Engadget

13.12.2024 21:10 Formovie’s Theater took the projector world by storm when it first arrived, offering a triple laser, 150-inch ultra short throw image and Dolby Vision for $3,000. That was a relatively unheard of price for such a feature set, especially from a brand that hardly anyone knew about. That model helped make Formovie’s name, but $3,000 is still pretty expensive for a projector. To appeal to more buyers, the company recently unveiled the $1,800 Cinema Edge, a far more affordable option that still offers a laser light engine, sharp 4K image, Google TV for streaming and 15-watt stereo speakers. There are some fairly serious trade offs, though, particularly the absence of a triple laser engine and Dolby Vision, plus mediocre color accuracy and brightness. The new model also has some heavy competition from the likes of Hisense, Epson and Optoma. All of that adds up to a projector that’s not quite as exciting as Formovie’s first attempt. The Formovie Cinema Edge's main features As a reminder, Formovie is a joint venture between Xiaomi and Appotronics . Formovie now offers three projector models: the Cinema Edge, $2,400 Theater and $3,000 Theater Premium. It also sells the cheap and cheerful $199 Episode One Google TV projector, a 120-inch floor rising screen and a 100-inch wall-mounted ALR screen. The Cinema Edge is more compact than the Theater in all dimensions and has a square design and subtle, dark grey exterior. You can project to a wall, or preferably a dedicated glare-reducing ALR screen, at a distance of about 13 inches for a 120-inch picture. All of that makes it discreet and lets you install it in relatively tight spaces. Steve Dent for Engadget The Cinema Edge comes with a pair of 15W speakers, but projector purists will no doubt want a 5.1 audio system to best use the built-in Dolby Atmos and DTS-HD. The Google TV system includes Netflix but the processor is a bit laggy. That can make navigation and settings adjustments a chore, though it’s par for the course on other projectors I’ve seen, particularly Optoma and HiSense models. As a result, some users may still prefer to use a Google TV or other streaming device. Similar to the Theater, the Cinema Edge sits on three rubber feet rather than four, which can make it tricky to level when setting up. While it supports digital keystone fine-tuning to square the image, that should be used as little as possible, as it reduces picture resolution slightly and increases latency for gaming. Because of that, along with the configuration for various apps, setup took longer than I expected. Steve Dent for Engadget Fortunately, there are plenty of inputs to add accessories like Blu-Ray players, including three HDMI 2.1 ports , 3.5mm and optical audio connectors, two USB-C ports for media/streaming stick power and an ethernet port . The included remote is required to change most settings, control playback and more, plus it uses standard batteries with no charging port. Like most ultra short throw projectors, the Cinema Edge has a sensor that detects if someone gets too close and automatically dims the output so you don’t get a laser blast in your eyeballs. Picture quality Steve Dent for Engadget Like most modern projectors , the Formovie Cinema Edge uses Texas Instruments’ DLP tech that projects a 1080p image twice to create a sharp 4K image using so-called fast-switch pixel shifting. It combines that with an RGB+ single color laser to keep the price down compared to triple laser setups like the Formovie Theater or Hisense’s $3,500 PX3-Pro. The Cinema Edge delivers sharp 4K video at up to 2,100 lumens, which is decent, but falls short of rivals like the 2,400-lumen Hisense PX2-Pro or Epson’s EpiQVision Ultra LS650. That latter model pumps out 3,600 lumens. Still, the Cinema Edge’s level of brightness was just enough to watch some content in daylight, like Netflix’s Drive to Survive or live sports on Amazon Prime. The 4K detail is excellent, and something I appreciated when watching sci-fi series like Silo, The Expanse and 3 Body Problem. Contrast is also strong, allowing for better viewing of films with dimly lit scenes like those in Joker and The Batman. Steve Dent for Engadget Where the Formovie Cinema Edge struggles compared to the Theater model is in color rendering. With its single laser light source, it lacks the incredible 100-percent-plus BT.2020 color gamut found on the Formovie Theater or Hisense PX2-Pro. It’s also limited to HDR10 support, rather than superior modes like Dolby Vision found on the slightly more expensive Hisense PX2-Pro. As a result, visuals are a bit more drab in films like Transformers: Rise of the Beasts and Air, with primary colors failing to pop off the screen as I’ve seen on those other models. That said, colors are accurate by default, and there are extensive picture quality settings if you want to fine-tune everything. I noticed other issues related to the lack of good HDR performance, namely blown out highlights and some artifacts in the shadows or dark parts of images, particularly in The Batman. Motion smoothing is enabled by default, unfortunately, but it’s relatively easy to disable. Without it, though, the projector occasionally suffers from some motion artifacts during fast action sequences, something that’s common on DLP projectors. For those types of films, I found the low motion smoothing setting to be a good compromise, limiting the soap opera effect while removing any choppiness from energetic action scenes. Steve Dent for Engadget The Cinema Edge isn’t bad for light gaming, but with a refresh rate limited to 60Hz and input latency around 40 milliseconds, you can’t play anything too demanding like fast-moving FPS shooters. For instance, I played Resident Evil Village from my Mac through the projector, and the lag, tearing and artifacting made gameplay a challenge. The speakers offer decent audio quality, with clear voices, music and sound effects. However, the bass is a bit thin and there’s little to no soundstage to add realism. Given the projector’s Dolby Atmos and HDMI 2.1 eArc support, anyone serious about audio would want to add external speakers or at least a soundbar. Wrap-up Steve Dent for Engadget Considering how good Formovie’s Theater is, the Cinema Edge is a disappointment. Performance is only so-so for the price, with relatively low brightness and mediocre color rendering. The built-in Google TV is a bit laggy, and setup is more difficult than it needs to be due to the lack of a fourth foot. The speaker setup is also just okay, with better sound quality available on some Optoma and LG projectors. The Cinema Edge is still a decent mid-range UST projector, but the problem for Formovie is that there’s a lot of competition in this price range. For just $200 more, you can get the Hisense PX2-Pro triple laser UST projector, which offers higher brightness , along with Dolby Vision and over 100 percent BT.2020 coverage. Another option for the same $1,800 price is the Epson LS650, which offers similar specs but nearly double the brightness at 3600 lumens. The Cinema Edge is a good choice if you want a versatile projector with a small and subtle design, but if brightness and picture quality are paramount, look elsewhere.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/home/home-theater/formovie-cinema-edge-review-a-midrange-ust-projector-that-lags-behind-its-rivals-150025407.html?src=rss

