It appears modder Banjo Kazooie got Windows 10 to run on a Wii U and proceeded to use it to emulate the Wii U.
Kazooie posted the specs and all of the materials he used over on Sudomod, a message board for modders.
Thinking about a new TV for some eventual 4K gaming? LG's UHDTVs are getting big price cut deals this weekend.
High Dynmaic Range (HDR) is all the rage in the world of HDTVs this year. If the better brightness and color accuracy is what you want but you've been waiting on a sale, the timing of discounts might be unexpected. This weekend, BeachCamera and PC Richard have dropped several LG models to historic lows as they look to clear out 2017 models.
Prices are hundreds less than other mainline retailers like Best Buy and Amazon are charging. The 65-inch LG 65UJ6300 is going for $1,100 on Amazon while it's only $979 at PC Richards. Best Buy has the 55-inch LG 55UJ6300 for $650 while PC Richards is again cheaper with a drop to $589, and so on down the list.
The cheapest of the 4K UHDTV starts at $380 and is actually a decent gaming performer according to Rtings, which pegs it with good motion blur performance and low input lag - two major criteria that we agree are important, even though many of these 4K are 60Hz panels.
LG HDR 2017 Clearance 4K UHDTV Deals
Non-HDR 2017 HDTV Deals
Skipping out on the latest and greatest 4K display will get you more bang for your buck. Two 1080p LG models are on sale with drops to $479 and $380, respectively. You're missing out on the higher resolution, but saving over $100 compared to the similar LG models in 4K.
If you can't wait for the price drop to happen on Black Friday later this year, this is in fact one of the cheapest times of the year to pick up an outgoing model as new 2018 models will be shortly arriving. BeachCamera's deals are expiring later next week on August 7, while PC Richard deals have an unknown expiration date. Note that sales tax is only collected at BeachCamera for NJ, while PC Richard collects them at NY, NJ, CT, PA, MD, and MA.
Great news for gamers everywhere today, as it's confirmed that Rainbow Six: Siege is definitely getting that range of chibi figurines we were all waiting on.
The "SIX Collection" consists of five figures. Each of the cute lil' guys and gals, standing roughly four inches tall, is based on an operative from Ubisoft's door-kicking shooter. Each character comes equipped with a code that can be used to unlock a corresponding in-game item. The figures cost an eyebrow-raising £18 each.
Ok, I might've been taking the piss a little but, joking aside, that Ash figure is lit. I like IQ too, she looks like she was a Splatoon character who traded in paintin' colours for paintin' brains.
Ash, IQ, Montagne and Smoke will be available for sale October 3 from the European Ubisoft store. They can also be purchased from Gamescom later this month. The fifth figure, Boba Fett Tachanka, is a Ubisoft store exclusive.
SIX Collection pre-order [Ubisoft Store]
I mean just...wow. A lot of amazing do-it-yourself Zelda projects have popped up in the past few years, from Zelda-themed wall art to Wind Waker themed rooms, but this is something I never would have even thought to craft.
Over on reddit, Ryksnout made this King of Red Lions rocking boat for his son, which looks rad as hell and pretty accurate! For those of you who don't know King of Red Lions is your core means of travel in Wind Waker, and...wait, I won't spoil a 15 year old game for you (although people in the comments will!).
Zelda really has a way of uniting its community for great projects, and the fact that Wind Waker plays so well as a "kid's room" drawing board speaks to its timelessness. I've also seen some mean concepts for Phantom Hourglass and Spirit Tracks, drawn from the same subseries!
King of Red Lions rocking boat I made for my son [Reddit]
The upcoming launch of Nintendo's SNES Classic has turned up the hype on 16-bit nostalgia, and Hyperkin is ready to seize the moment. The company already builds several consoles built for retro gaming, and now product designer Chris Gallizzi tweeted this image of the Supa RetroN HD. Hyperkin's $160 RetroN 5 already plays SNES games (as well as other classic systems), but a pared-down clone will probably be simpler, might not need to run Android and may be cheaper, just like the $40 RetroN 1 HD for NES games.
