The fashion-forward adventure Infinity Nikki is finally coming to Steam on April 29, complete with its iconic photo mode. The Steam version launches alongside a major update called Bubble Season that brings some new features to the game on all platforms.
First and foremost, Bubble Season will introduce co-op play. This two-player mode lets a pair of friends explore the entire game world. There will be unique co-op puzzles and new escort missions.
The update brings a new area and, of course, a whole bunch of new outfits to collect. Publisher Papergames is also bringing back some old outfits from previous seasons, for those who missed the boat. There’s even a new fashion runway gameplay mechanic with new interactions for photo mode.
Finally, Bubble Season adds a new dye mechanic, which changes outfit colors. We don’t know exactly how this will work, but it looks to add even more customization options. Again, all of these features will be available on April 29 for PC, mobile and PS5.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/infinity-nikki-is-coming-to-steam-and-getting-a-co-op-mode-185014372.html?src=rss
The Google Pixel Buds Pro 2 are on sale right now for $179, which is a discount of $50. Just head on over to Wellbots and pop in the code ENGAD50 to score the deal.
This is Google’s latest and greatest audio product and easily made our list of the best wireless earbuds. They are smaller and more comfortable than the previous version, which is great. Despite the product shrinkage, the sound has also been improved. The bass is punchy and the highs are crisp.
The battery life is also slightly improved when compared to the original earbuds. You can expect eight hours of use with ANC on, but this increases to 30 hours when you consider the included charging case. These are the company’s first earbuds with a Tensor chip, which allows for ultra-low latency audio processing and multi-path signal handling.
Other perks include conversation detection, multipoint Bluetooth and the ability to customize what long-pressing the button does. These earbuds can also automatically switch between devices linked to a Google account, which is great for Android users but doesn’t do much for Apple fans.
For those on a serious budget, the Google Pixel Buds A-Series earbuds are also $50 off via Wellbots. Enter the same ENGAD50 code to bring the price down to just $49.
Bowers & Wilkins is back with another pair of high-end wireless headphones. The Px7 S3 looks like an improvement over the previous release in every major way. The company’s calling it the "most advanced wireless headphone" it has ever made.
To that end, this model features re-engineered drive units, dedicated headphones amplifiers and "greatly-upgraded" active noise cancellation technology. Bowers & Wilkins says that every aspect of these headphones have been redesigned, except for the cone. The new drive units should improve resolution and dynamics, all while delivering lower distortion. These units are powered by discrete headphones amplifiers, a first for the company’s over-ear headphone line.
The Px7 S3 integrates with both the aptX TM Adaptive 24/96 wireless platform and Qualcomm’s aptX Lossless technology. This optimizes sound quality for high-resolution streaming services like Tidal. Overall, the headphones offer 24-bit/96kHz high-resolution audio.
These cans feature eight microphones located around the periphery of each ear cup. They work together to deliver enhanced ANC and help eliminate unwanted noise while making phone calls. The company boasts that the battery life maxes out at around 30 hours per charge, but we’ll have to see how that works out in real life.
Bowers & Wilkins
The physical design has received an overhaul. The company promises a slimmer profile and an improved fit, thanks to memory foam ear cups. The included carry case is also more compact.
Bowers & Wilkins has redesigned its Music app to accompany this release. The app allows for instantaneous access to platforms like Tidal, but also includes a five-band EQ with preset memory. For the app-averse, there are physical controls on each ear cup. The company says that spatial audio is coming to this device, but not until later this year.
The Px7 S3 headphones will be available in three colors, including black, blue and white. Now onto the bad news. Bowers & Wilkins has yet to reveal pricing and availability. There’s a notification page that indicates they’re likely to be priced at $429 when they release. But that’s subject to change due to the ongoing uncertainty regarding Trump’s tariffs.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/audio/headphones/bowers--wilkins-new-px7-s3-wireless-headphones-feature-updated-anc-tech-171653627.html?src=rss
The EU will be mandating new labels on smartphones and tablets that indicate how repairable the device is. These labels will also include ratings for energy efficiency and durability. They will start showing up on devices on June 20 and will be similar to pre-existing ones for home appliances and TVs.