13.12.2024 16:00 Capcom has announced Onimusha: Way of the Sword, the first new Onimusha game since the original 2001 PS2 version was remastered in 2019. Revealed at The Game Awards 2024, it reveals a modern take on the classic dark action game, minus the fixed perspectives as before. The trailer for the single player, Wordplay action game shows an unnamed Samanosuke-like hero as he takes on samurai zombies in bloody combat, collecting golden orbs as before. "A lone samurai steps forth — his blade sharpened, soul anew. The Onimusha series by Capcom reawakens with Onimusha: Way of the Sword, a brand new title coming in 2026," states the official description. Onimusha fans hoping against hope for a new game will be thrilled, but they'll need to wait a bit longer, as Way of the Sword isn't due to arrive until 2026 — a full quarter century after the original. It'll be released on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S and PC. See the new trailer right here. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/onimushas-back-143004810.html?src=rss

13.12.2024 16:00 It’s been a few years since Samsung took a crack at making a premium Chromebook. In 2020, the company released the first Galaxy Chromebook, a $999 laptop with a gorgeous 4K OLED screen that barely lasted five hours away from a charger. The company fixed some issues with its 2021 model, which had a more pedestrian screen and a thicker design while costing $300 less — a fair compromise given that battery life was significantly better. Since then, Google has also launched the Chromebook Plus initiative, which aims to standardize Chromebook specs to give people a more consistent experience. And now, Samsung has released its first entry to that lineup: the Galaxy Chromebook Plus. It’s a bit different than most of the other laptops in that space, though, with a large 15.6-inch OLED screen and a design that’s extremely thin and light for its size. It reminds me a little bit of the 15-inch MacBook Air, though its appearance is unmistakably Samsung. The Galaxy Chromebook Plus also has more of Google’s AI capabilities baked into it than any Chromebook thus far, thanks to a new “Quick Insert” key that grants fast access to Gemini. Finally, it’s one of the most expensive Chromebook Plus options out there at $699. That puts it directly in competition with Acer’s Chromebook Spin Plus 714, my current favorite in the premium Chromebook space. And while it’s refreshingly different from the Acer and Lenovo models I usually use, there are a few quirks here you should know about. Photo by Nathan Ingraham / Engadget Hardware and design: Not your typical Chromebook First, though, the good stuff. The Galaxy Chromebook Plus’ 1080p, 15.6-inch screen is crisp and bright, with excellent viewing angles. Somewhat surprisingly, though, it doesn’t have a touchscreen. Lots of Chromebooks do, as it makes interacting with some Android apps easier. But once I got used to the fact that poking the screen did nothing, I didn’t really miss it. Samsung says it’s the only Chromebook Plus with an AMOLED display, and while I wouldn’t mind a higher resolution, I know that would lead to worse battery life. All told, I think Samsung made the right choice not to go for 4K, especially considering that a computer this thin doesn’t have as much room for a bigger battery. Speaking of: this laptop is seriously thin. It’s less than half an inch thick and weighs only 2.58 pounds. That’s essentially the same thickness as the 13- and 15-inch MacBook Air, and the Galaxy Chromebook Plus is lighter than both. It’s well-suited to going anywhere without being too much of a burden, not something you get often on a laptop with a large screen. Despite its thin-and-light design, Samsung didn’t skimp on ports here: it has HDMI, two USB-C ports , a microSDXC slot , a headphone jack and an old-school USB-A port. As part of the Chromebook Plus line, this laptop exceeds the minimum spec requirements. It pairs an Intel Core 3 100U processor released earlier this year with 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. That’s more than enough power for a Chromebook in this day and age, and I had no qualms with its performance across the board. While the Galaxy Chromebook Plus is quite svelte, its 15.6-inch screen makes transporting it a little awkward. Thanks to its 16:9 aspect ratio, the laptop has serious surfboard vibes – it’s just very wide, and it’s a tight fit in my bag. Furthermore, the 16:9 aspect ratio makes the screen feel smaller than it really is. The 1080p panel defaults to a scaled resolution that works out to 1,600 x 900, almost 100 fewer vertical pixels than my 14-inch MacBook Pro. I’ve been yelling into the void for years now that the 16:9 aspect ratio is just not ideal for modern computing, given the verticality of basically every web site. I’d be much happier with a smaller panel that offered more vertical pixels, but that’s just me. I have mixed feelings about the keyboard and trackpad. Since the Galaxy Chromebook Plus is so thin, the keys don’t feel quite as comfortable as those on most other Chromebooks I use, to say nothing of my MacBook Pro. But, they’re not bad at all; nothing like the terrible butterfly keyboards on the MacBooks of the prior decade. They have less travel and are a little clickier than I’d like but still easy enough to acclimate to. Photo by Nathan Ingraham / Engadget My real issue is that Samsung chose to include a number pad on the keyboard. This might be my own personal quirk, but I generally can’t stand number pads because I’d much rather have my hands centered below the display. I always feel slightly off-kilter and unbalanced using a laptop with a number pad, and it led to me making far more typos than I usually do. I’m sure if it was my only computer, I’d adjust and get used to it — but I don’t think I’d ever really like it. For me, the tradeoff just isn’t worth the number pad. I also found myself activating the trackpad by grazing it with the side of my palms while typing more often than I’d like. I eventually acclimated to how to type comfortably and avoid the touchpad, but between that and the number pad I found the Galaxy Chromebook Plus’s typing experience isn’t as good as some other Chromebooks