Catégorie : News

Dolphin is a gaming console emulator for GameCube and Wii. It is an open-source and free emulator that is compatible with Windows, Linux, Mac, and Android. Initially, Dolphin Emulator was designed for Windows and Linux, but with the advancement in mobile technology dolphin emulator became a more feasible option for Android. 

Dolphin is well known for its stability and compatibility. It provides a number of features and the aptitude to play games with enhanced graphics. Dolphin emulator can run games at the HD video quality, surprisingly the GameCube and Wii consoles are not capable to play 1080p video quality. Most of the GameCube and Wii console games run smoothly without any glitch what-so-ever. 

Dolphin is an open-source project, which means that any programmer can tweak the source code. The source code of Dolphin Emulator is available on code.google.com. Dolphin is actively developed and new features are added consistently. Dolphin emulator is a multiplatform emulator which can support Windows, Linux, Mac, and Android.

Dolphin Emulator for Android

There is a number of emulators available in the market for GameCube and Wii, but the Dolphin Emulator is the best among them for playing classic Nintendo console games. Almost all the classic games of GameCube and Wii console are available on Dolphin emulator for PC. For even more classic feel you can connect Wii motes to your PC.

The Dolphin Emulator has an Android version which is now available on Google Play Store for free. Before that, it was not available on Google Play Store but you had to download APK version from the Dolphin Emulator’s website. According to the Dolphin development team, Dolphin Emulator for Android devices is still in beta phase, while Windows and Mac version of Dolphin Emulator are well known for their stability and compatibility. Beta version does not mean that it’s all bad, we think if you are a fan of Super Mario and Resident Evil you should definitely give it a try.

Dolphin team is committed to resolving any issues that might be present in the Beta version of the Dolphin Emulator Android version. If you are hesitant to try out the Beta version of Dolphin emulator due to some bugs, monthly updates by the Dolphin team might resolve your issue.

As you might know that a lot of emulators don’t come with the pre-installed games, same is the case with Dolphin emulator. You have to convert your favorite games to ISO file and play them with Dolphin emulator.    

Dolphin Emulator Features and Performance

There are a lot of quirky features in Dolphin Emulator like:

• There is a quick save option available for instantly saving your progress, along with a reload state option.
• Due to Anti-Aliasing and Anisotropic filtering, the video quality of the game is enhanced. It is enhanced so much that its better than the original Wii console. Keep in mind that a good graphics card can enhance the gaming experience.
• You can now play your favorite games in 1080p resolution, the original Wii console box didn’t even have that option.
• You can connect Wii mote and Nunchuck to your PC and enjoy the classic gaming experience.
• Dolphin supports multiple Wii mote at a time.
• Performance boost can be achieved using simple setting adjustments that might end up boosting 20+FPS.
• A high-performance gaming CPU is recommended for uninterrupted gaming experience for good results intel i5 might be enough and for an amazing gaming experience, intel i7 or equivalent system is recommended.

Wii Mote and Sensor Bar

Dolphin lets you have multiplayer fun; you can now connect up to 4 Wii Motes or Nun Chuck. You can connect a Wii Mote to a PC using Bluetooth connection and enjoy multiplayer gaming.

The wireless sensor bar is another way of enjoying the classic gaming experience. Wii Motes and Wireless sensor are connected together in such a way that infrared sensor in the Wii Mote finds the point of light in sensor bar so that they work flawlessly.

Dolphin 5.0

Dolphin team released Dolphin 5.0 which is the most awaited update. The update brings multiple new fixes, including the speed performance fix. With this new fix, the performance of Dolphin emulator has been enhanced. Not only performance but a lot of extra features are introduced as well.

A lot of graphic improvements have been made, depth matrix has been improved this makes texture that is far away, look more accurate by giving them depth. Depth matrix helped improve the texture enhancement on obscured objects in some games. At the same time, it is making the distant object look sharper. 

If you prefer the authentic console-like graphics you can now boot your Dolphin to look like the original Wii console. Another problem that has been addressed is the sound, there were complaints about jerky sound and music. With Dolphin 5.0 you get accurate sound emulation. Now you can feel the authentic console experience with Dolphin 5.0 audio fix. This fix works well with games that have frame-accurate button presses like Super Mario.

