Month: April 2022

Pokemon may be great, but it is not possible to create your own monsters. Now, thanks to the tireless work of one developer, you can make the chimera monster of your dreams by fusing creatures together. Although the game does not yet have a name, RujiK has created a demo that uses game developer wizardry in order to procedurally generate monsters. That way, you can combine all sorts of creatures to create unique monster combinations.

These unique monsters are part of Cool WIP. This is Polygon’s Weekly Roundup, which includes eye-catching clips of work in progress and screenshots. Each week, the Polygon staff scours the internet for the most interesting games still under construction to give you a sampler of the coolest up-and-coming projects.

This week that includes a game with a watercolor look set in France, a chaotic battleship, a third person shooter that tracks your every step, and a Spider-Man-inspired action game.

Who needs Pokemon when you can make your own monsters?

RujiK is the developer behind a new game that allows players to “procedurally” crossbreed animals. It’s just another way to say that the creatures players create by combining them are not drawn from prebuilt assets. The developer posted a log going into greater depth about how it works, and a clip on Twitter shows the game fusing an ant with a snake to make what essentially looks like a long, wiggly monster combining features from the two. RujiK has a Twitter account that is full of all kinds of treats, so make sure you check it out.

Take a nostalgic trip to France in this watercolor adventure

A studio by the name of Un Je Ne Sais Quoi (which means “An I don’t know” in French) is making a dreamy narrative adventure set in France. The game, called Dordogne, follows a young woman who is trying to piece together a puzzle left to her by her late grandmother. A new GIF from the developers showed off one part of Dordogne in which you can capture sound in-game using a mic and tape recorder. The visual style is stunning, and if you’d like to learn more, the game has a page on Steam.

Battleship gets chaotic with comic book effects

Fun Freighter’s Scrap Seas takes the feeling of doing donuts in the parking lot and puts it into a battleship game. The bright colors and playful design almost look like children’s toys placed in a tub. A clip shows the game in action, including the game’s comic book-like visual effects during attacks. You can find more information on Scrap Seas on the game’s Steam page.

There’s no escaping yourself in this third-person shooter

This shooter creates chaos in the world by leaving behind a trail of doubles. A clip from Victor Careil shows the concept in action. In it, we see a red character running through a map, and as the character runs, they leave behind dozens of voxel doubles in their path. The trail is long; in the clip, the character goes for a nice jog around the map until they end at the same place they started, with a map filled with doubles. Careil does a lot of experimentation with various projects, and you can check out more of their work on Twitter.

Another game inspired by Spider-Man? Sick

Here, developer Zahid Ali Jeelani shows off a game called Enera. Apparently, the game was inspired by the Miles Morales movie Into the Spider-Verse; Jeelani said on their Twitter that they wanted capture an “Into the Spider-Verse feel.” In the clip of the game, the protagonist jumps off a high building, and their limbs wave around as they fall. They have a rather awkward look as their legs flail and they appear clumsy. If you’re into Spider-Man-like games, you can catch more updates about this game on its Twitter account.

PlayStation Plus subscribers get access to three games in May: FIFA 22, Curse of the Dead Gods, and Tribes of Midgard. All three will be available for download from the PS Plus hub on PlayStation 4 or PlayStation 5 beginning May 3, Sony Interactive Entertainment announced Wednesday.

FIFA 22 is the PlayStation 4 version of the game, not the PS5 version, although it is playable on PS5 thanks to backward compatibility. The sport is currently in the semifinal round of the UEFA Champions League, and the final will be played May 28, which probably is why PlayStation and EA picked this month to showcase FIFA 22. Both the UEFA Champions League and Europa League competitions appear in the game, along with CONMEBOL’s Copa Libertadores (South America’s club football championship). Should PS5 players choose to upgrade to the newer console version, their progress in the Ultimate Team and Volta Football modes will carry over, but their game saves (in career or other modes) will not transfer.