I’ve used. Perhaps the most notable thing about the keyboard, though, is the new Quick Insert key that goes where the traditional search key is. Quick Insert pulls up a small menu similar in size to what you see if you right-click something. But it gives contextual suggestions based on what you’re doing rather than showing the same options every time. In the very Google Doc where I wrote this review, it suggested various emoji , links to a few Google Drive files it thought were relevant and a “help me write” prompt using Google Gemini. The menu also shows quick links to your Files folder, Google Drive, browsing history and a few other potentially helpful options. Photo by Nathan Ingraham / Engadget Samsung moved the traditional launcher key to the bottom row, nestled between Fn and Alt. That key still brings up the app launcher and a traditional search field for things on your computer; you can also easily search Google from here. The trickiest thing about this placement is that some shortcuts I was used to now require me to use the launcher in a new spot instead of Quick Insert. It’s a bit of a learning curve, and the benefit of Quick Insert doesn’t quite outweigh having to retrain my brain on new shortcuts. Hopefully the Quick Insert gets smarter and more useful over time, but right now it’s mostly a shortcut to grabbing emoji quickly. I have zero interest in having Google’s AI help me write anything, so for now its utility is limited. Photo by Nathan Ingraham / Engadget ChromeOS and Gemini That’s the good and bad of the hardware, but that’s only part of the equation. By now, the usual caveats of ChromeOS are well-known: it’s still a primarily web-based system, but Android applications can extend its features. There are also plenty of web apps that are well optimized for ChromeOS, and Google Docs has a comprehensive offline mode at this point. And if you have a recent Android phone, ChromeOS has a pretty robust feature set when you pair it to your Chromebook, including shared notifications and streaming of some apps directly to your laptop. Google has also added a lot of smart and useful features to ChromeOS over the last year or so that make it more useful. For example, clicking the date in the taskbar brings up your full Google calendar and anything in the Tasks app, making it a quick place to see what you have planned for the day without having to dive into the full Calendar or Tasks experience. There’s also a new “focus” mode for when you want to sit down and concentrate. It turns on Do Not Disturb, sets a timer and lets you pick a YouTube Music playlist or some “focus sounds” like ambient or classical music, or even the sounds of nature. It’s a small thing, but there are a lot of thoughtful tools like that now in ChromeOS that make it feel like much more than just a browser. The new Quick Insert menu in ChromeOS. Naturally, AI is a bigger part of ChromeOS than ever. In addition to the “help me write” tools and suggestions that show up when you tap the Quick Insert key, Gemini is a click away with an app shortcut in the toolbar by default. There are also a few frivolous AI features thrown in, like a wallpaper generator with eight different categories to choose from . Once you pick one, you’ll get a few more fields you can edit to get a handful of AI creations you can set as your wallpaper. You don’t get full creative control here; generally there are two things you can edit in each prompt. They’re hit or miss, but I did like the “classic art” avant-garde beach scene I created. There’s also a beta test of the “help me read” feature that’ll summarize documents, PDFs and web pages. I made a PDF of this review from Google Docs and had the AI summarize it, which it did with no errors but also with very little detail. I asked it questions about the content of the document and it answered them accurately, as well. And the Magic Editor built into Google Photos on Pixel phones is also available on Chromebook Plus models, letting you alter the reality of your snapshots to your heart's content. None of this stuff is essential to me, but it’s clearly the way we’re headed, like it or not. One good thing is that Google includes a full year of its $20/month Google One with AI plan to Chromebook Plus buyers, this Samsung model included. That gets you 2TB of Drive storage and access to Gemini Advanced, Gemini in Google Docs and Gmail, as well as a few other AI perks. I don’t think it’s necessary at this point, but getting to try it for a full year is a pretty nice offer. Finally, there’s the ever-present question of battery life. I’m getting between six and a half and eight hours off the charger, depending on what I’m doing; as usual, video calls really put a hurt on things. That’s not bad, but it’s still pretty far from the 13 hours Samsung claims. I don’t know what I’d have to do to come close to that mark. One day, with concentrated use, I burned through two-thirds of the battery in less than four hours. That’s pretty common for basically all Chromebooks I’ve tested in recent years, and my guess is that with Intel silicon we’re not going to see things improve in any meaningful way. Wrap-up Despite some misgivings, I actually enjoyed my time with the Galaxy Chromebook Plus. I probably wouldn’t pick it as my own personal computer, because the number pad I won’t use simply makes things too awkward. But there’s also a lot to like here – it’s so much lighter and thinner than other Chromebooks I usually use that it is a delight to travel with, despite the fact that its width is a bit cumbersome. And while I wish there was more vertical screen resolution, I did enjoy having such a large display combined in a very portable device. For the right kind of buyer, the Galaxy Chromebook Plus might be just what you’re looking for . For me, though, the slightly more boring but reliable Acer Chromebook Spin 714 Plus remains my favorite premium Chromebook. But Samsung has put forward a solid effort here, and I hope they continue on this path with future Chromebooks – Acer and Lenovo could use the competition.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/computing/laptops/samsung-galaxy-chromebook-plus-review-quirky-in-ways-both-good-and-bad-140036965.html?src=rss

