Tag: portable gaming

Pokémon Cards Are Back—No Binders Needed

[ad_1]

In the mid-1990s, the masterminds behind Pokémon were building a powerful trifecta: a handful of role-playing adventures for Nintendo’s Game Boy, a physical card game, and an animated kids’ TV show following the adventures of a tween and his best friend, Pikachu. It was the early days of one of pop culture’s most beloved and enduring franchises, an intoxicating combination of cute, colorful creatures and the jingle-friendly demand to collect everything.

“Gotta catch ’em all” remains a powerful mandate, even as physical media has fallen out of style. As a kid, I kept my Pokémon cards in carefully preserved laminate sleeves. Today, they live on my phone, thanks to Pokémon Trading Card Game Pocket, which lets players collect digital cards and use them to battle, just like they used to with physical cards.

Pocket, released October 30 for iOS and Android, ditches the physical binders and booster packs in favor of a slick, mobile version that can sink its fangs into your wallet faster than you can finish a match. Like Pokémon Go, a hit game that grew into a worldwide phenomenon, Pocket has legs. In its first week, the game was downloaded more than 30 million times. On Monday, it was nominated for Best Mobile Game of 2024 at The Game Awards—a notable distinction given that it’s been available to play for less than a month.

Hype around the game is widespread, from YouTube to X to everyone’s new go-to, Bluesky. In a video on TikTok, Kinda Funny host and producer Blessing Adeoye Jr. calls it “ridiculous” how much he enjoys playing the game, from opening packs to battling. “I’m into it to an extent where I’m like, oh no,” he says in the video. “They got my ass.”

Adeoye says Pocket acts as a jumping-in point that allows players to feel like they’re experiencing the Pokémon card craze from the beginning. Because there are only three pack types available, everyone is collecting the same cards. “It feels special to open a full-art Pikachu or a Mewtwo EX card that comes with a unique animation,” Adeoye tells WIRED. “There’s a shared experience happening currently, which feels like what it felt like as a kid opening up your first Pokémon card packs.”

Getting lots of people into the Poké-fold is, of course, the point of Pocket. Like Go, which used the allure of a pop cultural powerhouse to get people to dip their toes into augmented-reality gaming on their smartphones, Pocket’s appeal lies in taking some part of that ’90s fandom and putting it in your palm. Go wants you to catch your own collection of little monsters; Pocket wants you to replicate the feeling of going to the store, opening a pack, and scoring a rare card. And like those trips to the comics shop, your chances of landing something cool can depend on how much you spend. (The game has reportedly made millions since launch.)

[ad_2]

Source link

November 19, 2024
10 Best Mobile Games for iOS and Android

[ad_1]

Don’t doomscroll more depressing news, use that phone to lift your mood instead. The best mobile games will bring a little joy to your day, whether you’re killing time on the commute or chilling on the couch. And these games are all addictive slices of gaming pleasure that we have been gorging on for years.

As smartphone screens and processing power have grown, the lines between mobile gaming and just gaming have blurred, and you can find tons of great mobile games that have been ported or adapted from other systems (Minecraft, Call of Duty, Fortnite, Roblox, Stardew Valley, Grand Theft Auto, and the list goes on). But all of these titles are best enjoyed on other platforms. Our picks here are games that work especially well on your phone.

Snag one of the best mobile controllers to level up your smartphone gaming. You may also be interested in subscription services like Google Play Pass or Apple Arcade. You can even play some Android games on your PC now.

Power up with unlimited access to WIRED. Get best-in-class reporting that’s too important to ignore for just ~~$2.50~~ $1 per month for 1 year. Includes unlimited digital access and exclusive subscriber-only content. Subscribe Today.

[ad_2]

Source link

October 27, 2024
Acer Swift X 14 Review: A Hot and Loud Gaming Laptop

[ad_1]

Acer tries its best to mitigate this problem by giving you its AcerSense app (complete with custom “a” key on the top row of the keyboard), where you can switch from discrete to integrated graphics, set certain screen settings like adaptive brightness and color profile selection, run system diagnostics, and most importantly throttle performance as needed. Four performance levels are available, terminating at “Silent” on the low end. You’d think that would throttle the CPU to the point where the fan wouldn’t run at all, but that’s not the case. Even in Silent mode, the fan runs regularly—albeit at a somewhat slower pace. The Silent machine also took about a 40 percent hit on graphics performance and 25 percent when running general apps.

