Tag Archives: Media

Spotify’s HiFi plan could finally arrive this year, but you may need to pay extra

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Spotify first revealed its plan to roll out a high-fidelity option for music streaming some years ago, but that still hasn’t come to pass. This may finally be the year when the company’s HiFi streaming goes live, but you’ll likely need to pay extra for the privilege.

HiFi streaming is expected to arrive by the end of 2024 and it will be an add-on that costs users at least $5 more per month on top of an existing plan, according to Bloomberg. That's in addition to a Premium price increase that takes effect next month. As such, individual users who want to listen to high-fidelity music on Spotify may need to pay at least $17 per month, unless they're fortunate enough to be on the $6 student plan. It's not clear if the HiFi add-on will be available to those on the free tier.

HiFi audio is already factored into Apple Music ($11 per month for individuals) and Amazon Music Unlimited ($11 per month for those without Prime). It was a key selling point for Tidal at the outset of that service, which also now costs $11 per month. That places Spotify, which said in 2021 it would roll out its HiFi plan that year, well behind its rivals on that front.

That said, the so-called "Supremium" add-on is said to include other features, like an option to spin up custom playlists in a flash based on specific activities, dates and times of the year. Bloomberg reports that Spotify's tech will adjust playlists based on a user's behavior and eventually automatically create playlists without any input from them.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/spotifys-hifi-plan-could-finally-arrive-this-year-but-you-may-need-to-pay-extra-141610374.html?src=rss

Thrasher, the psychedelic game from the artist behind Thumper, arrives in July

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Thrasher, which its developers describe as a "mind-melting arcade action odyssey," will be available for the Meta Quest and the Apple Vision Pro on July 25. The SteamVR version will follow at a later date. Thrasher was first announced at The Game Awards last year as a new project by Brian Gibson, who was the artist and composer behind the nightmare-inducing rhythm game Thumper. For Thrasher, Gibson teamed up with Mike Mandel, known for working on games like Rock Band VR and Fuser, who took charge of the coding and research and development. 

The player takes control of a space eel in Thrasher, which they have to guide with "fast-paced gesture controls" through unsettling landscapes, so that it can evolve and defeat a cosmic baby god by the end of their journey. Based on the images and teasers the developers have released so far, the game's environments truly do look mind-bending with their psychedelic neon colors and their geometric patterns. Even the eel's powers sound trippy: Players can fight bosses with a rainbow spray of bullets or bulldoze environment elements in a blaze of color and light. 

The developers said that Thrasher's "music, visuals, and gameplay mesh into one transcendent experience" for the player. While the virtual reality version offers the most immersive option for gamers, Thrasher is also expected to be available for consoles and PC in the future

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/thrasher-the-psychedelic-game-from-the-artist-behind-thumper-arrives-in-july-133026724.html?src=rss

Spotify will start showing you personalized banners and messages based on your listening habits

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Spotify has launched a new campaign that's meant to make users' audio streaming experience on the platform even more personalized. The "My Spotify" initiative will show users home page banners and personalized messages within the app that contain information about their listening habits, along with links to mixes that they'd presumably enjoy based on those habits. In one of the examples above, for instance, Spotify presented a user with a banner that links to a Doja Cat mix, because they've listened to the rapper's tracks 58 times over the past month. 

The service showed the user a banner that links to a DJ mix of Go Gina in another example, demonstrating how the messages can be personalized for every listener. A My Spotify banner or message could also link to the "Made For You" hub, where users can find personalized playlists, podcasts, features and recommendations based on their activity on the app. 

My Spotify gives the service a way to present users with data of their listening habits around the year, outside of Wrapped. The company's year-in-review feature only goes live during the holiday season, and it takes over social media when it does. It's not quite clear if users will also be able to share their My Spotify messages and banners on social networks. Spotify also didn't say whether it'll make its way to everyone on the app in the future — it only announced that the feature "will appear first" in the US, Canada, UK, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand over the next several weeks. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/spotify-will-start-showing-you-personalized-banners-and-messages-based-on-your-listening-habits-130007917.html?src=rss

Just Dance VR is coming to Meta Quest headsets in October

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If you think Just Dance would be a great addition to your library of virtual reality games and experiences, then mark this date: October 15. 2024. Ubisoft is launching Just Dance VR: Welcome to Dancity that day for the Meta Quest 2, Meta Quest Pro and Meta Quest 3. You'll be able to customize your avatars for the game and choose your own body shape, facial expression, skin color, hair and outfit. Once you're done creating a virtual version of yourself, you can enter the Dancity social hub to meet other players. 

You'll also have your own "apartment" in game, where you can dance with up to six players or do other interactive activities with the group, like play basketball. The game will let you send emote stickers to players who aren't in your friends list, but you can do voice chats with dancers who are. Welcome to Dancity features 360-degree environments and what Ubisoft describes as an "all-new gameplay with two-hand scoring."

