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This week, the emergent technology that is what3words. But first, news about the Alan Wake remaster, a review of Marvel Future Revolution, and details on the free play weekend for Madden NFL 22.

Alan Wake latest game to get a remaster

One of my favourite games of the past couple of years is Control, a game set in the Oldest House that people don’t really noitce when they’re walking down the street. This house is also bigger – way bigger – on the inside than it appears on the outside. The action adventure has a definite Twin Peaks: The Return vibe to it.

Control was developed by Finnish studio, Remedy Games, and this week we learned that Remedy is remastering one of its earlier games, Alan Wake.

Alan Wake was released as an Xbox 360 exclusive in 2010 and its Twin Peaks influence is equally noticeable. The game is set in the Pacific Northwest in the vicinity of a small forestry town and the game’s writer and creative director Sam Lake peppered the experience with some overt references to the David Lynch/Mark Frost universe.

Lake announced the remastered version of the game in a letter published to a fan website dedicated to Alan Wake.

A release date was not revealed but the game will come out this fall, and it will be available on PS4, PS5, Windows, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.

Marvel Future Revolution brings action role-playing excitement to your smartphone

In Marvel Future Revolution, an action role-playing game, you take on the role of a multitude of superheroes from the various Marvel comics universes, including the likes of Black Widow and Storm, Captain America and Captain Marvel, Spider-Man and Star-Lord.

The original story takes place on “Primary Earth”, which is the result of multiple Earth dimensions converging into one. And your superheroes – you get to pick who you want on your squad – will be creating a new team called Omega Flight.

It’s a free-to-play game available on Android and iOS devices and the graphics on the iPhone 12 I played on were quite stunning.

The world is expansive, open, and shared, so when you’re in the game’s hub checking your gear and updating your team, you’ll see other players from around the world there, too.

The actual gameplay was a bit of a miss for me, though. It ended up being more of a linear button masher. The truth is that it’s difficult to create an action game like this using touch controls. If you need to touch the screen to do things, you’re always getting your fingers in the way of the things you need to see on the screen.

But for a free-to-play smartphone game, Marvel Future Revolution has a lot of style and smash to it.

Play Madden NFL 22 for free this weekend

The NFL season opens on Thursday and EA Sports is celebrating by launching a free trial of Madden NFL 22, which was released on August 20.

From Thursday, September 9 through Sunday, September 12, you can play the football sim on PS4, PS5, Stadia, Windows, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.

If you play on PS5 or Xbox Series X/S, you can experience the new feature, Dynamic Gameday, which purports to deliver near realtime data updates based on the performances of real players. It also includes advantages that are granted to teams playing at home, and disadvantages to away teams. For example, opposing teams playing in New York, either the Giants or the Jets, will fatigue faster.

what3words makes every location on Earth findable

I spent the Labour Day weekend at Whistler. And one place in particular, the Whistler Disc Golf course, I was able to find using three words:

  • regionally
  • horn
  • pointer

When those three words are combined in that order, they identify a specific three-metre square on the planet.

It’s possible thanks to the work of the team at what3words. This organization took the surface of the Earth, overlaid it with a three-metre grid, and assigned each three-metre square a combination of three words.

Using these three-word combinations to navigate is better than street addresses and it’s more convenient than coordinates.

A street address is often completely removed from the actual place you want to be. Think of a stadium, for example, where there may be multiple entrances, or Stanley Park, where there’s a big space that has no street address.

Coordinates are fine and accurate, but to use them you need to have an understanding of coordinate systems, you need to have the app or tech that can show them, and you need to remember a bunch of numbers. Remembering three words is pretty simple.

What3words is already being used around the world by businesses, by tourists, and by emergency services, which can use what3words designations to find people in trouble.

And because the what3words grid is consistent and defined, you don’t need to have connectivity to navigate with it; you just use the compass function on your smartphone.

It’s being used in Canada by communication centres that answer 911 calls. Ontario Parks and Manitoba Forestry are using it.

And now, car manufacturers are including the what3words database in navigation systems. The 2022 Mitsubishi Eclipse Cross is the first, with a staggering 17 languages supported (the three-word codes for each three-square-metre are unique to the language).

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This week on The Shift, Shane Hewitt and I talked about the latest news on Halo Infinite, the video game wealth that is releasing in February, PAX West ticket availability, and Apple Canada’s new financing program which is currently interest-free.

Listen in at 45:00.

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This week, why you’re going to need to take the month of February off work, tickets are still available for PAX West in Seattle this weekend, and Apple Canada’s zero percent financing offer on iPhones, iPads, and Mac computers. But first, all the latest details on Halo Infinite.