13.12.2024 16:00 One of the highlights from The Game Awards last night was the moment Breaking Bad star Aaron Paul and voice actor Laura Bailey took the stage to reveal Dispatch. Set to arrive in 2025, the narrative game is from AdHoc Studio, founded by former Telltale Games developers, and features a stacked cast including Paul, Bailey, Jeffrey Wright, Erin Yvette, Jacksepticeye and others — a mix of A-list Hollywood talent and top-tier game voice actors. The toon-style Dispatch offers narrative, dialogue-driven gameplay in the same vein as Telltale. According to the Steam page, you play as "Robert Robertson, AKA Mecha Man, whose mech-suit is destroyed in a battle against his nemesis, forcing him to take a job at a superhero dispatch center: not as a hero, but a dispatcher." There's more in the official synopsis, which explains that Dispatch is "a superhero workplace comedy where choices matter. Manage a dysfunctional team of misfit heroes and strategize who to send to emergencies around the city, all while balancing office politics, personal relationships, and your own quest to become a hero." AdHoc sprung up in 2019, when former Telltale devs joined forces to continue Telltale's adventure game legacy, after the Walking Dead studio laid off most of its staff in 2018. A rebooted Telltale worked with AdHoc on The Wolf Among Us 2, but last year, the developer announced that it had laid off most of its team. However, it recently said that The Wolf Among Us 2 has not been cancelled. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/dispatch-is-a-new-narrative-game-from-ex-telltale-developers-133031972.html?src=rss

13.12.2024 16:00 New iPhone 16 owners can pick up an Apple charger for cheap right now. The latest, more powerful MagSafe charger has dropped to as low as $30. You'll get that price on the 1m model, but the better discount is on the 2m model, which is 29 percent off and on sale for $35. That’s a return to the same low price we saw for the accessory during Black Friday. Apple refreshed its MagSafe charger alongside the iPhone 16 lineup this fall. Provided you own an iPhone 16 and an adapter that offers at least 30W of power, the charger reaches charging speeds of up to 25W. According to Apple, that’s enough to allow iPhone 16 Pro users to charge their device to 50 percent in 30 minutes. With older iPhones and Qi-compatible accessories, power delivery speeds are limited to 15W. Apple’s official MageSafe charger is one of our favorite iPhone accessories. Even at full price, it’s a great purchase for getting a little more out of your new smartphone. With Amazon’s current discount, there’s no reason not to buy one if you prefer wireless charging. Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter and subscribe to the Engadget Deals newsletter for the latest tech deals and buying advice.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/apples-updated-magsafe-wireless-charger-is-on-sale-for-35-154041854.html?src=rss

13.12.2024 16:00 With over 60 million PS5s sold, Sony is so far dominating this generation of game consoles. Four years since the PlayStation 5 debuted, the company has rounded out its gaming lineup with the refined PS5 Slim and the more powerful PS5 Pro. At possibly the console’s midlife, up against the Xbox Series S and X, ever-increasingly powerful gaming PCs, and Nintendo’s Switch, it’s a good time to reassess what the PS5, in pole position, is doing to hold gamers’ attention spans and why the PS5 Slim is probably the right way to dive into Sony’s rich gaming selection. Hardware Photo by Mat Smith/Engadget The PS5 Slim looks very similar to the original design but it’s noticeably smaller. In fact, it’s 30 percent smaller by volume. Let’s be honest, it’s still big, but the PS5 Slim fits into the shelf in my home entertainment sideboard – the original PS5 did not. Sony has kept the weird finned design of the original here, so there’s a shared aesthetic across all the PS5 consoles. In the box, there are also two transparent feet to mount the console horizontally. It’s a simpler, more subtle way to lift the console than the original’s awkward plinth with plastic hooks. The PS5 Slim can stand vertically on its own, but it might be worth getting a vertical stand for peace of mind, which unfortunately means laying down an extra $30. Inside, it’s largely the same technical specs of the launch console: an AMD Zen 2 CPU, RDNA 2 GPU, 16GB of GDDR6 RAM, and both Wi-Fi 6 and gigabit ethernet. . The PS5 Slim, however, comes with a 1TB SSD, offering 25 percent more usable storage than the 825GB SSD inside the original PS5. Having said that, at a time when a AAA game install can circle 150GB, we’d advise preparing yourself to add further storage, especially if you get the majority of your games through the online store. Fortunately, it’s easy to install an extra SSD and the prices for bigger storage have tumbled since 2020. If you’re a disc-based gamer, the PS5 Slim has both a digital-only and disc model , but you can ‘upgrade’ to a disc drive for an $80 premium. Even if you decide to add the disc drive, it’s been designed to keep within the smooth lines of the console, if leaving it a little lop-sided. Curiously, Sony demands you connect the console to activate the drive, something to be aware of if you’re planning to gift the console and want less stress. Sony also swapped around the port options, shifting to a USB-C duo, instead of a single USB-C port and a USB-A port. Given that the latter maxed out at 480Mbps speeds, it’s another upgrade. Beyond any physical changes, since its launch, Sony has fed through some notable technical upgrades to PS5 through software updates. For one, catching up to the Xbox with support for TVs with variable refresh rates, dynamically syncing the display’s refresh rate to the PS5 console's graphical output. This means games should output more smoothly and reduce the chances of screen tearing when your TV and PS5 aren’t entirely in sync. The PS5 Slim also supports 1440p resolution screens, a middle option between 1080p and 4K. Photo by Mat Smith/Engadget Sony added more features like personalized 3D audio profiles for gamers using headphones and Party Share, where you can transmit gameplay in real time. There’s also Remote Play, available on iOS and Android, as well as the company’s standalone streaming device, the PlayStation Portal. When it comes to Remote Play, there haven’t been any major changes since the PS4 iteration, but it does seem like the service is more stable in recent years. There have been changes to how PlayStation’s separated out its subscription service. Starting with PlayStation Plus Essentials, $10 a month, this opens up access to online multiplayer, at least two free games each month, discounts, cloud storage and Share Play. PlayStation Plus Extra , adds a bigger library of PS5 and PS4 games for free, while PlayStation Plus Premium adds cloud streaming functionality, so you can play PS5 games without having to use your PS5. You can also play a collection of PS4 games without having to download the game. Having said that, Xbox’s Game Pass offers a bigger selection of games, and often includes first-party Microsoft games available to play on release day. PlayStation, unfortunately, doesn’t do the same, and its biggest exclusive releases often only arrive free on PS Plus years later. Which tier is right for you will depend on how much you play, and whether you’re regularly trying to game away from wherever your PS5 is. It’s worth getting into PS Plus Essentials just for the dripfeed of free games. Since launch, the PS5 has picked up plenty of other small improvements too, like dimmable power indicators for the PS5’s glow, and adaptive controller charging which should extend the battery life of your DualSense by optimizing charge time. A quick note to say that the DualSense remains the most comfortable, innovative controller that Sony has ever made – but the battery life is pretty appalling. Expect to plug it in pretty regularly. Software Photo by Mat Smith/Engadget The PS5’s interface has also evolved since launch, with increased priority given to the customizable Welcome Hub, where you can choose the background, widgets and prioritze the games and features you’re using most. It’s also worth noting that the UI itself is far snappier and more responsive than it was at launch. While you won’t get the back catalogue sharpening of the Pro console, the PS5 Slim will happily play most PS4 games, too. It’s a double-edged sword, however, with both PS4 and PS5 versions of games clogging up PlayStation’s online store. And the games! It indicates a great problem to have: so many strong titles, both internally and from third-party publishers. God of War Ragnarok, Spider-Man 2, and Astro Bot have all been platform exclusives, while long-running series like Final Fantasy have landed on PS5 first, with other platforms getting the game much later. Then, there’s the likes of Elden Ring, Baldur’s Gate 3 and anything on PSVR2 – not that there’s all that much for the headset. Sony is now drip-feeding its games to PC, but it detracted from the console’s exclusive grasp on its flagship games. So far, there have been lengthy multi-year gaps between a game launching on PlayStation consoles and its arrival on PCs. God of War took four years to move from PS4 to PC, while Horizon: Zero Dawn took three years. That could change in the next few years, however. Earlier this year, Sony launched Helldivers 2 on PS5 and Windows at the same time, and Lego Horizon Adventures was released on PS5, Windows and Switch simultaneously last month. Wrap-up Photo by Mat Smith/Engadget The PS5 Slim is the new normal for PlayStation gamers. It’s smaller without being small and packs in many small improvements in specs and software-based features. Anyone craving more power can go for the PS5 Pro, but that demands a $200 premium. For most of us, this is the PlayStation we’ll be playing for however many years it takes for the PlayStation 6 to appear.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/playstation-5-slim-review-131542271.html?src=rss