The Swift X is a power-hungry beast, and while it charges through one of its USB-C ports, you’ll need to use the 100-watt charger included with the device. It’ll trickle-charge with a generic, lower-wattage adapter, but it’ll never reach full capacity, even if it’s powered down.

Photograph: Christopher Null

Don’t get me wrong, the laptop has plenty of positive qualities. Ports are ample for a machine of this size, including two USB-A and two USB-C ports (again, one is used for charging), a full-size HDMI port, and a microSD card slot. The keyboard is fine if unremarkable, gently inset into the chassis, and the touchpad is spacious without being obnoxiously oversized. And the understated dark metallic gray design is both professional and modern.

It’s not the smallest of machines—weighing 3.4 pounds and measuring 25 millimeters thick at its widest point—but those numbers aren’t outrageous for a laptop that wedges discrete graphics into a 14.5-inch package.

Photograph: Christopher Null

But to what end? Overall stability isn’t ideal, as I encountered weird visual hiccups like flickering images during my week with the system. Battery life at just over seven and a half hours isn’t egregious but is worse than many competing laptops. And while performance is good across the board, there are plenty of devices on the market that handily outpace this system, including Acer’s own Nitro 17. Sure, that’s a considerably bigger laptop, but it’s got 50 percent better graphics performance while also being $450 cheaper.

While the Swift X 14 has some positive aspects, it’s a little difficult to determine who exactly it’s for—presumably the casual gamer or graphic designer who’s always on the go and thus has to pack light. That could be a possibility, but the Swift just doesn’t perform well enough to justify its luxe $1,700 price tag, and the bruisingly loud fan and heat problems do nothing to further that case.

[ad_2]

Source link

September 27, 2024
MSI Stealth 18 AI Studio A1V Review: No AI Needed

[ad_1]

I was able to max out at 120 frames per second while playing Doom Eternal on Ultra settings, and even got around 70 fps in Starfield on Medium. Starfield dropped down to a still-playable 50 fps on Ultra, though I got it up to 80 fps on Ultra by enabling frame generation. I’m not a fan of this feature as it can sometimes lead to some weird smoothing effects—to my mind, it hits the same nerve as motion smoothing on TVs—but your mileage may vary.

In terms of battery life, your best bet is to keep your charger nearby for gaming sessions. The nearly 100-watt-hour battery is massive, but so is the power draw. It lasted around three hours of heavy gaming, and closer to six to seven hours with more typical use.

These limitations make the MSI Stealth 18 best suited to being a workhorse laptop you can play games on at the end of the day. Running media editing apps like DaVinci Resolve and Blender was smooth, and I rarely noticed performance problems while working on it. Most gaming laptops would run similarly with comparable GPUs, but the new Meteor Lake CPU gives you a bit of future-proofing. Companies like Blackmagic are working on adding support for NPUs generally, so if there’s an area where Intel’s NPU is likely to be used in the future, it’s likely media creation first.

There might be better laptops purely for gaming—the Razer Blade 18, for example, trades a lower-resolution screen for a whopping 300-Hz refresh rate. But if you’d rather have one powerful laptop for work and play, the Stealth 18 is a solid investment.

All the Right Extras

The design of the Stealth 18 feels a little bit more gam3r than I like, but I can live with it for all the extra little touches MSI has put in this thing. For starters, it comes with a NumPad. I don’t care what anyone else says, NumPads are great, and I appreciate that there’s a powerful gaming laptop with one. It’s most handy while doing various video editing tasks, less for gaming, but if you’re like me, you’ll appreciate its presence.

The rest of the keyboard is similarly delightful. The font on the keys looks strikingly similar to the font Sony inexplicably used for both PlayStation and Spider-Man branding back in the aughts. The chiclet-style keys are flat, with no dimples, but they’re raised enough to feel easy to distinguish while typing, though my most common mistake was hitting the new and largely unnecessary Copilot key, which takes up room near the space bar. The trackpad is super smooth. It could be a bit bigger, but I only wished this while connected to a second monitor.

