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Consumer technology
This week on The Shift, Shane Hewitt and I talked about Eidos-Montreal’s fun game, Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy, the remastering of three of Rockstar Games’ Grand Theft Auto titles, and the story for Halo Infinite. I also review the Google Pixel 6 Pro and talk about the Amazon Future Engineer scholarship winners.
I come in at 37:36.
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Eidos-Montreal creates a glorious adventure in Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy, Rockstar remasters three of its formative GTA games, 343 Industries details the story of Halo Infinite.
Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy doesn’t invent anything new from a gameplay perspective, but it delivers a rousing action story with impeccable characters that are exactly the kind of carping friends we want them to be.
The game, developed at Square Enix studio Eidos-Montreal, takes some cues from the recent movies – the soundtrack is the most prominent thing the game borrowed from the film – but the story here is inspired by the comic series.
This means that the characters do not look like the actors who played them in the films. And while the actors at work in the game pay homage to the film actors, their performances are without fault and you won’t miss Pratt and company at all.
The game is straight-forward, sometimes literally. As Peter Quill, aka Star-Lord, you’ll move through linear levels collecting the items that you can use to upgrade your gear and fighting various alien creatures. Every once in a while you’ll end up in a larger space where you and the rest of the Guardians engage in an arena battle with a more significant monster or groups of creatures,
In these battles you can direct the actions of the other four and you can trigger combo attacks. If things aren’t going your way you can call a huddle, which pauses the action while your team groups around you for a pep talk. This recharges everyone’s health, and if you choose the correct speech everyone also gets a damage boost for a short time.
The chatter between the characters is a defining feature of this world and that’s one of the things that makes this game so genuine. Even when you’re just moving around the world everyone’s talking to each other, and as Star-Lord you’ll participate by making choices about what you’re going to say. These decisions have an impact on the story that you play through.
The story is involved, and twisting, and filled with all the stakes it needs to have. Most importantly, you’ll care about this collection of misfits. They’ve all experienced trauma in some way, and have created a family around that fact. Like all families they argue and get mad at each other and find ways to forgive each other.
The game is fun to play, but the heartfelt way that Eidos-Montreal put together these characters in this story is what makes Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy such a delight.
Three games that could be considered canon have been remastered and refined and are being released in a couple of weeks.
Rockstar Games has collected Grand Theft Auto III (Liberty City), Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, and Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas as Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy – The Definitive Edition.
The set will be available digitally on November 11 for Nintendo Switch, PS4, PS5, Windows, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and as a physical release on December 7 for everything except PS5.
Android and iOS versions are planned for 2022.
The new versions of the games include across-the-board upgrades including graphical improvements and modern gameplay enhancements for all three titles.
This includes updated controls that are more like those used for GTA V.
Rockstar also making two games available to Microsoft and Sony’s subscription services, with GTA: San Andreas coming to Xbox Game Pass on November 11 and GTA III coming to PlayStation Now on December 7.
In a six-minute plus video that premiered on Monday, 343 Industries showed us the overview of the campaign that’s a part of Halo Infinite.
In the video we get a look at the world that Master Chief will be exploring, and the mystery that he’s trying to solve: what happened to Cortana, the AI that was his ever-present companion in the first trilogy and has become something else in this second.
Halo Infinite is the third game in what’s known as the “Reclaimer Trilogy”, and is the sixth game in the main part of the franchise that features Master Chief. It launches on December 8 for Windows, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
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Google puts its own silicon into its Pixel 6 smartphones and Amazon Canada hands out scholarships to deserving Canadian high school students.
After years of contracting out the manufacturing and component design to third parties, Google’s just released its own smartphones that are all Google.
At the heart of the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro handsets is the Google Tensor chipset which was designed by Google to take advantage of the artificial intelligence (AI) work that’s been happening at the company.
That translates to some crackerjack features on the new devices, including an adaptable power delivery that will conserve power according to your daily patterns of use. If you regularly watch videos on your commute home, for example, the Pixel 6 will make sure you’ve got enough charge to do that at the end of the day.
Google is also leveraging its Live Translate functionality on the new Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro, giving you automatic translation of text messages, photos, and voice. And this is all on the phone itself, so you can use Live Translate even if you don’t have access to the internet.
The photo systems are also the best Google has ever delivered, with a dual rear camera system on the Pixel 6 (50 megapixel main lens and 12 megapixel ultrawide lens) and a triple rear camera system on the Pixel 6 Pro (which adds a 48 megapixel telephoto lens with 4 times optical zoom).
These cameras are enhanced by the Tensor chip, which improves how the cameras capture darker skin tones, can remove blur on the faces of people you photograph or add blur to backgrounds to enhance those people.
And the Magic Eraser tool is unbelievably effective at removing objects from your photos.
All of this is packaged in a completely new design which sets out the Google Pixel phones from others by amplifying rather than trying to hide the camera lenses. The rounded corners are set out by a metal band on the back of the handset that houses the camera system.
The Pixel 6 Pro (starting at $1,179) has 12 GB of RAM, up to 512 GB of storage, and a 6.7-inch screen that can refresh at 120 Hz when necessary, but auto-adapts to the situation in order to save power.
The Pixel 6 (starting at $799) has 8 GB of RAM, up to 256 GB of storage, and a 6.4-inch screen.
The two devices will be available on October 28 and can be preordered now.