The labels display a product’s energy efficiency rating on a scale from A to G and will also display battery life and the number of available charge cycles. There will be letter grades for durability and repairability, in addition to an IP rating for dust and water-resistance.
European Commission
Covered products also include cordless landline phones, but smartphones with rollable displays are exempted. This is fairly odd because, well, there aren’t any rollable phones available for consumers just yet. Windows-based tablets will be covered by a separate mandate for computers.
This isn’t the only change the EU has announced regarding device sales. Hardware will now have to meet new "ecodesign requirements" to be sold in the region. This includes a requirement to make any applicable spare parts available for repair.
Other ecodesign requirements include batteries that retain at least 80 percent of their capacity after 800 charging cycles and scratch and drop protections that exceed minimum standards. Finally, manufacturers must provide OS updates within six months of the source code becoming available.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mobile/the-eu-is-putting-repairability-rating-labels-on-phones-and-tablets-in-june-154051517.html?src=rss
The wait is (kind of) almost over. Ghost of Yōtei will be available for PS5 on October 2. This is a sequel to the 2020 hit Ghost of Tsushima and was first announced last year. It’s a PS5 exclusive, as it’s developed by Sony-owned Sucker Punch.
It doesn’t follow the story of Ghost of Tsushima. Rather, it’s an original adventure with new characters that's set in a new era. Ghost of Yōtei takes place in Hokkaido, Japan in the early 1600s. This is over 300 years after the events of the first game.
It’s still an open-world adventure, though Sony promises "even more freedom and variety than in Ghost of Tsushima." For instance, you can hunt down the six big bads in whatever order you choose. There’s a new trailer that reveals the basic story beats and some gameplay. It looks pretty darn fun.
Preorders will open up on May 2 at 10AM ET for those in the US. This being a modern console game, there are a few different editions to choose from. There’s the Standard Edition, which is just the game, that costs $70. The Digital Deluxe Edition adds in-game bonuses, like armor, weapons and costumes. That one costs $80.
Sony
The Collector’s Edition, which costs a whopping $250, comes with all of the aforementioned in-game items, but that’s just the beginning. It also ships with physical items, like replicas of the protagonist’s mask, katana and sash. Sony is calling this the best Collector’s Edition it has ever produced. All preorders, no matter which edition, receive a "unique in-game mask" and a handful of PSN avatars.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/playstation/ghost-of-yotei-comes-to-ps5-on-october-2-165531467.html?src=rss
Amazon’s Project Kuiper is reportedly way behind schedule, according to an investigation by Bloomberg. This is the company’s satellite internet service, which intends to rival SpaceX and Starlink. The issue seems to be one of scale, as the company has had trouble increasing production of the actual satellites.
The reporting indicates that the Kuiper team has only managed to manufacture a few dozen of these satellites. As a comparison, there are currently over 7,000 Starlink satellites in orbit. The initial production of the Kuiper satellites was delayed until the tail-end of last year, so Amazon hasn’t had too much time to ramp things up.
Beta testing didn’t start until earlier this year. Amazon had planned for an initial launch on April 8 for 27 satellites, but that got delayed until April 28.
Project Kuiper hopes to eventually provide broadband connectivity to at least 400 million households, in addition to providing service in remote areas. However, it needs to launch over 3,000 satellites to reach that goal. Additionally, it secured a government contract with a deadline to put 1,600 satellites in orbit by next summer. Insiders suggest that it will probably have to seek an extension from the FCC.
"We’ve designed some of the most advanced communications satellites ever built, and our primary objective is to build and launch enough of them to begin delivering service to customers later this year," an Amazon spokesperson told Seeking Alpha. "Our manufacturing schedule is on track to support this target, and we’ll continue to increase our production and launch rates as we begin a full-scale deployment of our network."
