Nintendo has finally provided a look at the Switch's eShop, which is one area of the system that had until now remained a question mark.
As noted in our Switch review, the eShop is currently inaccessible; it will be added as part of the day one update. A new video offers a glimpse of what it looks like, and it appears to be an extremely streamlined games store.
Based on what we can see, there's very little fluff: You can see a page devoted to each game with screenshots and information, and from there you can either purchase it or add it to a wishlist. When browsing, you can use a search feature or some simple filters to find what you're looking for.
After the big reveal of Nintendo's Switch in October, the company followed up with a big livestream event to discuss a bevy of new details about the console, including when it's coming out, how much it is, its games, and much more. With so much information circulating around the console/handheld hybrid, we've compiled everything you need to know about it. Below you can find news and features about the console, as well as answer important questions you might have about it.
Be sure to check back often as we update this article with more news and features about Nintendo Switch.
"The Nintendo Switch feels like the culmination of years of hardware growing pains from both Nintendo and Nvidia. Unlike the Wii U GamePad, you no longer have to worry about being tethered to your TV. Because the Switch houses all of its processing power in its portable form factor, it truly allows you to carry console power with you wherever you go. The fact that it's able to do that while being lighter than the Wii U's GamePad is a bit of a technical marvel in my book." -- Jimmy Thang [Full review]
Nintendo Switch FAQ
What is Nintendo Switch?
Nintendo Switch is a hybrid device designed to operate as both a home console and a handheld device. The Switch console is a tablet-like screen with two detachable "Joy-Con" controllers that slide into place at its sides. The three ways to play the console are as follows:
TV Mode: You can insert Switch into a docking station, which allows it to be played on your television. The Joy-Con controllers can then be used wirelessly to play games from your couch; or they can be attached to a grip accessory to provide a more traditional controller experience. A Switch Pro controller is also available to use, but is sold separately.
Handheld Mode: You can eject Switch from its docking station and take it with you to play on the go. The Joy-Con controllers are attached directly to the sides of the screen, making it resemble a Wii U gamepad that can function on its own.
Tabletop Mode: You can setup the Switch's inbuilt kickstand on any flat surface, and detach its Joy-Con controllers, allowing one to two players to enjoy games wherever they like.
When does the console come out?
The Nintendo Switch launches on March 3 simultaneously in the US, Canada, Japan, "major European countries," Hong Kong, and other territories.
How much is Nintendo Switch?
The Nintendo Switch costs $300 in the US. Pricing was only shared for the US and Japan (where it'll cost 29,980 yen). For Europe, Nintendo advised checking with local retailers for more specific prices.
How do Nintendo Switch's Joy-Con controllers work?
In addition, the Joy-Con controllers feature what's called HD Rumble, which gives them the ability to convey different types of vibrations. For instance, a controller can simulate the vibration of shaking a cup with an ice cube in it.
The right Joy-Con includes a sensor that can scan Amiibo, while a capture button on the left Joy-Con allows you to take screenshots that you can share with others. And each Joy-Con has a strap you can attach to your wrist.
What does the basic Nintendo Switch package come with?
Aside from the console, you get left and right Joy-Con controllers, Joy-Con wrist straps, the Joy-Con Grip, the Nintendo Switch Dock, an HDMI cable, and an A/C adaptor.
You have the choice between two different versions of the console: one with the gray Joy-Con controllers we've seen in past Nintendo announcements, and another with one of each of the newly announced blue and red Joy-Con controllers. Both editions have the same recommended retail price. Nintendo has release images showing a closer look at what's inside the box.
How much do the different Nintendo Switch controllers and accessories cost?
Each Switch controller and accessory has different prices. You can check them out below:
Nintendo Switch Pro Controller - $70
Joy-Con Controllers (set of two, L and R) - $80
Joy-Con L or Joy-Con R (sold separately) - $50
Joy-Con Charging Grip - $30
Nintendo Switch Dock Set - $90
Joy-Con Wheel (set of two) - $15
It important to note that the Nintendo Switch Dock Set is included with the console, as is one set of Joy-Con controllers.
What are the Switch's specs?
The Switch uses a 6.2-inch 1280x720 resolution multi-touch capacitive screen. It also use 32GB of internal storage, which you can expand with a microSDXC card. The Switch utilizes an Nvidia Tegra-based system-on-a-chip (SOC) for its processor. The console will also support local 8-player multiplayer.
In terms of audio, the Switch sports two speakers at the bottom and a 3.5mm headphone jack at the top.
What's the battery life like?
Nintendo asserts that the Switch's battery life can last over six hours, but will vary depending on the game and usage conditions. For example, the company says users should be able to get roughly three hours out of the Switch while playing The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. The Switch has a USB-C charging port, which is located at the bottom of the unit.
We got the opportunity to check out Nintendo Switch and couple of its biggest games. Check out our in-depth impressions below.
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild Impressions -- The first 20 minutes of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild on the new Nintendo Switch. Here are the good and the bad parts of Link's next adventure.
Oculus has had a rough couple weeks. Facebook's ambitious VR subsidiary recently lost a lawsuit to Bethesda Softworks' parent company ZeniMax Media and has been ordered to pay $500 million in damages (though only $250 million of that total sum falls to company itself). Even more recently, ZeniMax filed a separate suit that, if successful, could block Oculus from selling its Rift headsets, which ZeniMax believes were developed using "stolen tech."
But Oculus seems resilient in the face of adversity. The company today announced an immediate, forward-looking price drop and, just a few days ago, hosted a software showcase to mark the opening of this year's Game Developers Conference--an apparent affirmation of its commitment to cultivating a rich library of games for its platform. GameSpot caught up with Oculus' VP of Content (and original Naughty Dog co-founder) Jason Rubin at this showcase to discuss the lawsuits, the price drop, and the future of both Oculus Rift and VR as a whole.
GameSpot: As much as I want to talk about games, I have to address the elephant in the room, which of course is the recent lawsuit. I imagine you can't really comment on the specifics of the case, but I am curious how this settlement will impact the future of the business. How do you move forward after a relatively large monetary loss like this?
Jason Rubin: To be honest, you probably know more than I do because I have been focused on content and focused on driving VR into the marketplace. So to answer that question, I can best say or quote Sheryl Sandberg, the COO of Facebook, who said, "It will not materially impact our business."
That may be, but it still seems like it will be difficult for any company, including one as big as Facebook, to shrug off $250 million of what overall will be a $500 million settlement. That's a significant amount of money. Will that cause investors to re-evaluate Oculus as a company?
I think the best thing to do is go back to Sheryl's quote. "It will not materially impact our business."
Late last week, ZeniMax filed another, separate lawsuit that seems to be an effort to halt sales of Oculus units and software. That would obviously have a material impact on the business. I was curious if you're able to comment on that recent suit.
Yeah. We're not worried.
The other major news for Oculus this week is the price drop. It seems like you see lowering the price as probably the number one driver towards mass adoption. What maybe are the number two or three priorities that will allow you to achieve that in the long-run?
A lower price without good content is meaningless. So content and price interplay with each other. That's the most important thing. Let me just point out as well that a year ago when we had this event, there was no Rift, and when we launched Rift a few weeks later, the price of a PC that was a rec spec was $1,000. That PC is now $699 last time we did an announcement, and you can probably get them cheaper because it's been a while since Oculus Connect 3 when we did that announcement. We've also created a new min spec based on ASW [Asynchronous Spacewarp] that brings the price of some of those PCs down in the $500 range.
A huge number of developers are now intent on developing for VR. They need hardware out there so that when they develop, they can get a return on an investment. Price and content are what drive that.
But Oculus also has new hardware in the pipeline. For example, the Santa Cruz wireless headset. What role are new hardware developments going to play going forward? As you said, you are in this for the long haul, and that inevitably means more hardware in the future.