Source: Chris Gallizzi (Twitter)
I've never played the original Yo! Noid for NES but after spending a good hour and a half with its fan-made 3D platformer sequel today, I think that's in order. This game is fun, no qualifiers needed. There's wall running, wall jumping, yo-yo grappling, and even a dedicated button for dabbing.
To say much more would be to spoil the game's sense of intrigue, so if you're looking for a genuinely good, surreal, challenging (but not unreasonable) platform game, just go ahead and try it yourself, preferably with a gamepad. (I had good results with an Xbox One controller.) It's free, after all.
If you need more motivation, however, here are some random shots I've taken.
Even if you're garbage at racing games, this fall's GT Sport has a lot to offer beyond absurdly detailed cars. Case in point: "Scape," the game's insanely deep photo mode. More than just freeze-framing the action during a race, Scape will let you drop any of those ridiculously detailed cars into some 1,000 backdrops and then use DLSR-equivalent adjustments like shutter speed and aperture to get your photo just the way you want it.
Source: PlayStation Access (YouTube)
Following in the line of classic Neo Geo games on Switch, The King of Fighters 2000 will be available on the eShop starting August 10. You can grab the game for $7.99 / €6.99 / £6.29, which isn't too bad. Just like the other games in the ACA Neo Geo line, this won't contain online play, but you can shitpost to Twitter with the Switch's built-in screenshot editor.
As for the game itself, I can't say I've ever tried 2000. I'm familiar with some of the earlier KoF titles, but the only ones I've spent extensive time with are 97, 98, 2002, XII and XIII. I generally like them all, so I guess having a complete collection on the Switch would be super neat. If nothing else, you can throw down literally anywhere and delight the public with Terry's ridiculous voice.
The King of Fighters 2000 Is Headed To The Nintendo Switch eShop [Siliconera]
Seemingly everyone swears up and down that you must use a mouse and keyboard if you are going to play a shooter, arguing that it's subjectively better to control and objectively makes you play better. Often I see people suggesting that if two players of equal skill level, one on mouse and keyboard and the other on a controller, compete that the mouse and keyboard user will win every time.
You don't hear of such input-favoritism anywhere else. Fighting game tournaments allow users to use whatever form of input they desire from various controllers to a multitude of fight sticks, and the general consensus is that there is no major difference. Likewise, despite having a relatively non-existent competitive scene, no one claims that a distinct advantage can be had by using a controller or driving wheel in racing games. So what's up with shooters?
Blizzard has settled on Thursday, August 10 for Knights of the Frozen Throne.
This latest Hearthstone expansion contains 135 new cards, including hero cards, which transform your heroes into Death Knights with modified powers. There are also more single-player missions and boss fights to throw your deck at, with rewards for clearing the prologue and each of the wings.
The company is still selling its 50-card bundle for $50, if you're into that sort of thing.
The D-Team formed three weeks ago. It feels like we've been playing together for much longer, though. Jordan, Brett, Steven, and I have been through a lot as we try for our second Chicken Dinner in PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds. We've battled a bunch of different teams (and lost most of those fights), scampered around the map (crashing plenty of cars in the process), and made dozens of dumb mistakes along the way.
It's no secret that Titanfall 2 faced tough competition when it released last October. Respawn Entertainment has been great about delivering free content updates ever since -- we just got a co-op horde mode! -- and that has left fans wondering where the studio goes from here. What's next?
"The game was successful, it sold well, but it didn't quite sell as well as it should have," Respawn CEO Vince Zampella told GameSpot. "Maybe because it was super crowded, the pricing was aggressive--it was a rough window to launch our game. But we've got a really great fanbase."
"It's important for us to keep the franchise going. 'We're doing more Titanfall,' which is the quote I'm supposed to say. We have our franchise creative director, who's in charge of safeguarding the franchise in multiple formats and making sure it continues to grow. There's some other things we're doing that haven't been announced just yet, but we're heavily invested in the Titanfall universe."
Hopefully EA sees the value in continuing the series with a sequel, not just smaller-scale spin-offs. The jump from Titanfall to Titanfall 2 makes me really want a Titanfall 3. Keep that momentum going.
