Tag Archives: author_name|Kris Holt

Amazon Prime ‘free’ games for October include BioShock Remastered, Doom Eternal and A Plague Tale: Innocence

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Amazon has revealed the extensive list of PC games that Prime members can snap up at no extra cost in October. It's a very solid line up with a little something for everyone, including big hitters, killer indies and, since it's spooky season, a cauldron full of horror games.

BioShock Remastered, Doom Eternal (one of our favorite games of 2020) and A Plague Tale: Innocence are among the most immediately recognizable names on the list. Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed, the terrific Death's Door and the icky Scorn are all perhaps worth checking out if you haven't already done so. Nineties kids may be interested in playing a remaster of the sidescroller Gargoyles, which is based on the classic animated series.

A dozen of the games are available now, including BioShock and Doom Eternal. It's worth noting that you'll only be able to claim the latter in regions where the Microsoft Store is available. Here's the full list of what you can claim and when, along with the launcher you can play each game on:

  • Hive Jump 2: Survivors (GOG)

  • Scarf (Amazon Games App)

  • Tomb Raider: Legend (GOG)

  • The Eternal Cylinder (Epic Games Store)

  • Spirit of the North (Epic Games Store)

  • No Straight Roads (Epic Games Store)

  • BioShock Remastered (GOG)

  • Doom Eternal (Microsoft Store)

  • DreadOut 2 (Amazon Games App)

  • Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed Ecto Edition (Epic Games Store)

  • Priest Simulator: Vampire Show (Epic Games Store)

  • The Gap (Amazon Games App)

  • Mystery Box: Hidden Secrets (Legacy Games Code)

  • Vlad Circus: Descend Into Madness (Amazon Games App)

  • Through the Darkest of Times (Amazon Games App)

  • Killing Floor 2 (Epic Games Store)

  • Zombies Ate My Neighbors and Ghoul Patrol (Amazon Games App)

  • Pumpkin Jack (GOG)

  • The Gunk (GOG)

  • Stasis: Bone Totem (Epic Games Store)

  • Gargoyles Remastered (Amazon Games App)

  • Monster Train (GOG)

  • Morbid: The Seven Acolytes (Epic Games Store)

  • A Plague Tale: Innocence (GOG)

  • Death's Door (Epic Games Store)

  • Haunted Hotel: Personal Nightmare Collector's Edition (Amazon Games App)

  • Scorn (GOG)

  • Coromon (GOG)

As ever, Amazon has refreshed the lineup of games that Prime members can stream on Luna at no extra cost. Fortnite and Trackmania are still in the mix, of course. Ubisoft's arena shooter, XDefiant, is on the list along with another notable name in Alien: Isolation. Amid Evil, Valfaris, Perish, Dr. Fetus' Mean Meat Machine, Tormented Souls, Dusk, Mortal Shell, Doomblade and Monster Harvest are the other games Prime members can stream (almost) for free in October.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/pc/amazon-prime-free-games-for-october-include-bioshock-remastered-doom-eternal-and-a-plague-tale-innocence-170939596.html?src=rss

Football Manager 25 is delayed until late in the European soccer season

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Just 10 days after announcing a late November release date for Football Manager 25, Sports Interactive has delayed the soccer sim by several months. The developer and Sega, the game's publisher, said in September that they were pushing back the release date by a few weeks to "deliver the best possible experience for this first installment in a new era of Football Manager." However, the team says it still needs more time to "ensure the game quality and experience meets your expectations and our very high standards." As such, Football Manager 25 is now slated to arrive in March.

Sports Interactive is giving the long-running game a major overhaul in its upcoming iteration, but the studio says it's been a difficult process. "Many things have been moving slower than we had predicted — despite everyone in the team working at an incredible pace to try and get everything done," Sports Interactive said in a statement. "Timelines were already tight and, as rightly pointed out by many of your recent comments, we were simply rushing too much and in danger of compromising our usual standards. This has put an enormous amount of pressure on everyone working across the studio, who are all passionately committed to delivering the best game possible."