It is inevitable that new hardware will come out. Santa Cruz... We're still exploring inside-out tracking. We're still working on those technologies. There are other ways of looking at the business that we don't necessarily agree with. Oculus believes better content, better price on our current hardware is the right way to get people into the market.
Dean Hall, the creator of DayZ, commented on VR development back in December saying that, quote, "There's no money in it" for developers. So how do you keep developers coming to your platform and creating the content you need to grow the market?
Right. So I actually don't know that Dean said that, so I'm going to ignore that quote and answer the broader question. I said at DICE a few days ago that betting the farm on VR if you don't have a good business plan isn't the most brilliant decision to make right now. So we certainly understand that there's a need for developers to make money.
Having said that, a lot of developers who either have a good business plan--i.e. they've found funding or something else--or developers who are splitting their time are enjoying incredibly their work in VR. The recent GDC surveys showed that a shocking number of developers are intent on VR development considering the install base. But again, the way to solve this problem is really, really clear. Better content driving more users, which creates the ecosystem that can make money in VR, and we think, again, lowering the price and increasing the quality of software gets us there.
At the same time, you have Owlchemy who's made more than $3 million, they say, in gross on a title that did not cost them $3 million. We have developers that have made significant profits. So again, a lot of it depends on your business model. What I think is happening to a certain extent is that game development just is hard. It is a hard business. I was a game developer. I had my highs. I had my lows. Right now there isn't a fantastic place in the market if you're not established, so, for example, being in mobile right now is a really hard market if you're a developer. A lot of developers that haven't been able to toe the line in other markets are basically saying, "I don't know what to do. Here's this new thing. I'm going all in."
My point at DICE was, that's not right now your solution. So maybe these developers could've had a hard time in mobile and they've simply switched, Hail Mary, to another platform and it hasn't necessarily in all cases been great for them. But I don't know that that's necessarily an indication of VR's current position for all developers.
I think Resident Evil 7 is a really interesting recent example of a very recognizable franchise going all in on VR. How important will titles like that be to Rift going forward? Are you looking to get major, established IPs onto Rift?
We absolutely are looking at major IP, and we understand the value of it. One of the weaknesses of major IP is that it's tied to an established gameplay design and an established mindset around what it is. One of the reasons that Naughty Dog, my old company, abandoned Crash when it went to Jak & Daxter was because Crash had been designed for PlayStation. When we looked at taking those characters to PlayStation 2, which was radically more powerful, we asked the question, "Is that the best character design?" Mario has done an admirable job of kind of going along, but as a character, Mario is stuck in the "I don't really talk, I don't have these other things going on" that as you progressed in video games you would have wanted him to do.
As we look at standard video game design and the games that are beloved in standard video game design and try to put them in VR, sometimes we run into problems because the gameplay mechanic that worked and made them fantastic games in 2D doesn't work in VR, which is a very different medium. And to strap a big name onto something and then have a totally different game I don't think is valuable, and in some cases, taking the same gameplay and putting it into VR is uncomfortable or has other problems attached to it that make not the greatest use-case for the broadest market.
So while absolutely big IP is always on our mind and we certainly will do things with big IP in the future, we're very mindful of the fact that some IP is trapped in itself as a design and not to get caught up in the fact that it's a big IP.
The Oculus Rift has officially been on the market for 11 months now, so I was curious if you could rate the first year for us.
I think it's been a very solid year. We launched a hardware that does something that nobody really understood and no one understands without putting it on their head. It was always going to take a while for VR to be massively successful. We still believe it's going to be massively successful. Unfortunately, the way that software and hardware launches around tech generally work is, before it comes out, there's a massive amount of hype, and people who aren't directly involved in the business sometimes get out of control with the hype--almost consistently get out of control with the hype. People in the business kind of just, they say, "This is a long-term thing." So you get this hype bubble. When it comes out, reality strikes. Price. Content. We always knew this was the case.
"While absolutely big IP is always on our mind and we certainly will do things with big IP in the future, we're very mindful of the fact that some IP is trapped in itself as a design and not to get caught up in the fact that it's a big IP." -- Jason Rubin
Compared to how we expected, we've done extremely well, extremely well this year, and the software has progressed faster than I thought the software was going to progress, which I think is the most important thing. So coupled with the price drop, I think our first year sets us up for a fantastic second year, which will mean a bigger library, more content. It sets us up for a future discussion of price, and I think sets us up in the long run to bring VR to the masses. The most important thing to us in this first year was how people who use the hardware [and] software reacted to it. Had they said, "Eh, it's not that special to me," that would've been a problem. It's exactly the opposite.
We've talked a lot about the idea that VR is this sort of nascent platform that needs more time to develop. With that in mind, how do you view other VR headsets, like Vive and PS VR? Obviously they are very much competitors because you are competing for dollars and operating within the same space, but at the same time, you're kind of all on team VR, right? So how do you reconcile those two things?
I think right now is a time for all of us to invest in R&D, figuring out what content works for the public, and build VR. We've announced that we've joined the Chronos Initiative to talk about an open standard. One of the first presentations was our presentation. We're trying to push towards an open standard that everybody can use.
But right now we're really focused on pushing VR forward as fast as we can. So ATW [Asynchronous Timewarp], which we said was a major feature that helps people get a better VR experience. Some of our co-conspirators in the VR world said, "No. That's a crutch. We don't think it's useful." ATW is now the standard. ASW--which we believe helps people get in at a lower price point and also makes it a more comfortable, smoother experience--we believe is also going to be really important.
So the way that we look at the industry is not to really worry about everybody else who's in the industry but simply to focus on doing the right things as quickly as we can to get to answers. We really kind of just look at what we're doing.
Well I don't know which numbers you're quoting, but what I would say is this: we're like five or ten minutes into the first quarter. If somebody scored or somebody's not scored, it's kind of irrelevant. There's a lot of game left. So you know, I think that numbers are irrelevant. What's going to happen this year could easily utterly change whatever the current lineup in terms of sales units is. What we think is most important is software and price. We are aggressive with software. We are aggressive now with price. I think that's going to change things.
What's your favorite thing to do with Rift right now? When you put on a headset, what are you doing?
So there are two things that I do a significant amount of. One is, I play Dragon Front and spend a lot of time talking to the person I'm playing with. So it's a collectable card game. We're updating it for Touch. It's also out on Gear VR. And it is amazing how personalities telegraph through the game. So I was playing Dragon Front against a Gear VR user--and Gear VR has no positional tracking, so I can tell if they're on a Gear VR or a Rift because their head will move differently. Generally I say, "Hi, I am Jason Rubin, would you like to talk?"
"The most important thing to us in this first year was how people who use the hardware [and] software reacted to it. Had they said, 'Eh, it's not that special to me,' that would've been a problem. It's exactly the opposite." -- Jason Rubin
One of these people just wouldn't talk. Just would not talk. His mic was off and he just wouldn't talk. He was a really annoying player. Like he knew what he wanted to do, [but] he'd wait his time out trying to get me to quit because I was bored. Just a jerk, right? He was good, and he had played a lot more than me and he was basically winning. You have hit points in your castle. I was almost dead. He had his full castle completely untouched.
Well my character, my group I was playing, had an invisible character, and I don't think he realized what you could do with that invisible character. I had saved up my cards, and I did this one-turn thing that just decimated... He was going to beat me in the next turn, literally the next turn. He had his three characters in the front row. I had no way to defend myself, but I beat him in one smack. And his character starts doing this [shakes head] and you could see the head jerking around, and even without the mic, the emotion came through. I could feel his agony in a way that only VR can telegraph. Only VR. And it was glorious.
