News:: Nintendo faces lawsuit over the Switch's detachable controllers

The Nintendo Switch certainly isn't the first gaming tablet, but is it directly riffing on others' ideas? Gamevice thinks so. The accessory maker is suing Nintendo for allegedly violating a patent for concepts used in the Wikipad, its gaming-oriented Android slate, as well as its namesake add-on controllers for phones and tablets. According to the suit, the Switch and its removable Joy-Con controllers are too close to Gamevice's vision of a combination of detachable game controller and a device with a "flexible bridge section." Not surprisingly, the lawsuit calls for both damages and a ban on Switch sales.

Source: RPX Insight

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News:: 'Battlefield 1' joins EA's on-demand gaming service

With EA Access' all-you-can-eat video game service, you can play full versions of the publisher's games, which include big name titles like Titanfall 2, Mass Effect: Andromeda, and FIFA 17. Today, the video game publisher tweeted that its popular shooter Battlefield 1 is now available for subscribers on Xbox One.

Source: Battlefield/Twitter

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News:: Live Show: The GTFOMLG Episode 6.0

[The GTFOMLG Show airs Monday through Thursday at 7p.m. Pacific on Dtoid.TV. Watch Rick 'King Foom' Olson play a variety of retro games, chosen by the viewers. With a heavy focus on community interaction, you can be as much a part of the show as anything else.]

It's the end of my week here at The GTFOMLG Show, and we're going out with a doozy. Enter Incredible Crisis: My favorite mini-game fest about a grandma's birthday party, aliens, sensual massage, and more. If you've never seen this game in action before, you're missing out, and you should absolutely tune into Dtoid.TV tonight at 7pm PST.

Also, don't forget, all the games we play on this show are chosen by the community, and you have just a few days left to choose next week's titles by clicking right here and voting in our weekly poll. Got an oldie you'd like to see played? Put it in the comments!

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News:: Turns out Nintendo is really good at Splatoon 2

Different parts of Splatoon 2 require different skills. I like to think I'm good (maybe even fresh) when it comes to Salmon Run, passable at multiplayer, and barely competent in single-player.

That one level, Floaty Fun? I died, uh, "too many times." Yeah, let's go with that. It messed me up, and I've never been the same since. Now there's this -- a speedrun video from Nintendo.

It's just one level, Octozeppelin Invasion, but it's worth watching. It's well-thought-out and expertly executed, but the player makes it somehow seem so effortless and natural. It's satisfying as hell.

If I thought I sucked at Octo Canyon before, now I'm convinced. I won't be quitting my Grizzco gig.

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News:: Gaming chat app Discord tests video calls and screen sharing

Discord, the Slack-like gaming chat app, has been steadily improving since its initial launch a couple of years ago. Last January, it added a $5 paid tier for fans to essentially thank the company — the bonuses simply include GIF avatars, custom emoji and a bigger file upload limit. It secretly raised $50 million last month, as well. That extra cash may be why the Discord team is able to start rolling out two of its most-requested features, video chat and screen sharing.

Source: Discord/Medium

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News:: Play God in Cat Sorter VR

Cats are my life, now. I can't escape them. At this point, why would I even want to? They're cute and cuddly, and are now allegedly in desperate need of help. For you see, not all cats were created equal. Hell, not are cats were created as actual cats. Some have beaks. Some, tentacles. Others still, horns. And you know what's worst of all?

Some cats were created without buttholes.

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News:: Baund Doc and Pale Rider (Ground Type) take off in new Gundam Versus trailers

While the rest of the world awaits the beta and full release of Gundam Versus, Japan has had the game since July 6 and Bandai Namco is slowly rolling out the DLC. In addition to the release of G-Self (Perfect Pack) today, the company has released new trailers for two more upcoming mobile suits: Baund Doc from Zeta Gundam and Pale Rider (Ground Type) from Missing Link.

You can catch the two mobile suits in action below.

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News:: 'Hearthstone’s ‘Knights of the Frozen Throne’ expansion is live

Blizzard's digital card game Hearthstone's newest full expansion is now live. Knights of the Frozen Throne brings 135 new cards and free solo content to the title and a couple new mechanics, which will shake up the game's competitive meta. Sure, it's a lot of what we've come to expect from a Hearthstone expansion, but who can complain about new additions to tried-and-true gameplay?

