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Get your kung fu fighting with Sifu, your zombie survival with Dying Light 2, and your hopes up with news that work on a new Grand Theft Auto is “well underway”.

Sublime Sifu will test your quick-twitch skills

Sifu embodies the fluidity of kung fu as it drops you into a story of revenge.

The latest game from indie developer Sloclap is like other recent titles – Returnal, Death Loop, and Hades – that challenge players to complete the game in a single run.

What’s different in this game, available for PS4, PS5, and Windows, is that Sifu is inspired by Chinese gangster films that put social breakdown at the centre of the story. The art and animation here are exquisite, bringing together a watercolour aesthetic with a satisfying flurry of kung fu moves as you finish off enemies.

After a world-establishing preface that gives you a taste of the power that you’ll employ later in the game, you become a young man out to avenge his father and solve the mystery of the criminal organization that has your city in a vice.

At its core, this is a fighting game, and to be successful you will need to be able to time your button presses to parry and dodge and counterattack at just the right moments. In Sifu, button mashing will get you nowhere.

As you progress through the game you’ll have opportunities to improve your odds by boosting your skills and abilities or improving how well you can wield the weapons you’ll find along the way. You’ll also explore and uncover clues, opening up more of the world and make it easier to progress in later play throughs.

When you are defeated, you’ll have the option to start over from the beginning, or you can choose to give up some of your life in order to keep going. This comes with a tradeoff. Older you is more powerful, but also more vulnerable.

This is a game intended for those who like the fighting genre, who like quick-twitch reflex mechanics, and who don’t mind a bit of frustration as you skill up.

If this is you, you’ll revel in the fluidity of the movement, you’ll love feeling like a kung fu master. At its best, Sifu is sublime.

Dying Light 2 gives us another apocalypse to overcome

Every zombie apocalypse has its own origin story. With the Dying Light series from Techland people become zombies when they are infected by a a virus of unknown origin. In the first game, the infection was limited to a single city, but Dying Light 2 picks up some 15 years after “the Fall,” when a lab-created virus variant escapes and spreads everywhere.

The story in this sequel, available on PS4, PS5, Windows, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S, is twisting and filled with rival factions and subverted loyalties. It’s all set in the fictional city of Villedor, an open world space in which you can scrounge supplies, pick up collectibles, and assist citizens by taking on side missions.

Anchoring the first-person experience are parkour mechanics that allow you to navigate the city but are also key to combat. And you’ll be fighting not just zombies, which are slower and less aggressive during the day, fast and deadly at night, but also various humans who, in their own way, are struggling to survive and thrive.

Your survival and success are dependent on managing your supplies, crafting and enhancing weapons and tools, and upgrading your combat and free running skills. You can also choose to hole up in a safe house at night, only emerging during the day, and you can play with up to three friends in co-op.

While the story you experience is somewhat dependent on the decisions you make during the game, what Villedor looks like, and who lives there, is highly dependent on which factions you support through your actions.

Dying Light 2 provides a vast and intriguing survival experience, and the parkour action is something else.

Rockstar Games confirms the next Grand Theft Auto game is in development

In a community update published last week, Rockstar Games revealed that “active development for the next entry in the Grand Theft Auto series is well underway”.

In the meantime, Grand Theft Auto 5, which was released in 2013, is getting a remastered release for PS5 and Xbox Series X on March 15. The updates feature 4K visuals at up to 60 frames per second and HDR.

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Samsung’s latest product briefing introduced three Galaxy S22 smartphones and three Galaxy Tab S8 tablets.

Samsung introduces the Galaxy S22 series of smartphones

Earlier today, Samsung shared details of the new Galaxy S22 line of handsets. The three configurations – S22, S22+, and S22 Ultra – will be released on February 22, but are available to preorder now.

Among the updates common to all three models are glass on both the front and back, Bluetooth 5.2, which will bring more stable connections, and the ability to shoot video in 8K resolution and display with a refresh rate of up to 120 Hz.