The studio noted that Football Manager 25 marks the series' "biggest technical and visual advancement" in many years, which includes a switch to the Unity engine. To that end, it "simply cannot compromise the delivery of this crucial juncture in Football Manager’s history by rushing to release it in November." Sports Interactive now plans to offer a first proper look at gameplay in January. There will still be an advanced access period for players on PC and Mac.

The developer and Sega typically release each year's edition of Football Manager in early November (EA puts out its FIFA/EA Sports FC games in late September or early October). That gives Sports Interactive some time to account for any player trades that take place during the summer transfer window and any other significant real-life happenings to make the game as up-to-date as possible.

However, with Football Manager 25 now slipping to March, that cadence has been seriously disrupted. It could have a knock-on effect for the following entry. It also means the game will arrive close to the end of the European soccer season.

In response to Sports Interactive's announcement, some players are calling for the studio to at least release a database update for Football Manager 2024 that reflects real-world changes for the current season. Some have even suggested that the developer scrap the planned game and focus on Football Manager 26 after bringing the current version up to date.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/football-manager-25-is-delayed-until-late-in-the-european-soccer-season-155746335.html?src=rss

Football Manager 25 is delayed until late in the European soccer season

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Just 10 days after announcing a late November release date for Football Manager 25, Sports Interactive has delayed the soccer sim by several months. The developer and Sega, the game's publisher, said in September that they were pushing back the release date by a few weeks to "deliver the best possible experience for this first installment in a new era of Football Manager." However, the team says it still needs more time to "ensure the game quality and experience meets your expectations and our very high standards." As such, Football Manager 25 is now slated to arrive in March.

Sports Interactive is giving the long-running game a major overhaul in its upcoming iteration, but the studio says it's been a difficult process. "Many things have been moving slower than we had predicted — despite everyone in the team working at an incredible pace to try and get everything done," Sports Interactive said in a statement. "Timelines were already tight and, as rightly pointed out by many of your recent comments, we were simply rushing too much and in danger of compromising our usual standards. This has put an enormous amount of pressure on everyone working across the studio, who are all passionately committed to delivering the best game possible."

The studio noted that Football Manager 25 marks the series' "biggest technical and visual advancement" in many years, which includes a switch to the Unity engine. To that end, it "simply cannot compromise the delivery of this crucial juncture in Football Manager’s history by rushing to release it in November." Sports Interactive now plans to offer a first proper look at gameplay in January. There will still be an advanced access period for players on PC and Mac.

The developer and Sega typically release each year's edition of Football Manager in early November (EA puts out its FIFA/EA Sports FC games in late September or early October). That gives Sports Interactive some time to account for any player trades that take place during the summer transfer window and any other significant real-life happenings to make the game as up-to-date as possible.

However, with Football Manager 25 now slipping to March, that cadence has been seriously disrupted. It could have a knock-on effect for the following entry. It also means the game will arrive close to the end of the European soccer season.

In response to Sports Interactive's announcement, some players are calling for the studio to at least release a database update for Football Manager 2024 that reflects real-world changes for the current season. Some have even suggested that the developer scrap the planned game and focus on Football Manager 26 after bringing the current version up to date.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/football-manager-25-is-delayed-until-late-in-the-european-soccer-season-155746335.html?src=rss

TikTok owner ByteDance unveils its first earbuds in China

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ByteDance is pushing further into hardware with its first set of earbuds. The TikTok owner's $170 Ola Friend buds will only be available in China for now. They link to the company's generative AI assistant, Doubao, which can be activated with a voice command.

According to the South China Morning Post, wearers will be able to use the open-ear buds as a tour guide while traveling and to practice English (among other things) after they're paired with the Doubao mobile app. The publication notes that Doubao is currently the most popular GAI app in China, with more than 47 million monthly active users in September.

The debut of Ola Friend follows ByteDance completing its purchase of Oladance, a maker of wearable audio devices, this year. ByteDance also owns VR headset maker Pico.