Curse of the Dead Gods, by Passtech Games and published by Focus Home Interactive, is a roguelike, isometric dungeon crawler for PlayStation 4 that launched in February 2021. In it, players explore procedurally generated dungeons searching for riches and powerful loot. The game includes a “Curse Meter,” in addition to a health meter, which fills up and hinders the player if they perform dark magic.

Tribes of Midgard, for PS4 and PS5, is an action RPG with an emphasis on survival and co-operative play. The game leans hard into Norse mythology, with missions involving Yggdrasil (the Norse tree of life), the Jötnar (giants) and preventing Ragnarok. Cooperative play supports up to 10 players in online “tribes” for its Survival Mode and season-based Saga Mode.

PlayStation Plus subscribers can still download April’s games — Hood (for PS4 and PS5); Slay the Spire (PS4); and SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom — Rehydrated — through May 2.

Jett has long been one of Valorant‘s best agents, but the game’s latest patch is taking a bit of wind out of her sails. Valorant patch 4. 08 nerfs the dualist Agent, buffs Neon, and adds the new Agent Fade to the fray. This patch was just in time to release Wednesday’s update for Act 2.

The most prominent update in the patch is Jett’s Tailwind change. The previous version let her instantly dash from one spot to another, but the new version will take some premeditation. After the patch, Jett has to activate Tailwind, a process that includes a short delay, then use the ability within a 12-second window. Jett players will no longer be able to react immediately and must prepare their dashes prior to using the ability.

The patch also introduced Agent Fade who makes use of shadows to spot enemies. Sova also got a few nerfs with a shorter window to use his Owl Drone ability and less damage to his Shock Darts. Neon received a few buffs as well, smoothing her slide, and taking out damage from her walls. This allowed her to let her teammates safely walk through them.

For a look at all the changes in Valorant‘s 4. 08 update you can check out the full patch notes.

Valorant Patch 4. 08 notes

Agent updates

Fade goes live

Jett

The team loves what Jett has continually brought to the fight, but as the game has evolved, some of her impacts have pushed beyond what we think is healthy for the tactical promise of VALORANT. Our update to Tailwind aims to address these concerns while maintaining the aggressive site takes and awe inspiring highlight plays Jett should bring to the roster. Check out our full article on the Jett update here for a complete breakdown of our approach and the philosophies that drove this update. We expect this change to have ripple effects on the Agents around Jett and the ecosystem overall, so we’ll keep a close eye not only on Jett, but any cascading impacts on the entire roster.

Tailwind

• Upon pressing E, Jett consumes her Tailwind charge and after a . 75 second delay, activates a 12-second window where she’s able to dash on next key press
• Jett’s Tailwind charge can still be regained with 2 kills
• To keep parity with the changes to Jett dash, the functionality for Dash during Knife rounds in Escalation will be adjusted

Neon

We’ve been keeping an eye on Neon and wanted to make some quality of life changes to help remove some friction when playing as, or with, Neon.

General

• Battery energy received upon killing an enemy increased 25%>>>100%

High Gear

We’ve noticed Neon has faced some friction when using movement to lead into combat, specifically failed inputs due to the velocity restriction. We hope these changes help with making her slide a lot more natural when engaging in fights.

• Slide cannot be cast during equip delay
• Velocity restriction removed
• Neon can now slide sideways and forward, and only requires that she is moving
• Energy drain increased 6. 7/s>>>10/s

Fast Lane

This change is intended to push Fast Lane into a more attractive option for Neon, or for an ally by preventing the disruptive portion of doing incidental damage and by adding a bit of safety moving forward.

Sova

At high-level ranked or pro play, Sova’s been a staple for quite some time. Although his influence in coordinated situations is not as strong as Jett’s, it has been almost unbearable. The Owl Drone virtually guarantees a lot of space, so we wanted to address that and provide additional play options for our opponents. A reduced Drone duration means Sova has to incur more risk in his positioning to clear deeper angles, and the adjustments to ping reveal (below) give opponents more opportunity to mix up their repositioning without feeling forced to completely exit the area. Shock Dart has also taken a hit as we continue to sharpen damage outputs on non-ultimate abilities, so that they kill less frequently

