This week on The Shift, Shane Hewitt and I talked about the new turn-based tactical game from Ubisoft (and Nintendo), Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope, the upcoming expansion for the Long Dark, Tales From the Far Territory, the remastered Crysis trilogy coming to Steam, the $270 price tag for the PS5 DualSense Edge controller, and the new iPads and Apple TV streaming box announced by Apple last week.
Mario and the Rabbids save the universe, the Long Dark gets bigger, the Crysis expands, and the PS5 DualSense Edge controller gets a price tag.
Mario and the Rabbids, together again in Sparks of Hope
Kingdom Battle was the first game to partner Nintendo’s Mario with Ubisoft’s Rabbid characters. It was a hilarious success, leveraging the goofy humour of the Rabbids and the popularity of the plumber and putting them into a turn-based tactical game in which players and enemies take turn moving around a battleground and trying to take each other out.
Sparks of Hope is a return to the concept and it does not disappoint.
The turn-based aspect of the game is even better, with battlegrounds that are more open and opponents that are much more challenging. The tactical aspects here are supplemented by more strategic elements that come from the ability to upgrade the skills of your heroes, as well as the “sparks” which are power-ups of a sort, granting powers to the characters.
There’s also a light real-time element to the game which is enabled by the more open environments and brings more fluidity to the battles.
Mario, Luigi, Peach. Bowser, Rabbid Rosalina, and Edge (another Rabbid) are your protagonists, and in each battle you can choose which of them is going to be involved. Because each character is so distinct, there’s additional fun in trying to come up with the best matchups for the challenge ahead.
You’ll travel to five worlds in the course of the game, and while there’s a narrative here, it’s not necessarily coherent. Not that it needs to be. The fun is in the ridiculousness of the Rabbids and the sophistication of the turn-based gameplay.
A more frustrating aspect of the game is the long tutorial that teaches the game to new players, and the long loading screens. Both of these have players sitting around waiting to play for longer than they may have patience for. This was certainly true for the 12-year-old in my house.
But patience pays off, and Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope is worth the wait.
The Long Dark expansion is Tales From the Far Territory
The Long Dark, a first-person survival game set in the wilds of Canada, is getting a substantial expansion in the form of Tales From the Far Territory.
This expansion promises a year of additional narrative, environments to explore, and objectives to complete and will cost US$20. It will be available first from Epic Games Store and Steam, but will also be added to the game’s console releases.
Developed in B.C. by Hinterland Games, The Long Dark is more than just a survival game. It’s a simulation of survival, requiring players to monitor things like temperature, hunger, and thirst, all while at the mercy of the landcape and the creatures that live in it.
Crysis trilogy to Steam
The three games in the Crysis trilogy, which feature super-soldiers trying to resist an alien invasion of Earth, were remastered for consoles in 2020 and 2021 (the games themselves were first released between 2007 and 2013) and released as a trilogy.
On November 17, the trilogy will be released on Steam.
The first-person shooter games have players wearing nanosuits that give them superhuman strength and speed, and the ability to go nearly invisible with a cloaking mode.
A fourth game in the franchise was announced earlier this year, but no publication date has been set.
PlayStation DualSense Edge controller price announced
PlayStation’s customizable DualSense Edge controller will cost $270 in Canada when it releases on January 26.
Replaceable thumbsticks are priced at $25.
You can preorder the new controller now at the usual retailers, including Amazon, Best Buy, and GameStop.
The game conroller for Sony’s PS5 console has buttons that are mappable, triggers with adjustable lengths, and thumbsticks with adjustable sensitivity.
Last week, Apple surprised consumers – and tech journalists – with a stealth announcement of a bunch of new devices, some of which are already available in stores.
An updated iPad Pro is built with Apple’s M2 chip that is in the company’s MacBook Air and MacBook Pro. It’s also got better wireless connectivity.
With support for the second generation Apple Pencil, the new iPad Pro also introduces a new feature called “hover”. The Apple Pencil is detected by the tablet when it’s up to 12mm above the screen which unlocks precision and previews and anything else developers can think to enable.
The new iPad Pro is available now, starting at $1,099 (11-inch) and $1,499 (12.9-inch).
Apple has also revamped the base model iPad, which uses the A15 Bioinic chip. The 10.9-inch device starts at $599. These come in a standard silver colour, but also new yellow, pink, and blue hues.
The other thing Apple revealed last week was a new Apple TV 4K which comes out next week at a price of $179 ($199 if you want an ethernet port).
In addition to supporting 4K video, the new box also delivers the latest high dynamic range standard, HDR10 Plus. It will allow up to two sets of wireless headphones to be connected at a time and the Apple TV also acts as a smart home hub, too.
This week on The Shift, Shane Hewitt and I talked about the Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves collection on PC, the Canada update to Microsoft Flight Simulator, designing your own Xbox Elite Series 2 controller at the Xbox Design Lab, Manulife’s Vitality program, and Microsoft’s new Surface devices, the Surface Pro 9, Surface Laptop 5, and Surface Studio Pro 2+.
The last two games in Naughty Dog’s Nathan Drake Uncharted games make their way to Windows computers and you can now become a bush pilot in Microsoft Flight Simulator. Plus, customize your own Elite Series 2 controller for your Xbox.
Uncharted brings the swagger to PC
More games created for Playstation platforms are appearing on Windows computers. Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves collects the games Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End and Uncharted: The Lost Legacy, which effectively wrap up the story of Nathan Drake and his confederates.
The games are narrative romps inspired by the likes of Lara Croft, the Tomb Raider, and Indiana Jones. Developed by Naughty Dog, they are notable for quippy dialogue, great acting, and, in these later games, breathtaking visuals and landscapes.
Remastered and readied for the range of PC systems out there, this collection supports 4K displays and ultra-wide monitors, and if you’ve got a DualShock controller connected to your computer you can also experience the full haptics and force feedback in the triggers.
Fly to Canadian destinations with Microsoft Flight Simulator
The latest update to this singular sim opens up the great white north to flight. Through an update to Microsoft Flight Simulator, you can explore the skies above twelve Canadian urban centres which feature detailed recreations of points of interest like Chateau Frontenac in Quebec City, the Parliament Buildings in Ottawa, the Canadian High Arctic Research Station in Nunavut, the Lethbridge Viaduct, the Banff Springs Hotel, and the city of Vancouver.
As part of this, you get to tackle some challenging landing strips as well as do some old-fashioned bush flying in the Canadian wilds.
The update is free if you’ve got a copy of Microsoft Flight Simulator, which is available as part of the Xbox Game Pass or PC Game Pass subscriptions.
Design your own Xbox Elite controller
The Xbox Elite controller is, well, the elite controller for the Xbox consoles. And now you can create your own personalized version of the Elite Series 2 at the Xbox Design Lab.
Choose your own colour scheme, including, for the first time, the thumbstick base and ring.
And as the Elite controllers were developed with interchangeable components, so too can you change out the paddles, thumbsticks, and D-pad on the Elite Series 2 that you create for yourself.
You can design a custom Elite Series 2 controller for $150. A set including a controller, additional components, and a charging carrying case is $210.
The Mind Control Division is the intelligence arm of Blaine Kyllo's Solo Corps Creative Incorporated. This department conducts investigations and experiments into media and technology culture.