They all support Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 6e, which work on the 6 GHz band and ultimately can lead to better uploads and downloads. The artificial intelligence built into these phones will do a better job of making sure that upload and download access is assigned to the apps that need it most, so you don’t have hiccups in your video conference call because you’re smartphone is downloading a Clash Royale update.

But these features all impact the power consumption of mobile devices, so Samsung has also come up with ways that the handsets can reduce energy use when they can. The Wi-Fi chipset, for example, will be put into sleep mode when it’s not being used. And the refresh rate of the display can be but to as low as 10 Hz when possible.

The cameras in these handsets are also a step up from the S21 models of last year. The S22 and S22+ have three lenses on the back, a 12 MP ultra-wide, a 50 MP wide, and a 10 MP telephoto with 3x optical zoom. The S22 Ultra swaps out the wide for a 108 MP version and adds a telephoto with a 10x optical zoom.

The S22 and S22+ have 10 MP front cameras; it’s a 40 MP on the S22 Ultra.

You can also thank Samsung for coining the term, “Nightography”, which it is using to trumpet the ability of the Galaxy S22 devices to capture photos and video in low light conditions.

The other notable addition to the Galaxy S22 Ultra is that it comes with a built-in S Pen, once a feature exclusive to the Note series.

Pricing for the new Galaxy S22 smartphones (RAM, storage):

  • Galaxy S22 with a 6.1-inch display: $1,100 (8 GB, 128 GB) and $1,170 (8 GB, 256 GB)
  • Galaxy S22+ with a 6.6-inch display: $1,400 (8 GB, 128 GB) and $1470 (8 GB, 256 GB)
  • Galaxy S22 Ultra with a 6.8-inch display: $1,650 (8 GB, 128 GB), $1,790 (8 GB, 256 GB), and $1,930 (12 GB, 512 GB)

The Samsung Canada online store is also selling a Galaxy S22 Ultra with 12 GB of RAM and 1 TB of storage for $2,210.

Samsung is offering pre-order incentives to get double the storage capacity for no additional cost, saving you either $70 or $140.

Samsung rolls out three new tablets

Samsung’s three new Galaxy Tab S8 mobile devices are significant because of the screen sizes: 11-inch, 12.4-inch, and 14.6-inch displays.

The largest display, on the Tab S8 Ultra, is OLED and is bigger than Apple’s largest screen, the 12.9-inch display on the iPad Pro.

These Android tablets, which will hit shelves on February 23, all support microSD cards for storage expansion and “Super Fast Charging” and they all come with an S Pen stylus.

Keyboard cases are available for the Tab 8 models as an add on, but preorders before February 24 get a Book Cover Keyboard Slim and a pair of Galaxy Buds2 thrown in.

Pricing for the new Galaxy Tab S8 tablets (RAM, storage):

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Pokemon Legends: Arceus is just different enough, we get a first look at the Halo live-action series trailer, three new Star Wars games are in development at EA, Valve’s Steam Deck launches this month, Wordle goes to the Times, Ziva goes to Unity, and Bungie goes to Playstation.

New Pokemon Legends: Arceus shakes things up but stays the same in all the right ways

For all that Pokemon Legends: Arceus does differently, there’s one critical thing that remains the same: the yearning to catch them all.

The first new Pokemon game for Nintendo’s Switch since 2019’s Sword & Shield pairing, Arceus throws back in the franchise chronology and has players creating an encyclopedia of the creatures, called a Pokedex.

What’s different here is the way the game is presented, with a true third-person perspective and an open world to explore. While not all regions are accessible from the start, there are no loading screens or cutaways to endure. In the same way, players slide easily into combat and instead of serving up the Pokemon battles with a different viewpoint, they happen right in the world itself.

It makes for a much more fluid experience, and combined with side missions and collectibles to discover, Arceus is like the open world games that have become so popular.

There are even random events, called Space-time Distortions, that appear in the game and provide intense arena-like battles against rare and powerful Pokemon.

By smoothing out the way players interact with it, Pokemon Legends: Arceus has managed to improve on how people play without messing with what’s at the core of a Pokemon game.

