Monthly Archives: January 2016
Daily Deals: The Best PS4 Hard Drive, The Martian, Star Wars: Battlefront
The Best Hard Drive for Your PS4
Here's the deal: it's rather simple to upgrade your PS4's hard drive. If you want twice the space and improved loading times, the HGST Travelstar 7K1000 is drive you want. It's typically $66, but it's a few bucks shy of that right now at $61. It's not only 1TB, it's a 7200 RPM drive. The standard drive is 5400 RPM, so you will see improved load times. Check our article on the best PS4 hard drive if you want more info.
Exploding Kittens App Released, DLC Free for Limited Time
The Exploding Kittens card game is now available for download on Apple iOS, and for a few days, all in-app purchases totally free. This includes the party pack expansion deck and a whole bunch of avatars—Gentleman Tofu, Business Sharl, and Unwell Pizza among them.
Courtesy of Exploding Kittens
You won't need an internet connection to play. The multiplayer game combines WiFi and Bluetooth, so all you've got to do is stand near your friends to play. The developers note that this is a new process, and users will experience some bugs. The team, however, is working to fix these bugs as they come up.
Ubisoft Partners With Elijah Wood’s Company for VR Games
Ubisoft will be working with Elijah "Frodo Baggins" Wood's production company, SpectreVision, to create virtual reality games.
“As a longtime gamer, I’m first and foremost a fan and admirer of Ubisoft," says Wood. "So to be collaborating with them within the realm of VR is an incredible treat!”
SpectreVision was started in 2010 and is behind movies like Elijah Wood's teachers-vs.-kids zombie movie, Cooties, and Iranian vampire movie, A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night. While no projects have been announced, SpectreVision's team will be working with Ubisoft's FunHouse Studio in Montreal.
SpectreVision CEO Lisa Whalen announced the partnership today at the Sundance Film Festival.
SEGA 3D Classics Collection Announced for 3DS
SEGA has revealed SEGA 3D Classics Collection is coming to 3DS on April 26.
The collection of games will include a total of nine games that have been “redeveloped to create an immersive 3D experience,” according to SEGA, who teased the announcement yesterday.
The collection includes Power Drift, Puyo Puyo 2, Fantasy II W, Sonic The Hedgehog, Thunder Blade, Galaxy Force II, and Altered Beast. It will also come with two bonus SEGA Master System games, Fantasy Zone II and Maze Walker.
Google Play Had Twice as Many Downloads as App Store
The numbers are in and the Google Play Store had 100% more downloads than the Apple App Store, yet the App Store made 75% more revenue.
According to the report from App Annie, while Google Play has more users, thanks to growth from developing economies like Brazil and India, iOS users tend to spend more money on the App Store.
Google Play's domination is a big increase from 2014 when it had 60% more downloads than the App Store. However, Apple was still making 70% off the App Store than Google was making off of Google Play.
For both platforms, much of the revenue came from mobile gaming: 90% for Google Play and 75% for the App Store.
How I Used Solar Power to Play Through Metal Gear Solid 5
I first booted up Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain from a state park in rural Nevada. I finished playing from the northern tip of Cape Breton in Nova Scotia, over 3500 miles away. In total, I played 48 hours and 38 minutes of MGS5, while traveling across 11 US states and 3 Canadian provinces.
Throughout this journey, my PlayStation 4 and TV were never once plugged into the grid. Instead, I’ve relied solely on the power of the sun.
Before this adventure, I never thought about gaming with solar power. But when my wife and I decided to leave our jobs, pack up our belongings, and travel North America in a camper for a year, I needed a solution to keep gaming on the road.
How Daredevil: Season 2 Will Top the Hallway Fight Sequence
Matt Murdock knows how to throw a punch. If there's one thing viewers took away from Daredevil: Season 1, it's that the title character (played by Charlie Cox) is a fully believable and capable fighter. If there's a second thing they learned, it's that the stunt coordinators on the show know how to choreograph one hell of a fight scene.
That was showcased best in episode 2, "Cut Man," which saw Matt take down a hallway full of child traffickers in a fight sequence filmed in a single take. The "hallway scene," as it came to be known, was a jaw-dropping achievement in filmmaking. According to Cox, Daredevil: Season 2 plans to outdo it.
New Vimeo Initiative Supports Female Filmmakers
Vimeo is backing a program aimed at elevating women in the film industry. The initiative, called "Share the Screen," promises to invest in at least five female-driven projects in 2016.
"We’re putting our money where our mouth is," Sam Toles, Vimeo’s head of programming, told Variety. "It’s apparent to us that there is a huge disparity in the number of women content creators. All the data shows that this business skews heavily male."
A report from the Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film shows that only nine percent of the top 250 domestic films in 2015 were directed by women—a number that is only two percent higher than it was in 2014, and basically the same as it was in the late '90s.
Republique PS4 Release Date Announced
Republique, an episodic stealth action game, will launch on March 22 for PlayStation 4.
According to the PS Blog, Camouflaj confirmed the game will be available digitally and physically at retailers. The PS4 version will include original and new outfits for the game’s protagonist Hope, including a PS4 exclusive outfit based on Gravity Rush.
Camouflaj also talks about their decision to bring Republique to PS4 in the post, stating “it was not an easy one” because of the challenge of transitioning controls from touch on mobile to desktop hot-keys to the Dual Shock 4.
Xbox One Rocket League Will Have Sunset Overdrive Items
The Xbox One version of Rocket League will include exclusive cosmetics, courtesy of Insomniac Games.
The bolt-ons are themed around Insomniac's equally Xbox One exclusive third-person shooter, Sunset Overdrive. They will apparently include a new booster effect based on Overcharge, orange mutagenic swill that causes a zombie outbreak, and Fizzie, the energy drink's sinister mascot.
Sunset Overdrive creative director Marcus Smith says that the cosmetics won't just alter a Rocket League vehicle's look. When using the custom boost "you can hear the firing mechanism from the Ahab gun in Sunset."