Photograph: Eric Ravenscraft

There’s an Ethernet port, HDMI port, and the proprietary charging port on the rear of the device, which is an incredibly convenient location for plugging the laptop into a desk workstation. It’s not quite as convenient as a laptop docking station, but it’s less cluttered than cables sticking out the sides. I’m also a fan of the dedicated fingerprint sensor, which makes it easier to sign in to Windows and unlock password managers.

Overall, the MSI Stealth 18 is a powerhouse, even without the NPU. At $3,300 for the RTX 4080 model, you can save a few hundred dollars compared to comparably-specced (minus the refresh rate) laptops like the Razer Blade 18. Just make sure to keep your wall charger handy.

[ad_2]

Source link

September 25, 2024
Only Microsoft Can Save Windows-Powered Handheld Game Consoles (2024)

[ad_1]

Microsoft also requires some software to come bundled with their licenses, which is how you end up with the baffling inclusion of things like Microsoft Teams, Office 365—complete with Word, Excel, and PowerPoint—and [checks notes] … Microsoft Clipchamp … on a device that is, ostensibly, a gaming handheld. I know everyone has their preferences, but I feel pretty safe in assuming that 95 percent of the people who might be interested in the ROG Ally X aren’t interested in it for its middling video editing capabilities.

Hope on the Horizon

In late 2023, Microsoft introduced a preview of a version of its Xbox app called Compact Mode. It gives gaming handhelds running Windows a Steam Deck–like interface designed primarily for controller input, and there have already been some pretty substantial updates. Most notably, the Jump Back In feature lets players immediately launch their most recently played games.

On competing devices like the Steam Deck or the Switch, this feature is known as “just how the thing has always worked,” but it’s still a welcome addition. Even if apps like Asus’ Armoury Crate already do this. Also, at the moment, the Xbox app only lists games you purchased via Microsoft. Which means my Jump Back In consists of … Solitaire. Baby steps, I suppose.

There are rumors Microsoft might be working on a gaming handheld console, which, if true, would be great news since it means Microsoft is likely to keep optimizing Windows for the category. Simultaneously, it might be awful news for competing manufacturers if they’re not also allowed to benefit from that work.

Photograph: Nena Farrell

Switch

~~$300~~$278

AmazonBuy

Put more simply: If it comes down to an official Xbox gaming handheld that can run all Windows-based games with an interface comparable to the living room console versus a janky handheld with an interface glued together, it wouldn’t be hard to guess which one is more likely to succeed.

It seems unlikely it would come to that. Since Microsoft has thus far failed to compete in selling console hardware. The company has instead adopted an “Xbox everywhere” strategy. Where Nintendo and Sony sell boxes that run their games, Microsoft wants to make Xbox a platform where you can play games on every desktop, laptop, tablet, phone, and television you have.

I would argue that none of these are quite as important as getting gaming handhelds right. The Switch demonstrated just how much people want to take their games with them, and the Steam Deck showed that even some major AAA games can run well on portable hardware. If Microsoft wants Xbox to be everywhere, it might need to adopt the model Google uses for Android. Google makes and sells its own Android phone but allows competitors to build on its platform and, quite often, beat them at their own game. Google still benefits from its services running on competitors’ devices, so either way, Google comes out on top. A similar strategy could work for an Xbox handheld built on a platform of work that Microsoft shares with third parties.

Right now, Windows handhelds are struggling. Even the best options still drain more power, have jankier interfaces, and cost more than devices like the Switch or the Steam Deck. With every update that makes these devices moderately better, the impenetrable wall of Windows becomes more obvious. Until Microsoft steps up, it doesn’t seem like this status quo will change soon.

[ad_2]

Source link

August 31, 2024
Epic Games Challenges Apple’s Dominance With New iOS App Store

[ad_1]

Epic Games today officially launched a rival app store for iOS in the European Union, marking the first time Apple’s own App Store has had to face a serious rival. The Epic Games Store will initially offer Epic’s games, including Fortnite, for users to download onto their iPhones, with plans to start onboarding third-party developers’ games beginning in December.