Owl Drone

• Duration reduced 10s >>> 7s
• Health reduced 125 >>> 100
• Dart Reveal
• Number of reveal pings reduced 3 >>> 2
• Initial delay before first ping reveals increased 1. 2s >>> 1. 6s*
• *Delay between the first and second ping remains 1. 2s
• Quality of Life
• Changed crosshair color to green to better stand out against the white HUD
• Removed delay on [Target Hit] confirmation text
• [Target Hit] confirmation text now remains on the player HUD when transitioning out of Owl Drone.
• [Target Hit] confirmation text now remains on screen for 2s, previously 1s
• Adjusted audio on drone dart hits for both Sova, and the player hit, to make confirmations more noticeable
• Fixed a bug with Owl Drone, where the Dart Cooldown UI element would not properly update after tagging an opponent.

Shock Dart

• Max Damage decreased 90 >>> 75
• Radial damage has been scaled in accordance with new max damage.

Agent ability ammo

• Jett’s Bladestorm, Raze’s Showstopper, and Sova’s Hunter’s Fury will now show how much ammo they have left when equipped

Competitive Updates

5-Stack queues

• Reduced Rank Rating gain/loss penalty for different 5-stack configurations
• If EVERYONE in your party is Iron-Diamond 2:
• No RR penalty if within normal grouping
• 25% RR penalty for all players if any player falls outside of normal grouping
• If ANYONE in your party is Diamond 3-Immortal 3 (but no one in your party is Radiant)
• 25% RR penalty for all players
• If ANYONE in your party is Radiant
• 75% RR penalty for all players
• Tuned matchmaking to reduce wait time for 5-stacks
• You can read the basics on how Rank Rating penalties work for 5-stacks in our previous patch notes.

Bug fixes

Agents

• Fixed a bug where Jett could find herself unable to use abilities or weapons when using Tailwind immediately after depleting her Bladestorm daggers
• Fixed a bug where Yoru could teleport out of bounds when using Gatecrash
• Fixed various exploits allowing Yoru to use weapons before fully decloaking at the end of his ultimate

Performance

• Fixed a bug in the Shooting Range where bots would respawn unarmed

Long-distance charging or true wireless charging could finally see the light of day in 2022 as Belkin is readying accessories that would make use of this technology. The company is said to have made a deal with Israeli startup Wi-Charge, which plans to change how this technology goes by beaming up to one watt of power wirelessly to devices across homes, offices, and more.

As reported by TechCrunch, Wi-Charge plans to make use of this wireless charging with “low-drawn situations where you would typically use an alcaline battery or a rechargeable battery.”

For this deal with Belkin, Wi-Charge CEO, Ori Mor, didn’t say what the company will launch, but says it’s a ”center-stage consumer product:”

“I can’t tell you exactly what Belkin is launching, which is a bummer, because it’s a center-stage consumer product. Belkin is super interesting because of several things: It is a consumer company that is super aggressive on the timeline, and they chose a perfect application,” explains Mor. “Belkin does aftermarket accessories to charge other devices, and they do powerline products, smart home products, etc. This allows us to give them an unfair advantage for [wireless power]. I think it’s time. Everyone is waiting for wireless power.”

The interesting part of Wi-Charge wireless charging technology is that it uses an IR beam that goes from a transmitter to a receiver, which is also safer:

“If you have to blanket the entire room with power, you get an environment that neither the users nor the regulators will approve,” says Mor. “We deliver a beam directly to the receiver; 100% of the power that leaves the transmitter reaches the receiver.”

Since Belkin is full of wireless chargers for iPhones, AirPods, and other products that support the Qi pattern, it will be nice to see what they have in store. Currently, Wi-Charge aims for smart locks, electric toothbrush, and devices that don’t need lots of power to charge.

One interesting approach, although completely different from what Belkin and Wi-Charge, is the Samsung Remote that charges with sunlight.

“Our lowest power delivery now is around 70 milliwatts, and it goes up to one watt. That means that we deliver 1,000 times more power than any competitor in the field,” explains Mor, arguing that the technology has a green-tech angle as well. “A single transmitter can save 5,000 batteries.”

