted the raw material of alternative history, atomic-core design, and over-the-top black humor into a masterpiece. Unlike the first two Fallout games, Fallout 3 features action-rich first-person shooter gameplay that has the same whacked-out, so-violent-it-feels-like-a-cartoon style as the series. In other words: It's fun.
Fallout 3's story shares broad strokes with show's as well. Like Lucy in the series, Fallout 3's central character, The Lone Wanderer, was born in a Vault-Tech vault generations after the bombs destroyed earth. The game’s introductory section lets you experience peaceful underground life, like episode one of the series, then thrusts you into the unforgiving wasteland of Washington, D.C. in 2277, like episode 2 in Los Angeles circa 2296. Also like Lucy, The Lone Wanderer is on a quest to find their father and will meet ghouls, the Brotherhood of Steel, mutated creatures, and other familiar delights and horrors in the above-world. You’ll also learn more than you want to know about “The Enclave,” a faction shown briefly in the series during Dr. Siggi Wilzig's escape, and be introduced to Deathclaws and Super-Mutants, both of which, I'm sure, will play prominent roles in Season 2 of the series.
Fallout 4: The second best introductory Fallout game
Fallout 4 is also a great starting point for new players. Released in 2015, during the Xbox One and PS 4 era, Fallout 4 took advantage of the extra power of those new-at-the-time consoles to expand and refine the Fallout universe. Fallout 4’s New Englandis a bigger, more varied world than the settings of previous Fallout games. It's a more colorful, detailed game too, that looks uncannily like the series. Fallout 4’s opening chapter takes place in a shiny pre-apocalypse suburb in 2077 reminiscent of Cooper Howard's flashback adventures in pre-bomb Hollywood. When you end up in 2287, the contrast is a lot like the series flashing forward to 2296. I won't spoil anything, but Fallout 4's starting vault makes a lot more sense when you know what happened in the show's Vault 31. On the negative side, in contrast to the fast-as-charging-Yao Guai pace of Fallout: The Show, Fallout 4 puts a heavy focus on exploration, discovery, side-quests, and colony building, so the story can feel a little slack at times and it’s easy to get side-tracked. A free Fallout 4 next-gen update for Xbox Series X|S and PlayStation 5 is scheduled to come out on April 25, so it's a great time to give it spin.
Fallout: New Vegas is my third choice, but still an excellent first Fallout game
Set in the American west in 2281, Fallout: New Vegas is a great choice if you are a fan of the dusty cowboy vibe of The Ghoul, you want to learn more about the New California Republic, the faction lead by mysterious revolutionary Moldaver in the Fallout series, or you want to dig into the likely setting of Season 2 of the Amazon show.
New Vegas is widely regarded as the overall best Fallout game by hardcore fans of the franchise. It’s heavier on role-playing than the other modern Fallout games, so it’s a more open-ended experience and it allows players to create more varied characters and overcome challenges in different ways than either Fallout 3 or 4.
While New Vegas is definitely a great game, I didn’t connect with the characters and the extra-gritty setting as strongly as I did with the other games. Story-wise, it feels the least like the series of the modern games to me. But that's probably just a taste thing; it's still a solid introduction to the franchise.
Fallout Shelter: casual Fallout
If you want a super-casual Fallout experience, check out Fallout Shelter. This free game can be played on consoles, but it’s really designed for wasting a few minutes on your iPhone or Android. Shelter casts you as the overseer of a Vault-Tech vault. You’re in charge of expanding your home/prison, attracting new residents, and keeping everyone inside safe, sane, and radiation-free until it’s safe to return to the surface (like that will ever happen).
It may be a silly mobile game, but Fallout: Shelter is the only Fallout title that features the characters from the show. A recent update added Lucy MacLean, Maximus, The Ghoul, and (for some reason) Ma June as “legendary dwellers,” who might show up to live in your vault if you’re lucky enough to open the right lunchboxes. You can't play as them, but you can see them, and that's something I guess.