There is a list of small fixes that are carried out in Dolphin 5.0. The biggest relief for gamers is increased Netplay performance. Netplay allows gamers to play local multiplayer games online.

We should give credit to team Dolphin for constantly working and fixing the Bugs for a smooth and enhanced console gaming experience.

Gaming rigs have always been changing. Once Nintendo was dominating and then play station swept the floor. Xbox came to the competition and then high-end gaming PCs started to steal the show. For us gamers, there are memories in all platforms and we would love if we can play retro games again. In actual sense, this means that we actually have to set up supporting platforms for different games and install the components to reach the minimum benchmarks to run the game smoothly. Setting up different platforms might be possible but it would make no sense as you only want to relive the moment for some time and after that you will go back to the latest versions with high-end games. So, what’s the best option to satisfy the craves of retro games? Happy chick emulator is your answer.

Happy chick emulator is a unique emulator that allows you to play loads of games including the retro games from multiple platforms on a single device. Yes, you heard right. All of your favorite games can be playable on one device. Emulating allows you to do cross-platform gaming and happy chick emulator is an ideal and perfect example.  You can download the emulator from the official website and one thing you must know is that the emulator language is Chinese by default but you can easily change the language. You can click on the bottom right icon labeled as manage and then go to settings. In the settings, you can see the language and then choose the desired language to understand the emulator and choose the desired game.

After you have selected the language, the happy chick emulator will open. At first, the emulator is a bit difficult to grasp with multiple banners and totally different graphical user interface. There are multiple emulators available in the categories menu supporting different platforms. You can select the desired format and the list of games will pop up and you can download the game of the local storage by pressing the Get button on the preferred game.  Downloading the games directly from the happy chick is actually its highlighting feature. This means that you don’t have to download the games from untrusted sources or the games that you download are not supported by happy chick. With the internal downloads, you won’t have to worry about the format as the game will be downloaded in the format that is accessible from your device or system.

List of platforms or games that can be emulated is pretty decent. You can enjoy all the versions of Play Station, Nintendo 64, MAME, and almost every other console that you could think of. You can enjoy all the retro games and can adjust the screen according to your device. You can use separate controllers in case the screen is not big enough. You can also download android games and can emulate just like that.

Controls of the happy chick are relatively easy. Any game that you want to play will be opened in the respective emulator and you can play without any kinds of restriction. If you want to go back to the beginning, just tap on the home button and it reroutes you to the sub-menu. From the submenu, you can go back to the main menu and that’s it. You can also make the necessary adjustments to modify the settings according to your preferred settings. All the games are super easy to access and you don’t need to go to the trouble of rooting or jailbreaking the device.

We have discussed above how to use the happy chick to install the game but for iOS user, you might face the problem as the downloaded application will not be from the trusted source and your device won’t allow that game to run. For example, if you have downloaded Pokemon GO by pressing the get button and downloading the game. You will receive an error that application is not trusted. In that case you need to go to your settings and then device management. Look for the source that has published the game and click on that option. After that you can see the option of trust Pokemon GO marked as red. Press on that and the game will be added as a trusted application. Now check again, the game will run perfectly. Trusting the application is necessary and there are chances that you had to add happy chick to the trusted list as well because the emulators are third-party application.

The cool thing about the happy chick is that all the latest games have been added so you don’t have to think about another second before choosing. Even the latest sensation, PUBG, is available so you can imagine the hype and attention that happy chick will be getting and why not the emulator is designed to be absolutely perfect.

We all are so attached to the smartphones that we rarely think about leaving the phone intentionally or not staying connected with the Wi-Fi. Our lives got attached to the social media and web so much that we feel something is missing when there is no internet. We often came across the situations where the internet stopped working and you don’t know what to do with your Android. Wi-Fi can be out of various possibilities but the important thing here is that we miss the continuous connection globally. We think that our smartphones are useless without internet and for some people it might be true but we could point out few things that can help you in spending your time on your android even if you are not connected with Wi-Fi.

1. If you are into web articles or you follow blogs and pages online, then you can actually save some articles for the rainy days like these. For example, if you are into gaming blogs and want to buy a new game but want to read the reviews first, then you can actually download the article and read it on your flight, subway or office where you have limited or no access to the internet. In this way, you can pass your free time along with getting the desired information.
   