One thing that has been an interesting point of focus for VR in general is: applications outside of games--everything from having wearable headsets on airplanes for people who are afraid of flying to even medical uses. Is that something that Oculus is pursuing or interested in?
Absolutely. When you're talking about the next computing platform, you're talking about all of those things. There are going to be a lot of things that we can't even consider businesses yet that are going to spring up out of VR. And when you talk about the next computing platform, you really have to think about all of the things that have been made possible by a mobile phone and what VR's version of making things possible that were not possible before are going to be. And absolutely: medical, education, architecture, real estate, virtual travel--there's an infinite number of these things that are extremely interesting. Entertainment is going to drive it into their homes for now, and that's what we're working on here today. And better pricing. So that's why we're focusing on those two things.
Oculus is aware that price is one of the main factors that stands in the way of many people picking up a Rift. Today, it's implementing a pair of price cuts that it hopes will encourage more people to adopt its PC virtual reality headset.
For $600, you can now get both a Rift headset and the Oculus Touch controller. That's a $200 price drop for the bundle, which was previously priced at $800. The headset itself drops to $500, though it's unclear if that option will eventually be phased out in favor of the bundle.
If you already own a Rift, Touch will now be sold for $100, down from $200. You'll also be able to pick up an additional Oculus Sensor for $59.
Today's move brings Rift closer to the price of PlayStation VR, which is nearing one million units sold, and gets it beneath the Vive's $700 price.
Speaking with GameSpot, Oculus VP of content Jason Rubin said of the price drop, "We think that this is a massive difference. It's very clear the reason we've sold 5 million Gear VRs is because of its price. It's very clear that the reasons certain console VR is doing well is because of its price."
Such a large drop begs the question of whether Oculus (and parent company Facebook) will now be selling the hardware at a loss. Rubin declined to confirm if this was the case, instead suggesting that profitability is not its top priority right now.
"We don't discuss specific pricing, but we've been very clear from the beginning that making money on early units is not what we worry about," he said. "What we worry about in the long run is getting VR to the widest possible number of people. If you think about Facebook as a company, Facebook was not worried when it had its 50th user--whether that user was monetizing, in the parlance of Silicon Valley. They lost a ton of money--not that we are--but Facebook did to get to scale. Once they got to scale, look at the business that's been built."
In our interview, Rubin emphasized how critical Touch is, saying, "[I]t's very important going forward. Rift and Touch together are a package. They're a complete package." Our review noted that it was a must-buy for Rift owners.
VR headset sales may not have been as strong in their debut year as some expected, though 2016 demonstrated the technology is more than a gimmick. Rubin seems confident that driving the price of the Rift and PC hardware down will have a positive snowball effect on the Oculus business going forward.
"[A]s we push PC pricing down, more people will walk out of the stores after a demo with the hardware," he said. "That means more people will be buying software, which means good things for developers, which means more developers come, which means more consumers come to keep bringing their price down, [to] keep filling the store."
"Mark [Zuckerberg] believes that VR is the next computing platform," he added. "For it to be the next computing platform, it has to be in large scale, scale like mobile phones. To get to that, we have to push on price. We have to push on content. So that's really what's important to us."
GameSpot recently sat down with Jason Rubin, VP of content at Oculus, to discuss--amongst other things--its legal battle with Zenimax over rights to the Oculus Rift.
When asked directly about how the $500 million settlement would impact the future of the business, Rubin was tight-lipped, referring twice to a quote from Oculus COO Sheryl Sandberg, who said, "It will not materially impact our business."
"I joined the company after all of the circumstances that are being discussed happened so I have zero insight on any of that," said Rubin. "I have been blessed being at Facebook to not focus on any of that stuff. So, to be honest, you probably know more than I do because I have been focused on content and focused on driving VR into the marketplace."
When pushed on the subject, Rubin again quoted Sandberg.
On the subject of the second suit filed by Zenimax last week--an injunction to halt the sale of products created using what it believes to be stolen code--Rubin was similarly tight lipped and confident, offering only the quip, "We're not worried."
"We've been extremely happy with the response to yesterday's announcement of Xbox Game Pass," Xbox marketing executive Mike Nichols told BusinessInsider. "We also know that our fans look for a variety of ways to purchase and try games and services, and I'm happy to announce that we are working with retail partners, such as GameStop, on offering Xbox Game Pass to their customers. We'll have more details to share in the future."
Xbox Game Pass ($15/month) is theoretically a threat to GameStop in that it provides access to an ever-updating catalog of digital games that subscribers never actually own and thus cannot trade in. The popularity of the service will likely depend on the quality of the offerings. There will be 100-plus Xbox One games and backwards-compatible Xbox 360 games from a number of genres in the library.
A beta version of Xbox Game Pass is currently available on Xbox One for testers; the service is expected to launch for all Xbox One owners this spring, though a specific date has not been announced.
Ubisoft held multiple betas for Ghost Recon: Wildlands, including a closed beta and an open beta, and now the publisher has confirmed that more than 6.8 million people took part in them.
Ubisoft also confirmed some stats from the Wildlands beta, including the fact that people played for more than 2 billion minutes and that more than 60 percent of people played cooperatively.
The Wildlands closed beta ran February 3-6, with the open beta taking place February 23-27. A technical beta was also held. In the beta, players could fight through two of the game's 21 Bolivian provinces. As announced previously, Wildlands contains the largest world that Ubisoft has ever created.
"With each beta, players were able to provide valuable feedback to the development team to help deliver the best experience at launch," Ubisoft said.
Everyone who took part in a Wildlands beta will get the Unidad Conspiracy bonus, which comes with three "exclusive" missions that take place in the Media Luna region. These missions will be available sometime after Wildlands comes out on March 7. Addition, you need to purchase and play Wildlands by March 31 on the same Ubisoft account as the beta to claim the reward.
In other news, Ubisoft today announced a Wildlands novel titled Dark Waters. Written by Tom Clancy author Richard Dansky and published by Ubisoft's own book division, the $10 book tells the story of how the US Special Forces soldiers, known as Ghosts, came to know each other before the events of the game.
Finally, Ubisoft said today that the Ghost Recon franchise has passed 24 million units sold. A movie based on the franchise is on the way.
We've seen a lot of Mass Effect: Andromeda gameplay footage already, but for the first time we're now getting to see a mission played through. Courtesy of IGN, the 17-minute video shows off one of Peebee's Loyalty missions. Some things to be aware of include the fact that the gameplay represents the game in its unfinished state on normal difficulty with the music has been edited out. Additionally, the video was edited so as to avoid story spoilers. With those caveats out of the way--take a look:
With March's free PlayStation Plus games just days away, Sony has announced what subscribers can expect to see this month.
There's a total of six games, as is the norm, with cross-buy support getting PS4 owners a total of three games: Tearaway Unfolded, Disc Jam, and Lumo. Disc Jam is a new release but will be free right out of the gate for Plus members. Sony recently held a beta test for it.
One of 2017's highly anticipated movies is the World War II movie Dunkirk, the next film from The Dark Knight and Inception director Christopher Nolan. Now, the director has revealed that its story will be told from three different points of view, in an effort to capture how the battle was fought.
"The film is told from three points of view. The air (planes), the land (on the beach), and the sea (the evacuation by the navy)," Nolan told French publication Premiere, as translated by ThePlaylist. "For the soldiers embarked in the conflict, the events took place on different temporalities. On land, some stayed one week stuck on the beach. On the water, the events lasted a maximum day; and if you were flying to Dunkirk, the British spitfires would carry an hour of fuel. To mingle these different versions of history, one had to mix the temporal strata. Hence the complicated structure; even if the story, once again, is very simple."
Based on the first Dunkirk trailer, it looks like One Direction's Harry Styles and actor Fionn Whitehead will be the focus of the beach sequences, with Tom Hardy leading the airplane scenes. Mark Rylance and Cillian Murphy appear to be the main players in the naval sections.