You'll be able to dance to 25 hit and original songs at launch, including Don't Stop Me Now by Queen, Bad Liar by Selena Gomez, Starships by Nicki Minaj and Call Me Maybe by Carly Rae Jepsen. As UploadVR notes, the game was supposed to be exclusively available to Pico headsets. However, after the ByteDance-owned company laid off a big portion of its workforce, Ubisoft started working with a new partner (Meta) to develop the game.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/just-dance-vr-is-coming-to-meta-quest-headsets-in-october-043151830.html?src=rss

Halfway to Dawn is a surprisingly tense, bite-sized survival horror game for Playdate

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Andrea Baroni’s Halfway to Dawn is unbelievably bleak for a game you can play from start to finish in about 10 minutes. I mean that as a compliment; it’s the best horror experience I’ve had on the Playdate yet.

As someone who tends to gravitate towards all things spooky, one of the things I’ve been most interested in as I explore what’s out there for Playdate is seeing how developers will make horror work for the weird little handheld. Halfway to Dawn takes a blended approach: in the first half, it’s a text-based narrative game where you’re scavenging for resources and readying yourself for the long night ahead; in the second, it’s an all-out fight for your life against an onslaught of eldritch creatures.

Halfway to Dawn wastes no time in setting a mood of desolation and impending doom, beginning with dialogue from our protagonist about feeling “as lifeless as these scattered remains of humanity” in a city overtaken by some unnamed terror. During the narrative portion of the game, you must choose among different locations to visit — the mall, pharmacy, gun store and a house — so you can hopefully find things like first aid kits, guns, ammo and traps. But there’s no telling whether each of these trips will be successful.

A still from the narrative portion of Halfway to Dawn
Andrea Baroni/Cyberleaf Studio

You might find a box of shotgun shells but never get your hands on a shotgun to actually use them. You might even get hurt while scavenging. There is also the option to rest, which will fill up your health bar (while you’ll start with full health on Easy mode, Hard will start you with two out of the six health points already depleted). But an hour will pass after each selection, and you have to stay conscious of the time. The clock starts at 6PM, and once it strikes 1AM, you’ll be forced to go out and defend yourself against the monsters until dawn.

At this point, the game becomes a top-down shooter — and depending on how you fared with resources, a pretty challenging one at that. Monsters will be closing in on you from all sides, some of them harder to take down than others, and you can only replenish ammo and first aid kits from your finite supply at set breaks marking the passage of one hour. If you run out before then, you’ll have no choice but to try and fight off the monsters with a knife, which you can swing using the crank. That’s about as effective as you’d think it is.

Halfway to Dawn is a very, very short game, but it really had me sweating on some runs. It’s a fun one to keep coming back to, since the randomness of resource collection makes for a different experience each time. And the tension of it all is perfectly rounded out by a synth-heavy soundtrack (available on Bandcamp), which could be right out of an ‘80s B-horror movie. If creepy is your thing, this is definitely a game to check out. Halfway to Dawn is on the Playdate Catalog and itch.io for $5.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/halfway-to-dawn-is-a-surprisingly-tense-bite-sized-survival-horror-game-for-playdate-220033899.html?src=rss

Xbox’s Fable reboot will come to Xbox Series X/S and PC next year

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After years of teasing its arrival, Xbox has finally announced a release window for the upcoming Fable reboot. The game is slated to hit Xbox Series X/S and PC in 2025, and will be available on Xbox Game Pass from day one. The company dropped a new trailer during the Xbox Games Showcase on Sunday. Fable, which is being developed by Playground Games, was first announced with a teaser back in 2020.

Xbox is billing it as “a new beginning” for the series. The new Fable focuses on a washed-up ex-hero named Humphry, who we see in the latest trailer. He’ll be “forced out of retirement when a mysterious figure from his past threatens Albion's very existence.” In our last glimpse at the game, released during last year’s Summer Game Fest, we were introduced to a character named Dave, who is voiced by Richard Ayoade. The new trailer gives us a bit more of a look at some in-game footage and doubles down on the offbeat tone of the previous teasers.

We'll still have to wait a while for it to actually be released, but at least now there's a timeframe we can cling to. 

Catch up on all of the news from Summer Game Fest 2024 right here!

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/xboxs-fable-reboot-will-come-to-xbox-series-xs-and-pc-next-year-181914674.html?src=rss

Mixtape brings a killer ’80s soundtrack to Xbox, PS5 and PC in 2025

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Mixtape is a coming-of-age story about the reality-bending adventures of three teenage friends on their final night of high school, featuring a soundtrack of classic punk and alternative hits. It's due to hit Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 5 and PC in 2025, and it'll be available day-one on Xbox Game Pass.

Mixtape follows three friends on their way to their final high school party, as they relive their glory days to the tunes of a perfectly curated playlist. Their memories appear in dreamlike sequences, featuring songs by Iggy Pop, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Joy Division, DEVO, The Smashing Pumpkins and other old-school hit makers.

