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RSS FeedsVarious Video Game Stories and More from the Week of September 13, 2021
Posted: 08:00AM
Author: Guest_Jim_*
It's the end of the week and so time to go through the different press releases that have collected in my inbox. In addition to those, there is also an interesting piece of science news at the end that may impact the future of data storage. First up though is some time-sensitive news from THQ Nordic that is celebrating its 10th anniversary with sales and a showcase. Starting with the sale, a host of games are discounted at Steam, including the Darksiders series, Kingdoms of Amalur Re-Reckoning, and Despardos III. For those not so interested in spending money, Titan Quest Anniversary Edition and Jagged Alliance I Gold Edition are both free to keep for the length of the sale.
The sale ends on September 23 but later today, at 9 PM CEST the 10th Anniversary Showcase will begin on YouTube, Twitch, and Steam, where the company will show off six new game announcements, and players will get to witness "the return of legendary franchises," as well as see new IPs. It definitely looks like it should prove interesting and I know I have a classic franchise or two I would enjoy seeing new life.
Source: THQ Nordic (10th Anniversary Celebration) and Steam Sale Page
Some bad news for Battlefield fans as EA announced this week Battlefield 2042 will be launching November 19, about a month later than previously announced. In the announcement the company specifically mentions the hope had been to have the teams back in the studios ahead of launch, but that has not been possible. As a result they want to give the game some extra time to achieve they vision they want for it and the players.
Source: EA (Battlefield 2042)
Dead Cells has received update 25 and with it various changes that may make some current and future players rather happy. Named Practice Makes Perfect, the game now has different options that should make it easier for new and occasional players, but as these are all optional the current hardcore players can still enjoy the game as they have been. With the new Aspects feature, the game can give you strong powers to make your run easier, but progression is halted as you cannot unlock a new boss cell or gain flawless boss achievements. If you want to reach the next level, you will need to turn these off, but it will still be a way to get a feel for the level and its enemies. The training room is another addition that will allow you to practice against the mobs and bosses you have encountered, and in their own environment too. Another addition is a world map that shows the paths throughout the island, but there is the catch that you will have to have already seen them to appear on the map. A couple other changes are a reminder for how to exit the run after defeating the Hand of the King and total damage is now displayed on the stats from a scroll.
Source: Press Release (Motion Twins – Dead Cells) and Patch Notes
What would make conquering the world better? Portals! At least that is the conclusion of those at Rebellion as Evil Genius 2 has received a free DLC that adds new traps, loot items, and lair items all with a Portal theme, and, of course, the new Test Chamber room type. You will be able to defeat invading agents with propulsion and repulsion gel traps, the Aperture Science Multi-Purpose Science Panel, and, naturally, the Cake That Is A Lie trap. As for the loot items you have the orange portal, the blue portal, the companion cube, and actual cake. There are also side story objectives accompanying these.
That is not the only DLC that has released, but the Mechanical Minions pack does cost $3.49. It includes the Work-O-Tron and GuardBot 2.0 minions as well as the assembly lines for both and Robot Charging Station as lair items. You can watch the trailer below to see the various additions from these two DLC.
Source: Rebellion (Evil Genius 2)
Publisher Serenity Forge and developer White Rabbit have announced Death's Gambit: Afterlife is releasing on September 30 for PC and Nintendo Switch, making it the first release for this series on a Nintendo platform. Death's Gambit: Afterlife is a 2D action metroidvania that features precision-requiring combat and with this definitive version of the game 10 new levels, 6 new boss fights, 22 new weapons, 100 talents, and much more are being added to the experience originally released in 2018. For those who already own the original game on Steam, Afterlife will be a free upgrade to it. If you are a dedicated fan of the game, there will be a physical edition of it as well, though for the Nintendo Switch, featuring a two-sided poster of the artistic overview of the game's map as well as a hand-drawn rendition of the key art. You can also get the limited edition vinyl soundtrack from the Serenity Forge store.
Source: Press Release (Serenity Forge – Death's Gambit: Afterlife)
Turning to Techland now, which had three Dying Light 2 announcements, with the most significant being a delay for the release until February 4. Though it is complete and the developers are able to playtest it, the scale and ambition of the project is larger than anything they have done, so they feel they need to additional time to polish and optimize it. For those especially anxious to learn more about the game though, next month press and content creators will be able to get access to PC and console versions as part of a series of preview events, making it possible to share their experiences with you.
