Monthly Archives: January 2018
New Xbox Achievement System Could Include Levels and Loot
A new system called 'Career' could be added to Xbox, adding leveling, quests and loot for avatars, sitting alongside existing Achievements and Gamerscore.
Windows Central reports that it has received documentation showing that Microsoft is currently testing Career, which seems to subsume the current Achievements system.
Completing achievements will contribute towards your Gamertag's level, and leveling up rewards players with loot boxes containing cosmetic items for their Xbox Avatar. Players can apparently even prestige in this system.
Career will apparently also include Quests, which rewards players with more XP and loot boxes for doing specific things, such as playing a specified game. Going by the documentation, it appears loot boxes cannot be bought with real money.
It’s Raining Cat and Dog Speakers at CES
There's a lot to see at CES, and some of it doesn't make sense when you first see it. Take these animal shaped speakers, for example. Most people love animals, and most people love music, so someone thought to put them together.
The results are adorable. These speakers from Mizco come in all kinds of charming animal shapes, but you don't have to imagine them when we have this gallery in place to let you see for yourself.
Check out the dog and cat shaped speakers below, and prepare for a surprise or two.
Seth Macy loves cats and dogs. Follow him on Twitter @sethmacy.
Nintendo Switch Accessories from CES 2018
The Consumer Electronics Show isn't just about 8K TVs and robots, it's also a place to show off accessories.
Nintendo, in case you haven't noticed, has had a bit of a resurgence as of late, thanks to the popularity of the Nintendo Switch. However, its deep stable of properties spanning decades is a great place to pull from, even when Nintendo is on hard times, like it was during the Wii U era.
We grabbed some photos of some pretty cool Nintendo and Nintendo Switch accessories we spotted at CES 2018. Check them out.
Seth Macy is a Nintendo boy from way back. Follow him on Twitter @sethmacy.
Syfy’s Krypton Will Probably Include the Green Lanterns
The multiverse is the limit for Syfy's new DC series Krypton, according to executive producers David Goyer and Geoff Johns.
The high-concept drama -- which "is the biggest budget show
have ever done," per Goyer -- focuses on Superman's grandfather, Seg-El (Cameron Cuffe), who is enlisted by time-traveling hero Adam Strange (Shaun Sipos) to protect his unborn grandson's future and the legacy of House El when Brainiac threatens both.
And while Krypton is not associated with any of the DC shows in Greg Berlanti's Arrowverse (which means no crossovers with the Legends of Tomorrow), it sounds like there will still be ample opportunities for other DC cameos.
During a panel for the series at the Television Critics Association winter press tour, Johns and Goyer revealed that the show's space-based setting and focus on time travel means that they'll be able to include characters and locations from across the DC canon.
Spherical PC Case Looks Like It Should Be Touring Jurassic World
These aren't your ordinary PC cases, these are some extremely high quality housings for your build that border on industrial art. The WinBot case is a clear plexiglass sphere that responds to gestures and recognizes your face. It also has fans placed like the little robot thing the people in the Death Stranding trailer wear.
On top of the WinBot, case maker InWin had some other amazing cases on display, packed with major computational muscle. Check out the gallery below for a high res look at these amazing cases.
Seth Macy: Intel Core i7-7700K, 16GB DDR4 2400MHz RAM, GeForce GTX 1080 8GB, 256GB PCIe SSD, 1TB 7,200 RPM HDD. Follow him on Twitter @sethmacy.
Lamenting the Loss of Fox’s X-Men Ethos
Fans of superhero movies have been all abuzz since word broke of the $52.4 billion purchase of Fox assets by Disney. While this tectonic shift in the business landscape has pointed to ramifications beyond what we can currently imagine, many have chosen to focus on the fact that Disney will now be able to inject the X-Men into their ultra-successful MCU. And while this may be a cause célèbre for X-Men fans – Wolverine scraping his claws across Captain America's shield? Awesome! – one may also want to pause at this juncture to lament the possible end of what Fox had been doing with its X-Men characters.
The X-Men series was always unique when compared to its MCU brethren next door. Bryan Singer's X-Men was released in 2000, just before superhero films began booming in earnest, and contemporary audiences may notice that it differs from more recent films in many ways. For one, it has a unique aesthetic. Rather than choosing bold, comic-friendly colors and bright outdoor fight scenes, X-Men looked metallic, futuristic, and antiseptic. It took place in steely corridors and hidden laboratories. Rather than re-imagining the heroes as more realistic beings that could fit into the world we know, X-Men's filmmakers bent the world we know to fit around the larger-than life superhero characters; there's a reason the X-Men wore matching black costumes rather than reality-fied versions of their comic book suits.
Yamaha’s Drones and Autonomous Motorcycle Are Cooler Than Most
Yamaha is at CES 2018 showing off some of its coolest tech.
If you were unaware, Yamaha makes tons of stuff beyond just outboard motors for boats and super fast motorcycles. It also makes industrial drones... and high quality audio equipment, but we mostly focused on the motorcycle and drones.
Check out the gallery below to see some of Yamaha's craziest tech at CES 2018, including a motorcycle that can drive itself at low speeds. They also made a robot to drive their robot motorcycle, because the opening 20 minutes to T2 is coming close to reality, but we didn't see that because presumably it's trying to find John Connor.
Seth Macy wants a robot that can pet Sony's Aibo. Follow him on Twitter @sethmacy.
PS4, PS Vita Releases This Week
Seven games are hitting the PS4 and PlayStation Vita this week, including The Count Lucanor, Planetbase, and more.
As listed by PS Blog, check out the gallery below for the seven PlayStation releases of the week, along with release dates and official descriptions:
- The Count Lucanor (Vita)
- Energy Invasion (PS4, Vita)
- Happy Drummer (PS4)
- Little Red Lie (PS4, Vita)
- Planetbase (PS4)
- Plox Neon (PS4)
- Sword of Fortress the Onomuzim (PS4)
Ultra Game Boy in the Works at Hyperkin
Hyperkin is currently at work on its own updated version of the classic Game Boy, tentatively called the Ultra Game Boy.
According to Gizmodo, the Ultra Game Boy features a sturdy aluminum housing, as well as the classic volume and contrast dials found on the original version of Nintendo's handheld. It also includes a third dial for adjusting the backlit LCD display's RGB spectrum. There's also an option to turn off the backlit display entirely.
Hyperkin's Ultra Game Boy, photo via Gizmodo
Cool Marvel and Star Wars Licensed USB Chargers
Charging your technology isn't particularly thrilling, but thankfully someone figure out it's more fun to do anything when a powerful space wizard is involved.
Charging solutions have come so far so fast, it's kind of amazing. Now basically everything charges off a USB standard, so you don't have a tangled mess of proprietary charging cords and plugs. As such, we get cool stuff like a light-up Black Panther head that you can use to juice up your iPad.
Check out the gallery below to see some photos of these cool chargers we found on the floor of CES 2018.
Seth Macy charges head first into the future. Follow him on Twitter @sethmacy.