Don’t start with the first two Fallout games
"The beginning" might seem like the most logical place to start a series, but 1997’s Fallout and its sequel Fallout 2 are bad jumping off points for most people, particularly non-gamers. Both are punishingly difficult, hardcore role-playing games with turn-based combat and confusing, antique controls—fun for some, but torturous for most. They're groundbreaking, fascinating titles to be sure, but even if you manage to suffer through the deadly beginning of each game, they don't provide the same feel as the series; the run-and-gun gameplay of Fallout 3, Fallout: New Vegas, and Fallout 4 is way closer to the series than the slow-but-deadly vibe of the early games. Also 3, 4, and New Vegas have a “Very Easy” difficulty setting, so your rip-roaring Fallout adventure won't end in frustration.
Don’t start with the most recent Fallout game, Fallout 76, either
While it won't be as deadly as the first two games, Fallout 76 is not a great place to jump into Fallout world either. Released in 2018 and set in Appalachia in 2102, Fallout 76 is an online multiplayer game with a steep learning curve, MMO-style grinding and crafting, and a different overall vibe than the TV show and the other games. It tries to provide a Fallout-like experience, but the addition of other players means you’re not really the main character, and MMO-specific mechanics don't translate well to Fallout. All that plus second-tier writing and voice-acting make Fallout 76 the least Fallout-y modern Fallout game.
Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel and Fallout Tactics: the bastard children of the Fallout universe
I’m a completist, so I’m including these two obscure, non-canonical Fallout games at the bottom of the list. I haven’t played them, but that's OK; according to Todd Howard, director and executive producer at Bethesda Game Studios and executive producer of the Fallout series, “neither Fallout Tactics nor Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel happened." Howard is the God of all things Fallout, so if he says they don't count, they don't count. Skip 'em.
Enlarge/ A prototype wonder effect—featuring Mario's head turned into blocks that could be eaten by enemies—didn't make it into the final game. (credit: Nintendo)
In a recent interview with Ars Technica, Wonder producer Takashi Tezuka said it wasn't that tough to get that kind of creative continuity at Nintendo. "The secret to having a long-tenured staff is that people don't quit," he said. "For folks who have been there together for such a long time, it's easy for us to talk to each other."
That said, Tezuka added that just getting a bunch of industry veterans together to make a game runs the risk of not "keeping up with the times. Really, for me, I have a great interest in how our newer staff members play, what they play, what they think, and what is appealing to them. I think it's very interesting the things we can come up with when these two disparate groups influence each other to create something."
Enlarge/ See that fortress over there? You can explore it. And then die, when someone in your party remembers a tragic incident involving meat and perishes of sadness. (credit: Bay 12 Games/Kitfox)
"I'm crying for some reason," says Tarn Adams, demonstrating Dwarf Fortress' "Adventure Mode" for a Discord stream full of games writers and PR folk. His adventurer is crying, that is. "Something must have upset me. Probably the dead bodies… I have great grouchiness, though."
Adventure Mode, out today, builds on the graphical version of Dwarf Fortress and the work you've put into it. The adventurers you create and send out into the world traverse the overland and underground places you yourself crafted. This allows you to both appreciate the realms carved out by your imagination and also be a kind of dungeon master for other adventurers (with, hopefully, an easier fortress-swapping mechanic to come soon). You can also generate a new world if you prefer the simulation's weird choices to your own.
Release trailer for Dwarf Fortress' Adventure Mode update.
Everything about the standard simulation version of playing Dwarf Fortress applies to playing it as a hardcore CRPG. Everything has layers, all is described, and the combination of deep logic and utter silliness is unmatched.
Xbox Game Pass is hands-down one of the best services that PC and Xbox gamers can subscribe to, and Microsoft just revealed a new batch of games that Game Pass holders will be able access with their subscriptions this month.
Starting April 16, Microsoft says the newly released Harold Halibut will be available as a day-one release for PC, Xbox, and Xbox Cloud gaming. It will be followed by Orcs Must Die! 3 on April 17, which will be available to subscribers on PC, Xbox, and the cloud, as well as EA Sports NHL 24 for console subscribers on April 18.
A few days later, on April 23, Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes will debut on Game Pass as a day-one launch for cloud, console, and PC subscribers. Two days later, on April 25, Aggro Crab Games’ soulslike Another Crab’s Treasure will debut as a day-one release on Xbox Game Pass for cloud, console, and PC subscribers.
April 26 will also see the release-day arrival of the current top wishlisted game on Steam, Manor Lords, which will be released on Xbox Game Preview for PC. This city-building game is easily one of the most anticipated of the year, and it currently ranks above other highly anticipated PC releases like Hades 2 and Hollow Knight: Silksong on Valve’s PC gaming platform.