Nolan went on to say that the Battle of Dunkirk was an "essential moment" in World War II. Had the British forces not been able to escape the beach, the Germans might have conquered Europe, he said.
"It is a true point of rupture in war and in history of the world," he explained. "A decisive moment. And the success of the evacuation allowed [British Prime Minister Winston Churchill] to impose the idea of a moral victory, which allowed him to galvanize his troops like civilians and to impose a spirit of resistance while the logic of this sequence should have been that of surrender. Militarily it is a defeat; on the human plane it is a colossal victory."
Dunkirk, which was written and directed by Nolan, opens on July 21, 2017.
A free trial for Battlefield 1 will be available on Xbox One and PC this weekend, running March 3 through March 5, Electronic Arts has announced.
On Xbox One, users can play multiplayer and single-player with no caps or restrictions, though an Xbox Live Gold membership is required. On PC, the Origin free trial is more limited. Players get only two multiplayer maps and one single-player campaign chapter. Additionally, play time is limited to 10 hours.
For both Xbox One and PC, all progress from the trial will stay with your account after the free trial weekend comes to a close. A trial version of Battlefield 1 was not announced for PlayStation 4.
Battlefield 1 is currently marked down nicely, as digital copies for all platforms are marked down to $30 as part of a week-long EA sale.
In other Battlefield 1 news, EA has announced more details about the World War I shooter's upcoming expansions: They Shall Not Pass, In the Name of the Tsar, Turning Tides, and Apocalypse. They Shall Not Pass, which adds the French army, as well as new maps and weapons, arrives later this month.
Netflix continues to produce high-profile movies with some of Hollywood's biggest names. As well as the new trailer for the Brad Pitt drama War Machine, we have one for Okja. It's an intriguing sci-fi movie that stars Jake Gyllenhaal (Nocturnal Animals) and Tilda Swinton (Doctor Strange). Check it out below:
Okja is directed by Bong Joon-ho, the South Korean director who also made the highly acclaimed 2013 sci-fi epic Snowpiecer, as the well as the earlier monster movie The Host. The impressive cast also includes Paul Dano (There Will Be Blood), Kelly McDonald (No Country For Old Men), Steven Yeun (The Walking Dead), and Giancarlo Esposito (Breaking Bad).
According to Indiewire, the movie focuses on "a young girl who risks everything to try to stop a powerful, multi-national company from kidnapping her best friend--a massive animal named Okja."
It hits Netflix on June 28, 2017.
In other Netflix news, you can see a roundup of all the movies and TV shows added to the service this month right here.
Director James Cameron has written a touching tribute to actor Bill Paxton, who died over the weekend at age 61 due to surgery complications. In a piece for The Hollywood Reporter, Cameron, who cast Paxton in Aliens and Titanic, said Paxton was an "absolute original" and a wonderful actor.
Cameron revealed that Paxton sent him a 700-pound stone head of Bacchus, the party god, that the actor acquired from a hotel that was being demolished.
"It has been in my living room for 15 years. That's the kind of guy Bill was. An absolute original. He approached life at full throttle and with a childlike enthusiasm--for people, for stories, for history, for art," Cameron said. "We shared many adventures together--on boats, scuba diving with sharks and even diving together in a Russian research submersible 2.5 miles down to the Titanic wreck and exploring it together."
Cameron added that he wants people to also remember Paxton as an accomplished director as well; Frailty and The Greatest Game Ever Played are two of Paxton's directing credits. He understood "every aspect of the creative process intimately, and had a special respect for artists and the design process."
"I'm still processing that he's gone. It's hard to fathom that such a force of nature could be snatched from the world in his prime," Cameron said. "He leaves a void in my life that can never be filled. I mourn the work we will never do together and the laughs we will never share. But I'm grateful for, and celebrate, the time and the work and the adventures we did have."
You can read Cameron's full tribute to Paxton here at THR.
The first-person horror series Outlast returns this year with a sequel, Outlast II, on the way for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC. GameSpot's review of the original praised its sound design, and it seems like the sequel is shaping up to deliver in that department as well. Today, GameSpot can reveal two tracks from the game's soundtrack, which was composed by Samuel Laflamme, who returns from the 2013 original.
The tracks below, including the Main Menu theme and "Corn Field Chase," have an eerie, tense, and ominous sound to them, certainly fitting given the subject matter. Listen for yourself through the Soundcloud embeds:
You play as Blake Langermann in Outlast 2. You and your wife, Lynn, are investigative journalists who are looking into the "impossible murder" of a pregnant woman. The game is set in the Arizona, where you will uncover some horrible things and a "corruption so profound that going mad may be the only sane thing to do."
Outlast 2 is developed by independent studio Red Barrels, which also made the first game. The studio was founded by developers who worked on the Price of Persia, Uncharted, and Assassin's Creed franchises.
Originally planned to launch at the end of 2016, Outlast 2 was delayed to early 2017. A new release date has not been announced yet.
Netflix has released the first teaser trailer for War Machine, its upcoming war movie that stars Brad Pitt as a real-life US Army general who fell from grace.
The movie tells the story of four-star General Stanley McChrystal (Glenn McMahon in the film), whose successful career included leading NATO forces in Afghanistan. His military career ultimately fell apart in the wake of a 2010 Rolling Stone profile in which he openly criticized White House leaders.
War Machine is based on the late author Michael Hastings' book, The Operators: The Wild & Terrifying Inside Story of Americas' War in Afghanistan. Hastings wrote the original Rolling Stone piece.
The movie also stars Tilda Swinton, Ben Kingsley, Anthony Michael Hall, and Topher Grace. It is directed by Animal Kingdom's David Michôd, and had a budget of $60 million, according to The Hollywood Reporter. It premieres on May 26.
In other Netflix news, you can see a roundup of all the movies and TV shows added to the service this month right here.
With Daniel Craig's run as James Bond rumored to be coming to an end, there has been a lot of discussion about which actor might replace him. One of the names that has surfaced is Tom Hiddleston, who stars in this month's Kong: Skull Island.
However, Hiddleston said in an appearance on BBC Radio 1 today that he has not been approached to play the iconic super-spy. He's also been rumored to be the new Doctor on Doctor Who, replacing the outgoing Peter Capaldi, but Hiddleston said no one has asked him about that role, either.
"Obviously it's very flattering that people think I'm part of the conversation," Hiddleston said (via Daily Mail). "Neither of those two opportunities have come my way. It's difficult, because people say, 'How would you feel if you were asked?' And you don't know because you haven't been asked."
Craig has played 007 in four movies, including Casino Royale, Quantum of Solace, Skyfall, and Spectre. Only two actors have played the role in more films--Roger Moore and Sean Connery portrayed Bond in seven movies each. It remains to be seen if Craig, who was reportedly offered $150 million to play 007 two more times, will indeed come back.
Since the inception of the Wii, Nintendo has gone down a different design path with its consoles. Rather than wage a war of processing power with Microsoft and Sony, the company sought to fundamentally rethink hardware. Some might refer to these as gimmicks. Regardless of what you call it, Nintendo struck gold with the Wii. With its motion controls, the console ended up being the company's best-selling system to date. Nintendo missed the mark with its follow-up, the Wii U, however, which is being the company's worst-performing console to date. The Nintendo Switch continues this out-of-the-box thinking with its hybrid form factor. After using it for a week, I'm glad to say that the hardware has a lot of potential and marks a strong return to form for the company.
Like the Wii U GamePad before it, the Switch offers a 6.2-inch touch screen. The tablet-like portion of the console is small, and measures roughly 6.7x3.9x.6 inches. Even with the Joy-Con controllers attached, its 9.4x4.1x1-inch frame make it significantly smaller than the GamePad.