The launch, the most dramatic outcome of a series of new EU tech rules passed over the last year, imports the long-standing rivalry between Epic and Apple onto European soil. Epic says its app store will take a maximum 12 percent commission on sales, undercutting Apple’s App Store, where fees can reach up to 30 percent. The Epic Games Store, says Max von Thun, Europe director at the Open Markets Institute, has “a good chance at taking a chunky bite out of Apple’s highly lucrative app store business.”

Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Epic CEO Tim Sweeney hailed the arrival of the Epic Games Store to iOS as a way to fix the “largely broken” mobile gaming industry. “Competition wouldn’t crush Apple’s App Store,” he said. “It would force Apple to compete with better prices and with better features and better promotions and better marketing deals and less advertising.”

Epic is making use of a new EU regulation known as the Digital Markets Act (DMA), which forces tech giants to make changes to give rivals more access to their closely guarded communities of users. In Apple’s case, that means the company has to allow alternative app stores onto European devices.

“The European example shows that this kind of regulation can have teeth and can succeed,” Sweeney said, adding that this can be a template for other regulators. Apple has changed its business terms for European developers four times this year as it attempts to dodge EU fines for failing to comply with the DMA—penalties that could amount to up to 10 percent of Apple’s global revenue—while implying that alternative app stores are a security disaster waiting to happen.

To others, the arrival of the Epic Games Store on iOS is a sign that the EU can force tech giants to change. “The alternative app store could become the most visible way for showing how competition can work,” Andreas Schwab, a member of the European Parliament who helped draft the DMA, tells WIRED. Alternative app stores prove “the DMA can stimulate competition and thereby bring down prices for consumers,” Schwab adds.

The Epic development is a blow to Apple’s hegemony in iOS apps. Sixteen years ago, the company launched its App Store marketplace, described by WIRED at the time as a “defining moment in the history of personal computing.” Apple grew that business to generate $1.1 trillion in sales in 2022; it is now one of the company’s main drivers of revenue.

Yet over the years, the developers making iOS apps slowly started to turn against the company. First, developers grated against the commission—30 percent at its peak—that Apple took from some in-app payments. There were the privacy changes—specifically the “Ask App Not To Track” option, which cut into apps’ advertising revenue, translating to an estimated $12 billion hit to Facebook alone. Finally, there were the rules about what developers could and could not submit to the app store. App updates that included links to the company’s website, for example, were not allowed.

[ad_2]

Source link

August 16, 2024
MSI Claw Review: Don’t Buy This Gaming Handheld

[ad_1]

In the world of Transformers toys, there’s a concept known as “redecos.” This is when the manufacturer takes the mold for one figure but uses a different color plastic or paint and calls it a new figure. As I was testing the MSI Claw, a gaming handheld from a PC manufacturer, all I could think of was that it felt like a redeco of the Asus ROG Ally.

That’s not great because I rated the Ally quite poorly (though Asus’ new ROG Ally X fared a bit better). So we’re left with what feels like a reskin of a poor product, but other factors make the Claw even worse. Our review unit took some time to arrive at our doorstep, yet in June—mere months after the launch of the Claw—MSI announced two new successors expected to arrive this fall. Bizarrely, despite the poor reception at launch and the rush of sequels coming soon, the Claw remains for sale. So here’s a PSA: Don’t buy it.

Outdated Hardware

Where the MSI Claw differs from the original ROG Ally is minimal. It uses an Intel processor instead of AMD on the Ally, has a 53-watt-hour battery instead of 40 Wh, and the power button with a built-in fingerprint sensor is on the left instead of the right. Yes, there are a couple of other minor hardware differences, but the similarities are so much more prominent. The button layout is nearly identical, right down to the two rear, customizable paddles. It has the same 7-inch 1,080p, 120-Hz screen, the same 16 GB of LPDDR5 memory, and the same 512 GB solid-state drive.

Photograph: Eric Ravenscraft

You can get a slightly upgraded model with a 1-terabyte SSD and an Intel Core Ultra 7 processor (which is the model I tested), but with the recent release of the ROG Ally X, you probably shouldn’t. The Claw’s replacement, the MSI Claw 8 AI+, has better specs and it’s not far off.

Frankly, I could end the review here. Hardware iterations might move fast, but it’s rare to see a company announce a product’s successor three months after the original drops. There’s no good reason to buy the MSI Claw rather than wait until the follow-up. But we should still talk about how this one performs as a baseline. And, well, the bar is already set pretty low.