It did manage to launch a pair of prototype satellites into space in late 2023. This was followed by successful tests of an optical mesh network that linked the two satellites in low Earth orbit.
The company is scheduled to conduct a number of launches throughout the year, with help from Arianespace, Blue Origin and SpaceX. United Launch Alliance, a joint venture between Boeing and Lockheed Martin, will handle the April 28 launch. Amazon hasn’t indicated why satellite production has hit this hiccup. We reached out to the company and will update this post when we learn more.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/science/space/amazons-starlink-rival-project-kuiper-is-reportedly-way-behind-schedule-153514471.html?src=rss
WhatsApp is introducing a new feature called Advanced Chat Privacy that can block participants from sharing the contents of a conversation. This is an opt-in tool that’s available for both traditional chats and groups.
Once selected, the toolset will prevent anyone in the chat from sharing anything outside of the app. This means it’ll block all chat exports, but that’s just the beginning. The software also prevents a smartphone from auto-downloading media and will stop integration with AI assistants. Basically, what happens on WhatsApp stays on WhatsApp. However, it's unclear if it prevents screenshotting. We've reached out to Meta and will update this post when we hear back.
The platform says this is "best used when talking with groups where you may not know everyone closely but are nevertheless sensitive in nature." It gives examples like a support group about health challenges and a chat about community organizing.
WhatsApp says this is just the first version of the tool and that it’ll be adding "more protections" in the future. It’s rolling out right now across the globe, though it could take a month or two to reach everyone.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apps/whatsapp-introduces-a-feature-that-blocks-chat-participants-from-sharing-content-150042001.html?src=rss
Pinterest is testing a new prompt that warns kids to get off the app during school hours, as reported by The Verge. The pop-up warning encourages minors in the US and Canada to stop using the app and turn off notifications until the end of the day. "Focus is a beautiful thing," the prompt says. "Stay in the moment by putting Pinterest down."
This prompt only appears to kids aged 13 to 17 and only between 8AM and 3PM on weekdays. It’s a large-scale test, so Pinterest says the prompt will reach "millions" of minors. The platform says it's the first tech company to institute this kind of "proactive" feature to help kids build healthy online habits. That may be true in the world of social media, but any rabid Nintendo fan will remember the incessant prompts to take breaks in the Wii, DS and 3DS eras.
To go along with this initiative, Pinterest is providing a $1 million grant to the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) to "support school leaders in creating a healthy digital culture in their schools." This money will fund task forces across a dozen states to help develop policies that “improve students’ digital wellbeing.”
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apps/pinterest-will-warn-kids-not-to-use-its-app-during-school-hours-171512379.html?src=rss
Google has been paying Samsung tons of cash every month to pre-install the AI app Gemini on its smartphones, according to a report by Bloomberg. This information comes to us as part of a pre-existing antitrust case against Google.
Peter Fitzgerald, Google’s VP of platforms and device partnerships, testified in federal court that it began paying Samsung for this service back in January. The pair of companies have a contract that’s set to run at least two years.
Fitzgerald told Judge Amit Metha, who is overseeing the case, that Google provides Samsung with a monthly payout. The monetary figures are unknown, but DOJ lawyer David Dahlquist called it an "enormous sum of money in a fixed monthly payment."
This antitrust case started with an accusation that Google had been illegally abusing a monopoly over the search engine industry. Part of the testimony surrounding that case involved Google paying Apple, Samsung and other companies to ensure it was the default search engine on its devices.
Judge Mehta agreed and found that this practice constitutes a violation of antitrust law. He’s currently hearing additional testimony to decide what measures Google must take to remedy the illegal behavior, which is where this Gemini reveal comes from.
Testimony from another case involving Epic Games indicated that Google handed over $8 billion from 2020 to 2023 to ensure that Google Search, the Play Store and Google Assistant were used by default on Samsung mobile devices. A California federal judge later ruled that the company must lift restrictions that prevent rival marketplaces and billing systems. Google is in the process of appealing that ruling.