The developer has also shared an episode of Dying to Know More that provides an extend cut of reveals, with this one giving special focus to the weapon designs of the upcoming game. As the game is set 20 years after Dying Light, new weapon designs are in order as the higher quality weapons have worn out, so you will be relying on those created within the City. You can still find some of the older, premium weapons around, but they will be very rare. You can also expect your weapons to still wear out during battle, which means you will need to be prepared, either with your attack strategy or your inventory.
Lastly, the next audio story has been shared, this one titled "Antigone." With this story an older woman shares a story with a young couple; a long-forgotten story from when the outbreak began. It shares how even in a world were love can face severe tests, it can still overcome the challenges it faces. You can listen to it here: Antigone – Dying Light 2 Stay Human Audio Story (YouTube).
Source: Press Releases (Techland – Dying Light 2)
Finishing off the gaming news, Ubisoft has announced Discovery Tour: Viking Age will be released on October 19. Like the previous Discovery Tours, this will use the world of Assassin's Creed Valhalla to present an educational journey through the historical setting. The museum partners for this include the Hampshire Cultural Trust, The British Library, The Reunion des Musees Nationaux, York Archaeological Trust, the National Museum of Denmark, Nationalmuseet, and Preston Park Museum & Grounds.
Those who own the game will receive a copy of this for free while the standalone version on the Epic Games Story and Ubisoft Connect will be priced at $19.99. For the first time of this franchise, standalone versions will also be released on the Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 5, Google Stadia, and Amazon Luna, though these versions will arrive in arrive in early 2022.
Source: Ubisoft (Discovery Tour: Viking Age)
As for non-gaming news, first up is the result of a partnership between EK Water Blocks and Seagate; the FireCuda 530 Heatsink. This NVMe SSD utilizing PCIe 4 features transfer speeds of up to 7300 MB/s and utilizes DDR4 for caching, SLC dynamic cache, and a technology called SmartFlush to recover the SLC cache quickly, to prevent it from filling up. That combination of speed and features means the drive will produce a lot of heat, which is why EK has designed a low-profile heatsink for it, to improve its performance by reducing throttling. Do not worry, this is not a water block but a passive heatsink and so is fit for any build and even the PlayStation 5. It will available in 1 TB and 2 TB versions priced at $259.99 and $539.99 respectively.
Source: EK Water Blocks (FireCuda 530 SSD)
Now for the bit of science news I have for you coming from MIT and its Materials Research Laboratory. There, research and colleagues have made an important discovery of so-called white graphene, a form of boron nitride that has been of interest for use in computing technologies for some time, but this discovery opens up new possibilities. Stepping back a bit, graphene is a form of carbon that impacted the scientific community tremendously when it was discovered 17 years ago because it is a single-atom thick. In this configuration the carbon atoms form a hexagonal structure like chicken wire with some very curious and powerful characteristics such as exceptional electron mobility, flexibility, and strength. Once this first 2D material was found with such intriguing properties the race was on to find more, such as boron nitride.
Though not consisting of a single element, boron nitride has been dubbed white graphene because it also has a hexagonal structure, and this geometry is very important. Research with graphene has hardly waned since its discovery in part because it was found that by controlling the angle between two sheets of it even more amazing properties can be produced, such as superconductivity. Perhaps not so coincidentally, one of the researchers that discovered that unconventional form of superconductivity was involved in this research.
What the MIT researchers have found is boron nitride too will demonstrate new capabilities by stacking the sheets and controlling their angle. In particle, the researchers found having two sheets stacked in parallel make white graphene ferroelectric. That means positive and negative charges will move to different sides of the material without any special coaxing. What gives this discovery such potential for future applications is an electric field will flip the polarization, and this is achieved at room temperature.
One of the possible applications for this discovery is for denser memory storage, especially as we are talking about two single-atom thick sheets. The polarization also does not flip except when an electric field is applied, which means the data will be stable over time, and a proof-of-principle experiment has already been done to show this.
The researchers are hardly done though as it was found that by twisting the boron nitride sheets to a different angle produce a ferroelectric state unlike any seen before. We may also see this research lead to the discovery of additional ferroelectric materials, include more that are ultrathin.
Source: MIT