13.12.2024 16:00 As has been rumored for a while PlayStation's The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered is coming to PC on April 3, 2025, developer Naughty Dog announced. "We're all thrilled to bring The Last of Us Part 2 to the PC audience, including all the great new features we added in the Remastered version for PS5," said game Director Matthew Gallant. The PC version was made with Naughty Dog's development partners Nixxes Software and Iron Galaxy Studios. It will contain the same Remastered features added for PS5, like the No Return roguelike mode, the Lost Levels featuring developer commentary, a Guitar free Play mode and more. At the same time, it'll be "newly optimized and enhanced for PC," with PC-specific features to be revealed closer to launch. The PC release will come less than a year after the Remastered version came to PlayStation 5, following the launch of the original on PS4 in 2020. The release has reportedly been finished for awhile, but may have been delayed to coincide with The Last of Us Part 2 on HBO, which is also scheduled to arrive in the first half of 2025. In reviewing the Remastered version for PS5, Engadget's Nathan Ingraham highlighted the No Return mode and said "there's a lot of bang for your buck here." As before, it offers a thrilling but brutal adventure, with a bond between its broken survivors, Joel and Ellie, at the core. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/pc/the-last-of-us-part-ii-remastered-comes-to-pc-on-april-3-2025-130036421.html?src=rss

13.12.2024 16:00 At long last, iPhone users have access to Apple's AI image generation tools, Genmoji and Image Playground. But based on our testing, these Apple Intelligence features aren't fully baked. In this episode, Devindra and Cherlynn discuss why these AI tools aren't very useful and dive into some of Apple's most egregious image generation fails. Listen below or subscribe on your podcast app of choice. If you've got suggestions or topics you'd like covered on the show, be sure to email us or drop a note in the comments! And be sure to check out our other podcast, Engadget News! Subscribe! iTunes Spotify Pocket Casts Stitcher Google Podcasts Topics iOS 18.2 AI image generation arrives half baked. Genmoji are fun, but weird – 1:13 OpenAI’s Sora video generation model was finally released – 37:17 GM kills its Cruise robotaxi project – 45:43 Google’s Gemini 2.0 is now available for preview – 49:51 Tiktok is running out of options to avoid a ban in the U.S. – 57:36 Working on – 1:00:04 Pop culture picks – 1:02:20 Credits Hosts: Devindra Hardawar and Cherlynn LowProducer: Ben Ellman Music: Dale North and Terrence O'Brien This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/engadget-podcast-apples-genmoji-are-ai-disappointments-123031877.html?src=rss