As an aside, if Google is hellbent on handing out Scrooge McDuck-sized bags of money to increase adoption rates of its generative AI app, why not give the regular people who have to actually use the bloatware some of that cash? Just saying.
Update, April 22 2025, 10:15AM ET: This story has been updated to reflect today's testimony that noted that Gemini doesn't offer advertising.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/google-pays-samsung-an-enormous-amount-of-money-to-pre-install-gemini-on-phones-153439068.html?src=rss
If you're looking for a VPN to use on your next trip, or even just at home while you're streaming or gaming, ExpressVPN is one of our favorites and you can subscribe at a discount right now. ExpressVPN is offering a two-year plan plus an extra four free months for a total of $140. That's 61 percent off the typical price, and it comes out to $5 per month.
Even though you have to pay the $140 upfront, it's a solid deal — especially considering having access to a good VPN service into late 2027 sounds pretty dang nice. ExpressVPN earned a top spot on our best VPN list thanks to its speedy connections, Network Lock kill-switch feature and its support on a variety of devices including smart TVs and game consoles.
It works on a variety of devices, so this isn’t just for the living room desktop. ExpressVPN integrates with mobile gadgets, smart TVs and game consoles, among other items. It’s really the best solution for gamers who travel a lot. It also comes with an in-house password manager, which would eliminate the need for a standalone subscription.
Truly the only real downside of this service is the price. The regular cost is $13 per month, which is mighty steep. This sale alleviates this concern, at least for 28 months. Spending $5 per month for a VPN of this caliber is something of a no-brainer.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/expressvpn-two-year-subscriptions-are-on-sale-for-61-percent-off-150758779.html?src=rss
Uber Shuttle is expanding to Atlanta. This is the company’s bus service that takes people to airports. Shuttle operations will launch in the region next month, delivering folks to and from Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport.
There will be numerous routes for residents to choose from. Uber says it’ll be picking people up from various locations throughout downtown and midtown, with service scheduled for every 30 minutes from 6AM to 10PM every day of the week. As previously mentioned, these shuttles will also take folks from the airport to the same locations.
We don’t know the exact location of the stops yet. Uber says it’ll share that information closer to launch in May. We do know that riders will be able to book up to five seats at a time from up to one week before the departure. As usual, customers will be able to track the real-time location of their Uber Shuttle via the app.
The fare will also be displayed on the app and the company promises it won’t use surge pricing. Early users will pay just ten bucks to use the service, but the cost will eventually go up. Uber says prices will, however, max out at $18.50 per ride. Uber Shuttle has been operating in NYC for a while now, with service to both LaGuardia and JFK.
Uber
Uber also released a bit of news regarding a partnership with Delta. This allows folks to rack up Delta SkyMiles by using Uber. The partnership even extends to Uber Eats.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apps/uber-shuttle-is-launching-at-the-atlanta-airport-110018400.html?src=rss
It’s livestreaming on Nintendo’s YouTube page, but mega-fans can also open up that recently-launched Nintendo Today! app to follow along. We are embedding the YouTube link, so feel free to keep this tab open.
We have no idea what information Nintendo is going to spring on us as part of this Direct presentation. The company has already released a ton of info about Mario Kart World. It’s an open-world racer that can accommodate 24 plays at the same time.
However, there are still a couple of unknowns. Most of these involve the open-world aspect. Are there any rewards for exploration? Are there secret tracks that can only be unlocked by finding them? Can the same be said for unlockable characters? Again, we don’t know, but hope springs eternal.
There’s also the $80 elephant in the room. The exorbitant retail price of Mario Kart Worldhas sent many fans into a tailspin. That’s a whole lot of money, and Nintendo only recently-released its first-ever $70 game. There’s a minuscule chance that the company will throw us a bone and knock $10 off the asking price, but this is highly unlikely given currenteconomic uncertainty. At the very least, we could get some new data regarding the preorder date for US customers.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/nintendo/heres-how-to-watch-the-mario-kart-focused-nintendo-direct-184825796.html?src=rss
Microsoft just announced that Xbox Series X/S and Xbox One owners can now stream select games they own directly from the console. This feature is exclusive to Game Pass Ultimate members.