The Switch has .7 inch bezels on the sides and .4 inch bezels on the top and bottom
While the dimensions of the display are the same, the Switch's screen looks far better. Its bright, glossy 1280x720p screen certainly isn't the sharpest panel on the market, but it offers a modest 236.87 pixel per inch (PPI) density. For reference, the iPhone 7 offers a 326 PPI. The 720p screen strikes a good balance between resolution and performance demands for the console. Unlike the GamePad's resistive touchscreen, the Switch uses a capacitive panel, which offers a higher contrast ratio and improved touch gestures. While you can certainly play the Switch outdoors, like with your typical smartphone or tablet screen, bright lights can make it harder for you to make out finer details on the panel.
The hardware has a lot of potential and marks a strong return to form for Nintendo.
This is the top of the Switch without the Joy-Cons attached.
Above the touch screen, the Switch houses its power button, volume rocker, exhaust vent, Game Card slot, and 3.5mm headphone jack. Both sides of the console feature rails for the Joy-Con controllers to slide in. Underneath the device, there's a USB-C power port. On the back of the unit, there's a kickstand that you can pull out, which also reveals the MicroSD card slot underneath. The kickstand is flimsy and only offers one viewing angle. I would have liked more angular granularity to give it more versatility.
The Joy-Con controllers are very light and weigh just over 0.1 pound each. I tested the neon red and blue variant and have to say that they look surprisingly bright and charming in-person. They also come in a dark matte grey if you prefer a more subdued tone. It's easy to attach the Joy-Cons to the Switch. They generate a very satisfying snap when you slide them in place. Removing them requires a little more care, however, as you need to press down on a small button on the back of both controllers to release them. The left and right Joy-Cons are somewhat mirrored forms of each other. Both controllers offer face/directional buttons and a joystick. Attached together, either with the included Grip accessory or on the Switch, they act as a singular controller with offset joysticks, similar to what you might see on an Xbox controller. The sticks themselves are pretty short, and can't match the travel distance of Microsoft's variants. They are much taller than the Nintendo DS' sticks, however, and are serviceable.
The Joy-Cons both offer four LED lights to indicate controller battery life.
While the two Joy-Cons may look like mirrored version of each other, there are slight differences to each controller. For multiplayer games that split the Joy-Cons apart, I suspect most gamers would prefer to choose the left Joy-Con, as the right Joy-Con places its joystick somewhat awkwardly in the middle of its frame. The left controller, on the other hand, has the stick more comfortably offset to the side. The right controller does house an NFC reader and an IR motion camera, however. The NFC reader allows users to sync Amiibos to the device and the IR camera allows the Switch to detect movements and hand gestures.
The home button on the right Joy-Con will light up for notifications.
The box comes with two straps for the Joy-Cons. Not only do these straps prevent you from flinging your Joy-Cons across the room, but with the straps attached and the controllers turned horizontally, they accentuate the shoulder buttons with larger triggers.
Both Joy-Cons support motion controls. In The Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild, they allow you to augment joystick aiming. It was jarring at first, but augmented aiming eventually helped me fine tune my bow and arrow shots. There were downsides, though, vibrations on a bumpy commute can throw off your aim.
The kickstand feels a bit flimsy and only offers one angle.
In addition to motion controls, the Joy-Cons offer a very sophisticated haptic feedback system. Nintendo calls it HD Rumble, and it allows developers to create games like 1-2-Switch that tasks you with guessing how many virtual marbles are "rolling around" inside your controllers. With the controllers' multiple motors, it does an excellent job here and feels accurate. It represents the best haptics I've felt to date.
Having spent several hours playing with the Switch on the go, I can say that it never felt uncomfortably heavy.
Whereas the Wii U GamePad looked and felt a bit like a Fisher Price toy, the Switch feels sturdy overall. This is even more impressive when you consider that at 0.9 pounds with the Joy-Con controllers attached, the Switch is more than 0.1 pound lighter than the GamePad. Having spent several hours playing with the Switch on the go, I can say that it never felt uncomfortably heavy. Its size made it easy to rest on my lap when some fatigue did set in.
You can connect up to eight Nintendo Switch systems
The Switch is also more portable than I imagined. With the Joy-Cons attached, the device can fit into large pants pockets, though it will most likely jut out a little. The Switch is ideally suited for backpacks, but on some loose-fitting slacks, you can most likely get away with putting both Joy-Cons into one pocket and the console in the other.
When you want to play the Switch on your TV, you'll need to insert it into the included Switch Dock. The plastic Dock measures 6.7x4x1.9 inches and offers two USB ports on the left. Nintendo says that you can use these USB ports to connect accessories like USB-to-Ethernet dongles. There's also a door on the back that swings open, which allows you to do some basic cable management with your power and HDMI cables. There's also a third USB port stowed back here. It's really easy to slide the Switch into the Dock and there's even a guard at the bottom that depresses to protect the system once it's properly in place.
The Switch's AC adapter uses a wall wart, which means it's best suited for the tail end of a power strip.
When you're playing the Switch on the TV, you'll probably want to connect the Joy-Con controllers to the included Grip peripheral. While the Pro Controller feels amazing, the Grip configuration is surprisingly comfortable and ergonomic.
Specs
Underneath the hood, the Switch uses a heavily-customized Nvidia Tegra system-on-a-chip (SOC) that's based on the ARM instruction set. In layman's terms, that basically means that the console uses a souped-up tablet processor.
Nintendo has yet to officially comment on RAM or GPU/CPU clock speeds, but we do know that because the Switch is based on a mobile processor, it's not a processing powerhouse. In the Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild, there are jaggies and faraway enemies will occasionally pop in. While the Switch is capable of delivering a 1080p signal while docked, Breath of the Wild opts to run at 900p with a 30 FPS locked frame rate here. Visually, I could tell that it often failed to meet this frame rate while docked. It tends to dip when there's too much happening on the screen. Interestingly, I didn't notice the same frame rate issues when I played with the Switch undocked.
This is not to say that the Switch isn't capable of delivering beautiful graphics. Despite its occasional technical hiccups, Breath of the Wild is a beautiful game with lush colors and expansive vistas. It's far and away the most beautiful game I've ever seen rendered on a mobile processor. Period. This includes any game I've played on Nvidia's 2017-released Shield gaming device.
The Switch hit 39.2 degrees Celcius playing The Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild.
The Switch uses a tiny fan and it's super quiet. It never got obscenely hot either. Using Flir's thermal imaging camera and playing Breath of the Wild in portable mode, the Switch hit 39.2 degrees Celsius (102.5 degrees Fahrenheit). For reference, I've seen the PlayStation 4 Pro hit 46.1 degrees Celsius (114.9 degrees Fahrenheit). With the console docked, temperatures hit 41.1 degrees Celsius (105.9 degrees Fahrenheit). The Switch's power-efficient design is most likely why its temps are so moderate. Using a power meter with the console docked, the Switch consumed 7.8 watts sitting in the operating system. When I fired up Zelda, power draw roughly doubled to 15 watts. This is still incredibly modest when you consider that the PlayStation 4 Pro often hits above 140 watts, which is nearly 10 times as much.
The Switch comes with 32GB of storage. When you factor in operating system overhead, this leaves you with 25.9GB of usable space. That's not a lot, but the console does support expandable memory via MicroSD cards up to 2 TB, though Nintendo recommends an Ultra High Speed SD card to store games.
Switch Game Cards are roughly the size of SD cards.
In terms of audio, while docked, the Switch supports 5.1 channel surround sound. The console also offers two small speakers below its touch screen. The speakers get the job done, but didn't blow me away. They lack a little punch and were actually drowned out a bit by my Nexus 6P phone speakers when I had them blasting audio at full volume side by side. Interestingly enough, when I plugged the same set of earbuds into both devices, the 6P was able to output a much louder signal. That's not to say the system is really quiet with earbuds, but those with hearing issues should take note.