The main trio in Mixtape provide plenty of teenage sass in the game's reveal trailer, and its art style feels like something between stop-motion and cel-shaded cinematics. It's a welcoming, stylish world. The Mixtape microsite includes the mantra, "Skate. Party. Avoid the law. Make out. Sneak out. Hang out." Sounds like high school to me.

Mixtape comes from Beethoven & Dinosaur, the studio behind the musical adventure The Artful Escape and fronted by Australian rockstar Johnny Galvatron. It's published by Annapurna Interactive.

Catch up on all of the news from Summer Game Fest 2024 right here!

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mixtape-brings-a-killer-80s-soundtrack-to-xbox-and-pc-in-2025-181740393.html?src=rss

Perfect Dark reboot trailer shows Joanna Dark hunting bad guys in a near-future Cairo

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It's been a long, long time since we learned that a Perfect Dark reboot was in the works, and there are finally some fresh signs of life. A gameplay trailer was shown during the Xbox Games Showcase, though there's no release date or window as yet.

Xbox is billing the reboot as a "first-person secret agent thriller in a near-future world" that includes immersive sim and stealth-action elements. Based on this first look, co-developers The Initiative and may have nailed the brief. 

The clip shows Joanna Dark dropping into a near-future version of Cairo in search of a bad guy who possesses a radioactive device. She's able to capture goons' voice prints to open voice-activated door locks, and she can kick off walls to clamber up drain pipes and gain extra distance for jumps. Along with blasting enemies with guns, Joanna has some hand-to-hand combat skills too.

According to an Xbox Wire blog post, you'll have a range of traversal abilities and gadgets at your disposal, so you'll be able to choose how to complete missions. I'm just a little bummed that there was no sign of a laptop gun. 

The blog post also notes that "at the widest level, Perfect Dark will be a single-player experience." That could be a hint that there will be multiplayer modes too. I have my fingers crossed for that, as the original Perfect Dark was a better multiplayer shooter than Goldeneye 007.

Catch up on all of the news from Summer Game Fest 2024 right here!

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/perfect-dark-reboot-trailer-shows-joanna-dark-hunting-bad-guys-in-a-near-future-cairo-180150819.html?src=rss

The new 2D animated Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles show hits Paramount+ on August 9

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Paramount+ just dropped the full trailer for its upcoming animated TMNT series, Tales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and it looks like a lot of fun. The show, a spinoff of last year’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem, will see a slew of actors from the movie return to their roles, including Micah Abbey as Donatello, Shamon Brown Jr. as Michelangelo, Nicolas Cantu as Leonardo, Brady Noon as Raphael and Ayo Edebiri as April O’Neil. It’s scheduled to be released on the streaming platform August 9.

In Tales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the brothers find themselves up against the villain Bishop (now depicted as a woman), who should be familiar to longtime fans of the franchise. After becoming separated by Bishop, they’ll have to stand on their own until they find each other to fight together again. The show will get 12 episodes, which will be available exclusively on Paramount+.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-new-2d-animated-teenage-mutant-ninja-turtles-show-hits-paramount-on-august-9-163555708.html?src=rss

Cult of the Lamb is finally getting a co-op mode, but it’s local only

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I cannot think of a game from recent times that I’ve tried more aggressively to get my friends into than Cult of the Lamb. Maybe this is the whole cult mindset talking, but something about it all just begs to be enjoyed with a pal. I’m clearly not the only one who feels this way — fans have been asking the developers for months to add a multiplayer option so they can fight side-by-side with their friends. And now, it’s actually happening. Cult of the Lamb publisher Devolver Digital has announced an upcoming free update called “Unholy Alliance” that adds local co-op to the game along with a new playable character: The Goat.

“Unholy Alliance” will be available to download August 12 for PC, PS5 and PS4, Xbox Series S/X and Nintendo Switch. With the update, you’ll be able to take on the full campaign with the help of a second player. Per the announcement notes, “The Lamb and the Goat can swap weapons, deal extra damage when fighting back-to-back, or deal a critical hit if their attacks are in sync.” There will be multiplayer versions of knucklebones and the fishing minigame, too. Unfortunately for anyone who was hoping for online co-op, though, this unholy alliance is local only, and the developers have so far said there aren’t plans to bring it online.

The team behind this game has been really good about keeping it fresh with free updates that actually build on the story and acknowledge fans’ feedback — hello, we got the sex update — and it’s nice to see that continue some two years after its release. If you can’t make the most of the co-op, there will be perks in “Unholy Alliance” for solo players too, including “a heap of new powers and abilities to play with.” The update will also bring “new tarot cards, relics, buildings, fleeces, follower traits, follower quests, and other secrets to discover.”

Catch up on all of the news from Summer Game Fest 2024 right here!

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/cult-of-the-lamb-is-finally-getting-a-co-op-mode-but-its-local-only-180715026.html?src=rss