You can read the full piece by TechCrunch here.

Are you excited about what Belkin could introduce? Imagine charging your iPhone with a charger that actually charges wirelessly. Share your thoughts in the comment section below.

Related:

• Explainer: Why Apple didn’t put long-distance charging into an iPhone, and won’t for some time

Studio Display webcam complaints were one of the standout things from early product reviews. The WSJ’s Joanna Stern took the turn-of-phrase prize for her description of the image quality, describing it as reminiscent of the camera on a BlackBerry.

The complaints were allayed for a time, when it appeared that the issue could be fixed in software, but are back with a vengeance now that we know that’s not the case …

The story of the Studio Display webcam complaints

Apple was the one who created problems when it claimed “sensational webcam” quality. Reviewers were not impressed by the reality. Not only was the quality not sensational, but it wasn’t even as good a MacBook Pro. Here’s Stern’s take in full:

The webcam consistently made me look like I was the star of a ’90s home video […]

Apple’s camera consistently produced grainy and washed-out images. Some of these shots reminded me so much of my BlackBerry’s camera. The plus side is that no one could see my hair frizzy.

I brought back extra eyes to confirm. I recorded footage from webcams on the Studio Display (12 megapixel), an iPhone 11 Pro (12 megapixel), a 14-inch MacBook Pro (2 megapixel) and the 5K LG monitor (2 megapixel). Without naming which source, I shared the frames with colleagues. The group was unanimous, ranking the Apple Studio Display’s webcam dead last.

Apple replied the same day promising to update the software.

“[We] reviewed the photos you have shared and found an issue that the software isn’t responding to as it should. We’ll be making improvements in a software update.”

What nobody noticed at the time was that Apple chose its words carefully: It didn’t promise to fix the image quality, only to improve it. Apple’s promise of an update was quickly realized by owners.

The update does not seem to magically increase the webcam quality at Studio Display. […]

While most Apple devices feature a wide front camera with a standard lens, Studio Display features an ultra-wide one. This is because it has Center Stage, a feature that uses machine learning to always center the image on a person during a video call or video recording. Center Stage uses digital cropping to place people within the frame since this camera does not have an optical zoom.

Apple did make some improvements to the image but it’s still a digital crop. This means that the image doesn’t have the same quality as the one from the new iPhones and MacBooks.

The complaints are fair, but overblown

I want to make it very clear that I totally understand the complaints. If Apple charged me $1,600+ for a display, and had promised me a “sensational” webcam, I’d be upset too. There are 4K professional webcams out there that make Apple’s webcam look like a child’s toy.

At the same time, there is, you know, physics. If you take a 12MP image and digitally crop it to say 6MP, then view it on a 27-inch monitor, it’s not going to look as crisp as a 12MP image viewed on a smaller screen.

Now, you absolutely can turn around and say, ‘Well, in that case, Apple should have used a 24MP camera in there, and cropped it to 12MP.” Or, indeed, that it should have used the 48MP camera it is rumored to have lined up for the iPhone 14.

But there are two arguments against this. First, again, physics. Light is the most important thing in image quality. Even if you have an acceptable sensor and lens, it is not enough to make the difference. This is the reason why anyone who wants to look good on a Zoom presentation uses a decent-size ring light.

So even with a 48MP sensor, unless you have a decent light source, the image still isn’t going to look great in a typical office environment.

Which brings me to my second point. People are not going to use the built-in webcam – any built-in webcam – for pro work, like interviews. The type of people who do pro video work and spend $1,600+ on a monitor certainly have a decent mirrorless or DSLR camera at each end, with big ring lights. Even if you use an iPhone as your webcam, you still want a ring light for decent-quality images in a typical indoor environment.

So Apple is not putting an expensive webcam inside. The people who need better image quality wouldn’t use it, and for everyday video conversations, Center Stage is a more useful feature than a 48MP sensor.

By all means complain that Apple is nickel-and-diming us again. But real-life impact of this? Pretty much zero.

That’s what I see – how about yours? Please share your thoughts in the comments.