Source: Blizzard

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News:: Your PC could be 100 courics of crap and it could still run South Park: The Fractured but Whole

Goin' down to South Park this October should be an easy trip to make. The show that's known for its weeble-wobble animation was probably never going to be especially tasking on PCs. Now we have confirmation of that.

Ubisoft has released the minimum and recommended PC specs for South Park: The Fractured but Whole. As suspected, getting the thing to run shouldn't be much of a problem for most people. Here are the required specs to have a baseline experience with The Fractured but Whole (at 720p, around 60 frames per second, video preset low, and V-Sync off):

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News:: Kermit is back for more in Super Smash Bros.

Kermit the Frog is back. The Z fighters weren't enough!

After destroying the entirety of the Xenoverse, Kermit is now looking to destroy the realm of video games in Super Smash Bros. and has already stolen Ryu's move-set to accomplish this. With Smash still not available on the Switch, it's great to see the community keep it fresh on the modding side of things.

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News:: Motorola offering exclusive gamepad mod for Verizon users

Are you a Motorola Moto Z smartphone user who is having trouble playing those damn video games? Well Motorola has you covered (kind of) with their brand new Moto Gamepad Moto Mod. The gamepad is available now for pre-order and will be going on sale August 25.

But here's the catch: it's exclusive to Verizon Wireless.

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News:: Heat up your winter with Purrfect Date, a cat dating sim

All the way back in January of 2016, we reported on a cat dating sim seeking approval on Steam Greenlight. Today, ladies and gentlemen, I am thrilled to report that Purrfect Date will be available this winter on Steam and iOS.

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News:: Xbox’s self-published indies have their own space on the store

Finding self-published indie games on Xbox is a lot easier as of today. You'll be able to find them on the Xbox Store hidden in their own "Creators Collection" marketplace. Microsoft's Chris Charla (director of its ID @ Xbox indie outreach program) says this is a way to maintain the main store's curated experience -- citing concerns for families with young kids who could stumble across something that isn't age-appropriate.

Source: Xbox Wire

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News:: PUBG's excellent first-person mode is now available for full squads

Never has a video game made me so aware of my own shoulders as when I play PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds in first-person. The term "game-changer" gets thrown around a lot in mostly meaningless contexts, but first-person in PUBG is an actual game-changer. Leaving you unable to manipulate the third-person camera alters the entire flow of everything. It's much more unnerving this way.

Up until now, first-person mode has been restricted solely to solo and duo playlists. Now it's available for full squads too. Sure, it's just inclusion across all play types, but it's nice for the people who like to roll four-deep. Nice until their jumpy trigger finger leads to a horrific friendly fire incident, that is.

This is exciting news for your resident D-Team because it means we can finally give this a go. We've done some duos test runs and everyone really likes it. The first-person perspective should make for some fascinating views as we attempt to ramp Jeeps off of airplane wings. But, it won't make a damn difference when we're all dying to people shooting us from behind.

Playerunknown’s Battlegrounds first-person-only mode now supports squads [Rock, Paper, Shotgun]

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News:: Cute custom PC features dancing Hatsune Miku effect

Two wily modders, including renowned PC designer Fabio Moma, have created a custom tower that appears to have a miniature Hatsune Miku dancing within. It's adorable.

The effect is created via a modified LCD screen which is installed on the tower's side panel. The inside of the tower was then customised to create a stage for the Vocaloid idol to dance on. The one-of-a-kind PC is currently on display in the store window of Tokyo store Oriospec.

Though there are sadly no plans to sell or mass-produce the unit, hopefully other modders will be inspired to create other inventive designs using a similar method. Until then, having your favourite waifu cheer you on whilst you get wrecked in Battlegrounds remains the stuff of a madman's dream.

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News:: Discord will be getting video chat and screen sharing

Starting today Discord will be rolling out and testing its new video chat and screen sharing functionality with 5% of its desktop user base. As noted in an official blog post, the full launch of these new features is still "at least a month out" from being considered due to bug and general bandwidth testing.

