Kill Screen Magazine's Blog, page 460

We let the Internet sum up CES so we don't have to

If you’ve been following the tech and gaming blogs this week—and you have, or else you wouldn’t be here—you are aware that a pretty huge trade show known as the Consumer Electronics Show has been going down in Las Vegas. It can be a lot to keep up with, as this year we’ve got some big gaming news. We learned the Steam Machines are hideous. Sony’s launching a streaming service called PlayStation Now. The Oculus Rift now tracks your movement, so you can peek around a virtual wall. Intel brought levitating whales to their conference. And don’t forget about this strange pair of virtual reality headphones. 

And that’s just a small fraction. But don’t sweat it. The Verge has you covered, condensing their coverage of thousands of dog-mounted cameras and traceable tennis rackets into five minutes of video footage. Of particular greatness is the Sony conference being pared down to a couple of minutes. Those can drag on forever. 

Wii Fit U vs Xbox Fitness: The exercise game cage match

Two games enter. Both probably leave.

Terry Cavanagh shows off VVVVVV ports, plus a bunch of insane prototypes

You probably know Terry Cavanagh as the guy who makes beautifully difficult games like VVVVVV. Well, know this, inquisitive reader: He just announced that VVVVVV is coming to Vita, Ouya, Android, and all things iOS. 

But Cavanagh also fiddles around making all kinds of exquisitely strange little games, such as the cat chat room ChatChat. Seriously, what could be better than a chat room where everyone’s a cat? How about all of these unfinished games that he just posted on his blog. While we don’t know which of these prototypes will find their way out into the world, it’s fascinating to see the laboratory of one of gaming’s best.

I’m mostly intrigued by Untitled DarkSoulslike, because, well, look at this thing!

Then, there’s this C64-ifed roguelike. Pardon the geek-speak.

Fingers crossed this one becomes Super Hexagon 2. 

Sony's streaming service will either be good, evil, or somewhere in between

As Sony made known yesterday, PlayStation systems are about to partake in an orgy of streaming content. Called PlayStation Now, the all-streaming, digital subscription service is a bold move by Sony, letting us play games the same way that we watch TV on Netflix, and listen to music on Spotify. You will be able to stream PS3 games to whatever system you own, be it a PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, or a Vita. You can start playing Uncharted in your living room on PS4 and finish it in your bedroom on PS3, or on your Vita in the bathroom, because it’s hard to live without a PlayStation system in every room. 

How this will effect creatives remains to be seen, but let's compare it to other streaming services, shall we? Netflix is praised for changing people's viewing habits and bringing legions of new viewers to Buffy and Angel; Spotify is vilified for paying artists peanuts in exchange for their music. It could be beautiful or it could be awful. How do you think PS Now will pan out for creatives?

Continue?9876543210 is a brilliant mess of videogame ontology

An epitaph for epitaphs.

Virtual reality just got a little more real with the Avegant Glyph

One very cool gadget among a sea of very cool gadgets at CES is this pair of noise-canceling virtual-reality headphones. Yes, that is a thing. The Glyph by Avegant, as seen above, looks like a pair of ordinary headphones, until you tilt them down to wear them over your eyes and viola: virtual freakin' reality.

The device is positioned as a consumer-friendlier competitor of the Oculus Rift, the virtual reality visor that took the Internet by storm with the promise of low-cost, competent virtual reality you can use at home. The idea behind the Glyph is that it’s cheaper and portable, meaning that you could jack into the matrix anywhere. Just plug them into your phone. 

What the portable nature of these visors shows is that virtual reality has potential to become a widely-used technology, and not just some exotic experiment. While it’s not likely that the Glyph performs as admirably as the Rift, given it’s limited 45 degree viewing radius, there are things to be excited for. Namely, virtual reality is starting to actually look like something you’d theoretically wear in public—or at least in front of a significant other. If you’re lucky someone may mistake it for Google Glass.

Starbound is classic sci-fi, meaning: violent as hell

To boldly go where no robot has ever gone before.

Serenely fall to your death in Skydrift for iOS

A series of motion-controlled vignettes about dodging jagged craters and sharp branches while gracefully free-falling through unreal dreamscapes, Skydrift for iOS is further proof that the worst nightmares make the best games. Though I’ve never suffered a dream of falling I have seen Vertigo and deduct it isn't fun, so this is my chance to live it vicariously without the cold sweats. Everything in Skydrift is intentionally mysterious, which means it’s all fog and occult triangles and flashbacks of jumping off your horse and accidentally tumbling from a great precipice to the sea in Shadow of the Colossus, which it goes without saying is great stuff. Also it’s free and as I haven’t had a good excuse to twist my phone around lately this will be seeing some playing time. Watch the video, be very impressed, and then grab it here. 

This spinner robot can run faster than you. Good thing it looks like Kirby.

Is it just me or are there more than a few similarities between this rolling robot and Nintendo’s shapeshifting mascot Kirby? It’s round. It’s pink. And it has transformed from a ball into a tire that spins incredibly fast, which is the best Kirby power-up, easily.  

This version of Sphero, the 2B, which is controlled wirelessly by an app on your phone, can do a mile in 6 minutes flat and has rugged tires equipped for any terrain, meaning that you can’t outrun this baby unless you are a high school athlete. Luckily, it’s cute and has good intentions. While this robot poses little threat to humanity, we are concerned about the danger of one based on some of Kirby’s other maneuvers, such as flapping skyward and transforming into a 100 pound weight above your head.

This week in Elder Scrolls news: fan remakes and Emperor’s crowns

It’s a good week to be an Elder Scrolls fan, and not just because it’s so freaking cold outside that there’s a halfway-decent chance you’ll be able to spot the Northern Lights, reliving that magic hike from Skyrim.

One reason to be excited is that the fan project Skywind—a remake of Morrowind using Skyrim’s engine, duh—is making headway and looks outstanding. The first developer’s diary tells the tale of 70 brave volunteers who took on the task of a monolithic studio and in all honesty look to be turning out a better game than Bethesda would have. Let’s have a look, shall we: 

The other bit of news is that Elder Scrolls Online will let players become “Emperors,” lords of the sword who’ve earned special stats by playing with a sort of inexhaustible reserve. Exactly how you do this gets complicated; read here. This is potentially cool and gives the game that added initiative so necessary in an MMO of being bigger and better than the rest, but I can imagine a lot of other players wanting to kick an Emperor’s ass. 

That’s it for now. See you next time for more news and vikings and stuff.