2. With the increase in social media marketing, more people have started to follow the news and stuff on social apps like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Youtube. Podcasts are always there to entertain you and if you are connected with the internet, streaming is not an issue, but there is an option to save the podcast in your device so it can be played offline. You just need to be prepared for the situation like these and have one or two episodes already downloaded in the device so you can listen whenever you are getting bored because of no internet connectivity.
   
3. No internet gives you ample time to plan your day carefully and even you can map out the plans that you can need to accomplish. All you got to do is use the time well and instant of wasting the time, use it to make some sort of checklist that you must complete at the day end or week. This way you don’t get bored when the Wi-Fi is not available and you can do something productive with the spare time as well.
   
4. Make the phone calls that you were ignoring or pretending not possible because of the busy schedule. There are always some cases when you actually want to call someone and just got hung up on a post, article, or video and you actually forgot to make the call. Whenever the internet is not working, you can actually gather your thoughts and think about any missing calls that you forgot to make. It can be a doctor’s appointment, or a reunion call to an old friend, or a routine checkup of your pet. You can prioritize the things when things are not in your favor.
   
5. Music is famous for being food for the souls and different genres are basically for different moods. If you are feeling sad, you cannot listen to rock music or rap songs and the same case goes for the sad songs that you don’t want to listen in happy mood. So, you got to segregate the songs according to the mood and you can let your android decide which song will cheer you up the most. To accomplish that, you need to make playlists for different moods and in that playlist, but only those songs that you want to listen to at that specific moment. What better time to do that than doing it when you are not connected with the internet. This allows them time to pass swiftly and now you have separate playlist for separate moods. So, it’s a win-win situation.
   
6. You can always try different offline apps like editing apps or books library. You can learn how to fix the issue in your pictures or videos and then you can also post the perfect insta selfie that you always wished for. Frankly speaking, it’s all about giving time to something. You can actually put your android to good use by learning skills as well because smartphones are not only for social media or web surfing. Books can also be the perfect time killer and you can learn valuable lessons from them as well. There are different applications available that allow you to read books even if you are offline.
   
7. Lots and lots of free games are available in play store that you can download to kill the time. All-time favorites like Subway surfers, Temple Run, Candy crush, fruit ninja, they all can be played in offline mode as well and believe me you will never miss that you are not connected to the internet. Games are always regarded as the best activity to spend free time or steam off the stress. You don’t want to disturb your free time just because of no internet access. So, these splendid offline games are big plus that you won’t have to rely on internet of Wi-Fi. It’s the specialty of the game that you can enjoy it anywhere despite the conditions. All you got to have is an Android and you are good to go.

Play station 3 had ruled the gaming era for some time now and rated has highly efficient gaming consoles of its time. PS3 was famous for its impeccable design and exclusive access to the variety of games like Metal Gear Solid 4, Call of Duty, The Last of Us, persona 5, and many more. Now everyone does not own a PS3 and sometimes the games are launched exclusively for PS3. Now, this does not necessarily mean that you can never play that game on any other platform. There is always a loophole and for, fortunately, there are emulators out there that allow you to play the games on PC, Mac, and Android.

Emulators can be an optimal choice for PCs as you have good RAM and processing speed plus the GPU helps you in running the game smoothly without any stutters or lag. Furthermore, you can enjoy all the PS3 games and the system won’t be bottlenecked. But in the case of Android, you got to do some research and make sure you have a solid GPU and battery. Otherwise the gameplay will be laggy or you will be stuck to the charging port all the time. This can affect the overall performance of Android. Let’s see what types of emulators are out there and what are the requirements to help you in choosing the best emulator for your PC and Android?

RPCS3 emulator:

RPCS3 is top of the line emulator that is absolutely free and the source code of the emulator is also open. The emulator is good for windows and Mac OS and supports the variety of PS3 games so all you got to do is download the emulator for free and start emulating the games. But one thing you must know is the minimum requirements so you won’t face any gameplay issues because of the low-end PCs. To run the games smoothly, you need to have at least Windows 7 and a minimum of 3 GB RAM. After that you must have a good or medium GPU, let’s say we start with the 1 GB version of it. Now if you are meeting the mentioned requirement, then you don’t need to worry about the cringy lag and your game will be smooth. You also need to have Play Station 3 .pup files so you can emulate the PS3 games on your PC or Mac.