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News:: Raid: World War II looks a lot like Inglorious Basterds

We all seemingly missed the announcement last year, but Raid: World War II is a co-op focused shooter that looks an awful lot like Payday 2 mixed with Inglorious Basterds. The game tasks you with infiltrating various compounds across Europe and stealing priceless artifacts and treasures from under the Nazi's noses. I'm sure there is a WWII themed movie about this, but I instantly think of Three Kings with George Clooney, Ice Cube and Mark Wahlberg.

Raid is being developed by Lion Game Lion, a Croation studio that has previously worked on Payday 2 DLC, so the comparison is pretty spot on. While I can't find any official gameplay trailers, publisher Starbreeze Studios has actually shown off the game a bit in some of their livestreams. In the mean time, you can feast your eyes on this cinematic trailer, which looks neat enough.

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News:: Dishonored: Death of the Outsider asks players to kill a god

Billie Lurk is tough as nails. She's appeared throughout the Dishonored games, always dedicated to her mission and prepared to do whatever it takes to get a job done. Her work as an assassin has led her places many could never imagine, but in Dishonored: Death of the Outsider, Billie Lurk's final task is nearly unfathomable. She's going to kill a mischievous god.

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News:: StarCraft II being used to train artificial intelligence

Blizzard, in association with research company DeepMind, have developed software based on the real-time strategy game StarCraft II that teaches computers how to think for themselves.

Judgement Day is upon us... Maybe.

The two companies have co-developed a software package, known as SC2LE, to advance the computer's ability to read a situation and then develop a strategy based on the given information. Blizzard has also given the software over 60,000 game replays (with plans to expand it to 500,000) to peruse for reference and experience.

The hope is that through the study of actions and counter-actions within the millions of moment-to-moment encounters in these replays, the computer will learn, through imitation, how to best react to any given setup or problem posed by its StarCraft opposition. Though I'd like to see it handle a full-on Zerg rush. Sorry "Johnny 5", that's not happening.

StarCraft II was specifically chosen because of its multi-layered task management, requiring the player to build and maintain an efficient base, whilst also managing resources, building defences and mounting an army for its own series of attacks. DeepMind's A.I "agents" were able to perform these functions on a small scale, but struggled when presented with a full game scenario, which requires endless adaptation and multitasking.

Researchers are working to develop their agent's ability to put all the pieces together, ultimately being able to react to any given situation in a full-game environment and therefore being able to beat every single StarCraft player on the globe. Yes, I'm including Korea.

Whilst it seems odd to spend so much money, time and effort to teach a computer to play a perfect game of StarCraft II, it's obvious that, on a larger scale, the idea of computer A.I having a self-taught understanding of predictability, adaptation, counter-intelligence and decision-making is absolutely fascinating. Fascinating and terrifying.

Still, I for one welcome Sarah Kerrigan as our new overlord.

SC2LE A.I. research [DeepMind Blog]

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News:: Overwatch is getting free-for-all and team deathmatch

Would you look at that! Blizzard is giving deathmatch a chance in Overwatch. Two new modes -- eight-player free-for-all, and six-on-six team deathmatch -- are coming to the Arcade soon and are available now for testing on the PTR. The former mode is first to 20 kills, and the latter is first to 30.

As detailed by game director Jeff Kaplan in the video below, deathmatch in Overwatch will have its own quirks. Mercy's resurrect, for instance, will strip points from the other team's kill count.

These modes will take place on modified versions of existing maps as well as a new deathmatch-specific map, Château Guillard. I'm expecting FFA to be a total cluster, but not necessarily in a bad way.

Also, important heads-up for loot seekers: so long as you score in the top half of players (top four, in the case of free-for-all), you'll get a "win" credit toward your Arcade loot boxes. Don't mind if I do.

