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Gaming’N Tech News #81 - Halo Goes To The Arcade; Cold Experiments In Space

What Are We Playing This Week?

While I spent a small amount of time on the space combat game Manticore, that now gets to take a back seat with Hyrule Warriors: Definitive Edition on the Switch. The new game looks fantastic, in good part due to the 60FPS it handles all the time. There are a few other things to get used to with control changes or 2p split screen (my kids loved the game on the WiiU so it’s tough to play it single player around my house) but overall, it’s a great improvement over the U version and I’ll probably end up sinking dozens - or hundreds - of hours into it once everything is said and done 😉

How about you?

Gaming Headlines

Building ‘Lost’ In Far Cry 5 And Making It Better Than Ubisoft’s Own Lost Game

Valve To Remove Sexually Explicit Games From Steam, Censor Others

Sea Of Thieves Getting A Major Content Update On May 29th

If You Are Hoping For Single Player Fun In CoD: Black Ops 4, Get Ready For Disappointment

Plus: Obligatory Black Ops 4 Teaser Trailer

No Man’s Sky Adding Long Promised Multiplayer, Coming to Xbox One July 24th

The Next Racing Game From Codemasters: Onrush (PS4/XB1)

Resident Evil 7 “Cloud Version” Is Headed To The Switch

New Strategy Game From The Creator Of XCOM, Phoenix Point, Coming June 2019

Super Monkey Ball: Sakura Edition Comes To Sega Forever

Robotic FPS Arena Game ShiRO 011 Headed To PC/Switch In 2019

nVidia Launches A 3GB GTX 1050 For Gamers On A Budget

Deep Silver Says No Shenmue III Until 2019 - No link needed…this surprises no one

Gaming

Microsoft Announced Halo Fireteam Raven For Arcades - Seventeen years after Bungie’s Halo helped put Microsoft on the map as a contender in the game console business, the IP is making the jump to arcades. The effort is a mass partnership between Microsoft, 343 Industries, Play Mechanix, Raw Thrills and Dave & Busters, the latter three being arcade-focused companies with a bit of experience in these matters. As such, the new Halo Fireteam Raven is an on-rails shooter for four players, hearkening back to the days of split-screen gaming but with two 65″ 4K screens. Quotes for one are landing around $30k (then you have to add shipping and tax so 32-ish) - the most Raw Thrills has ever charged is around $18k for their Terminator Salvation Super Deluxe cabinet. Expect to see it this Summer at Dave & Busters, at a few other places that can afford it around September.

The Xbox One Adaptive Controller - Since we’re talking about Microsoft then we can’t miss the other most-talked-about piece of news this week, the adaptive controller. MS certainly garnered plenty of praise from teary-eyed gamers after watching this although don’t expect them to be touting the sales numbers (unless an unusually high number of people who don’t need it but are curious end up buying one ‘just to see’):

State Of Decay 2 Launches Tomorrow (PC/XB1) - I still have to laugh that they call it an “Xbox Exclusive” but I guess no one is stopping them from diluding the meaning of the word. Like zombie survival games? Then State Of Decay 2 promises to up the ante from before, in good part thanks to the multiplayer component. I never played the first one so if you did, does this have enough to make you jump onto the sequel?

Coleco Evolved - If you grew up in or close to the early 1980s, then chances are you remember the Coleco Mini-arcade machines. They were among the first handheld video gaming devices, along with the Mattel Football. Well since everything else from the 80s has been remade in some fashion, why not those mini-cades? As this Kickstarter goes however, they are not relaunching these with the same software like Pac-Man, Frogger, Galaxian and so on; they are offering Robotech and Rainbow Brite for starters (one for the boys, one for the girls). System upgrades are promised and the Kickstarter passed their $30k funding goal. At $70 a pop however, it’s hard to say if the nostalgia is worth it or not…

“It’s dead Jim” - It held on for an admirably long time but with this news that Sony has canned production of the PS Vita game cards, it would appear that their handheld system is officially dead. Granted this feels a little late as the company hasn’t really been putting much effort into supporting it with 1st party content, just allowing 3rd parties to have their fun. Then the Switch came along and stole that too…

Technology Headlines

Was Google’s AI Duplex Demo Staged? - Yes, most likely, probably, FALSE FLAG ELEVENTY

The Next Wonder From Graphene: Trapping Light Rays - Bonus: Improving Footwear

LISA Hopes To Be Detecting Gravity Waves In 2034

US Commandos Getting Small, Powerful Missiles That Outclass Hellfires

Toys R Us Owned A Bunch Of Naughty Domains - For Domain Troll protection, nothing nefarious

Estonia Embraces ‘Free’ Public Transportation By Making Parking Fees Absurdly High - Who wants to place bets on when they’ll scale it back due to ‘unforeseen issues’?

Remember The Red Hydrogen ‘Holographic’ Phone? You’ll Be Able To Get One From AT&T Or Verizon

Time Travelers Welcome To Attend Stephen Hawking’s Interment - Keep on wishin’

Got 8 hours of Free Time? Watch A Presentation On The Latest Developments For Breakthrough Propulsion

Robofly Takes Off Into A Brave New World

So What Happens When The Martians Need To ‘Get To Da Choppa’?

Or just migrate to Linux:

Technology

The Swing Shelf Table - Showing once again that something doesn’t have to be high tech to be cool.

Cool Science…IN SPAAAACE - In a parody world, astronauts would use this to keep their beers cold but in the real one, the Cold Atom Lab will be used for some hard science. The hope is for this add-on to the International Space Station to produce the coldest temperature in the known universe. This video explains more:

MIT’s “Plug-N-Play Diagnostics” - What happens when you take the wonderful world of DIY-style thinking and apply it to medical tests? This, I suppose. It’s modular and with forty different blocks, allows for a wide range of tests and experiments that can be handled by a Dr’s office. You can also read more about it here.

Space Pr0n Of The Week: TESS’s First Photo - It was a few weeks ago that I recall reporting in the headlines that a certain telescope by the name of TESS had launched. This is a planet hunter with more power and features than Kepler, designed entirely to look for exoplanets. The planet-hunting mission will begin in June (it’s still on it’s way to the correct orbit for observations) but it already snapped a starry picture from our galactic neighborhood. Enjoy:

 
Spartan Hero

Written by Spartan Hero

I play games, poke fun at society and occasionally write things about politics. Located somewhere in the Rocky Mountains...

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