For its battery, the Switch uses a rechargeable 4,310 mAh lithium-ion cell. This is a pretty sizable battery. For perspective, the iPhone 7 uses a 1,960 mAh solution. Nintendo claims that the Switch can last over six hours, depending on usage. For Zelda, the company says users should expect around three hours of battery. From my testing, this seems pretty accurate. With a 100-percent charge, I was able to get three hours and three minutes of battery life playing Zelda with screen brightness set to 80 percent. Reviews Editor Peter Brown set his screen brightness to 100 percent and recorded two hours and 50 minutes. If you're wondering how fast the Switch charges, we clocked a 49 percent charge after an hour of sleep on the Dock.
In terms of wireless connections, the Switch supports Bluetooth 4.1 and 802.11ac Wi-Fi.
You can also use a USB-C phone charger with the Switch. Unfortunately, I didn't have much luck charging the console with an external power bank. I played roughly 10 minutes of Zelda on the go with a Kingston MobileLite Wireless G3 plugged in and saw battery drop from 55 percent down to 51. The G3's 2A battery output could have been a bottleneck, but the device wasn't charging the Switch even when it was sleeping.
The system's sleep mode itself seems to be very power-efficient. After a full charge, I took the Switch out of the dock and set it aside for five hours. When I woke it up, it still reported a 100-percent charge. The console also takes less than four seconds to wake up from sleep when it's docked. It wakes up under two seconds when it's not docked. It seems like the system was designed with sleep mode in mind and you have to navigate through the UI a bit to shut it off. The Switch performed a cold boot in about 10 seconds.
I encountered the longest loading time when I booted Breath of the Wild after closing the game. It took 17 seconds, but because the Switch seems like it was designed to run games in the background at all times, I often found I was able to pop right back into Hyrule nearly instantaneously. That's quite impressive given the sleep mode's power-efficient state.
User Interface and Operating System
A day-one update is preventing me from evaluating the Switch's full capabilities at this time. Features like Nintendo's eShop are currently offline. I'll update this review once I get my hands on with the patch.
As it is right now, the operating system is very simple and barebones. Currently, there is no video player. Nintendo said that video-streaming applications are "being considered for a future update."
Currently, the OS allows you to do simple things like calibrate your control sticks, test your internet connection, and go into airplane mode. The Switch allows you to capture in-game screenshots and you can view and edit these pictures with captions in the OS. An eventual update will allow you to share these images online.
The UI allows you to create different user profiles and Miis. It also offers pretty sophisticated parental controls that allow you to restrict games based on age, region, and more.
Conclusion
The Nintendo Switch feels like the culmination of years of hardware growing pains from both Nintendo and Nvidia. Unlike the Wii U GamePad, you no longer have to worry about being tethered to your TV. Because the Switch houses all of its processing power in its portable form factor, it truly allows you to carry console power with you wherever you go. The fact that it's able to do that while being lighter than the Wii U's GamePad is a bit of a technical marvel in my book.
The Switch isn't perfect, but it offers multiple ways to play games; all of which are viable. As silly as the commercials may seem, I can definitely see myself bringing the Switch to social gatherings to play something like 1-2-Switch as much as I can see myself playing Zelda sitting alone in front of my TV.
The Nintendo Switch feels like the culmination of years of hardware growing pains from both Nintendo and Nvidia.
You can find more powerful consoles like the PS4 and Xbox One on sale for cheaper than the $299.99 Switch, but you're paying for the form factor here. There's something special about being able to play Breath of the Wild on the big screen in the living room and then continuing where you left off 15 minutes later on the bus.
Should you make the Switch? That answer should largely depend on whether you think the system's library of games will satisfy your needs, but Nintendo has undoubtedly laid the groundwork for a great gaming device.
The video lets you look around a scene with 360 degrees of freedom. You're in a helicopter, with Samuel L. Jackson's character, Lt. Colonel Packard, telling the story of Icarus. Obviously, things do not go to plan, and the video ends with a dramatic encounter with Kong.
This video was created by Legendary VR, ILMxLabs, and the same effects team that worked on the movie. There are a number of resolution options available, so you can choose what works best for you.
Kong: Skull Island is directed by Jordan Vogt-Roberts and is released on March 10. It stars Tom Hiddleston, Brie Larson, John C. Reilly, Corey Hawkins, and John Goodman.
A beta version of Xbox Game Pass is currently available on Xbox One for testers; the service is expected to launch for all Xbox One owners this spring, though a specific date has not been announced.
There will more than 100 games in the Xbox Game Pass library, spread across Xbox One titles and Xbox 360 games that play on the new console through backwards compatibility.
A new batch of Iron Fist images have been released by Netflix. The latest Marvel show hits the streaming service this month, and these new pictures tease some of the upcoming action, as well as provide a look behind the scenes. Check them out in the gallery below:
Iron Fist stars Finn Jones (Game of Thrones) as Danny Rand, a martial arts master with supernatural abilities. It also stars David Wenham, Jessica Stroup, and Tom Pelphrey. In addition, Carrie-Anne Moss and Rosario Dawson are set to reprise their roles as Jeri Hogarth and Claire Temple from Jessica Jones and Daredevil.
In a recent interview with Collider, Marvel TV boss Jeph Loeb explained how Iron Fist would differ from the studio's previous Netflix shows. "It was always our intent when we set out to tell each of the Netflix stories that they're part of a piece, but at the same token, you should be able to watch each of them individually," he said. "Daredevil is not like Jessica Jones, which is not like Luke [Cage], which should not be like Danny.
"We're dealing with a character who is younger than the rest of the cast and who also has a certain kind of optimism and hope about him that brings a certain thing to it. Don't make any mistake about it, this is Marvel's foray into martial arts films, and when he opens up a can of whoop-ass, people are going to be super-super excited by what's happening."
The events of Iron Fist will tie into The Defenders, the superhero team-up show that will also feature Daredevil, Jessica Jones, and Luke Cage. The first season is expected in late 2017--click here to see official images.
Xbox Game Pass, a Netflix-like subscription service for Xbox One that gives members access to a catalog of free Xbox One and Xbox 360 games, was announced on Tuesday. After its reveal, some wondered what it might mean for the future of the Games With Gold program.
Microsoft has now explained that Games With Gold and Xbox Game Pass will live alongside each other.
"Games with Gold and Xbox Game Pass are two different service offerings with unique benefits," a Microsoft representative said in a statement to Kotaku. "Games with Gold is an added benefit specific to Xbox Live Gold members that rewards players with two to four free games each month to enjoy. Xbox Game Pass is a subscription-based service that gives you unlimited access to over 100 Xbox One and Xbox 360 backward compatible games for Xbox One for $9.99 USD per month. Xbox Live Gold is not required for Xbox Game Pass, however, Xbox Live Gold is required for multiplayer titles that are part of the Xbox Game Pass catalog."
The Microsoft spokesperson also clarified that the Xbox Game Pass catalog will update every month; only "sometimes" will games be removed. You will be able to play all the games in the library for as long as you remain a subscriber. If you cancel your subscription or a game is removed, save data is stored to your account so you can pick up where you left off in the future should you decide to re-subscribe or buy a game.
Xbox Game Pass is currently available on Xbox One for people in the Xbox Insider Program for testing (with a limited selection of titles) before its public rollout; that is slated for sometime this spring.
Microsoft says it aims to stock the Xbox Game Pass library with titles across a number of popular genres, including action, adventure, shooter, puzzle, strategy, and RPG. There are more than 10 confirmed titles already, including Halo 5, Fable III, and Payday 2--you can see all the confirmed games so far here.
