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Beyond Blue – Ocean Exploration

Beyond Blue looks like a fantastic ocean adventure game. It’s set against the near future backdrop of Earth’s oceans. Beyond Blue will offer scientific support of real world exploration and outreach initiative, Ocean X, embracing it’s minimally invasive exploration techniques.

Beyond Blue will tell the story of a crew of scientists, led by oceanographers Mirai and Andre. They are keen to test their Ocean Sense Network. This holds the power to literally shine a light on the unexplored depths of the ocean.

The game will also focus on the Western Pacific ocean amid a large multispecies gathering of cetaceans and other creatures. You will play as Mirai to use the technology to better understand the urgent threats that our oceans face. Beyond Blue will also feature never before seen footage licensed from BBC Studios’ Blue Planet II. Furthermore it will help to expand upon the game’s story, educating players on the social and emotional lives of whales.

Beyond Blue Development Team Says….

“We are extremely excited to share Beyond Blue with everyone,”

“We have taken care to craft a visual and audio experience that immerses players in the beauty of the ocean and the amazing creatures that inhabit it, while hopefully doing so with some interpretation and artistry.”

“Players will explore diverse environments ranging from a sun-dappled, oasis-like atoll down through the gauzy blue ‘twilight’ zone where only the faintest amount of light reaches to the midnight of the abyssal zone, where rarely seen creatures produce their own light in an environment otherwise devoid of light.” Michael Angst, CEO, E-Line Media, Creative Director for Beyond Blue.

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Charge and Store – Nintendo Switch

You have a Nintendo Switch. With plenty of games, a pro controller, joy cons and a Poke Ball. But how do you store them all? Can’t have them lying about and causing a mess or getting dusty. Or even worse, lost or broken! Therefore you need a storage solution! We have been trying out the Charge and Store by Venom for the Nintendo Switch. It’s fantastic!

Not only can you store up to six games safely. You can also charge your pro controller and joycons all at once! How convenient is that?! Especially if you keep your Switch docked and play on the big screen a lot. There’s no need to constantly be removing and plugging in your joy cons. They can stay charged nearer to you and never get lost!

There’s separate charge points for a Pro Controller, 2 Joy Con controllers and a Poke Ball. Better yet, there’s an LED charge indicator for when the controllers are fully powered. Furthermore it’s USB powered so you can either charge via a mans socket or USB powered device!

We think the Charge and Store is a fantastic little device and we think that ALL Nintendo Switch users should have one. You won’t be disappointed.

Purchase a Charge and Store for Nintendo Switch by Venom by clicking here!

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330 E3 Special Part 2 w/Louise Blane

Episode 329 E3 Special 2019 Part 1 w/Louise Blain

Google Stadia: Netflix of Gaming?

Google have announced an unveiled a brand new gaming platform. Which is very different to what Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo are offering right now. It’s called Stadia and the games will be streamed to you via an internet browser. Which are said to be better than console quality! Stadia is said to work on existing desktops, laptops, tv’s and phones, said Phil Harrison VP and general manager of Google. Even the least powerful of PC’s can run Stadia!

The tech giant also revealed a controller for Stadia. It looks much like a regular console controller. Though it also has a Google Assistant button and a capture button to capture gaming and directly put it on YouTube.

Google Stadia Controllers

ID Software announced that Doom Eternal will be one of the first games on launch. Which will be in 2019 in the US, Canada, UK and Europe. Exactly when that is in 2019 is unknown. No pricing was announced either.

Stadia: How?

How can even smartphones, TV’s and not so powerful PC’s play these top end games? Well, because the games run elsewhere on Google’s own high end hardware. You connect to it via the internet, the hardware then does all the hard work and sends you a video feed of what you are playing back to you. Essentially.

However, other services such as ‘OnLive’ which tried this back in the day (2010-2015) and Nvidia’s GeForce Now where some have encountered lag. They suffered due to the difficulty of offering high end games via an internet connection. But the question remains is it their end or is it the consumers own internet?

Lag: A delay between an action being performed on a controller or keyboard and the action being replicated on screen.

Google have said that the controller will connect to the internet directly. Which will then communicate with their servers which will reduce the amount of lag that players may encounter.

Impressively (if they pull this off) Google will be able to offer games at 4K at 60FPS and up to 8K 120FPS in the future. (Who needs 8K?!?) The Stadia is also insanely powerful with a GPU of 10.7 GPU teraflops while Xbox One X the worlds most powerful console has 6 GPU teraflops and the PS4 pro has 4.2 GPU teraflops. Basically, it’s very very good.

