Jedi: Fallen Order is finished and ready to ship

Derek Strickland | Gaming | Oct 18, 2019 3:12 PM CDT

After five years of development, Respawn's big new action-adventure Star Wars game is completely finished.

Jedi: Fallen Order is finished and ready to ship

Jedi: Fallen Order could restore balance to the galaxy of Star Wars games. Typically dominated by grindy service games like Battlefront, Respawn's new game is a singleplayer-only adventure that combines Uncharted's exploration and environmental interactivity with Sekiro's suave and stylish swordplay, and a hint of Dark Souls rolling and dodging thrown in for good measure. It's described as a "Jedi power fantasy" by Respawn and takes place in a unique timeline between Episodes III and IV when the Jedi were being ruthlessly hunted down and slaughtered.

Now Respawn says the game has gone gold, meaning it's mastered and ready to ship to gamers across the globe. We'll probably see a few updates released here and there, but the core experience is intact.

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Stadia's mobile streaming will be pretty awkward at launch

Derek Strickland | Gaming | Oct 18, 2019 1:53 PM CDT

Stadia will go through some intense growing pains at launch, and many of its features are limited.

Stadia's mobile streaming will be pretty awkward at launch

The main reason to buy into Google's new Stadia game-streaming service is to play games on devices you already own without having to buy consoles or a PC. Stadia promises to wirelessly beam hit games to your Chromecast Ultra, laptop/desktop via Chrome browsers, and your Pixel 3-4 smartphones. But there's a lot of catches, especially when it comes to its controller.

The Stadia controller only supports Wi-Fi connectivity at launch. It won't have Bluetooth connectivity (that'll come later, Google promises) so it has to be plugged into your PC or even your phone to play games. That's a massive blow to on-the-go Stadia game streaming--no one's going to carry around an OTG cable and transform their Pixel phone into a bulky/awkward handheld gaming system.

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Hacked Switch plays Witcher 3 at 60FPS

Derek Strickland | Gaming | Oct 18, 2019 9:57 AM CDT

The Switch isn't the ideal platform for The Witcher 3. It's locked to 720p 30FPS for good reason: There's lots of visual trade-offs to get the huge open-world RPG to run on the Switch's lower-end Tegra hardware, namely draw distances, lighting effects, and overall graphic settings. Now modders are using hacked Switches to get even more out of The Witcher, hitting up to 60FPS on the handheld-console hybrid.

Hacked Switch plays Witcher 3 at 60FPS

Of course you need a jailbroken Switch for this to work. By hacking the Switch's firmware via a hardware exploit, gamers and modders can basically turn off the frame limiter and overclock the Switch's Tegra X1. This works for a lot of games, and even unlocks extra post-processing effects in The Witcher 3. Sadly 1080p resolution isn't possible--the game is capped at a hard dynamic 720p resolution when docked.

Not only can the Switch theoretically run The Witcher 3 at up to 60FPS while docked, gamers can adjust a number of extra settings to improve visual fidelity and clarity.

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Here is Overwatch's graphics on Nintendo Switch vs the PS4 version

Jak Connor | Gaming | Oct 18, 2019 7:04 AM CDT

Blizzard Entertainment blessed the Nintendo Switch with Overwatch recently and while Switch players are enjoying the title in hand-held mode, how do the graphics pan out when compared to the already released PS4 version?

Here is Overwatch's graphics on Nintendo Switch vs the PS4 version

Thanks to Gaming Boulevard, we have a great side-by-side graphics comparison between the Switch version of the game and the PS4 version. From the above video we can see that the Nintendo Switch version has been hit with some quite considerable graphical downgrades (as expected). These graphical downgrades come in the form of the game appearing lighter, shadow quality being reduced, render quality distance being reduced, overall texture quality reduction and much more.

While these graphical downgrades are clearly apparent, they are more than necessary to get the game to run at a smooth 30FPS on the handheld console. According to Yanagi, the Nintendo Switch version of Overwatch, "For the Switch version of Overwatch, we really want to deliver the authentic Overwatch experience. The gameplay has to feel like Overwatch and the game has to look like Overwatch. For fixed platforms like the Switch, we do our best to configure the game to the optimal settings to achieve this goal."

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New Luigi's Mansion 3 teaser trailer showcases co-op play with Gooigi

Jak Connor | Gaming | Oct 18, 2019 6:08 AM CDT

The release of Luigi's Mansion 3 is right around the corner and to increase excitement levels just that little bit more Nintendo have released a short teaser trailer.

New Luigi's Mansion 3 teaser trailer showcases co-op play with Gooigi

For those that don't know, Luigi's Mansion 3 will allow for players to team up with Gooigi to battle the games story mode that will pit players against some cool mini-games and of course some ghost capturing action. The new commercial video that is above shows Luigi taking down multiple different ghouls and then using his ghost catching apparatus to poop out Gooigi, a green doppelganger of Luigi.

Back in June, Nintendo hosted a Nintendo Treehouse event where they played Luigi's Mansion 3, so if you happened to miss that and are interested in some gameplay, head over to this link here. Nintendo also released a cinematic trailer for the game that includes other iconic Nintendo characters such as Mario, Peach and Toad, more on that here. Luigi's Mansion 3 will be released on October 31st exclusively for the Nintendo Switch.