13.12.2024 16:00 The Game Awards delivered. While the games I thought deserved to win did so , we got some wildcard trailers, like an entirely new game from Last of Us studio Naughty Dog. Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet takes place thousands of years in the future, and it stars bounty hunter Jordan A. Mun, played by Chilling Adventures of Sabrina actor Tati Gabrielle. Note: This is the first game from Naughty Dog since 2005 that isn’t Uncharted or Last of Us . There was also, many years on, another Witcher game. Witcher 4 will feature Ciri kicking magical ass, but there’s no gameplay footage yet. Elsewhere, Virtua Fighter is getting a revival and a new brawler game from the makers of the Like A Dragon series. Capcom too taps its gaming past, reviving the wolf god Okami and its magical ink strokes nearly two decades after the original, with the original game’s director, Hideki Kamiya, still at the helm. And we have a new co-op game from the studio behind It Takes Two. Split Fiction is a co-op adventure where players leap between sci-fi and fantasy worlds. There is also a new sci-fi game from the creator of The Last Guardian, an Elden Ring co-op spin-off and, well, read on for even more. — Mat Smith Get this delivered daily direct to your inbox. Subscribe right here! The biggest tech stories you missed Threads’ take on Bluesky Starter Packs is live The Outer Worlds 2 gameplay trailer reveals it’s coming to PS5 and Xbox Reddit is removing links to Luigi Mangione’s manifesto Most US teens still use TikTok daily as ban looms YouTube and Instagram are likely to benefit the most. With a TikTok ban in the United States looking more and more likely, a new report from Pew Research on teen social media use underscores just how influential the app is among its youngest users. It’s one of the most-used social media services by teens, with 57 percent of 13- to 17-year-olds scrolling TikTok every single day, according to the report. TikTok is running out of options to avoid the ban in the United States. The company lost its initial legal challenge to a law requiring parent company ByteDance to sell the app or face a total ban in the country. TikTok has asked the courts for a temporary delay to the law, which is currently scheduled to take effect January 19. Continue reading. Adobe’s new Photoshop tool can clean away window reflections Although it isn’t perfect. Adobe Adobe has a new experimental tool for removing window reflections from photos. Originally announced at Adobe Max 2023 as Project See Through, the Reflection Removal tool is now available to preview in Adobe Photoshop or Adobe Bridge if you’re a Creative Cloud subscriber. The tool uses AI to isolate two separate images: the reflection and whatever is on the other side of the window or reflective material. Adobe says the Reflection Removal tool can’t handle “reflections from windows that are small or far away” or reflections of “wine glasses, car bodies or clouds reflected in a lake.” Continue reading.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/general/the-morning-after-engadget-newsletter-121552052.html?src=rss

13.12.2024 06:30 The Game Awards are over — congratulations to Team Asobi for Astro Bot taking home the Game of the Year award. As always, the long, long stream was a hybrid award ceremony, advertising reel and game announcement marathon. There were countless announcements interspersed throughout the awards, including all-new games like Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet from Naughty Dog, The Witcher 4 from CD Projekt RED and Split Fiction from It Takes Two studio Hazelight. It was also a show of revivals, with long-dormant franchises like Okami, Onimusha, Ninja Gaiden and Virtua Fighter returning. Here are our top announcements from the show, in no particular order — you can watch all the trailers below, or click on one of the headlines to get the full story. Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet is a new sci-fi game from Naughty Dog Naughty Dog is pivoting from post-apocalyptic fungal drama to interstellar sci-fi bounty hunting with its newest game, Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet. The studio revealed its new title with a cinematic trailer at The Game Awards on Thursday. Intergalactic takes place thousands of years in the future and it stars bounty hunter Jordan A. Mun, played by Chilling Adventures of Sabrina actor Tati Gabrielle. Jordan finds herself stranded on the planet Sempiria, which has been cut off from the rest of the universe for more than 600 years. She's on a mission to escape Sempiria, but it looks like some vicious robots are going to get in her way. The first Witcher 4 trailer sees Ciri kicking butt Well, let's be honest: I don't think any of us expected to see CD Projekt Red preview The Witcher 4 anytime soon, and yet the studio did just that, sharing a lengthy cinematic trailer for the upcoming sequel at the Game Awards. Even if there's no gameplay footage to be found, fans of the series will love what they see. Elden Ring Nightreign is a co-op spinoff coming in 2025 Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree is just barely in the rearview mirror and FromSoftware already has a new game in the wings. The first trailer for Elden Ring Nightreign, a standalone co-op action game, at The Game Awards 2024. RGG reveals a Virtua Fighter revival and a brawler set in the 1910s Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio delivered a meaty one-two punch at The Game Awards. First came the news that the Like A Dragon studio is behind a revival of the Virtua Fighter series. Not only that, but the forever-busy studio is also making a Like A Dragon-style game set in the 1910s. An Okami sequel is on the way, nearly two decades later There were several major surprise announcements during this year's edition of The Game Awards, but perhaps none was quite as out of the blue as word of a sequel to Okami. Not only that, the original game's director, Hideki Kamiya, is at the helm. Borderlands 4 gameplay trailer shows four new Vault Hunters having a bad day It’s only been a short few months since Gearbox announced Borderlands 4, the next game in its long-running looter shooter franchise. Back in August, all we had was a cryptic teaser, but at today’s Game Awards, we got a proper look at the new game. The Outer Worlds 2 gameplay trailer reveals it's coming to PS5 as well as Xbox We told you back in 2021 that The Outer Worlds 2 was a thing that existed, and now, more than three years later, we have evidence in support of this claim: a gameplay trailer. Mafia: The Old Country is a Sicilian prequel arriving next summer 2K’s consistently sporadic Mafia series will return in 2025. Mafia: The Old Country is set in Sicily in the 1900s, and will explore the origins of organized crime. Developer Hangar 13 announced that a new Mafia title was in development back in 2022, but gave few details beyond that. The game's first trailer is a melodramatic affair complete with a patriarch monologuing over candlelight, horses galloping across the plains and opera music as a backing track. This is drama, people. It Takes Two studio returns with dueling sci-fi and fantasy worlds in Split Fiction Swedish indie studio Hazelight is synonymous with co-op gaming, so of course its next project is built for two players — but this time, it also features two genres. Split Fiction is a co-op adventure where players leap between sci-fi and fantasy worlds in a bid to escape the clutches of a greedy publishing corporation. It supports local and online co-op, and, fittingly, it plays out in split-screen. The next game from the Sifu team is... a 5v5 arcade soccer title? Brawlers Absolver and Sifu put Sloclap on the map thanks to their memorable looks, slick action and crunchy animations. So naturally the next project for the French studio is a 5v5 arcade soccer game. Uh, sure! Rematch, which is slated to arrive next summer, perhaps makes more sense for Sloclap than first meets the eye. The studio says the title falls within its remit of making challenging action games with a stylized look. Thick as Thieves is a multiplayer stealth-action game from legends Warren Spector and Paul Neurath Thick as Thieves is a new project from the team of immersive sim and stealth-action icons at OtherSide Entertainment, which includes Deus Ex creator Warren Spector, Looking Glass Studios founder Paul Neurath, and Thief: The Dark Project lead Greg LoPiccolo. Yes, that's a stacked lineup. Together, the OtherSide crew has created or worked on the System Shock, Deus Ex, Thief and Ultima Underworld series, and are largely responsible for the existence of immersive sims as we know them. The Overcooked team has a new creepy-cute co-op game called Stage Fright There are two cool pieces of news here. First, the indie studio behind the Overcooked series, Ghost Town Games, is working on a new title called Stage Fright, and it'll support both online and couch co-op. Rad! Second, Stage Fright is being published by No Man's Sky studio Hello Games, a move that marks Hello's first foray into publishing other studios' projects. Double rad! Stage Fright is built around co-op, and its mechanics bring Overcooked-style chaos to a series of escape rooms in a spooky, Luigi's Mansion kind of world. Ragebound is a new Ninja Gaiden game from the team behind Blasphemous Resurrecting a beloved gaming series like Ninja Gaiden is always a tricky proposition. Anyone who might have worked on the franchise in its heyday has likely moved on to other projects or left the industry entirely. But judging by the talent working on Ninja Gaiden Ragebound, the new series entry revealed at the Game Awards, I think it's safe to say the franchise is in safe hands. That's because Ragebound unites two companies who know a thing or two about making quality games.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/the-13-biggest-announcements-and-new-trailers-from-the-game-awards-2024-043849892.html?src=rss