First extended look at the Halo live action series

We knew it was coming and it looks pretty good? The trailer for the live action series based on the video game debuted last weekend, and looks to provide a pretty good origin story for the Spartan soldiers and the most well-known member, Master Chief.

And just like in the video game, we don’t see his face. I wonder when – or if – that will change.

Three new Star Wars games being developed at EA’s Respawn

Electronic Arts is leveraging the success of Respawn’s Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order.

The company announced last week that it had signed a deal with Lucasfilm Games for three additional games.

And one of them is another Star Wars Jedi game, likely a sequel to the third-person action adventure Fallen Order, which was released in the fall of 2019.

The other two games are in different genres entirely. One is a first-person shooter and another is a strategy game.

Other studios working on Star Wars games include Ubisoft’s Massive Entertainment, working on an open-world game, and another action-adventure from Quantic Dream.

Steam Deck launches on February 25

Valve’s Steam Deck will release on February 25.

The handheld gaming console, which is effectively a portable gaming computer running the Steam operating system, was delayed from the original plan of December 2021.

Anyone with a preorder will have 72 hours to purchase a system. Failing to do so in that time will result in the system set aside for you to be released to someone else.

Valve made it clear that you can only order the system that you reserved, so there’s no upgrading or downgrading. You’ll have to reorder if you want a different configuration.

Steam Deck’s three choices are:

  • 64 GB for $499
  • 256 GB for $659
  • 512 GB for $819

Wordle developer sells the game to the New York Times

Wordle, the most popular game being played right now, has been acquired by the New York Times for a price reported to be in the low seven figures.

Brooklyn developer Josh Wardle will only have to work again if he wants to, which is kind of awesome for him.

The Times, which has leveraged its historical crossword in the digital era, will be adding Wordle to its games page, where you can play other word games, including Letter Boxed and Spelling Bee, access to the daily crossword, and other puzzles like Sudoku.

The Times hasn’t overtly monetized any of its games on that page, although it does have advertising and is collecting information on visitors to the pages and if you want to do the daily crossword online you have to subscribe.

The company claims it will not be requiring people pay to play Wordle.

Unity picks up Vancouver software studio specializing in machine-created digital characters

A Vancouver software company has been acquired by Unity Technologies.

Ziva Dynamics provides software and machine learning that allows for the creation of incredibly lifelike digital characters.

Unity, which provides software for the creation of games and digital experiences, will include the Ziva technology as part of the suite of tools available to creators.

Late last year, Unity purchased Weta Digital, the software tools part of Peter Jackson’s special effects company.

This video features a digital character, Emma, created using Ziva’s software. It’s something to behold.

Sony acquires Bungie Interactive

The video game industry continues to be a space where big deals are being made. This week, Sony announced it had agreed to terms to purchase Seattle’s Bungie Interactive for some $3.6 billion.

“Bungie will remain an independent and multi-platform studio and publisher,” Jim Ryan, president and CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment said in a release announcing the deal. “As such, we believe it makes sense for it to sit alongside the PlayStation Studios organization….”

Bungie, the creator of two of the biggest shooters of all time in Halo and Destiny, says it retains full creative control and publishing independence of the Destiny universe.

While this announcement comes on the heels of the pending deal between Microsoft and Activision-Blizzard, Sony and Bungie have been in talks for months. Video game impresario Geoff Keighley says to expect more.

What Bungie gets from Sony/Playstation:

  • access to infrastructure and funding to increase operations
  • ability to develop games other than Destiny
  • ability to take Destiny from games and into TV and film

What Sony and Playstation get from Bungie:

  • expertise in the “live service games” space in which games are constantly updated and can bring in regular revenue
  • ability to develop for PC gaming
  • intellectual property that can expand into other media

Destiny 2 will remain a multiplatform game, in the same way that Minecraft has since Microsoft acquired it. But it’s likely that any new games or franchises to be developed by Bungie will be exclusive to Playstation on console, although also available on computers.

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