What’s the point of this? It’s intended to save both time and hard drive space. Gamers can jump right in immediately, without having to download and install a giant file. It doesn’t work with every game. As of this writing, there are over 100 titles that enable this feature. They include standouts like Assassin’s Creed Shadows, Animal Well, Baldur’s Gate 3 and Hogwarts Legacy, among others.
Xbox
All you have to do is peruse your library and look for the cloud icon accompanying a game. Playable titles can also be filtered in search. The Store app even displays this icon, allowing you to start playing as soon as you hand over some digital cash.
Xbox players could already do this on devices outside of an official console. Throughout the past few months, the feature has been popping up on select smart TVs, Amazon Fire TVs and Meta Quest VR headsets. It also works on browser-supported devices like PCs, tablets and smartphones. A beta test for Xbox consoles started in December.
Microsoft also just announced that backward compatible games from the Xbox and Xbox 360 will now be streamable via remote play across all supported devices. That significantly increases the library of available titles. It’s worth noting that the company has removed remote play from the official Xbox app on mobile, but it still works via browsers.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/xbox/xbox-users-can-now-stream-games-they-own-on-their-consoles-173739687.html?src=rss
The music-streaming app Spotify was down for a good chunk of time this morning, leaving millions of music fans in the lurch. Both the app and web client weren't working, but service seem to be broadly returned to normal at this point, though lingering bugs may remain.
We’re aware of some issues right now and are checking them out!
At about 10:40AM ET, Spotify updated its X account saying it was working on the issue and also said that "the reports of this being a security hack are false." We haven't seen any such reports yet, but we'll keep an eye on things to see if they offer any more details on this front. Finally, at 12:08PM ET, the company said things were back to normal. All told, it seems like things were down for nearly four hours, a pretty long outage.
Update, April 16, 2025, 11:04AM ET: Added details about Spotify claiming this downtime was not due to a security hack.
Update, April 16 2025, 12:18PM ET: This story and its headline have been updated to note that Spotify is now back online after its outage.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apps/spotify-is-down-the-music-streaming-services-outage-is-not-a-security-hack-143552014.html?src=rss
Scientists have caught a colossal squid on camera in its natural environment for the very time, according to a report by the BBC. This happened around 100 years after the species was originally discovered, proving just how vast and mysterious the ocean truly is.
The squid is a juvenile, so it’s not nearly as large as its namesake suggests. It clocks in at around 11.8-inches long. Adult colossal squid can grow up to 23 feet in length and weigh up to 1,100 pounds. They are the heaviest invertebrate on the planet.
The crew was exploring the south Atlantic Ocean, near the South Sandwich Islands, as part of a 35-day mission to find new marine life. The juvenile squid was caught on camera at a depth of nearly 2,000 feet. Chief scientist Dr. Michelle Taylor said the team was unsure it was even a colossal squid at first, but filmed it anyway because it was "beautiful and unusual." The footage was then verified by another researcher.
"It's exciting to see the first in situ footage of a juvenile colossal and humbling to think that they have no idea that humans exist," said Dr. Kat Bolstad.
Wikimedia Commons
Most colossal squid found in the wild are already dead and spotted as remains in whale stomachs. Dying adults have been spotted near the surface of the ocean but this is the first time a specimen has been filmed in its natural element. We don’t even know that much about their life cycle, other than the fact that juveniles are transparent and adults are not. The Natural History Museum has said it’s hard to estimate the global population.
It’s incredible just how ignorant we still are of our own ocean in the year 2025. Only a fifth of the ocean floor has been sufficiently mapped. It truly is the final frontier of Earth-bound exploration. Maybe Katy Perry and Gayle King would have received a better reception if they took an 11-minute trip underwater instead.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/science/scientists-film-a-living-colossal-squid-for-the-first-time-161201996.html?src=rss
Patreon has plenty of tools to help creators connect with audiences and grow those subscription numbers. However, it has never offered the ability to stream live video content. That’s changing soon. The platform is testing livestreaming with a general rollout planned for summer.