Square One

At this point, when I open up a new Windows-based gaming handheld, I know to expect a lengthy period of wrestling with the interface to get even basic things working. I don’t like grading on a curve—the kind of user interface issues that get a pass on devices like this would be inexcusable on, say, the Nintendo Switch or even the Steam Deck—but even with my expectations adjusted, I was constantly frustrated.

Photograph: Eric Ravenscraft

[ad_2]

Source link

August 2, 2024
‘The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom’ Finally Gives Zelda Her Own Game

[ad_1]

After decades of serving as the named inspiration for the beloved franchise The Legend of Zelda, the series’ titular princess is finally getting her own game. The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom, releasing September 26 for Nintendo Switch, gives Zelda her very own hero’s journey after Link goes missing. But it does not, sadly give her her own sword.

Players have been clamoring for Hyrule’s favorite princess to take the lead in a Zelda game for years now, or at least to be playable in games like Tears of the Kingdom. Excitement around Zelda’s triumph was immediately evident on X after Nintendo announced the game Tuesday during one of its Direct presentations. (Sample post: “I make no excuses for the person I will become once I get to play as PRINCESS ZELDA.”)

In Echoes of Wisdom, she’s tasked with rescuing Hyrule’s residents, Link included, who are being swallowed up by mysterious rifts. To save them, Zelda teams up with a fairy named Tri; armed with the Tri Rod, Zelda can create imitations of environmental objects and enemies called echoes to solve puzzles and fight monsters.

In the game’s trailer, for example, Zelda learns how to replicate a table. She can then spawn echoes of that table anywhere she wants, which allows the player to create stairs and bridges made of tables. Similar to Tears of the Kingdom’s Ultrahand a Fuse abilities, the possibilities for echoes seem pretty open; the trailer shows her learning how to make boxes, beds, rocks, and waterblocks to get around and circumvent would-be obstacles. Echoes of monsters become allies who fight alongside her.

Echoes of Wisdom has a visual style similar to the remake of The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening from 2019, but seems more in line with the experimental nature of the series’ most recent release, Tears of the Kingdom. During the presentation, longtime producer Eiji Aonuma said that the team “wanted to create a new gameplay style that breaks conventions seen in the past” with other top-down games. As for how many echoes there are, Aonuma says he hasn’t counted them all yet.

Nintendo is also releasing a gold, “Hyrule Edition” Nintendo Switch Lite along with the game.

[ad_2]

Source link

June 18, 2024
Razer Blade 18 (2024) Review: The Gaming Laptop of the Future

[ad_1]

Razer’s Blade 14 is my go-to recommendation for anyone hunting for a good gaming laptop, but as impressive as it is, it trades power for portability. If that’s the kind of sacrifice you don’t want to make, then say hello to the Razer Blade 18—this is the powerhouse you’re looking for.

Side-by-side with the Razer Blade 14, the Blade 18 looks like a protective big brother. You can see the family resemblance, but the larger Blade is more imposing. Its 18-inch Mini LED display is so bright it’s almost overwhelming in dark rooms, and it produces vivid colors that rival the already stunning screen on the Blade 14.

The Blade 18 starts at $3,100, but the model I tested is $4,500. You get a lot of power for the price. It packs a 14th-generation Intel Core i9 14900HX processor, an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 Laptop GPU (upgradable to the beastly RTX 4090, which is what I tested), 32 GB of RAM, and a 1-terabyte solid-state drive. It’s the kind of power that can tear through even the most demanding games.

Smooth Screen

Razer outdid itself with the display on the Razer Blade 18. The Mini LED panel has a 2,560 x 1,600-pixel resolution, with 2,000 local dimming zones, delivering exceptional contrast between brighter and darker areas of the image. The Razer Blade 14 was already one of the most vibrant laptop screens I’d seen, but the Blade 18 makes it look dull by comparison.

Photograph: Eric Ravenscraft

But what sets it apart is the 300-Hz refresh rate. At their best, most gaming laptops only support 240 Hz, which is plenty for most games, but for fast-paced titles like Overwatch 2, you want all the frames you can get, and the Blade 18 is one of the few laptops I’ve tested that can crank out that many reliably.