ANX:

ANX is rated as the top-rated PS3 emulator as people are enjoying Gods of Arena. The best thing about this emulator is that it supports both Mac and Windows OS and also the latest versions of it. So, you don’t have to downgrade your OS just to run a certain emulator. The requirements are basic as always but still you need to have a good GPU and a processor to run the games smoothly.

ESX-PS3:

ESX-PS3 can be termed as the demanding emulator as it does not emulate the games properly unless the system is equipped with decent hardware. ESX emulator is a decent choice as it supports abundant games and you can certainly find your favorite games right here and they all are compatible with your PC. ESX-PS3 have two sets of requirement. One is minimum requirements that allow the game to be emulated but the graphics won’t be up to the mark. You will need 1 GB of ram and 1 GB of graphics card. It can be of either AMD or GTX, the choice is yours. But for the ultimate experience, you must have 2 GB of Ram for 32-bit operating system and 4 GB for 64-bit operating system. Graphics card, in this case, must be of minimum 2 GB to support the smooth gameplay.

Play Station Now:

Among the emulators, PS now emerged as a cloud-based service that let you stream the game on your PC. You won’t need to have high-end PC as all the heavy work will be done over the server and this will be like watching the videos on Youtube but you will be streaming your favorite PS3 games on your PC without any difficulties. One thing that is a must is that you will need the Xbox controller to play the games. With the cloud-based service, you get the relaxation on the hardware but you must have a steady and fast internet connection. The recommended internet speed is 5 Mbps t achieve maximum gaming performance. The PS Now offers the complete solution to get rid of complex architectures and you don’t need to spend so much on making the high-end PCs just to play the games.

Sony PS3 Emulator:

Sony PS3 emulator is a perfect choice if you want to play the games on your Android device. The process is also simple. All you got to do is download the application follow the instructions displayed on the screen and you are good to go. One thing you must consider is that your device is capable of running high-end games like these otherwise you can face issues with the games.

PPSSPP:

Without any doubt, PPSSPP is the most demanding and best emulator for smartphones out there. PPSSPP is equipped with the features to adjust the screen of your smartphones according to the PS3 games. So, you can have enhanced gaming experience and you don’t need to worry about a thing.

Before jumping into the 3DS emulation, let’s discuss what 3DS is and how it is related to gaming. 3DS or Nintendo 3DS is a console that is portable for ease of access and it was first introduced back in the days of 2011. The portable device could generate the 3D effects and you don’t even have to wear the 3D glasses. The same technology was launched by Sony as PSV or Play Station Vita so, we can say that they both were the competitors. As the technology was new back in the days, the prices were also inflated which hit the overall sales of the Nintendo 3DS but after the few hits, Nintendo dropped the price and soon it took the place of best selling portable console. After the success, different varients were also released to justify the prices like XL and 2DS. XL has large screen and 2DS does not support 3D effects in the games. With the years passed by and even after the launch of Nintendo Switch, Nintendo 3DS holds its market as the best 3D portable consoles. Now that you have the rough idea about the Nintendo 3DS, let’s jump into the emulation and see how you can emulate the Nintendo 3DS games on your Android.

It was a challenge for the developers to jump into the waters of Nintendo 3DS emulation but they came up with unofficial Citra for Android that can actually emulate the games on your Android device. The emulator is still in its early days so there are some bugs and minor issues that needed to be cleared in the programming and developing of the emulator. The big names are yet to be tested on Citra but signs are showing that there will be some troubles. But this does not mean that the emulator is completely useless. Some games are running flawlessly and that was the reason that we are covering Citra in the category of 3DS emulator as they are limited because of the unique features that Nintendo 3DS can offer. But we got to confirm the efficiency of the emulator so the end-users can actually rely on the emulator whenever they want to play the Nintendo 3DS games.

Few gamers tried different games like Fire Emblem Echoes and registered some crashing issues. We investigated the issues on our end and found that all the crashing issues are not with the actual Citra but the version that those gamers have downloaded. Older versions had the problem of crashing mid-game or the high-end games failed to run on the first attempt. To confirm our statement, we tried Luigi’s Mansion which worked extremely well under the same settings. So, we can say that Citra is picky when you are trying to emulate the games as Super Mario 3D was no short of an absolute disaster as the game was literally not playable. Another thing that is extremely important is that you must run the games on at least snapdragon 845 as the processor needs to be strong to perfect the emulation. Otherwise, the Citra issues and low-end specifications could destroy the gaming experience itself and you don’t try to emulate the Nintendo 3DS games anymore which is not the goal.