On April 30, Microsoft will round out the April Game Pass releases with Have a Nice Death, which will be available for cloud, console, and PC Game Pass subscribers.
The unfortunate thing about Game Pass, though, is that sometimes games also leave the subscription service, and this month, six games will depart, including 7 Days to Die, Besiege, EA Sports NHL 22, Loot River, Pikuniku, and Ravenlok. You’ll be able to get 20 percent off your purchase of these games to keep them in your library, though. You can subscribe to Xbox Game Pass to take advantage of these free titles, plus hundreds more.
Enlarge/ Photos of iGBA that appeared on the App Store before the app was taken down. (credit: Internet Archive)
Over the weekend, developer Mattia La Spina launched iGBA as one of the first retro game emulators legitimately available on the iOS App Store following Apple's rules change regarding such emulators earlier this month. As of Monday morning, though, iGBA has been pulled from the App Store following controversy over the unauthorized reuse of source code from a different emulator project.
Shortly after iGBA's launch, some people on social media began noticing that the project appeared to be based on the code for GBA4iOS, a nearly decade-old emulator that developer Riley Testut and a partner developed as high-schoolers (and distributed via a temporary security hole in the iOS App Store). Testut took to social media Sunday morning to call iGBA a "knock-off" of GBA4iOS. "I did not give anyone permission to do this, yet it’s now sitting at the top of the charts (despite being filled with ads + tracking)," he wrote.
GBA4iOS is an open source program released under the GNU GPLv2 license, with licensing terms that let anyone "use, modify, and distribute my original code for this project without fear of legal consequences." But those expansive licensing terms only apply "unless you plan to submit your app to Apple’s App Store, in which case written permission from me is explicitly required."
Epic is suggesting that competition on the Android mobile platform would be opened up if the court orders Google to allow third-party app stores to be distributed for six years in the Google Play Store and blocks Google from entering any agreements with device makers that would stop them from pre-loading third-party app stores. This would benefit both mobile developers and users, Epic argued in a wide-sweeping proposal that would greatly limit Google's control over the Android app ecosystem.
US District Court Judge James Donato will ultimately decide the terms of the injunction. Google has until May 3 to respond to Epic's filing.
Enlarge/ Is a name like "Suyu" ironic enough to avoid facing a lawsuit? (credit: Suyu)
Nintendo continues to use DMCA requests to halt projects it says aid in the piracy of Switch content. Discord has shut down the discussion servers associated with two prominent Yuzu forks—Suyu and Sudachi—while GitHub has removed a couple of projects related to the decryption of Switch software for use with emulators or hacked consoles.
That settlement includes a section prohibiting the makers of Yuzu from "acting in active concert and participation" with third parties in the distribution or promotion of Yuzu or any clones that make use of its code. But there's no evidence that anyone enjoined by that settlement is actively working with Suyu or Sudachi on their projects.
In a deckbuilding game, you start out with a basic set of cards, then upgrade it over time, seeking synergies and compounding effects. Roguelikes are games where death happens quite often, but each randomized "run" unlocks options for the future. In both genres, and when they're fused together, the key is staying lean, trimming your deck and refining your strategy so that every card and upgrade works toward unstoppable momentum.
“Lean” does not describe the current scene for roguelike deckbuilder games, but they certainly have momentum. As of this writing, Steam has 2,599 titles tagged by users with “deckbuilding” and 861 with “roguelike deckbuilder” in all languages, more than enough to feed a recent Deckbuilders Fest. The glut has left some friends and co-workers grousing that every indie game these days seems to be either a cozy farming sim or a roguelike deckbuilder.
I, an absolute sucker for deckbuilders for nearly five years, wanted to know why this was happening.
Like the games, the show depicts a Vault Dweller making her way out into the Wasteland. [credit:
Amazon ]
Amazon has had a rocky history with big, geeky properties making their way onto Prime Video. The Wheel of Time wasn’t for everyone, and I have almost nothing good to say about The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power.
Fallout, the first season of which premiered this week, seems to break that bad streak. All the episodes are online now, but I’ve watched three episodes so far. I love it.
I’ve spent hundreds of hours playing the games that inspired it, so I can only speak to that experience; I don’t know how well it will work for people who never played the games. But as a video game adaptation, it’s up there with The Last of Us.
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