It’s called Live Video and will be available to a "limited group of creators" starting next week as part of a testing phase. Patreon says this feature should help "boost real-time fan engagement and provide new experiences to encourage free-to-paid member conversion."
The platform looks to have put some thought into this functionality. There are no ads during streams, which is great, and it added some built-in tools to help with real-time engagement. There are real-time chats, which is typical for livestreams, but creators are given "enhanced chat moderation tools" to keep things from blowing up into a toxic hellscape.
Patreon says there will be no third-party tools required by creators or fans and that everything will run in the official app. This will also work on multiple platforms, including mobile and PC. Creators will be able to choose to offer streams to everyone or just to paid members.
The company has some plans to improve the experience down the line. It’s prepping an integration with OBS and Streamlabs to allow for adding co-hosts or to support "sophisticated streaming setups." It will also allow creators to offer VOD downloads of streams as a one-time purchase or as a gift to fans.
The platform has been busy this past year or two. It recently added a feature to allow fans to purchase access to collections of content without having to pony up for a monthly subscription. It also provided a suite of tools to let creators customize their pages, including the layout, colors and how posts display.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/streaming/patreon-is-testing-livestreaming-with-a-major-rollout-planned-for-summer-130045258.html?src=rss
Skullcandy just revealed a new pair of wireless earbuds, the Method 360 ANC. Interestingly, the company has teamed up with rival headphone-maker Bose for this product. The earbuds have been tuned by Bose and use eartips similar to the ones found with the company’s QuietComfort line.
Otherwise, the Method 360 ANC earbuds seem like a solid entry in a crowded field. They offer ANC, multipoint connections, custom EQ options, wear detection and other bells and whistles. The battery lasts around 10 hours per charge, which increases to 40 hours when considering the charging case. However, this metric is with ANC turned off. There is a quick-charge feature that advertises two hours of use on just ten minutes of charging. This charging case includes an O-ring, so it can be clipped to stuff, and is available in several colors.
Skullcandy
The earbuds ship with multiple sets of eartips that also use technology by Bose to ensure a “secure, ultra-comfortable fit and superior noise isolation.” They integrate with the Skull-iQ app, for making EQ adjustments, reconfiguring buttons and changing ANC modes. The Method 360 ANC earbuds are available right now at an introductory price of $100. The cost will go up to $130 later on.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/audio/headphones/skullcandys-new-method-360-anc-earbuds-have-been-tuned-by-bose-230053911.html?src=rss
It looks like OpenAI is building its own X-like social media network, according to a report by The Verge. We don’t have many specifics, but we do know there’s an internal prototype that adds a social feed to ChatGPT’s image generation tool.
It remains unclear if OpenAI will launch this social network as a standalone app or if it will be integrated within the ChatGPT app, which is what the prototype indicates. The report does suggest that OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has been asking for feedback about the social network from people outside of the company.
One potential reason for this step is that the app would allow OpenAI to gather real-time data from users to train its AI models. It’s also a potentially diversifying move for the company.
Although it’s uncertain if this project will ever see the light of day, one thing is probable — it’ll likely get under the skin of Elon Musk, who owns X. Altman and OpenAI have been at odds with Musk for some time. The company rejected his offer to buy OpenAI, instead offering to "buy Twitter" for just $9.7 billion dollars. It’s worth noting that the offer is four times lower than what Musk paid for the platform and that Altman purposefully used the word Twitter and not X.
no thank you but we will buy twitter for $9.74 billion if you want
OpenAI has also recently countersued Musk, accusing the billionaire of staging press attacks and malicious campaigns against the company on X. The suit also accuses Musk of making "harassing legal claims," referring to his initial suit, and a "sham bid for OpenAI's assets."