Halo Infinite releases on December 8

There’s been lots of Halo Infinite news in recent weeks, but the most important (?) came during the Gamescom opening night event when 343 Industries announced that the highly anticipated game will release on December 8.

Just about as late as a game can be released and still get those vital holiday shopping sales numbers.

The release date came a few days after the game’s creative head, Joseph Staten, revealed that Halo Infinite will ship without a couple of key features: co-operative campaign and Forge.

The former is the ability to play through the game’s story with a friend while the latter opens up Halo’s sandbox tools so people can create their own Halo experiences.

These modes will be added to Halo Infinite later, with Staten suggesting that campaign co-op might follow in about three months and Forge coming about six months after the game releases.

When the core game and multiplayer release in a couple of months, though, Microsoft is also releasing a limited edition Xbox Series X Halo Infinite console console and Xbox Wireless controller ($650) and a Halo Infinite Xbox Elite Wireless Controller Series 2 ($260).

Pre-orders of the console were sold out within minutes, but you can still notch a controller if you dig around a little bit.

February is the new November

The covid-19 pandemic wreaked havoc on game development, but at some point all those games that people have been working on are bound to be finished, and they will need to be released.

That seems to be happening in February.

Here’s the list of what we know about now:

And if you broaden the window to the end of January you can add:

PAX West runs this weekend in Seattle

The Penny Arcade Expo main show in Seattle has always been one of those events that has sold out within hours of tickets being issued.

But this year, with the event starting on Friday, there are still tickets available.

The event begins on Friday and runs right through the end of Labour Day. A four-day pass costs US$230, while single day tickets are $US60.

When event organizers first announced that PAX West 2021 would take place live and in person, there was no guidance around covid-19, but at the end of July they announced that attendees would need to be vaccinated or show a negative antigen or PCR test.

Masks are also required to enter the Washington State Convention Center where PAX West takes place.

The event is a celebration of gaming in all its forms. People play role playing games, tabletop games, and video games, and there are panels and discussions on topics like voice acting, finding deals on video game purchases, and inclusion and diversity.

PAX isn’t alone in this. CES, the technology show that happens in Las Vegas (nearly) every January is requiring attendees to be fully vaccinated and to wear a mask.

Apple Canada zero percent financing for Mac computers and iPhones

Just in time for back-to-school purchases of computers, tablets, and smartphones, Apple has launched its financing program in Canada.

On approval, you can get an iPhone, iPad, or Mac computer with a monthly payment and no interest. There are also no processing fees or additional charges.

Term lengths depend on the device you’re purchasing:

  • iPhone: 24 months
  • iPad: 12 months
  • Mac computer: 12 months

With the program, a base model MacBook Air costs $108.25 a month.

A base model iPhone 12 is $47.04 over two years.

The financing offer is available online or at your local Apple Store.

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This week, Epson’s EF12 projector isn’t as bright as I’d like, but it’s portable and easy to use, Xbox Canada has a buffalo plaid controller for you, and Destiny 2’s coming expansion is massive. But first, Psychonauts 2 is witty and amazing.

Psychonauts 2 is certifiably fantastic and worth the 16-year wait

I got a copy of Psychonauts 2 from Xbox Canada last week. I’ve been playing it non-stop ever since.

Platforming, puzzling, and fighting are all part of the game, now available for PS4, Windows, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S. But game director Tim Schafer got his start making the Secret of Monkey Island adventure games and his penchant for the dialogue and assemble pieces of a puzzle to open up new areas of the world is at the core of it all.

This works because the world is so rich and the writing so excellent. Psychonauts 2 is clever and referential without being exclusionary; it’s witty and humorous without being offensive.

The story picks up where the last games (2005’s Psychonauts and Rhombus of Ruin, made for VR rigs and released in 2017 and 2018) left off. Razputin is a boy who runs away from the circus to go to school (well, a summer camp for psychics). That concept alone reveals a lot about the sly wit that underpins the series.

In Psychonauts 2, Raz is now an intern at the Psychonaut secret agent headquarters, and he’s got a mystery to unravel and a mole to uncover. This is heavy stuff for a ten-year-old, but the competent and compassionate Raz is up to the task.

The Psychonauts have various psychic abilities, including the ability to enter the minds of other people, where their mental state is laid bare and euphemisms become literal, like the emotional baggage that you come across that you can resolve if you find the correct baggage tag.

And it’s these unique minds that provide license for the artists and musicians who worked on the game to range through various tones and techniques while keeping true to the core whimsical style.