(BBC)

Google Stadia: We have some questions.

All very impressive indeed although we have some questions:

  • Are the games like Netflix: Pay to play many games for 1 subscription fee
  • Or we have to buy our own games?
  • Can we download our games to play them offline?
  • How does multiplayer work?
  • Are the multiplayer lobbies/parties
  • Is there protection from hacking?
  • What happens when the internet goes down?
  • How will my games me kept secure
  • How many games are available?
  • Will all the AAA games be available at launch
  • Will the footage be flagged for copyright from Stadia’s own capture system from YouTube’s Copyright flagging software?

But most of all, how laggy will it be? People’s internet will need to be able to cope with the game, if there’s the slightest bit of lag it will put gamers off. Coupled with multiplayer games, if there’s double the lag, people will not want to use the service.

It’s an interesting time to be a gamer certainly as Microsoft have their cloud service in the works too with ‘Xcloud’ so is this the way gaming is heading or will it supplement good ol’ physical disks or downloads.

Raging Justice

Raging Justice – Be prepared for a nostalgia rush!

Raging Justice is back and it’s coming to the modern consoles and getting a HUGE update!

From MakinGames, an independent studio comprised of old school Rare Studio veterans. The new version of Raging Justice plays a lot of homage to the original. It’s nostalgic and has a lot of 8-bit sounds to take a user back into the arcades where you put money into a machine to play for a until the sun went down.

For those unaware of what Raging Justice is, you take on hordes and hordes of thugs. (Much like Horde modes on Call of Duty or Gears of War) Once you get to the end of the level, you as a user will be tasked of whether or not to arrest the thugs or to destroy them. Are you a bad cop or a good cop?

Depending on what you choose throughout the game will determine what ending you get once you complete it.

Raging Justice: Features

There are a range of different things at your disposal to complete levels, such as a range of weapons. These aren’t just guns, pick stool and throw it at your foes. Choose a baseball bat to knock some blocks off or even use the deadly pigeon! Furthermore, there is even a range of vehicles you can jump on to run down your enemies. Not just a regular vehicle either. Jump on a tractor or a lawnmower to run them down. Furthermore, you’ll be untouchable but if the vehicle runs extremely low on health you better jump out buddy as no one is saving you!

We don’t know about you but we’re very excited for this game!

Raging Justice will be released in 2018 and feature on Mac, PC, PS4, Switch and XBox One

To listen to the guys discussing this on the podcast please click here! We have since played this game and reviewed it on the show which you can listen to here! (Link LIVE from May 31st)

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Ultra Street Fighter II: The Final Challengers

This week we tried out the hotly anticipated fighting game for Nintendo Switch: Ultra Street Fighter II: The Final Challengers!

  • In Arcade mode, a single player must defeat 12 warriors on the path to becoming the World Warrior champion
  • Prepare for intense co-op battles as two friends can team up in Buddy Battle to throw down new two-player combos and attack their opponents from both sides
  • Fight locally against a friend or against the CPU in Versus mode
  • Go online and fight against the best players across the mode in either ranked or casual matches
  • Brush up on old skills – or learn new ones – in the training mode before taking on new challengers
  • In the brand new mode called Way of the Hado, players can play a unique first-person mode and experience what it’s like to be Ryu. By using motion controls to perform moves, players can fight off an onslaught of opponents using the iconic Shoryuken (dragon punch), Tatsumaki Senpukyaku (hurricane kick), and Ryu’s fireball super combo, Shinku Hadoken
  • Compatible with Nintendo Switch only

To listen to the guys chatting about this please click here!

To buy your own copy of Ultra Street Fighter 2: The Final Challengers please click here!

Mario Kart + Target = AMAZING!

Episode 193 – NinTenDo Switch Update

Nintendo Switch charging Macbook’s?!

Turns out new Macbook/Pro’s can charge your Nintendo Switch and vice versa – with some tweaking.

Now don’t worry don’t have to go editing code or taking apart your shiny new pieces of tech.

As both systems use USB-C to charge you can plug a Nintendo Switch into the Macbook Pro and, if the system is on, it will charge the Macbook Pro, but, if the system is off the Macbook Pro will charge the Switch. All you need is a USB-C to USB-C cable!

Can even use a wall charger for a MacBook/Pro to charge to switch, extra power should, theoretically charge the console faster.

To listen to the guys chatting about this please click here!