The earbuds are available in four colors, purple, silver, black and white. Pre-orders are open today and Ola Friend will ship on October 17.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/audio/headphones/tiktok-owner-bytedance-unveils-its-first-earbuds-in-china-143507603.html?src=rss

GM is ditching its one-size-fits-all Ultium battery system and adopting other cell formats

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GM is charting a course away from its Ultium battery system. The company is dropping that standardized approach in favor of a wider range of battery cell chemistries and physical formats.

The automaker had hoped that, by adopting a unified system across all of its EVs as well as other products, it would be able to reduce costs and ship them faster. The plan was to pack the flat pouch-style Ultium cells into a variety of modules depending on what was needed for each EV.

Things haven't gone smoothly, as Ars Technica notes. Among other things, COVID-19 slowed down the company's EV roadmap and there were problems with the robots that assembled the modules.

"It now makes business sense to transition from one-size-fits-all to new program-specific batteries," Kurt Kelty, GM's vice president of batteries, said at an investor event. The automaker hopes that switching from Ultium's nickel cobalt manganese chemistry to lithium iron phosphate (LFP) battery tech will lower the cost of its EVs by as much as $6,000. As The Verge notes, Tesla and Ford are among those that use LFP cells, which are said to be cheaper and less complicated to manufacture. The second-gen Chevy Bolt, which is slated to arrive in late 2025, will use such batteries.

GM plans to build a new battery research facility at the Warren Tech Center in Michigan. The team there will explore cylindrical and prismatic cells in addition to the pouch format. Researchers will also look into alternative battery chemistries.

The shift in battery strategy comes as GM chases profitability in its EV division. The company said it's getting close to that point. It's on track to build and sell around 200,000 EVs this year. GM now claims to be the number two EV seller in North America behind Tesla.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/transportation/evs/gm-is-ditching-its-one-size-fits-all-ultium-battery-system-and-adopting-other-cell-formats-193041348.html?src=rss

Green Day’s Dookie has been demastered into Game Boy carts, a toothbrush and other weird formats

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Green Day's Dookie is an all-timer of an album and, if you were fortunate enough to catch the band on the road this summer, you'll know the trio sounds as good as ever. Audio quality, however, was not at the forefront of the band's latest release: demasters of every Dookie song on ridiculous and outdated formats to mark the record's 30th anniversary.

While other classic albums often get remasters for big anniversaries, Green Day (with the help of of an art studio called Brain) went in a lo-fi direction by re-releasing the music on defunct and/or inconvenient formats in very limited editions. As a result, you can hear what "Basket Case" sounds like through a Big Mouth "Billie" Bass, listen to "Welcome to Paradise" via a Game Boy cartridge and enjoy (or not) "When I Come Around" emanating from a wax cylinder.

Other formats the demasters appear on include an answering machine, toothbrush, animatronic stuffed animal, floppy disc, doorbell, Fisher Price record, HitClip (remember those?) and, be still my beating heart, MiniDisc. Meanwhile, "All By Myself," an ode to self-love sung by drummer Tré Cool, actually sounds kind of sweet through a music box.

You can hear what each of the demasters sounds like on the Dookie Demastered website. But if you want to own one of them, you'll need to be lucky. Only between one and 50 of each demastered format is available and they're priced between $19 and $99, but thankfully it's not a first-come-first-served scenario. There's a random drawing and you'll get the chance to buy one of the items if your name's pulled from the hat.

Demastering is becoming more of a trend, especially in video games, but this is simply a bizarre way to listen to an album as important for punk rock as Dookie was. It would be very cool to have an X-ray record of “Coming Clean” in my collection, though. (For the tape, Green Day did release a deluxe anniversary edition of the album.)