This week at the Game Developers Conference, Fallout and Elder Scrolls publisher Bethesda announced a "long-term strategic partnership" with chip-maker AMD. Bethesda said fans can expected to see "unprecedented performance" from new technologies as a result of the partnership.
A press release from AMD explains that the partnership is for multiple games. Bethesda and AMD will "collaborate to develop and accelerate the implementation of new technologies, including the full potential of low-level APIs, such as Vulkan, and the computing and graphics power of AMD Ryzen CPUs, Radeon GPUs, and AMD server solutions across existing Bethesda franchises," the release says.
AMD added: "The close-knit strategic partnership will combine hardware, software, and game engineering talents at both companies with the creative genius of Bethesda content developers to deliver extraordinary experiences on upcoming hardware architectures."
AMD's Raja Koduri said in a statement that Bethesda is an "undisputed leader" in gaming and was the right partner to work with during what he called a "transformative period in gaming."
"This is a disruptive moment in the industry as games demand increasingly more power from today's graphics architectures to deliver detailed worlds and characters at ever higher resolutions, frame rates, and quality settings," Koduri explained.
Bethesda president Vlatko Andonov said of the partnership, "Our relationship with AMD represents an exciting and powerful opportunity for Bethesda to further advance game experiences for our fans, significantly expand our presence in gaming and VR, and engage with new generations of gamers around the world."
Bethesda Game Studios, the team that made Fallout 4 and Skyrim, currently has seven projects in the works, including some that are bigger than anything the developer has made before.
"They're a bit different, but definitely in the wheelhouse that people are used to from us," game director Todd Howard said.
For more, check out GameSpot's interview feature below:
This story has been republished now that it's March.
With less than a week left in February, Netflix has now announced everything that's coming to and leaving the streaming service in March.
Arriving on Netflix on March 1 are movies like Blazing Saddles, Memento, Nacho Libre, and all the Jurassic Park movies. The BFG (March 15), Coraline (March 16), and Better Call Saul Season 2 (March 27) are also arriving next month. In terms of Netflix originals, Iron Fist premieres on March 13, while the Selena Gomez-producer drama 13 Reasons Why debuts on March 31.
In terms of what's leaving in March, now is your last chance to watch the first three Jaws movies and National Lampoon's Animal House, as those go away on March 1. Other movies heading out later in the month include Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey (March 3), the Hunger Games parody Starving Games (March 8), and Iron Man (March 23).
You can see a complete rundown for Netflix March 2017 below, as compiled by GameSpot sister site TV Guide. You can check out the March 2017 Hulu coming and going lists here.
The upcoming Marvel show The Inhumans has found its lead actor. It has been confirmed that Hell on Wheels star Anson Mount will head up the superhero team-up series, which premieres in September.
As reported by Deadline, Mount will play Black Bolt, the hypersonically-voiced leader of the Inhumans. Mount--who is best known for the now-concluded ABC drama Hell on Wheels--is the show's second actor to be cast, following Iwan Rheon (Game of Thrones) who will play Black Bolt's brother, Maximus.
An Inhumans movie was first announced in 2014, but no longer appears on Marvel's schedule. The announcement was before Spider-Man: Homecoming and Ant-Man and The Wasp had been added to the studio's lineup. In addition, the story of the genetically created superhero race has already been explored on TV in Agents of SHIELD.
The Inhumans were created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby and first appeared in a 1965 issue of Fantastic Four. Their first self-titled comic line ran from 1975 to 1977, and they have subsequently appeared in a variety of limited and ongoing series over the past four decades.
After several months of rumors and speculation, Nvidia officially announced the GeForce GTX 1080 Ti today at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, CA. Senior Vice President of GPU Engineering John Alben revealed the architecture and expected performance of the company's new flagship graphics card, claiming an aggregate improvement of 35 percent over the GTX 1080.
Nvidia is touting this new graphics card with claims it exhibits the biggest jump in performance for a Ti-branded card. The previous GTX 780 to GTX 780 Ti and GTX 980 to GTX 980 Ti saw an approximate improvement of 18 percent and 25 percent, respectively.
Nvidia says that temperatures will also see a significant improvement by staying five degrees celsius cooler under the same noise levels as its non-Ti counterpart. For reference, if both cards are operating at the same temperature, the 1080 Ti will be 2.5 decibels quieter.
The board itself will consist of 12 billion transistors, 3584 CUDA cores, 28 geometry units, 224 texture units, 28 streaming multiprocessors (SMs); 128 cores each, and will use a 352-bit GDDR5x memory interface. The GTX 1080 Ti is based on the current Pascal architecture and is equipped with 11 GB of VRAM and a stock core clock of 1583 MHz. Nvidia CEO Jen-Hsun Huang showed the card running overclocked slightly above 2000 MHz core clock speed during a stage demo, while staying around 66 degrees celsius on a stock cooler under load.
Nvidia CEO Jen-Hsun Huang reveals GTX 1080 Ti price.
The GTX 1080 Ti is set to launch on the week of March 6th for $699 USD. The standard GTX 1080 received a price cut and is now available for $499.
In addition to the GTX 1080 Ti announcement, Nvidia revealed new SKUs for the GTX 1080 and GTX 1060, both versions will feature out-of-the-box memory overclocks. The GTX 1080 will be overclocked with 11 GB/s GDDR5x, and the GTX 1060 will be overclocked with 9 GB/s GDDR5.
GameSpot will review the GTX 1080 Ti, so stay tuned for our own tests and benchmark results.
Right on schedule, a new trailer for Fox's sci-fi movie Alien: Covenant has arrived.
The two-and-a-half-minute trailer starts off pleasantly enough--but that doesn't last. Once the crew lands on the foreign planet, they find a lurking terror. The video is appropriately enough captioned, "The path to paradise begins in hell." Check out the video below.
Directed by Ridley Scott, Alien: Covenant arrives in theaters on May 19 and stars Michael Fassbender, Katherine Waterston, Danny McBride, and Demian Bichir.
Last week, Fox released a prologue for Alien: Covenant titled "The Last Supper." The video shows off the crew's final toast before going into cryosleep--watch it here.
Here is the official plot synopsis for Alien: Covenant:
"Ridley Scott returns to the universe he created, with Alien: Covenant, a new chapter in his groundbreaking Alien franchise. The crew of the colony ship Covenant, bound for a remote planet on the far side of the galaxy, discovers what they think is an uncharted paradise, but is actually a dark, dangerous world. When they uncover a threat beyond their imagination, they must attempt a harrowing escape."
A new post for Alien: Covenant was has also been released--check it out here.
Speaking during the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media & Telecom Conference today, EA CFO Blake Jorgensen shared some new commentary on Star Wars Battlefront 2 and other EA games.
For the Battlefront sequel, which has been confirmed but not officially announced, Jorgensen said the game is "dramatically larger" than the 2015 original. The game will feature "a lot of new characters" that come from the newer Star Wars movies, Jorgensen teased.
The 2015 Battlefront featured characters and content from the original Star Wars movies, as well as Star Wars: Rogue One, which is a prequel to the 1977 original.
"The Star Wars universe is just unbelievable to build games in because it's so vast," Jorgensen said.
The untitled Battlefront sequel will also have a single-player campaign, which is being made by Motive Studios.
On the subject of BioWare's mystery new IP, Jorgensen teased that this will be "more sci-fi-related." This follows from what EA CEO Andrew Wilson said earlier this year.
"When you think about this game, you should be thinking about the great RPG character development and storyline progression that BioWare is known for, but in a world of greater action and greater adventure, which is growing to be one of the larger categories in games," he said.
Also during the call, Jorgensen offered a number of other updates on EA's upcoming games and more. Here are some takeaways:
Many of the elements that made FIFA 17 successful will be added to Madden NFL 18. This could be a reference to FIFA 17's The Journey single-player mode. Madden 18 will be made using Frostbite.