As for the future of Titanfall 2, Zampella said "We don't know where and when to stop supporting it. Frontier Defense was obviously something big for us to get out and to push for, and our numbers during the launch of FD were like five times the numbers since the initial launch, in terms of player count--and it's now starting to stabilize a bit. There's two or three times as many people playing Frontier Defense right now than all other multiplayer modes combined. That's very encouraging for us; I love to see that."
Titanfall Boss Discusses New Spinoff, Moving On From Titanfall 2, And The Franchise's Future [GameSpot]
Some so-bad-they're-good movies never make it on your radar. And some go by disguised as legitimate filmmaking. Shoot 'Em Up is of the second variety. Marketed as a seemingly average, if not innocuous action film back in 2007, a time when, let's be honest, Clive Owen was in everything, I had no idea what I was in store for when I was recently called away from my desk to see the ridiculousness playing on HBO.
Within 10 seconds, I was sold. This is a priceless gem, and one that anyone who appreciates terrible movies will love. In fact, when showing it just this week, to refresh my memory, a friend said halfway through the movie, "This has just moved to the top of my list of bad movies."
Daniel Licht, who created haunting music for some of entertainment's darker franchises, died yesterday after a battle with cancer. He was 60 years old.
Detroit-born Licht is known for his work in the later Silent Hill iterations, including Downpour and Book of Memories, as well as composing the music for the Dishonored games, including the ending theme song "Honor for All".
Outside of video games, Licht has worked on stalwart horror series such as Children of the Corn, Amityville, and Hellraiser. Perhaps his most commonly heard piece would be the music for serial-killer black-comedy Dexter, which won him several awards.
The sad news was announced on twitter by fellow game composer Austin Wintory (Flow, Journey) Licht is survived by his wife and son. A memorial is to be held on August 18 in Topanga, California.
Eat crow, everyone. Grimoire: Heralds of the Winged Exemplar is here.
A couple of days ago, I posted about the game in production for over twenty years, its constant broken promises and delays. Since then I have feverishly been checking Steam to see if it was going to pop up out of the ether and surprise us all, and this morning, I was shocked to see a hefty price tag of around forty bucks, early "reviews" of the game, and a ton of discussion on the Steam discussion board.
Cleve Blakemore's magnum opus has finally been released after a long and troubled development time.
You didn't expect a AAA game like Call of Duty to not have multiple editions did you? This time Call of Duty: WWII is getting both a standard and pro Valor Collection which includes the game in a steel case, a Nazi Zombies poster, division patches, a Bloodraven sword pin, and a nifty bronze statues of several soldiers firing from behind a tank trap.
The only difference between the two is that the Pro version will include a season pass to DLC and "additional bonus content." Pre-ordering any version will grant access to the private beta from August 28 to September 4 as well as a Division's Pack (five cosmetic outfits) and 500 COD points to use in either Black Ops III or Infinite Warfare. No pricing has been revealed for the Valor Collections yet, though Sledgehammer Games Co-Studio Head Michael Condrey thinks it's worth buying if you could ever believe that.
If you're at a children's hospital next year, the chances of seeing one of the Gamers Outreach Foundation's (GOF) signature Go Karts are pretty high. The all-in-one rolling gaming rigs have proven quite popular in the 25 facilities that currently have them. Now Child's Play, one of gaming's longest running philanthropies, wants to help GOF founder Zach Wigal realize his dream of comforting as many hospitalized kids as possible, through video games. "I think this is the start of us making a very serious push into having Go Karts in every [children's] hospital in the US," Wigal told Engadget. And with roughly 273 children's hospitals in the US, closing the gap is far from impossible.
Pokemon Go really doesn't need "extras." Sure the Plus accessory is neat in that you don't have to look at your phone, but given that I don't play Go daily anymore I don't mind navigating the UI when I do get around to it. Japan can't get enough of it though, as evidenced by an official "Pokemon Go Plus Deluxe Set" that's hitting the region next week on August 9.