Emulating the 3DS games pretty tough on its own and decryption of games adds salt to the injury. It has always been the requirement of Citra that game needs to be decrypted before it can be emulated through Citra. Encrypted games won’t run through Citra because necessary requirements are not met. System files stored in actual 3DS needs to be decrypted before copying them for Citra and if the encrypted files are dumped then Citra won’t recognize and the emulation cannot be done.

At this point, you must be wondering that is Citra actually working or it is just a failed prototype. So, the good news here is that Citra is actually decent with the success of Luigi’s mansion and Shovel Knight. But we cannot say that this is the ultimate emulator as we have seen the disaster with different games like Super Mario 3D Land and Fire Emblem Echoes. You cannot even move around when playing Super Mario 3D land so experience was not pleasant at all. Some of the games also faced barriers like dumping the system archives and Pokemon X and Y are the perfect examples of that case. The process is relatively easy and is available on official Citra website. All you need to do is follow the footsteps perfectly and you will be able to run the Pokemon X and Y perfectly. Dumping the files cannot be a huge problem as you also had to decrypt the games and Nintendo 3DS is required. So dumping some files is not difficult as it sounds like.

Up till now, Citra never officially claimed as a partner with android to support the Nintendo 3DS emulation. But they always kept things interesting by releasing the statements like they are working tirelessly with the developers to make the port and connection with the android device into a reality. They are also denying the involvement in any other third-party application but the results shown by Luigi’s Mansion show that the developers are working in the right direction and soon we will see the finished application in the near future and emulation of Nintendo 3DS will no longer be a dream.

Whenever we listen to the word gaming or gamers, the popular opinion of the people is that the games are ruining the children. They always stay attached to the computer or mobile and don’t indulge in extracurricular activities. Most parents use stern hand to stop their child from playing the games and force them to either study or play outside. Their opinion is not 100% wrong as physical exercises are really great for the growth of mind and body. The person stays fit and enjoys a healthy life. However, undermining the gaming totally is just wrong. According to the new study, scientists uncover new findings that gaming can actually increase the growth rate of the brain. The news might shock some people but if you notice the pattern you will see that gaming needs the person to have quick reflexes to kill the opponent or hear carefully and pre mediate their next moves relying on the senses. So, the discovery was a matter of time and not completely shocking. But to sooth, the jangling nerves research has been uploaded in Journal frontier and the researchers backed their claims by proven facts and figure.

The official study was conducted by the scientists of China and gave the verdict that gaming can actually improve the growth of the human brain. They said that the group of gamers was able to filter out the extra information and stay focused on the topic without too much difficulty. To back the theory with the facts, scientists carried the research on around 29 people. They divided the group of gamers and non-gamers. The gamers they recruited were professionals and are taking part in the E-sports event for a while now. On the other hand, non-gamers were those people who play little to no games and enjoy spending their time away from the games.

Scientists carried out the visual selective attention test. The test is for the purpose of rating the people on how well they can perform the designated task with all the other less important routines. How well a person can prioritize the important tasks from the less important ones? Handling the multitasking and filtering out the excessive information shows how well a person is using the brain and scientists believe that if a person can manage to multitask then they are using their brain in the most efficient way.

Different tasks were designed to rate the brain activity and electroencephalogram machine was also used to map the brain readings. Participants were brought to the test center and they had to sit in front of the computer screen. The participants were shown a square in the middle of the screen and in the lightening moment, a second square will pop anywhere on the screen and the participants had to tell the exact position with respect to the middle one. Gamers group pass the test with the flying colors and they even mocked the test as they anticipate these kinds of quick flashes in their games and act accordingly. However, the non-gamer group had faced the difficulty at first because the popping was unusual and they had never experienced this kind of quick test. Their brain was not able to process the information quickly. After the initial results, non-gamers group had to play the league of legends for almost an hour and take the screen test again. In a league of legends, they saw a similar sudden pattern movement as enemies attacked from unexpected places and after one death their brain started to read the situation and acted to save life. After the one hour gaming, results were shocking as the non-gamers were almost equal to the gamers and there was not a huge score gap difference like before. EEG machine clearly confirms the increased growth of brain activity and we can say that non-gamers can compete for the gamers, not at some level.