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/music/green-days-dookie-has-been-demastered-into-game-boy-carts-a-toothbrush-and-other-weird-formats-175246772.html?src=rss

Prime Day deals include the latest Beats Pill for $50 off

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With the days drawing shorter and the weather cooling, you may not be spending as much time outside so you might not have a great need for a portable speaker to take to the back yard, park or beach. Still, it's handy to have one that you can easily move throughout the house. You can always take advantage of a good deal to start preparing for next summer too. Apple revived the Beats Pill line just a few months ago, but the portable speaker is already getting a hefty discount for Prime Day. You can snap one up for a record low price of $100. That's $50 off the regular price.

This is one of the best portable Bluetooth speakers in this price range. We gave it a score of 83 in our review in July.

There's a marked improvement in bass performance compared with previous Beats Pill speakers. While the Pill+ had a dual-tweeter and dual-woofer setup, the latest model has one of each. The new woofer is larger and pill-shaped to match the speaker's body and it "provides more robust bass with less total harmonic distortion (THD) and a lower frequency range," according to Engadget senior reporter Billy Steele.

At higher volumes, the audio suffers, but the Beats Pill gets loud enough long before you crank it all the way up. When the speaker is plugged into an audio source via USB-C, it can deliver lossless audio. You can also boost the sound by placing two Beats Pills next to each other or pair them for stereo audio.

The battery life is definitely a plus, as it's double that of earlier models at 24 hours. This model is more rugged than the Beats Pill+ too.

Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter for the latest tech deals and buying advice, and stay tuned to Engadget.com for all of the best tech deals coming out of October Prime Day 2024.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/prime-day-deals-include-the-latest-beats-pill-for-50-off-160254307.html?src=rss

Nintendo’s latest hardware is Alarmo, a $100 motion-sensing alarm clock (not the Switch 2)

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Anyone waiting for a new hardware announcement from Nintendo might be a little disappointed that the company's latest product isn't the successor to the Switch. However, that dismay may not last for long given how delightful the Nintendo Sound Clock: Alarmo looks.

Yes, Nintendo made a smart alarm clock that's designed to make your morning routine a little more joyful than waking up to interminable beep of a regular alarm clock or a favorite song you'll eventually get sick of. Alarmo has motion sensors that let you snooze it based on your movement. There is a physical snooze button you can hit too, but that's boring. 

You can choose from dozens of scenes that are inspired by Super Mario Odyssey, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Splatoon 3, Pikmin 4 and Ring Fit Adventure and set a wake-up time. Alarmo will try to rouse you with music and sounds from those games. Nintendo plans to add scenes from other games as free updates.

Nintendo alarm clock
Nintendo

You'll be able to choose between two wake-up modes. The steady option will make the alarm more intense the longer you stay in bed (perhaps with an appearance from a certain arch-nemesis of Mario if you keep ignoring it). The gentle mode keeps the alarm at a consistent intensity level. When you do get up, you'll hear a victory fanfare, hopefully with Mario shouting "Wahoo!"

Sleep tracking proponents will be pleased to hear that you'll be able to check how much you move around while you sleep (if you want a Nintendo-flavored way to measure how long you snooze, Pokémon Sleep may do the trick). Alarmo can also lull you to sleep with soothing sounds and music at your set bedtime. I'll have to see how well that fares against my usual strategy of listening to an hour-long YouTube video of thunderstorms.

Nintendo published a fascinating deep dive into the Alarmo featuring interviews with the team behind it. The project started as part of the company's research into motion sensors. In fact, the developers didn't initially set out to make an alarm clock. 

"We knew that the theme was to support people during their sleep, and we were looking for a way to achieve this," said Yosuke Tamori, a producer for Alarmo who previously worked on the original Splatoon and Nintendo Labo. "However, it was only after a lot of technical trial and error and building many prototypes that we decided to focus on alarm clocks." 