13.12.2024 06:30 And now for something completely different. Naughty Dog is pivoting from post-apocalyptic fungal drama to interstellar sci-fi bounty hunting with its newest game, Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet. The studio revealed its new title with a cinematic trailer at The Game Awards on Thursday. Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet takes place thousands of years in the future and it stars bounty hunter Jordan A. Mun, played by Chilling Adventures of Sabrina actor Tati Gabrielle. Jordan finds herself stranded on the planet Sempiria, which has been cut off from the rest of the universe for more than 600 years. She's on a mission to escape Sempiria, but it looks like some vicious robots are going to get in her way. The reveal trailer is gorgeous, even if it is just in-game cinematics. It shows glittering galaxies and Jordan being sassy with her superiors in a Porsche spaceship, all set to droning lo-fi tones and upbeat '80s tunes. Once the camera reaches the planet level, there's a huge, multi-armed robot with a glowing red sword. Jordan pulls out her own weapon and the fight is on. This is the beginning of a new IP for Naughty Dog — it's the studio's first game that isn't Uncharted or The Last of Us since 2005. Game director and Naughty Dog studio head Neil Druckmann shared just a little more insight into the game's story on the PlayStation Blog: "What we can tell you is that this game lives up to the Naughty Dog tradition of creating an emotional, character-driven epic journey. Our narrative goals are rivaled only by our gameplay ambitions. This will be the deepest gameplay in Naughty Dog’s history, taking our learnings from our previous franchises and pushing them beyond anything we’ve ever done before." The soundtrack for Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet is being handled by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross . Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet is in development for PlayStation 5 and it doesn't have a release window yet.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/playstation/intergalactic-the-heretic-prophet-is-a-new-sci-fi-game-from-naughty-dog-042920073.html?src=rss

13.12.2024 06:30  There were several major surprise announcements during this year's edition of The Game Awards, but perhaps none was quite as out of the blue as word of a sequel to Okami. Not only that, the original game's director, Hideki Kamiya, is at the helm. "Okami is a game critically acclaimed for its unique world, heartwarming story, and exciting adventures," publisher Capcom said in the teaser's YouTube description. "Now, a new adventure in the same vein as Okami has been set in motion." Details are thin so far. Production is just about to get underway. Kamiya also directed Resident Evil 2, Devil May Cry and Viewtiful Joe during his first stint at Konami, before leaving to form PlatinumGames. It emerged last year that Kamiya was departing the Bayonetta studio. Now we know that he's part of a new studio, Clovers, which is making this sequel alongside M-Two Inc Machine Head Works. Okami is one of the greatest examples of video games as an art form. As Amaterasu, the Japanese sun goddess that takes the form of a white wolf, you use a paintbrush to help solve puzzles and defeat enemies. The 2006 game had an unforgettable look, but it was stylized to bolster performance on the PlayStation 2. With much more powerful hardware at their disposal, Kamiya, the studios and Capcom have the potential to deliver a sequel that's visually more than worthy of Okami. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/an-okami-sequel-is-on-the-way-nearly-two-decades-later-041658276.html?src=rss