The results were a shocker as the comparison margin was so slim. We can say that non-gamers had the potential but they were not looking to play the games and when the opportunity arrived, their brain cell automatically adjusted the performance according to the game. The study was carried out on just 29 people, so, there is a chance of error. However, EEG machine clearly backs the statement that gaming can improve the brain activity and picking powers of a person.

Our education systems are so tough these days that the person who lacks focus can never survive the harsh environment. If you want to complete the studies you need to stay focused on the only goal and that is study. While playing video games like PUBG and Call of duty, we often neglect the small graphics changes but rather focus on the enemies. The process of indulging in fights with only enemies and filtering out the other graphic details like background, grass, river, and sky is helping the brain from overloading the sensory information and process only the important ones.

So, scientists claim that gamers have a special ability. They can find a person in the crowd or drive the car through traffic much efficiently than the non-gamers. So, the clues are there and scientists only unveiled the facts using the visual attention. When you are playing the game, you are listening through the headphones, your left hand will be on the keyboard and right hand will be the mouse. The eyes will be glued to the screen waiting for the enemy to pop-ou or make the slightest of the move. Whenever the enemy gets spotted, all the nerves start to work simultaneously to finish off the enemy. So, in gaming we are doing multitasking at its best and that the very reason that proves that gaming can increase brain growth and can help the person to stay focused on one aim.

So for the maximum benefit, we need to make the place for both gaming and healthy exercise routine. In this way, we can take care of both the mind and the body.

Call of duty franchise goes way back and we can say that the franchise laid the foundation to the competitive gaming. With intense 5v5 LAN matches back in early 2000, everyone loved to play the game. Graphics and the guns gave the realistic feeling whenever you are playing the game and you get reeled in to play the game all night. With the scope of improvement, the pro players got a considerable advantage as they learned the critical spots to hold A and B bomb sites, and unveiled crucial wall bang spots which could kill the opponent without giving them a chance. Amidst of all the modern games like Apex legends, PUBG, Fortnite, Call of duty has certainly lost its charm. There is considerably less Call of duty players than any other above-mentioned game. However, there are rumors that Infinity Ward has been trying to revive the Call of duty and the gaming community is excited about it. Memers are already sharing the memes specifically targeting the PUBG and Fortnite that their glory days are now ever and the king will be back. So, with the official statement from the Infinity Ward, we will be hoping to see the first glimpse of the game in late 2019. The game is expected to be released on Oct 25, 2019. Expected platforms will be XOne, PS4, and PC.

More Updates and News:

Infinity Ward has shared the live stream in which we got the first official look of Call of Duty Modern Warfare’s multiplayer mode. Deducing from the stream, we are accepting to see a 2 on 2 Gun fight mode. There are some major changes expectations but we, at the moment, are not 100% sure. However, we can guess the updates depending on the expectations of the gamers. According to the social media handle of the call of duty, we are expecting a live stream on twitch in the coming month. Timings will be 10 AM Pacific Time / 1 PM European Time / 6 PM British Summer Time on 1^st of August. For the viewers from Australian Eastern timezone, they can catch the live stream on 2^nd August at 3 AM. The picture will get cleared up as we will be watching the beta version in action. More gunfights and different modes will be introduced which we never see on classic Call of duty Modern Warfare suite. Live streaming will be done of Twich.tv/callofduty, So, mark the day’s guys as we will be seeing some intense fights.

The most interesting feature that everyone was waiting for is the crossover play in Call of duty. Infinity Ward suggested that they are remaking Call of duty 2007 but the story will be completely different. Crossover play feature will help the gamers stay united. The step was initiated to keep the whole Call of duty community on a single platform and everyone can enjoy the game from their favored platform and battle for the ultimate glory. Currently, we are hearing the news that Call of duty will be released for Xone, PS4, and PC. Infinity Ward also announced the huge step in doing away with the Royale pass structure and all the content that will be released after the game will be absolutely free and gamers can avail the chance without having to pay for anything.