The team even experimented with using hand gestures to control Alarmo, which was very different in earlier prototypes. One looked similar to Google's Nest Audio speaker:

Nintendo alarm clock with a dot matrix display
Nintendo

If you're a Nintendo Switch Online member in the US and Canada, you'll get first dibs. You can order the $100 Alarmo now and of course I did so immediately. Nintendo says it will be available at retail early next year. You can also buy it from the Nintendo store in New York. While Nintendo includes a USB power cable, you'll need to use your own AC adapter, which is annoying.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/home/smart-home/nintendos-latest-hardware-is-alarmo-a-99-motion-sensing-alarm-clock-not-the-switch-2-140142746.html?src=rss

Uber starts offering $18 shuttle rides between Manhattan and LaGuardia Airport

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Uber has come up with a relatively low-cost way of getting to and from a New York City airport: a shuttle bus. Starting today, the company is offering rides between LaGuardia Airport and transit hubs in Manhattan for $18 a pop. For the first month of the service, Uber is offering half-price rides for $9, The Wall Street Journal reports.

This would be far cheaper than a cab for a solo traveler. It's also more expensive, but perhaps less of a hassle, than taking public transit — there’s a free shuttle between the airport and the subway. 

One route will take passengers between Penn Station and the airport, and the other will run between Port Authority, Grand Central Terminal and LaGuardia. If you're Manhattan-bound, you’ll still need to make your way to your home, hotel or Airbnb after you get to the drop-off point.

The vans can transport 14 passengers at a time. The service will run between 5AM and 10:45PM ET every day with trips leaving every half hour or so. You can book a spot in a shuttle up to seven days in advance and bring a personal item and a 50-pound bag on board. Before you get on the van, you'll need to show the driver a QR code and PIN that Uber sends you. An Uber shuttle-fleet partner called EPS is operating the rides, but the shuttles have Uber branding.

Uber shuttles have been available in various locations since 2019, but this is the first time the company is offering such trips to and from an airport. Earlier this year, Uber started running shuttles to and from concerts and sports games. It plans to offer shuttles to more airports in the coming months and years.

The company announced the service as part of its Go-Get Zero event, at which it highlighted some new sustainability efforts. Among those is a new EV-only option that will debut in 40 cities in which Uber has enough electric vehicle drivers available.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/transportation/uber-starts-offering-18-shuttle-rides-between-manhattan-and-laguardia-airport-193520618.html?src=rss

Apple’s 9th-gen iPad returns to an all-time low of $199 for October Prime Day

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Amazon's October Prime Day sale may have ended, but there remain a few Prime Day deals floating around right now — including some on Apple gear. One of the lowest prices you'll find is on the 9th-gen iPad, which remains on sale for $199. That's a 40-percent discount from its $329 normal price, and the cheapest we've seen this slab.

Let's be very clear: this iPad is quite old at this point. Apple released it in 2021 and the company has since rolled out a new base iPad, along with several mini, Pro and Air models. If you're looking for a more recent model that Apple will support for longer, you can check out our guide on how to pick the best iPad for you. This sale feels very much like a case of trying to clear out old stock, but there are plenty of valid reasons to opt for the 9th-gen iPad instead of a more powerful model.

We gave the 9th-gen iPad a score of 81 in our review, due to its solid camera, performance and base storage (64GB) upgrades and the solid battery life. It lasted for 14 hours on a single charge during our initial video-streaming tests. It even has a headphone jack, which is a definite plus point.

The tablet will certainly do the trick if all you really need is a tablet to catch up on reading, browse the web, handle some emails and watch videos — more so if you're already in the Apple ecosystem. You'll be able to doodle on this iPad with the original Apple Pencil, but this model is not best suited for professional-level design work or productivity.

Apple tends to support iPads for at least five years in terms of iPadOS updates, so it's likely (but not a sure thing) that you'll be able to install up to iPadOS 20 on this thing. As such, you should be able to stream video via the likes of Netflix to this tablet for several years to come.

If you're willing to spend a bit more on an iPad, you can still grab some Prime Day deals on other iPads too:

Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter for the latest tech deals and buying advice, and stay tuned to Engadget.com for all of the best tech deals coming out of October Prime Day 2024.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apples-9th-gen-ipad-returns-to-an-all-time-low-of-199-for-october-prime-day-155016190.html?src=rss