iOS, iPadOS 17.5 Released May 13, 2024

An important update has just been released to almost all Apple devices and Macs earlier this evening. The new update, 17.5 adds new features to iPad and iPhone including improvements to News+, HomePod and more!

New updates were released for iPad, iPhone Apple TV, Apple Watch and Mac. Depending on your device, the new update weighs in between 850MB-1GB.

There doesn’t appear to be an update to Apple Vision Pro at this time.

Super Nintendo World Revealed For Universal Studios Orlando’s Epic Universe May 2, 2024

The day I’ve waited nearly all my life felt a lot closer earlier this morning. Universal Studios Orlando Resort is planning to open its next major theme park next year. To anchor this new park is a complete adaptation of Super Nintendo World, a theme park land that made an enormous impact when it opened in Japan several years ago.

What can fans of Universal Studios Japan expect to see come to Epic Universe? Orlando is getting ALL of it and more! Let’s take a look:

Universal’s Epic Universe is opening in 2025 in Orlando, Florida.

Meta Announces their Virtual Reality OS Will Come to Non-Quest Headsets April 22, 2024

Huge announcement from Meta tonight and we don’t say that lightly. Meta has opened up the native operating system powering their Quest line of Virtual Reality (VR) headsets to outside hardware developers! They’re now calling the OS powering modern Quest headsets HorizonOS. This is a big deal as Third-Party Virtual Reality headsets powered by HorizonOS have already been announced by at least three major manufacturers including ROG.

As a Quest Pro owner I am very familiar with this platform’s OS and have been pleased by its development over the past two or so years. It will be interesting to see the VR market within the next year once HorizonOS powered headsets come out. We’ve always felt that for VR to work, it has to be able to do its functions and computing independently of a PC. The HorizonOS can deliver on that promise.

The question will remain, can these third-party headsets run the library of Quest 2/3/Pro games currently for sale on the Quest store once they launch? Time will have to tell!

Alan Wake 2 Behind the Scenes Stream – Episode 0 April 18, 2024

Alan Wake 2 was one of our most anticipated multiplatform titles from last year. It was a sequel to one of the best games of the past decade, and was developed by Remedy, one of our favorite game studios. Remedy had always planned to make a follow-up to the game, but the major publishers of the time dragged their feet in allowing Remedy to produce a sequel, despite the fact there were multiple false starts.

Now, Remedy has started a multi-part streaming event highlighting Alan Wake 2’s development, and Remedy launched the first episode of that show earlier this week. If you missed the live event, the episode has been archived on YouTube, check it out below!

Another episode is expected to start soon.

Alan Wake 2 is out now for PC, Xbox Series X/S and PS5.

Nintendo Switch Indie World Showcase April 2024 April 18, 2024

Nintendo hosted a new preview event yesterday where they showcased some of the upcoming third-party developed titles coming to the Nintendo Switch. As is traditional for these Indie World events, Nintendo didn’t show any of their upcoming first-party titles, but there were still plenty of high-quality upcoming games.

All games shown are coming to the Nintendo Switch.

Star Wars: Outlaws Release Date April 11, 2024

Since the release of Jedi: Fallen Order, Star Wars games have had a bit of a resurgence. Ubisoft’s highly anticipated Star Wars game FINALLY has a release date and a fantastic new single-player trailer to go along with it. Take a look!

Star Wars Outlaws is coming August 30th, 2024 to PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S.

visionOS 1.1.2 Released April 9, 2024

A minor but important update has just been released for the Apple Vision Pro. No new features are listed in the official notes for the update but we can expect it to include the typical bug fixes and optimizations that traditionally come with an Apple device update.

At this time there does not appear to be a sister update for either the iPad or iPhone.

Major Campaign to Stop Games Being Shut Down Launched April 2, 2024

The prophecy that was originally foreseen by writers such as anakronos has come to be. So many games sold today have online requirements to play. Publishers have claimed this is so they could implement features in the games that they would not be able to otherwise, but we all know that is a lie. But what happens when a major publisher makes a conscious decision to stop supporting the games they forced online requirements onto, making games we’ve purchased and paid full retail price for impossible to resume using for no other reason then that they don’t want us to? In most major nations, such as the US, this is somehow legal. Sadly, the technology to do this is relatively new, and the companies that are forcing these functions into the games they make are betting on the fact most lawmakers aren’t technologically inclined, and won’t write new laws to prevent them from doing whatever they want.

Ubisoft has recently announced they are ending support for the game The Crew, which has twelve million copies sold. Due to the fact that this is a game with a completely arbitrary online-only requirement, Ubisoft’s decision to end support for the game will make all twelve million copies of it completely unplayable. This is a future many gamers foresaw, but sadly, a collective round of “Told You So” is not going to cut it.

Starting today, one man has launched a legal volley against Ubisoft for their poor decision with the hope that it will force Ubisoft and other major publishers to rethink their anti-consumer positions. Ross Scott, host of the online review show Ross’s Game Dungeon, has begun a worldwide legal campaign to force governments to write laws to put an end to this shameful practice. Let’s hear what he has to say:

If you want to see what you can do to send a message to the gaming industry, and shine a light on just how bad it is to be a gaming consumer today to the rest of the world, visit the website StopKillingGames.com. See you all there!

Stellar Blade Demo Released on PS5 March 30, 2024

If there’s one upcoming game for the PS5 that has been drawing a lot of positive goodwill from gamers, it’s the game Stellar Blade. Billed as a post-apocalyptic action-RPG by a Korean developer, Stellar Blade has just released a free demo on the PlayStation Network that anyone can download and play. Here’s the latest gameplay trailer.

The developer says that players of the demo will get a special in-game surprise if they bring their demo save file to the full version of the game.

Stellar Blade is coming April 26th, 2024 exclusively to PS5.

Inside Final Fantasy VII – Rebirth March 28, 2024

Square Enix has just released a four-part documentary about the making of the recently released Final Fantasy VII Rebirth. This game had the distinction of being the second component of a three-part HD Remake of one of the greatest games of all time. Grab some popcorn for this one, folks, and enjoy.

Final Fantasy VII Rebirth is out now exclusively for the PS5.