Amazon Canada has awarded ten Canadian high school students with scholarships as part of the Amazon Future Engineer scholarship program.
Each of the graduating students gets $30,000 scholarship to attend the university of their choice as well as a paid summer internship opportunity at Amazon Canada.
The recipients come from across Canada, and all have demonstrated “exceptional academic performance and leadership in school, work, and community activities,” according to a release. They also represent “underserved and underrepresented communities”.
Among the ten winners are the following excellent students:
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Hit the ice with NHL 22, Riders Republic free trial, and the International prize pool was $40 million, the biggest ever.
Hockey’s back in more ways than one. The new NHL season kicked off last week, and so did a new version of EA Sports’ hockey sim with the release of NHL 22.
Every year the developers at the campus in Burnaby find ways to improve on how we play as our favourite hockey stars.
This year, this comes in the form of what they are calling the X-factor.
50 of the league’s elite players have special abilities that can be triggered under the right conditions and can lead to them dominating the play.
From Connor McDavid (Wheels: beat anyone, anytime with the puck) to Connor Hellebuyck (Dialed In: boosts reaction time and save ability), from Elias Petterson (Third Eye: no blind spots; make impossible passes) to Auston Matthews (Shock and Awe: a successful deke grants shooting power and accuracy).
Not every team has an X-factor superstar, though. Sorry Calgary Flames fans.
NHL 22 includes the usual modes including being able to create your own player and see if you can level them up to having those superstar abilities. You can also take part in an expansion draft to create your own lineup for the Seattle Kraken or your own team.
The game looks better than ever, especially on the next-gen consoles, with dramatic improvements to the visual aspects of the game from more detail in the uniforms and ice shavings, to the player animations and game physics.
NHL 22 is available now on PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S. The X-Factor Edition, which includes some Ultimate Team packs and cosmetics, is only available on PS5 and Xbox Series X/S.
Riders Republic, the open world extreme sports game from Ubisoft, releases on October 28, but starting October 21 you can try the game for free for four hours.
And if you end up purchasing the game, you can keep any progress you made during the trial.
Available for PS4, PS5, Windows, Stadia, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S, Riders Republic has you crashing down mountains on bikes, skis, snowboards, and wingsuits in races with up to 49 others.
In Bucharest, Romania over the weekend the International 2021 came to its conclusion with Russia-based Team Spirit winning the Grand Final.
Teams secure invites for the International by playing in qualifying tournaments that are part of regular esports leagues.
This was the tenth edition of the esports championship, and in that time the total prize money has increased from a million in 2011 to over $40 million this year.
What makes the International prize pool unique is that most of the money is raised from sales of subscriptions and cosmetic items for the free-to-play game.
Dota 2, from Valve, is an acronym for Defense of the Ancients, but the full title is never used by the industry. It’s a multiplayer online battle arena game, a MOBA, which pits two teams of players against each other in a battle to destroy the other team’s base.
WE ARE THE INTERNATIONAL 10 CHAMPIONS
— Team Spirit (@Team__Spirit) October 17, 2021
It was an amazing adventure. We thank all the fans for your support! We wouldn't be there without you. See you next season!#SPIRITIX pic.twitter.com/JWB5buXfEW
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Apple brings its silicon to new MacBook laptops, Samsung brings customization to more of its products, and the Mirror fitness device comes to Canada in November.
In a press event on Monday, Apple revealed the latest updates to its internally manufactured computer chips. Only one year after introducing the M1, the M1 Pro and M1 Max chips are 10-core CPU units with 33.7 billion and 57 billion transistors, orders of magnitude more than the M1.
This means faster processing at a dramatically reduced power cost.
The new M1 Pro and M1 Max are embedded in new 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pros which are available to order now, starting at $2,499 and $3,149.
Apple also announced the latest AirPods (3rd generation), which are smaller and contoured, and include the spatial audio functionality that is in the AirPods Pro. The new AirPods are $239 and will begin shipping next week.
Finally, there are three new colours of HomePod mini now available. In November, the spherical smart speakers will be available in blue, orange, and yellow for only $129.
For their size and price, Apple’s HomePod mini delivers the best sound you can get.
A few weeks ago I mentioned that Samsung had a new line of refrigerators that customers can customize.
Now Samsung is rolling out the Bespoke experience to the Galaxy Z Flip3 and Galaxy Watch4.
The Galaxy Z Flip3 Bespoke Edition starts with a black or silver frame, to which customers can select the front and back colours from black, blue, pink, yellow, or white. Pricing starts at $1,400.
You can choose the colour, size, and strap style of a Galaxy Watch4 through the new Bespoke Studio experience, with pricing starting at $330 for the 40mm and $460 for the 42mm.
The Bespoke Galaxy Z Flip3 and Galaxy Watch4 from Samsung are available to order now.
Lululemon will begin selling the Mirror fitness product in Canada next month, both in stores and online.
The device resembles a floor mirror in which you can see yourself, but it’s also a connected display through which you can see instructors who are delivering a variety of workouts including cardio, strength, and yoga.
Because you’re working in front of a mirror, you can see your movements and because there’s a camera built into the device, trainers can actually provide direct feedback and motivation to you during live workouts.
The Mirror costs US$1,500 with a monthly subscription fee of US$40. You can also purchase personal training sessions.
Lululemon is offering “our best price ever” and a $250 gift card with purchase to anyone who signs up for the waitlist.
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.