Battlefield 1 is seeing "fantastic" engagement levels.
It's "very early days" for Assassin's Creed producer Jade Raymond's new action game, but the goal is for it to become a new franchise.
Losing Peter Moore is a big deal, but it was a good opportunity for Moore to take his dream job of becoming the CEO of Liverpool FC.
The new Star Wars action game will be "exploration-based."
We've rounded up some of the biggest news for you already, and below you'll find a list of the games featured during Nintendo's broadcast along with trailers and descriptions from Nintendo's accompanying press release. Not everything was given a separate breakout trailer, but many of the games without them are featured in the full broadcast, which you can watch here:
Nintendo today said that more than 60 indie games are slated for release on Switch this year alone. Unfortunately, most of today's games didn't have exact release dates, with the exception of Blaster Master Zero, which arrives for Switch and 3DS on March 9. A handful of others will be out by the end of April.
Read on for a look at the games featured today, with descriptions by Nintendo.
Runner3
Choice Provisions
Runner3 continues the joyous adventures of CommanderVideo from Bit.Trip Runner and Runner2. Players will encounter quests, branching paths, item shops, new Retro Challenges, new character moves, new dance moves and a roster of characters that somehow manages to rival the strangeness of Runner2. The game is scheduled to launch exclusively for Nintendo Switch this fall.
SteamWorld Dig 2
Image & Form Games
In the sequel to the award-winning original, you must dig deep, gain riches and explore an underworld riddled with danger. The game is scheduled to launch this summer.
Yooka Laylee from Team 17 and Playtonic Games: Explore huge, beautiful worlds, meet an unforgettable cast of characters and horde a vault-load of shiny collectibles as buddy-duo Yooka (the green one) and Laylee (the wisecracking bat with the big nose). The buddy-duo platformer is coming to Nintendo Switch soon, with multiplayer functionality perfect for the system.
Blaster Master Zero
Inti Creates
The same elements that made the original Blaster Master a hit are back, including side-scrolling vehicular combat, top-down adventuring and a huge sci-fi landscape, in addition to a host of new and improved gameplay systems. The game includes a two-player mode and will have numerous character cameos coming soon. Blaster Master Zero launches exclusively on both Nintendo Switch and the Nintendo 3DS family systems on March 9.
Pocket Rumble
Chucklefish Games and Cardboard Robot Games
This deep 2D fighter makes players want to throw down, anywhere, anytime. The battles get even more intense with the inclusion of HD rumble: When players get hit by a weak attack, it'll feel very different from getting rocked by a strong one. The game is scheduled to launch as a console exclusive for Nintendo Switch in March.
Flipping Death
Zoink Games
Welcome to Flatwood Peaks, a small whimsical town with a problem--Death is on vacation. Play as Penny and help the ghosts with their peculiar problems on The Otherside. This puzzling adventure game is scheduled to come to Nintendo Switch later this year.
Mr. Shifty
TinyBuild and Team Shifty
Shift through bullets, and master lightning-fast takedowns in a new kind of action game. Mr. Shifty follows a teleportation-fueled heist to break into the world's most secure facility. Shift through walls, through bullets, cover huge distances, and be everywhere at once. One shot kills. Survive on skills. HD rumble allows players to feel every punch, shot and crash. The game is scheduled to launch first on Nintendo Switch this April.
Wargroove
Chucklefish Games
This turn-based strategy game offers local and online matches for one to four players. The game is scheduled to launch later this year.
Stardew Valley
Chucklefish Games and ConcernedApe
Nintendo Switch will be the first console to support the game's new multiplayer feature. The open-ended, country-life RPG is scheduled to launch this summer.
Shakedown Hawaii
vBlank
This 16-bit spiritual successor to Retro City Rampage aims to be twice as good with twice the bits. From the boardroom to the streets, Shakedown Hawaii parodies big business and the white collar crimes that go alongside. Build your empire, monopolize the markets and collaterally re-zone the island's destructible sandbox. It's scheduled to launch first on Nintendo Switch this April.
Graceful Explosion Machine
Vertex Pop
Skillfully pilot the advanced Graceful Explosion Machine (GEM) fighter while blasting swarms of crystalline enemies with your ludicrously overpowered quad-weapon array. This side-scrolling arcade shooter features HD rumble support, which means players will really be able to feel those machines explode. The game is scheduled to launch first on Nintendo Switch this April.
Tumbleseed
Aeiowu
A small seed heads up a mountain to save his home in this physics-based game. More than 30 unique upgrades help the seed overcome challenges and enemies. HD rumble means players will feel seeds traversing across the screen. The game is scheduled to launch on Nintendo Switch this spring.
Overcooked: Special Edition
Team 17 and Ghost Town Games
In Overcooked, players must journey through a variety of cruel and unusual kitchens on their quest to become master chefs capable of conquering an ancient edible evil which plagues the land. Play solo or engage in classic, chaotic couch co-op for up to four players in both co-operative and competitive challenge modes. The special edition features the original game, plus all of the DLC. HD rumble integration means they can feel every chop through a tomato and the slosh of soup in a pot. Overcooked: Special Edition is coming later this year.
The Escapists 2
Team 17 and Mouldy Toof
The sequel to the hugely popular prison escape series supports drop-in/drop-out co-op for up to four players (additional accessories are required for multiplayer modes, and are sold separately). Players can tie together knotted sheets and use them to climb down high windows in new multi-level prisons, and find other new ways to make a break for freedom. The Escapists 2 is coming later this year.
Gonner
Raw Fury and Art in Heart
Gonner is a tough-as-hell, score-based, procedurally generated platformer with roguelike elements. Gonner is also a story about friendship between Ikk, Death and a space whale named Sally. You will die. A lot. The console version of the game launches first on Nintendo Switch with additional content tailor-made for the system later this year.
Kingdom: Two Crowns
Raw Fury and Noio
In Kingdom: Two Crowns, attend to your domain, border to border, or venture into the wild to discover its wonders and threats. First revealed today, two players can come together in co-op mode to rule a kingdom. Their choices bring hope or despair to their subjects. The game is scheduled to launch later this year.
Dandara
Raw Fury and Long Hat House
Dandara has awoken to reshape the world. In this strange world of quirky characters, nothing is at it seems. In this bizarre, gravity-bending world with hidden beauty, it's up to Dandara, jumping from surface to surface, to restore order and direct a directionless world. The game is scheduled to launch on Nintendo Switch this summer with exclusive features and functionality, including HD rumble support.
With Switch launching in just a few days, Nintendo today highlighted many of the indie games on the way to the platform.
As part of its Nindies Showcase (above), Nintendo made a number of exciting Switch game announcements. These include SteamWorld Dig 2 (launching this summer); the latest Bit.Trip game, Runner 3 (a Switch exclusive coming this fall); and a 16-bit "spiritual successor" to Retro City Rampage called Shakedown Hawaii (releasing first on Switch this April).
Many of the games covered during the broadcast were announced as launching this year, but without specific dates. One exception was Blaster Master Zero, a follow-up to Blaster Master that features "new and improved gameplay systems" and a two-player mode. It comes exclusively to Switch and 3DS on March 9.
Other games coming in the near future include Pocket Rumble, a 2D fighting game from Chucklefish and Cardboard Robot Games, which launches in March. In April, we'll see Mr. Shifty, a stealthy, teleportation-centric action game, and Graceful Explosion Machine, a side-scrolling shooter. Both of these launch first on Switch.
Nintendo said more than 60 indie games are slated for release on Switch this year. You can check out the full presentation in the video above, and see all the new games and trailers here.
Recent Articles:
You are receiving this email because you opted in at our website.
No comments:
Post a Comment