The company also published an email from Musk’s time at OpenAI in which he suggested merging with Tesla. Altman and his crew have stated that Musk was present during talks about OpenAI going for-profit and that he suggested he be given majority equity, control of the board and the CEO position. Musk left OpenAI in 2018 and founded xAI, which somehow just bought X in some kind of shady ouroboros of corporate tomfoolery.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/openai-is-apparently-making-a-social-network-175842370.html?src=rss
There are physical editions of the iconic shooters Doom and Doom II coming out, thanks to Limited Run Games. All editions ship with both games, but the highlight is something called the Will it Run Edition. This one comes with all kinds of extra goodies, including a game box that actually runs the original Doom. You read that right. Box play Doom. All you have to do is connect a USB controller, as the box also has a port.
It costs $666, which is a nod to the devilish source material, and is being kept to a limited run of 666 copies. It comes with the aforementioned screen-enabled game box that runs Doom, but that’s just the beginning. The combo pack ships with the soundtrack on cassette, a certificate of authenticity and a trading card park with five cards.
It comes with a couple of toys based on one of the franchise’s most iconic enemies. There’s a detailed three-inch Cacodemon that connects to a five-inch base, which looks pretty nifty. There’s a smaller handheld Cacodemon that, you’ll never guess, also runs Doom.
Limited Run Games
This edition is available for Switch, PS5, Xbox Series X/S and PC. The PC version, however, ships with a download code and not physical copies of both games. Preorders start on April 18 and end on May 18, with a release sometime after that.
If $666 is too rich, or demonic, for your blood, there are also cheaper editions available. The Big Box Edition costs $100 and ships with both games, a really big box, a trading card set and the soundtrack on cassette. The Standard Edition only includes the games and costs $30.
Get ready to mow down demons in this definitive collection 👿
DOOM + DOOM II—complete with SIGIL & SIGIL II on disc/cart—will be available on April 18th! pic.twitter.com/xv04Tjv9RT
However, these aren’t straight ports of two 30-year-old games. The developer has made some enhancements for modern players. The visuals have been upgraded, with a native 60 FPS frame rate and 16:9 support. The weapon carousel has been updated for faster switching and the dev has added gyroscopic aiming. These titles now offer local four-player co-op and online play.
The games also include a bunch of new maps and long-standing community mods, with the ability to integrate new mods. There’s even a brand-new episode called Legacy of Rust that was co-designed by id, Nightdive Studios and MachineGames. Players can also switch between the original music and a modern soundtrack.
For those wondering why the developer would even make a box that runs Doom, it’s because the game’s ability to run on weird things has become a beloved meme at this point. Doom has been found running on pregnancy tests, rat brain neurons and even via gut bacteria.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/666-edition-of-doom-includes-game-box-that-itself-plays-doom-165022410.html?src=rss
It looks like that long-rumored remake of Bethesda’s Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion is actually real, according to a report by Eurogamer. There are actual screenshots of the game in action that were published on developer Virtuos' website. Even cooler? Eurogamer suggests that the game will be shadow-dropped next week for PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. The same report also indicates it’ll be available on Game Pass.
Fans on Reddit and elsewhere began poking around on the developer’s website and reportedly found a treasure trove of in-game images, which included comparison screenshots to the original game from 2006. Eurogamer has collected these images on imgur to preserve them for posterity. It has also been corroborated that the screenshots do come from Virtuos’ server. We’ve reached out to Bethesda and will update this post when we hear back.
Virtuos
This remake has been bouncing around the rumor mill since 2020. Initial reports pegged it as a simple remaster, but a former Virtuos employee claimed it was a full remake back in 2023. It’s reportedly being built using Unreal Engine 5. That same employee also suggested that several gameplay systems have been completely reworked, including stamina, archery, sneaking, blocking and hit reaction. The HUD has also supposedly been remade.
All we can do now is wait for next week and see if Microsoft does indeed surprise-drop the game. If not, there’s an Xbox summer showcase on June 8. Maybe we’ll get some clarity at that event.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/the-elder-scrolls-4-oblivion-remake-is-real-according-to-developer-screenshots-151955341.html?src=rss
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