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Mosquito repellents are an amazing 'invisibility cloaks' for humans

Jak Connor | Science, Space, Health & Robotics | Oct 18, 2019 5:07 AM CDT

Researchers out of the Johns Hopkins University have performed numerous experiments on mosquito's regarding their sense of smell and how repellents affect the insects.

Mosquito repellents are an amazing 'invisibility cloaks' for humans

According to the above video, Chris Potter, Associate Professor of Neuroscience at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine discusses that him and his fellow scientists have been studying a specific type of mosquito called Anopheles. The scientists took Anopheles and genetically engineered them to produce a color on their nose when the neurons detect a sense of smell.

Once the scientists successfully genetically engineered the mosquito's they gathered to most common insect repellents and puffed the oder onto their noses. To the scientists surprises, the repellents didn't raise any color in the mosquito's noses, meaning that the insect repellents actually hide the natural 'human scent' that mosquito's would usually detect. This means that insect repellents act as an 'invisibility cloak' for humans.

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Halo Infinite co-developers debut 'Stela' a cinematic experience title

Jak Connor | Gaming | Oct 18, 2019 4:10 AM CDT

Halo Infinite co-developer SkyBox Labs has launched their newest title 'Stela' on Xbox One today. 'Stela' takes players on a cinematic experience surrounding a young women in her final days of a mysterious world.

Halo Infinite co-developers debut 'Stela' a cinematic experience title

According to the press release, 'Stela' will introduce players to a once-thriving land that is now dying and a young women who journeys through the dying lands in search for some form of hopeful survival. Players will encounter beasts and monsters along the way who have occupied the land as their own.

Players will be faced with puzzles in gorgeous cinematic landscapes that are sprinkled with some touching single-player story that doesn't have any audio. 'Stela' is a platformer title and according to Shyang Kong, Co-Founder at SkyBox Labs, "For Stela, we really wanted to blend together a touching story with outstanding music and beautiful landscapes to make an experience that is grand in scale yet still personally intimate". Stela is available now for Xbox One for $19.99. For more information, head over to the 'Stela' website here.

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Adobe Photoshop CC for iPad releases in 2019 but missing core features

Jak Connor | Gaming | Oct 18, 2019 3:08 AM CDT

Photoshop will be launching on Apple's iPad by the end of the year, but unfortunately the editing software will be arriving some missing core features.

Adobe Photoshop CC for iPad releases in 2019 but missing core features

According to Bloomberg, Adobe will be debuting Photoshop CC without some important features that many editors would deem completely necessary to the program. Scott Belsky, Adobe's Cheif Product Officer has said that that Adobe is working extremely closely with Apple to bring as many of the Photoshop features over, but unfortunately this will take some time to do.

Beta testers of the software have said to Bloomberg that many features such as "filters, the pen tool and custom paintbrush libraries, vector drawing, color spaces, RAW editing, smart objects, layer styles and certain options for mask creation" were missing. One beta tester said "Feature-wise, it feels like a beefed-up cloud-based version of their existing iPad apps and not 'real Photoshop' as advertised." Another tester who declined to be named said "I understand it is based on desktop Photoshop code, but it doesn't feel like it right now."

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Howl's Moving Castle, Spirited Away & more will be streamed on HBO Max

Jak Connor | TV, Movies & Home Theatre | Oct 18, 2019 2:02 AM CDT

A new deal between WarnerMedia and Studio Ghibli's American distributor GKids will see multiple classic Japanese animation movies arrive on HBO Max.

Howl's Moving Castle, Spirited Away & more will be streamed on HBO Max

WarnerMedia has scooped up a large selection of classic Studio Ghibli titles, the following animations will be available on HBO Max: Spirited Away, My Neighbor Totoro, Princess Princess Mononoke and Howl's Moving Castle. Koji Hoshino, chairman of Studio Ghibli, spoke to Variety about the new deal, saying "We are excited to be working with HBO Max to bring the complete collection of Studio Ghibli films to streaming audiences in the U.S. As a premium content brand, HBO Max is an ideal home for our films."

Hoshino continued and said "Upon launch of the service this spring, existing Ghibli fans will be able enjoy their favorites and delve deeper into the library, while whole new audiences will be able to discover our films for the first time." Originally, Disney was responsible for many of the dubbing of these titles, which raises the question to why they didn't purchase the streaming rights from GKids. Regardless of that though, HBO Max will now be home to some of the greatest pieces of work from legendary director and screenwriter Hayao Miyazaki.

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Apex Legends Season 3 Charge Rifle and drop ship quip spam now fixed

Jak Connor | Gaming | Oct 18, 2019 1:03 AM CDT

Since the release of the newest season in Apex Legends, gamers have been obliterating their opponent with the newest sniper, the Charge Rifle. Those days of laughable downs are now over.

Apex Legends Season 3 Charge Rifle and drop ship quip spam now fixed

Just a couple of days ago, developer of Apex Legends, Respawn Entertainment announced that they would be balancing the charge rifle after the community was clearly overusing it. Those balance changes are now live, and the adjustments come in the form of increasing the amount of ammo that is used per shot, changing the mag size, and decreasing damage slightly.

One of the other issues with Season 3 was players realizing that they could perform quips while in the drop ship, and since quips could be heard by players in close proximity troll gamers decided to spam the same quips over and over again. As you can imagine this was quite annoying, so Respawn has fixed this issue as well. Respawn also say they have fixed "initial circle issues" but since there is no patch notes its hard to tell what this exactly means.

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