It consists of an extra battery, a Plus accessory (with stickers and a ring for it), and get this, a Poke-Phillips head screwdriver. I'm not going to lie, I'm checking eBay or other import sites for a cheap piecemeal version for that last bit! The rest I can do without.
It'll go for a whopping 8,550 yen when it hits stores. That's roughly $77 -- the Pokemon Go Plus accessory (which is now readily stocked after months of no availability) is roughly $34.99. In essence you're paying around $40 for a mini screwdriver, stickers, a plastic ring, and a 10,000 mahH battery.
Pokemon Go Plus [Pokemon]
Nose-to-nose paintbrawlers will be happy to hear that the popular Sploosh-o-matic, from the original Splatoon, will be coming to the sequel's arsenal real soon.
The Sploosh-o-matic is essentially the shotgun of the Splatoon universe, providing wide, powerful spread at short distance, but relatively useless as a long-range weapon. I can imagine it similar frustrations to that which Gears of War players suffer at the hands of the Sawed-Off.
The weapon goes live on August 5, and comes equipped with a Curling Bomb sub-weapon and a Splashdown special.
Well, I kind of wanted a bigger Death Standing update, like any info on the story or any of the characters involved, but I'll take what I can get.
Kojima Productions released this new tech demo video showcasing Death Stranding's engine, which you can pump up to 4K if you wish. It's literally just that one cityscape with a tunnel that you've seen in nearly every trailer, but this time it has dynamic fog! Very impressive fog, but fog nonetheless.
So yeah, it's not much, but eventually this game will probably come out and we'll finally understand what the dead babies are all about. Or maybe we'll play it to 100% completion, theorycraft over it for 10 years and still not comprehend it. I bet Kojima would love that!
As previously promoted in June, Twitch Prime users can land themselves five free loot boxes in Overwatch this month. Right after the start of the Summer Games event. However, it appears the lootboxes will be standard issue, and will not contain any of the event's exclusive gear.
Prime members can apply for the promotion code here, which they should then enter into their Battle.net account. Users should receive the loot boxes around August 10, one of which guarantees a legendary skin for a randomly selected roster member. Redeeming the code also make users eligible to receive a further five boxes in October.
In other Overwatch news game director Jeff Kaplan revealed that the 2016 Summer skins will be obtainable through the standard loot box system, putting to rest concerns that the previous year's returning skins would be purchasable with cash only.
Finally, today sees Doomfist unlocked for use on the competitive ladder. So far I'm really not feeling the character myself, but that doesn't matter, as long as someone else is, and they're on my team. You do the punching and I'll do the loving.
The Overwatch Summer Games 2017 event begins on August 8.
When I first heard about the great mayo versus ketchup debate in Splatoon 2, I didn't think much of it. "Another topic I'm not at all invested in (but will fight to the death to uphold for the bonuses)," I thought to myself. I should've connected the dots, though. How do mayo and ketchup translate to ink colors?
Horrifically. The answer is horrifically.
I really dig this trend of creating standalone expansions for bigger action games.
InFamous: Festival of Blood was one of my all-time favorites, and it was an easy thing to recommend to people because you didn't need inFamous 2 to play it. That's the case for Uncharted: Lost Legacy, and all of the footage we've seen so far is promising.
In this video leading up to its August 22 release, we get a little more insight into why the creators chose the duo they did and took the focus off of Drake, and even Sully. The four minute clip is somewhat spoilery (but not dramatically so), showcasing new gameplay and action setpieces, as well as hinting at what the story might entail.
I'm glad I watched it though, as Chloe is one of my personal favorite characters in the Uncharted universe.
Two PC modders, who have been creating skins for Street Fighter IV and V for years, have been issued DMCA notices from Capcom, reportedly handed down through their Patreon accounts.
"BrutalAce" and "Khaledantar666" were both hit with the notices on grounds that they were using copyrighted materials to make the mods, for which they would receive patronage through the crowdfunding site.
Whilst Khaledantar666 posted a message on their Patreon stating their plans to "Continue modding no matter what." the situation appears to have disheartened BrutalAce, also famous for his numerous nude mods, which likely kept him on Capcom's radar.
