Monthly Archives: August 2018
The Best IPS Monitors
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For a long time now, gamers have generally preferred Twisted Nematic (TN) panels for gaming monitors due to their lightning fast 1ms response times. The tradeoff for this level of speed is subpar color accuracy and viewing angles, which led to the development of a better monitor technology: In-Plane Switching (IPS).
Developed by Hitachi in the mid-‘90s, IPS was designed to improve as a solution to some of the problems inherent in TN panels. Many TN displays are limited to 6 bits of depth per primary color, which equals 262,144 total colors. These displays need to use a process called dithering in order to visually increase that to 8 bits (16.7 million total colors), which fools the eye by blending adjacent colors together. IPS panels, on the other hand, start at 8 bits per color and can also use dithering – or a form of dithering called frame rate control (FRC) – to up that to 10 bit. That's the lengthy way to say IPS panels do a better job of displaying more colors than a TN panel, and can produce images that look more life-like.
How It: Chapter 2’s Time Jump Will Work
Stephen King's It became one of the most successful horror movies of all time last year. It also happens to be one of the best Stephen King adaptations to date. Fortunately, the filmmakers left the door wide open for a sequel. It only adapted half of the original novel. The other half will be explored in It: Chapter 2, currently scheduled for release in September 2019.
If you're not familiar with the source material, you might be wondering why there's still so much ground left to cover and why so many of the major roles are being recast. Read on to find out how Chapter 2 builds on the foundation of the first film and why the battle with Pennywise isn't done yet. Full spoilers follow from the first film and mild spoilers from the book!
Ubisoft Will Not Release a New Assassin’s Creed Game in 2019
Like 2016, 2019 will be a year without an Assassin's Creed game. Speaking with GameSpot during Gamescom, Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot revealed that his company will not release a new entry in the (usually) annualized franchise.
"On Assassin's, we had a game
, and we have one this year, but we are not going to have a full-fledged Assassin's next year," said Guillemot. "It's just because the team were
working separately, so we have two games now, one year after the other. But next year you're not going to have a fully fledged one."
There won't just not be a new "main" Assassin's Creed entry, either; Ubisoft also won't release any sort of spin-off or smaller game. Instead, explained Guillemot, Ubisoft plans to extend this year's entry, Assassin's Creed Odyssey, as much as possible through DLC.
Langrisser Remakes Headed to Nintendo Switch
Kadokawa Games is remaking the first two Langrisser titles for Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4.
Per Gematsu, the latest issue of Weekly Famitsu reveals Langrisser I & II, the first two games in the tactical role-playing series, will be fully remade.
The remakes will feature new character designs, an optimized UI, update mechanics, and more. More details will be revealed on August 29 during a presentation event, but development is reportedly 50 percent complete.
The first Langrisser released in 1991 while the sequel came out in 1994. Both titles feature large scale battles, allowing players to control over thirty units. The series also features a fantasy-Germanic setting.
We Finally Know What Left Alive Will Actually Be
After seeing it for the first time, Left Alive already feels like some strange relic of the PS2 age, and I mean that both as a positive and a negative.
Watching a series of clips and speaking to its director, Toshifumi Nabeshima, it's clear how ambitious this game aims to be. At its core, this is much more of a third-person shooter than I went in expecting. But it's also aiming to be a mech game, a narrative experience, even survival horror in some small way.
That shooter core is intriguing, if not immediately engaging. At its heart, this is a cover shooter and, right now, it doesn't look like a hugely slick one; animations click into place unnaturally, and the spaces we were shown were very much of the "brown corridor" variety. On the other hand, the potential's there for far more interesting interactions than "pull trigger."
Stealth is Key to Survival in Metro Exodus
It’s not a great feeling, being at the bottom of the food chain, but that’s exactly where you sit in Metro Exodus. Everyone wants a piece of you, whether it’s the wolves that roam the plains, hunting in packs, or the pirate bandits who react very badly when someone moves in on their turf. You’re alone, in this Gamescom demo at least, and ammo and supplies are in short supply.
As with previous Metro games, survival is the key to success. Part of that is surviving the world around you – in the instance of this demo, a swamp wasteland – but primarily it’s against the survivors you’ll encounter throughout. Armed bandits control the area, patrolling the derelict buildings on the lookout for drifters.
Leaving Netflix in Sept: The Dark Knight, Ghostbusters, More
Your "Last Call" list for Netflix in September is here, so jot down these important dates because the streaming giant is purging itself of both Batman Begins and The Dark Knight - along with Ghostbusters, 13 Going on 30, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Dead Poets Society, Martin Scorsese's Casino, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, and excellent modern horror flick The Descent.
This is also a good chance to catch A Star is Born before the Lady Gaga/Bradley Cooper remake comes out, as well as Sidney Lumet's fantastic, final movie Before the Devil Know's You're Dead, starring Ethan Hawke and the late Philip Seymour Hoffman.
5 Things We Learned About The Division 2
With the gameplay of The Division 2 already on display a couple of months ago at E3 2018, the team at The Division 2 developer Massive Entertainment took a different tack for its behind closed doors demo at this year’s Gamescom. I was given a deep dive into the lengths that Massive is going to in order to present a compelling and authentic open-world to players, and here are five big takeaways.
It seems like an obvious choice that a game about an ongoing civil war in the United States would take place in the nation’s capital, but Washington, D.C. wasn’t always going to be the setting for The Division 2. Developer Massive Entertainment originally considered both Seattle and New Orleans as potential settings for their open-world shooter sequel, but ultimately settled on D.C. largely due to the sheer diversity in environments that would help push the game experience far beyond the slightly one-note concrete jungle of the original’s New York City.
Monument Valley Is Heading for the Big Screen
Big news for Momument Valley fans - Ustwo Games' mind-bending puzzler is making its way to the big screen, with Patrick Osborne (whose 2014 film Feast took way the Oscar for Best Animated Short Film) taking the reins as director.
As reported over on Deadline, the film will be produced as a collaboration between Paramount Pictures and Akiva Goldsman's Weed Road Pictures, with Goldsman himself producing. No screenwriter has been hired as of yet, so it could be a while before the film sees a release.
"The rumours are correct. There's going to be a Monument Valley movie! In collaboration with Paramount Pictures and Patrick Osborne. We couldn't be more excited, " Ustwo wrote on Twitter.
Teamwork Is Key in Team Sonic Racing
Years of playing kart racers has made me a little aggressive. When I’m leading the pack and suddenly a projectile knocks me back five spots, a blind rage tends to take over.
But in Team Sonic Racing, even when the worst happens, you can get a little bit of help. Instead of braving the tracks alone, you’ll have two teammates who can bail you out when you’re offroad, transfer you items from afar, and even join with you for a massive synchronized speed boost.
Each character in Team Sonic Racing has a specific class: Power, Speed, or Technique. In our demo at Gamescom, example teams were made up of one character from each class -- Sonic, Tails and Knuckles on one team, Shadow, Rogue and Omega on another, and Chao, Big and Amy on a third. We also saw an additional set of three characters that SEGA isn’t ready to talk about just yet. A SEGA representative confirmed to us that in the final game you’ll be able to mix and match to your heart’s content, including a team of three Sonics or three Bigs, for example.