Maintaining such a high frame rate is going to be a drain on the battery, but Razer’s Synapse software has an option to automatically switch the display to 60 Hz when on battery power. This dramatically cuts down on how many frames your games have to render, conserving power, but will lead to less smooth gameplay. You can also press Fn+R to cycle between 60 Hz, 240 Hz, and 300 Hz while connected to a charger.

Synapse also has a color profile selector that lets you swap between DCI-P3, Adobe RGB, Rec.709, and other profiles to get precise, accurate colors. This is especially helpful for gamers who are also designers and photo or video editors—where color accuracy is incredibly vital to their workflow.

Powerful Performance

A great display doesn’t matter much if you don’t have the horsepower to back it up, but fortunately, the Razer Blade 18 rises to the task. The model I tested comes equipped with the GeForce RTX 4090 (you can also choose between the RTX 4070 or 4080), and it tore through most games. Starfield, a notably less-than-optimized game, was getting 60-plus frames per second in crowded areas like New Atlantis on Ultra graphics settings, and maintaining 80 to 90 fps on Medium.

Overwatch 2 is what blew me away, though. On Medium graphics settings, I maintained a full 300 fps (while the laptop was connected to power). This is a game where I’m constantly flying across the map in seconds, whipping out my pistol to land headshots on an enemy that wasn’t in my view a third of a second ago, before rushing back to heal my teammates. Three hundred frames per second is exactly what I need, and the Razer Blade 18 has the display and the power to give it to me.

[ad_2]

Source link

May 10, 2024
Dell Alienware m16 R2 Review: Gaming Power in a Business Suit

[ad_1]

The Alienware m16 R2 uses a 2,560 X 1,600-pixel resolution IPS display that’s decent for its price but not particularly remarkable. The display lacks HDR support, instead opting for a basic sRGB color gamut. This isn’t a huge deal, but when similarly priced laptops like the Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 pack vibrant OLED panels, it’s hard to ignore.

It peaks at 300 nits of brightness, which is slightly lower than some gaming laptops I’ve recently tested. Sitting next to a window during the day, I could still easily make out what was on the screen, but I started to struggle while outdoors in broad daylight.

The m16 R2’s display does have one advantage: It has a 240-Hz refresh rate, which is especially welcome in fast-paced games that can take advantage of it. While playing Doom Eternal on medium settings, I got an excess of 200 frames per second, which made jumping around and shooting demons a buttery-smooth experience.

Many other gaming laptops at this price (like the Zephyrus G14) are limited to 120 Hz, so that makes the m16 R2 an attractive alternative if you’re looking for extra-smooth gameplay. It’s worth noting that the refresh rate is useful only if games can take advantage of it, which means you’ll need to consider your spec options carefully.

For Work and Play

The base model of the Alienware m16 R2 comes with an Nvidia RTX 4050 GPU, but it can be upgraded to an RTX 4070, which was in the model I tested. With the RTX 4070, I played Overwatch 2 on medium settings while hitting well over 200 fps. In a competitive game where split-second decisionmaking matters, this is a huge benefit.

In more modern, graphics-intensive single-player games like Starfield, I reliably got 50 to 60 fps in crowded areas like New Atlantis, with higher frame rates in less-demanding areas of the game. Cyberpunk 2077 fared similarly, regularly maintaining 70 to 80 fps during combat, dipping to 50 to 60 fps while driving through crowded parts of the city.

Photograph: Eric Ravenscraft

All of these tests were done while plugged in, but it’s important to remember that if you plan to play on battery, more frames means more power drain. The m16 R2 has a substantial 90-watt-hour battery, which is among the largest you’ll find in a laptop. But cranking graphics settings to their maximum will burn through that fast. Performing normal tasks on the m16 R2, I achieved roughly nine to 10 hours of battery life on a single charge. Gaming dropped that number substantially, but I was able to get an hour and a half to two hours of continuous gaming if I was careful to optimize my graphics settings and not push the machine too hard.

Overall, the Alienware m16 R2 balances power with everyday needs. You can use this laptop as your daily driver for work and get a full day of battery life out of it, then plug it into a dock at the end of the day to do some pretty robust gaming.

[ad_2]

Source link

May 1, 2024