"I just wanted to say that I am going to quit releasing mods for unknown amount of time," BrutalAce stated on his now-defunct Patreon. "I know it's not the best decision but one can only face that much hate and salt."
Regardless of anyone's moral stance on character mods or accepting donations for such, (the latter a very hot topic among the Street Fighter mod community,) it cannot be denied that the pair did inventive and great work. The costumes, colour palettes, body modifications and skins they created, in my humble opinion, were twenty times that of Capcom's own DLC.
I'm certainly not condoning copyright infringement, and I personally don't care too much for the nude mods, but from a purely technical standpoint I'm in awe of their talent. I hope this situation doesn't sour them on putting their skills to use on future projects.
PC modders hit with DMCA [Eventhubs]
Coaching in eSports has been a long debated concept. While players can basically keep any company they want before or after a match, during a matchup is another thing entirely. It's commonplace in sports to confer with any number of coaches during a timeout or period/quarter/inning break in sports like basketball, football, or baseball, but the eSports community sees it differently.
Regardless of what individual people think though, it's now a thing at EVO going forward. As per Joey Ceullar, self-described "head honcho of EVO," the ruling is as follows: "Evo rules update! We have removed the no coaching rule, reduced the time between rounds to 30 seconds, and added a stage trespassing rule." To clarify, the trespassing rule ensures that no one interrupts the match directly on the stage, including coaches. This leads to all sorts of weird instances where players may even decline playing on the main stage, though the EVO rules page has since added that coaches aren't allowed in the Top 8 (a move to protect stream/match quality).
I really like the idea of mid-match coaching, as it adds a new dimension to the game. If it gets more popular in more tournaments that didn't previously allow it, it would be awesome to see coaches become just as famous as the players themselves -- which would be a great opportunity for people who might not have the motor skills to compete to remain in the sport.
I see the arguments against it, wanting to keep the game pure matchup-wise, but I think it'll be better for eSports in the long run. I've reached out to EVO to full clarify the coaching rule and will update the article if I get a response.
MrWiz [Twitter]
Sony and Spotify have been pretty cozy for the past few years on PlayStation, but it looks like the streaming service is going to show Xbox fans some love soon too. Reddit's unblinking eyes spotted Xbox's Larry "Major Nelson" Hryb using the app on Xbox Live. The Verge independently confirmed with its off the record sources that an app for the Swedish music service was being tested internally, with a wide roll-out planned before the Xbox One X's launch November 7th. Now to speculate whether Microsoft will abandon Groove Music for Spotify the way that Sony did its Music Unlimited service.
Via: The Verge
Source: Reddit
By Kimber Streams, Dan Frakes, and Ryan Whitwam
This post was done in partnership with The Wirecutter, a buyer's guide to the best technology. When readers choose to buy The Wirecutter's independently chosen editorial picks, it may earn affiliate commissions that support its work. Read the full article here.
If you spend most of your day typing, a mechanical keyboard can be a worthwhile upgrade: Mechanical keyboards are more durable, responsive, comfortable, and customizable than other types of keyboards. The best for you depends a lot on personal preference and what you're using it for, but after spending months testing 31 top-rated keyboards with a four-person panel, we unanimously agree that the WASD Code 87-Key is a great place to start because of its fantastic key feel, build quality, and elegant design.
Hidden Dreams, the first of three free DLC releases for Hollow Knight, is out this week on Steam.
The pack adds bosses, tracks, a new Stag Station, and Dream Gates, as well as "a few small surprises to keep veteran players on their toes." It's live on PC, but the Mac version hit a last-minute snag and will be coming a little later than expected. Meanwhile, I'm still waiting on that Switch version.
Also, from now until August 7, Hollow Knight is under $10 thanks to a 34% off sale. There's no shortage of Destructoid readers willing to vouch for this one, so if you like metroidvanias, go go go.
Team Cherry says that the next two content packs will have "all sorts of crazy stuff."
Hidden Dreams has Launched! [Team Cherry]
