This week on The Shift, Shane Hewitt and I talked about a new esports scholarship program for post-secondary students in Ontario, Prime Video eyeing a God of War live action series, the delay of Forspoken, new games on the Xbox Game Pass library, and Jabra’s Elite 7 Pro and Elite 7 Active wireless earbuds.
There’s a new scholarship in Ontario for students wanting to study esports, Prime mulls God of War series, Forspoken pushed to October, new games on Xbox Game Pass.
Government of Ontario announces esports scholarship program
The provincial government in Ontario has established a $1 million scholarship fund to be distributed over two years to postsecondary students in “esports and related programs”, which includes “game design, development, marketing, and innovation industry that may lead to a career in similar fields.”
The scholarships will be awarded this fall and will be available through Ontario’s colleges and universities.
God of War television series considered for pick up by Prime
Deadline reports that Amazon’s Prime Video is “in negotiations for a live-action TV series based on the hugely popular” video game series, God of War, which is developed by Sony’s Santa Monica Studio and exclusive to Playstation consoles.
Forspoken release pushed from May to October
A new adventure game from Square Enix that is a PS5 exclusive is getting a few extra months in development.
Forspoken, which counts Gary Whitta and Amy Hennig on its writing team, will be released on October 11 and not May 24 as originally planned.
In a Twitter post the development team said it would “focus all of our efforts on polishing the game”.
We did get a new gameplay trailer, though, so that’s something to keep our interest for a few more months.
New games added to Xbox Game Pass
Tunic, a new game published by Finji and developed by Halifax game designer, Andrew Shouldice, was released today and in addition to being available on Windows is also available through Xbox Game Pass.
About a “small fox on a big adventure,” Tunic is an adventure game with puzzles to be solved and enemies to be defeated.
Also new to Xbox Game Pass is Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy, which I loved. Now anyone with a subscription can enjoy the adventure game from Eidos-Montreal.
For the past couple of weeks I’ve been using Jabra’s two new wireless earbud models and have discovered that they improve on what was already the best wireless earbuds you could get.
Both the Elite 7 Pro ($260) and Elite 7 Active ($240) are equipped with Bluetooth 5.2 for a range of up to ten metres and multipoint support, which means you can have two devices connected to the earbuds at any one time.
They have active noise cancellation and the ability to adjust how much outside sound you want to let in, and you can use these with a single earbud, if you want to have one ear open.
And both models give you eight hours of charge, a charging case that can itself be charged wirelessly, and six microphones for making calls.
The Elite 7 Pro has an additional four microphones that support what Jabra calls “voice pick up” sensors, which transmit your voice through your jawbone when sound to the mics is disrupted, like when you’re using them on a breezy day.
All of that is outstanding and category leading, but for me, the best improvement is that the Elite 7 earbuds are smaller and don’t stick out of my ears as much as the pair of Elite 85t that have been my go-to favourites for more than a year.
That, more than anything, has meant for a vastly improved experience because they don’t catch the wind or suffer from the rain in the same way. So if I’m needing to make a call when I’m walking the dog, I’m wearing the Elite 7 Pros, and when I’m on the ski hill, like I was in Whistler yesterday, I’ve got the Elite 7 Actives stuck in my skull.
This week on The Shift, Shane Hewitt and I talked about the PS4/PS5 exclusive Gran Turismo 7, Wylde Flowers, an Xbox mentoring program for women, the new Phoenix Fire angel investment fund, Epic Games buying Bandcamp, and the new Apple products Mac Studio, Studio Display, iPad Air, iPhone SE, and the green iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 Pro.
Playstation exclusive Gran Turismo 7 is a pure racing sim, Wylde Flowers is more than your average farming sim, Xbox reveals a mentoring program for women.
Gran Turismo 7 a glorious celebration of auto racing
The latest edition of Playstation’s racing sim, Gran Turismo 7 is made for the purists.
This is not an arcade racer. There’s no larger narrative to provide an excuse to play. Gran Turismo is about driving cars as fast as possible on virtual versions of the world’s most exciting race tracks.
I was stunned by the photo realism in this game from developer Polyphony Digital. There were moments when I was sure I was watching live racing coverage, not playing a video game.
Playing on the PS5 confused me even more because the feeling of accelerating and braking was so tactile due to the adaptive triggers on the DualSense controller.
A true racing simulation, Gran Turismo 7 is available for PS4 and PS5 and you can play together with a friend on the same system, or online with up to 20 players. It’s available now, and if you’re a Playstation owner who likes to race cars, it’s waiting for you.
Wylde Flowers steps out of farming sim stereotype by adding witchcraft
A new game exclusive to Apple Arcade will appeal to fans of Stardew Valley and Animal Crossing.
Wylde Flowers puts players in the shoes of Tara, who has returned to the bucolic island where she grew up to look after her aging grandmother.
The light-hearted game, from Australian developer Studio Drydock, has similar gameplay to other life simulation games. You’ll tend a garden, go fishing, and take care of animals.
Where Wylde Flowers differs, though, is in the depth of the story. And the fact that Tara is actually a witch, complete with broom.
Other new games on Apple Arcade include Shadow Blade, an action-platformer about ninjas, and Monument Valley 2, a puzzle game in which you manipulate the architecture of Escher-like landscapes.
Xbox announces mentoring program for women in gaming
Even before recent commitments by the company to scale the ‘culture of proactive inclusion’, the Xbox group has been supporting and celebrating the achievements of its female workforce through Women in Gaming and Women of Xbox groups in every territory.
And the company has women in key leadership and decision-making roles.
Bonnie Ross runs 343 Industries, which is responsible for the Halo franchise, and Kiki Wolfkill manages transmedia for Halo.
Helen Chiang is a corporate vice president overseeing Minecraft.
Shannon Loftis, who helped create Fable and Viva Pinata, recently retired from leading World’s Edge, the studio making Age of Empires.
Mary McGuane is a studio manager.
Kim Swift is in a key role in the Cloud Gaming group.
Louise O’Connor is an executive producer at Rare.
Kate Rayner is head of technology at The Coalition in Vancouver.
And that’s only a few. There are many, many more.
The new mentoring program will connect these women and more with “aspiring talent through one-on-one coaching sessions to help foster career development for the next generation of leaders in gaming”.
More details of the program will be announced later this month.
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.