13.12.2024 06:30 2K Games’ consistently sporadic Mafia series will return in 2025. Mafia: The Old Country is set in Sicily in the 1900s and will explore the origins of organized crime. Developer Hangar 13 announced that a new Mafia title was in development back in 2022, but gave few details beyond that. Now, we know it's heading to PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S in summer 2025. The game's first trailer, which debuted at The Game Awards on Thursday, is a melodramatic affair complete with a patriarch monologuing over candlelight, horses galloping across the plains and opera music as a backing track. This is drama, people. Mafia: The Old Country is a linear, narrative-driven game with stealth and gunplay mechanics in purposefully cinematic environments. It stars Enzo, a new, original protagonist. Here's how publisher 2K Games describes his journey: "Enzo has survived a childhood of indentured labor in Sicily’s hellish sulfur mines. Now, through a twist of fate, he has the opportunity to join Don Torrisi's crime family, and will do whatever it takes to carve out a better life for himself. By swearing an oath, Enzo has committed himself to the Torrisi family's code of honor, with all the power and hardship it entails." The Mafia series started in 2002 as a more serious take on the GTA formula, set in a 1930s nod to Chicago. Mafia II landed in 2010 and took place in a fictionalized version of post-World War II New York City. Another long gap led to 2017, when Mafia III flashed forward to the '60s in not-New Orleans. In 2018, 2K merged Hangar 13, the developer of the third title, with 2K Czech, the team that made the first two games, and that combined studio is now working on The Old Country. A 2025 release window will give us eight years between Mafia installments, which is right on target for the series.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/mafia-the-old-country-is-a-sicilian-prequel-arriving-summer-2025-034422942.html?src=rss

13.12.2024 06:30 There are two cool pieces of news here. First, the indie studio behind the Overcooked series, Ghost Town Games, is working on a new title called Stage Fright, and it'll support both online and couch co-op. Rad! Second, Stage Fright is being published by No Man's Sky studio Hello Games, a move that marks Hello's first foray into publishing other studios' projects. Double rad! Stage Fright is built around co-op, and its mechanics bring Overcooked-style chaos to a series of escape room environments in a spooky, Luigi's Mansion kind of world. It doesn't have a release date but it's available to wishlist now on Steam. Overcooked and its sequel have helped re-energize the co-op genre in recent years, serving up frantic restaurant gameplay that always feels more fun — and shouty — with a friend. Overcooked supports cooperative couch play and Overcooked 2 introduced online co-op to the series. Stage Fright represents the culmination of everything that Ghost Town has learned about co-op gaming from Overcooked, complete with local and online play. "Nothing else really played like Overcooked when it came out and Stage Fright is just as innovative, but in a really different direction," Hello Games publishing lead Tim Woodley said. Ghost Town Games has a core team of just three people, founders Oli De-Vine and Phil Duncan plus writer Gemma Langford. They've been developing Stage Fright under the codename Project Attic — because they've literally been building this game in their attic — and their website lists six additional contributors. There's also the Hello Games of it all. Ghost Town Games De-Vine and Duncan have been friends with the Hello Games crew — including founders Sean Murray, Grant Duncan, Ryan Doyle and David Ream — for years. After Hello found success with Joe Danger in 2010, they helped connect Ghost Town with the eventual publisher of Overcooked, Team17. Overcooked came out in 2016 and the rest is culinary co-op history. "Phil and Oli came to visit us for advice with the very earliest demo of Overcooked about ten years ago," Woodley said. "We have such fond memories of the four founders of Hello playing that Overcooked demo, screaming at each other about onions — it was instantly obvious this was something special." Hello Games is currently developing Light No Fire, a cooperative survival and exploration game that takes place on a fantasy planet as large as Earth, offering a mix of role-playing and sandbox mechanics. The studio is also still very much supporting and expanding its breakout hit, No Man's Sky . Stage Fright will be Hello's debut as a third-party publisher, but it doesn't mean the studio is pivoting to publishing full-time. Ghost Town Games "Hello Games has a bunch of experience we can lend behind the scenes, support we can give, but if we’re honest it really appeals to us to have fun working with a bunch of creative people we just love spending time with," Woodley said. "When we played an early version of Stage Fright we got the same buzz as we had with Overcooked all those years ago. It’s just something we wanted to be involved in." Expect more information about Stage Fright over the next 12 months.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/the-overcooked-team-has-a-new-creepy-cute-co-op-game-called-stage-fright-030009063.html?src=rss

13.12.2024 06:30 Netflix announced at The Game Awards that its Squid Game multiplayer mobile title will be playable on Android and iOS without an active Netflix subscription when it arrives on December 17. However, the free-for-anyone period will only be available for an unspecified “limited time.” Squid Game: Unleashed lets you play with friends online in a series of mini-games. The contests are either ripped directly from the series or thematically similar “classic childhood activities” . The party royale game takes cues from the Mario Party franchise, but its inspiration may have been much more direct… and circular. In 2021, indie developer Dani published Crab Game for Windows, macOS and Linux. The title didn’t try to hide that it was inspired by the Netflix series , which was taking the world by storm at the time. Its Mario Party-style mini-games were initially Squid Game contests, presented in a cartoonish video-game form. However, it later expanded to include competitions distinct from the series. Netflix Although we haven’t yet played Squid Game: Unleashed, the gameplay in its trailer bears an uncanny resemblance to Crab Game, including its cartoon-like art style. To be fair, the two may play much more differently than Netflix’s trailer suggests. But based on what we see now, Netflix appears to have taken inspiration from an indie dev who took inspiration from its series. But hey, at least Netflix doesn’t seem to have sued an indie dev into oblivion. Irrespective of such gaming industry tit-for-tats, Netflix’s party royale game is timed to promote Squid Game Season 2. It starts streaming on December 26. Squid Game: Unleashed launches exclusively in the Netflix app for Android or iOS on December 17. You can check out its trailer below. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/squid-game-unleashed-will-be-playable-at-launch-without-a-netflix-subscription-025501236.html?src=rss