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News:: Miss out on the Pip-Boy pre-order? Fallout 4: Game of the Year Edition is your second chance

Nearly two years after release (boy time flies!), Fallout 4 is finally getting its Game of the Year Edition on September 26, 2017 for Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC. Naturally all DLC is included: Nuka-World, Vault-Tec Workshop, Contraptions Workshop, Far Harbor, Wasteland Workshop, and Automatron. Also available is the Fallout 4: G.O.T.Y. Pip-Boy collector's edition for $99.99 if you want a piece of plastic to stick on your arm.

This is the benefit of playing games years after release: you get to play all the content at once with all the patches and post-game balancing taken care of, and less discussion means less spoilers. All of that plus it's cheaper than buying day one. Speaking of which, I bought Skyrim on day one back on November 11, 2011 and I still haven't started it. Long games incite procrastination in me.

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News:: Amazon has a PlayStation VR bundle marked down to $300 today

When it comes to entertainment technology, if you're not an early adopter, you might as well be a laggard. Sometimes it pays to wait, though! Or, at least it saves to wait.

We've seen a glut of virtual reality sales in the past month, as the platform-holders are now trying to appeal to the people who didn't get in on the ground level. What that means for you: Things are getting cheaper.

Amazon has a fine example of that today, as PlayStation VR is marked down to $300 from $400. It gets better, though. This is a bundle that also includes the PS4 camera and three digital games (RIGS: Mechanized Combat League, Until Dawn: Rush of Blood, and VR Worlds).

Note that the discount won't show up immediately, though. On the checkout screen, you have to enter the promo code "PSVRGAMES" to knock $100 off the price. If you skipped this paragraph and now you're all confused about why it's still $400, come back and read this and then be like "Ah, I really need to slow down."

We don't know how long this deal will last, as Amazon hasn't given any real indication. We've reached out to Amazon to ask but haven't received a response at time of writing. So, if this is something you want, sooner is probably better than later.

PlayStation VR + Camera Bundle [Amazon]

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News:: Early Access impressions for Citadel: Forged with Fire

I’ve been on a survival kick lately. I think it had something to do with hanging out in forests and beaches during the entirety of my holiday and coming back to marathon episodes of Survivorman with Les Stroud.

Whatever the case, my complaints about survival games such as Ark and Minecraft have always been the same; you don’t do much actual surviving. That is early game, the basic stuff. Once you figure out how to properly forage, your risk of ever dying from the elements is dramatically reduced, and it ends up boiling down to teaming up with other players, building your own space together, and ultimately going to war with the rest of the environment around you and opposing teams who want to take all of your shit.

Citadel: Forged with Fire takes this element and runs with it. It starts out identically to games such as Conan Exiles; you are for all intents and purposes naked in the wilderness. You start picking up sticks, rocks, and plants, and after gaining a few levels, have the ability to craft potions, weapons and armor so you can start hunting game. At no point will you be feasting on mushrooms or trying to find water to survive the day. Instead you will be worrying about health and mana potions due to the danger of combat and the presence of high magic which can be utilized almost immediately.

Read more...

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News:: 'Are Aligned' turns VR into a party game anyone can enjoy

There's no doubt that VR can be an isolating experience. When you've got a headset and headphones on, you're effectively blocked out from the world. That's something developer Danny Dang wants to fix with Are Aligned, a virtual reality party game he developed during Viacom Next's Music + VR Fellowship. He's hoping to recapture the magic of a party mainstay like Twister by merging together VR with a game anyone can hop into on a whim.

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News:: Moons of Madness brings psychological horror to Mars

Moons of Madness is a first-person horror game set on a Mars research station where sanity-shattering hallucinations await. I don't know about you, but that sounds like a decent way to spend an afternoon.

Developer Rock Pocket Games says it's attempting to meld hard science with Lovecraftian horror, and throughout the story players will work to figure out the meaning behind their messed-up visions which "foreshadow certain events mapping out the character's history." Here's an early look:

This trailer seems middle-of-the-road to me, but I'm enough of a sucker for sci-fi horror games that I figured it was worth at least a mention. Remember Martian Gothic? Cory brought up that old survival horror title and it came back to me as soon as I saw the box art. Never did play it.

Despite looking like something you'd randomly stumbled across on Steam (and nowhere else), Moons of Madness is also coming to PlayStation 4 and Xbox One next year. I'll be keeping tabs on it.