Achievements:

We are hopefully getting the news in August about the progression system of the new Modern Warfare. We are expecting the progression system to be even throughout the game. This will mean that you can level up your guns, skins, kill streaks, and Emotes in both single and multiplayer mode. The achievements won’t be segregated for both modes and players can enjoy the perks in both modes. The official statement is yet to be released so we are still unsure about the linkage between the single and multiplayer mode. But the hints dropped by the Infinity Ward are they want a one complete game concept and every mode will be linked to each other somehow.

Gunfight Mode:

The gaming community is excited about the Gunfight mode that the Call of duty Modern Warfare is offering. Details are still bleak but we are expecting teams of two players fighting against each other in mini map or zone. It will be a race to 6 matches and the team winning the 6 matches first will be victorious. The guns and other gears are balanced for both teams so we will be seeing even match making and the teams had to rely on skills to topple off the opponent. The battles will surely be full of intense moments and crazy gaming. We are still not sure about the premium pass game plays and extra perks for the gamers who invest in the game.

No Zombie Mode:

A lot of news is still rumors but infinity ward has explicitly quoted that there will be no Zombie mode in Call of duty Modern warfare. The news might be shocking for the new gamers but Modern warfare franchise is famous for its realistic nature of gaming. Zombie mode in call of duty was introduced by black ops franchise. Minkoff said in the recent interview and I quote “we’re trying to create an authentic, realistic feeling world. We don’t have the flexibility to do something like put zombies in the game”. Minkoff also said that they are not willing to compromise the vision of the developers and they want them to target the realistic and authentic nature of the which was the pioneer of Modern Warfare franchise.

So we are crystal clear on cross-platform gaming and no zombie mode in call of duty modern warfare. However, other modes and type of play are still not shared by the developers on any platform. We are hoping to get some exclusive news in the coming month regarding the future of Modern warfare and how much competition does Call of duty will offer to the mighty competitors like PUBG and fortnite.

What really happened?

Epic games released Fortnite in 2017, ever since its release Fortnite has entertained millions of players all across the globe. The question arises that, what does it take to make a game as successful as fortunate? The answer to that question is that it takes 70 to 100 hours of work hours per week. They might tell you it takes a hostile work environment in which over time is implied to be an important thing to do. Not that anyone will force you to put in extra time but you did see what happened to those people who relaxed a bit, well they are not there anymore. According to a new report published on Polygon, this is the work environment at Epic Games. The report was put there after talking with anonymous sources who don’t want to get disclose their identities.

This trend in the gaming industry is progressing where people are afraid to talk about the extremely toxic work environment. Abusive work environments can be dangerous to their health and they can’t even put their names to the claims. This report puts focus on how the live services the latest industry get-rich-quick scheme, it may have a particular problem when it comes to crunch periods. Their periods of crunch work where developers are expected to dedicate their lives and time working on the game, that should normally happen towards the end of the project. But the problem is Fortnite is an ongoing project, that is rushing to meet the demand and keep updates coming at short intervals. SO according to the report at Epic games, there are crunch periods that last a month, because it is a never-ending project a hence never-ending crunch period.

Indeed, the popularity of a live service might bring in tomes of money but the people developing and updating the game work a ridiculous amount of time. according to some studies, working even 50 to 60 hours a week might lead to stress and fatigue, which will eventually result in a lack of productivity. In light of this study, working 70 to 100 hours seems abusive and unsafe. Matter of the fact is, if you are forcing your developer to work these ridiculous hours, you are mentally and physically abusing them.

 Working at Epic Games

  According to the report by Colin Campbell, some of the statements from employees are devastating. We will talk about coercion; the trend is that the company will say that the crunch is voluntary as they are not forcing anyone to do it. They say nobody’s got a gun to the employee’s heads, making them work insane hours. You will read in the quotes from Epic Games employees that there are unofficial consequences if your work is not completed in time. if its physically and logistically impossible to get the work done in normal working hours then you are probably going to get fired. The threat of your financial security is constant and real, the threat of your future existing at their pleasure being something they could take away the moment. It’s a very powerful bargaining chip and it’s not a chip you have to explicitly pull out and call it attention, it’s always in your back pocket whether you like it or not. The developers, the employees and the contractors they always know it’s there that’s how bargaining from a position of power works, you have the power you can do as you please. With the implied threat of firing hanging over everyone’s shoulders, the company doesn’t have to work hard to encourage people to work out of fear and coercion might not be a violent force it might not be putting a gun to your head, its none the less a form of force, a form of constant fear and threat of losing. A very manipulative form of force one that couched in an inherent imbalance in an employer-employee situation we have also talked before about how the unionization means that game publisher can look at workers as compared to completely disposable something they can take in use up and spit back out. These reports from polygon certainly seem to confirm what we have argued for quite some time.