There are a plethora of intricate and detailed plots in play and Raz has to untangle them all, including the core mystery as well as the individual stories of the other characters, each of whom have secrets they’ve been hiding.

I will say that even though Psychonauts 2 begins with a detailed “previously on” prologue, this is not the easiest world to be dropped into, and if you’ve got the time, I recommend playing the first game. It’s only $10 from the Xbox store ($11 on Steam) and it’s included with your Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription.

I’ve been quite vocal about my fondness for the first game and I backed Double Fine’s crowdfunding campaign to help get this sequel made.

So it’s very satisfying to say that the wait was worth it and the praise for Double Fine’s work is deserved.

Psychonauts 2 is a wondrous delight.

Bungie’s latest Destiny 2 expansion is almost an entirely new game

This week, Bungie took to the internet airwaves to share details of what’s to come in Destiny 2, the online multiplayer first-person shooter that first appeared in 2017 but has continued to provide fresh, unique gaming experiences ever since.

In fact, even though the name of the game is still Destiny 2, Bungie has done so much work to keep the game relevant and interesting that the new expansion, The Witch Queen, feels like a full-on sequel. It is scheduled for release on February 22, 2022.

The new story is centred on the Hive enemies and Savathûn, the witch queen in question, who has discovered how to use the power of the light, a domain once unique to the Guardians that players embody in the game.

As part of the Witch Queen update we’ll also get a new weapon, the glaive, which is a weapon that you can use for melee and ranged combat, and can also be used to block enemy attacks.

We’ll also be able to craft our own weapons, including the glaive, and we’ll have unlimited primary ammunition.

The tale of the Witch Queen actually begins this week with Season of the Lost, a prologue of sorts, and the new season brings with it a significant update: complete cross-play, so no matter what system or platform you’re playing on – Destiny 2 is available on PS4, PS5, Stadia, Windows, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S – you can play with people on any other system or platform.

Bungie also confirmed the Destiny 2 expansions that will follow The Witch Queen. Next, likely in 2023, is Lightfall, and The Final Shape (2024?) is described by Bungie as the final chapter in the Light and Darkness saga.

Destiny 2 is a free-to-play game, but the Witch Queen expansion is a new core game that requires a purchase. The basic game is $50, the Deluxe edition is $100, the Deluxe edition with a Bungie 30th anniversary bundle of bonuses is $125

Xbox Canada is giving away a Buffalo Plaid Xbox Wireless Controller

As part of its summer celebrations, Xbox Canada is giving away an Xbox Wireless Controller that has been designed with a Buffalo Plaid colour scheme.

You’ve got until the end of day (Eastern time) on Thursday to follow Xbox Canada on Twitter and retweet the following:

Ten winners get the limited edition controller and ten codes that can be redeemed from a list of games ranging from the latest Ubisoft open world games (Assassin’s Creed Valhalla and Watch Dogs: Legion) to EA’s sports sims (Madden NFL 21, NHL 21, FIFA 21), to indie greats like The Long Dark, Super Time Force Ultra, and Below.

Epson’s EF12 laser projector is portable enough for outdoor entertaining

With the fourth wave truly upon us, our family and friends are looking to keep our gatherings and activities outside.

And when we’re being active or just hanging out, that’s pretty easy.

But when one of the kids wanted to watch a movie for his birthday, his mom wasn’t sure that was possible. She asked me for help.

In turn, I asked Epson Canada for help. Company reps sent me the new EF12 laser mini projector ($1,300) to test drive.

The projector is a cube, smaller than a 12-pack and about the same weight. Because it’s small and portable, the EF12 is very easy to move around and set up quick, which makes it perfect for outdoor movie nights.

Using Android TV as an operating system, the EF12 has built-in Wi-fi and Bluetooth, so you can get streaming going in seconds. It’s also got two HDMI ports so you can plug in a source; I used an iPad.

You can also export sound to external speakers, but we just used the internal speakers, which provide an incredible, full surround experience thanks to a collaboration with Yamaha.

The EF12 delivers a high-definition picture, but there’s no zoom, so your distance from the screen determines the size of the picture you can get. We set up about six feet away from a 12 foot by 10 foot tarp and that was about perfect.

My only complaint is that it’s not as bright as other projectors can be, so we weren’t able to start the Goonies at dusk, we needed to wait until the sun was fully down.

But once it was dark enough outside, the kids were completely locked in and loved the experience of watching a movie and eating popcorn al fresco.

And it only took me five minutes to take everything down afterwards.

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