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News:: Mutant Mudds Deluxe confirmed for Switch

I love going back into Mutant Mudds and trying to tackle any given level. Over the years (the now defunct) Renegade Kid added in some really challenging levels, all of which were compiled for the Deluxe edition of the game -- the same version that was just confirmed for Switch.

Yep, Atooi founder Jools Watsham (who was one half of the split) just confirmed it on Twitter, though we don't have a release date yet. It's another testament to the Siren's song of the Switch is for indies, as nearly everyone is porting over their Wii U projects to it.

There's plenty of incentive as the Switch is one of the hottest machines out at the moment, and is set to possibly surpass the Wii U as early as next year. I'm still very curious to see where it goes and if it can keep these sales figures up -- and what will happen if it doesn't reach the rip-roaring success that Nintendo has planned for it.

For now, we can chill and enjoy this bounty of indies.

Jools Watsham [Twitter]

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News:: Moto’s chunky gamepad arrives August 25th

Motorola has announced the release date and price of its gamepad Moto Mod. On sale August 25th, the attachment costs $80 and is only available through Verizon.

Via: The Verge

Source: Verizon

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News:: Impersonate a Nazi soldier in Call of Duty: WWII

Game Informer's September issue has revealed juicy details about the upcoming Call of Duty: WWII, including mission details and new aspects of the game. Players will get the opportunity to impersonate a Nazi Soldier, take part in an allied campaign set in France, as well as fight through the forests of Rhineland. You'll even get to pretend you're in Saving Private Ryan and play through the events of D-Day for the millionth time!

Read more...

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News:: Am I too late to the Snake vs. Block party?

I think I’m too old to be attempting to cover all the good mobile games that come out. I try to keep up, but with so many hitting the App Store and Google Play every week, I tend to miss more than a lion’s share of quality gaming as I gravitate towards more well-known properties that barely last an hour on my phone. This, along with a lack of solid release information on the dozens of games hitting mobile every week, is one of the reasons I missed out on Snake vs. Block. I’m so late to this party that nobody probably cares anymore and everyone in the know has already picked up a just-released app you can expect top quality coverage from me on by mid-October.

Snake vs. Block was described to me as something that was “blowing up” right now. Logging onto Google Play and seeing no less than 10 clones of the game confirmed that it had indeed “blown up.” Ain’t nobody making clones of crap nobody wants to play. So I downloaded it and wanted to give it a go before work this morning.

The premise is simple and perfectly suited for the mobile platform. I use my finger to control a snake as it slithers ever onward, never backward. I move it left to right, collecting balls to add to the length of the snake until I hit a block with a number on it. That number is subtracted from the length of my snake and once I go below zero, it’s game over. I can also watch an ad to continue, but you knew that already because this is a free-to-play app so of course that is an option.

I can see why this had blown up as it did. It’s simple. Anyone can play and win so long as they have fast fingers. But I don't see it really sinking its hooks into me with the addictive quality I’ve experienced with – OH MY GOD I'VE BEEN PLAYING THIS FOR AN HOUR AND I MISSED THE BUS!

I take that back. This game is addicting in the same way Crossy Road goaded me into spending an endless amount of hours with it. Once I hit a score of 120, I had to go for 125. Then 130. Then 150. My lunch break today was five minutes of stuffing my face, 25 minutes of getting my damn hamburger snake, one of the many costumes unlockable in the game and my personal favorite right now, past the 175 mark. I don’t usually watch ads for F2P titles but I’ve sat through a dozen advertisements for the Stash app with this game and now I’m thinking of investing.

For the $2.99 asking price, I’m almost willing to pay to get rid of the ads. Because beyond the endless mode there are missions to complete as well and I don’t really want to waste my time watching ad after ad as I fail those. But before I spend a dime, there are two improvements that should be made. First, it needs a pause feature. Second, developer Voodoo should probably reconfigure how the game restarts after I watch an ad to continue. It’s far too easy to lose just seconds after watching an ad with how it is set up right now.

Those complaints aside, this is another beautiful time waster of an app that’ll dominate my daily commute from now until the next big app comes along.

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