Without any checks or balances and without anyone calling these companies on their blunders, these massive layoffs, these stories of burnouts, stress and crunch will keep on happening. They can do what they want and it’s only because of recent reports and recent unrests from the people who realized that enough is enough, that’s is the only reason we are hearing about this.

Epic’s excuses are pathetic and a bunch of lies. They claim that the average contractor over time is less than 5 hours per week. That doesn’t mean that the above average is not obscene like 70 to 100-hour work per week. Even in their pathetic story, they have exposed the coercive effect you know. If the contractor wants to come back, they have to prove willing to work at times needed to meet those critical release dates. Basically, they are asking you to put up with abusive stressful overtime or go away this is a major problem in the game industry and it’s a problem that the game industry higher-ups tried to convince you is a necessary evil. Something that has to be done to make their great games come out and stay up the popularity charts. Every industry has told people that we are organized workforces that negotiate in fair wages and fair hours, it would be the death of those industries and those industries survived just fine.

That billion dollars’ industry is headed up by the Richie rich people who can actually find quite a bit of money when they need to for it. That working at Epic do report good wages and some people report they have never been mistreated at all though they have heard of other people working ridiculous amounts of time. some people see it as a trade-off but it really is not.          

Fortnite is the main reason that we are hearing the name Epic Games so often these days. Most of the gaming franchises try to avoid controversies but Epic Games somehow got mixed up in a bundle of controversies simultaneously. Whether it is a publicity stunt or plain bad luck, but Epic games manage to stay in the headline week after week. The controversies are positive and negative at some points but the latest one is surely tipping the negative scale in the favor of Epic games. Let’s discuss the latest controversies and try to understand the viewpoint of the Epic games as well.

Work Conditions at the Franchise

Polygon went around interviewing the employee of the Epic games and conducted proper interviews to get the good stuff out of the employees. They invested their time wisely and gathered the information over the tenure of two months. One thing that all employees said is they had to work 70 hours a week and that is common. Few employees work around the clock and go up to 100 hours per week. All the excessive workload fall into the category of voluntary work and the employees seemed okay with that. They also said that they are expecting this kind of demand from the company. Epic games do not force them to work excessively but the nature of the work and increasing demand left them with no choice but work and work. Fortnite is the thing that is causing all the trouble to the employees with all the demanding updates and making sure that the game is running smoothly without any bug or issue. It has become the priority of the Epic games to fulfill the higher demand for maintenance and upgrades.

The severity of the work is too sensitive. If one item gets affected by a bug or something, then the developers cannot let that issue lurk in the game for the week and fix it in the next week’s update but they had to do it immediately and also keep working of the updates that are expecting in the coming week. The job and demand are dependent on the time and unfortunately, the time is not on the side of Epic games employees. Some ambitious youngsters are also spoiling the peace at the workplace by putting in unnecessary efforts to make sure their boss is happy and pave their way to the promotion. With the culture like that, managers tend to ignore the basic complaints of the employees by giving examples of their colleagues who had got the job done before them. Last but not least, it is shockingly surprising that the Epic games are not hiring more people instead they are letting the current workforce to work overtime and get the job done. It is not like that they can’t afford or handle the new employees but they did not choose to go with this option. Polygon made sure to cover all the basic points in their article and shed the light on the persisting issue.

The issue with the Steam

Epic games are trying to win back some of the positivity by blaming the steam that they are accepting the offer and turning the tables on to them rather than focusing on the current issues. The gamers are complaining that limiting the games only to Epic store is causing the sizable amount of gamers to not able to buy the game or resources because of the geographical restrictions. So the gamers are demanding Epic to put their games back on steam so everyone can access the game. In the recent tweet, Tim Sweeny said that “If Steam committed to a permanent 88% revenue share for all developers and publishers without major strings attached, Epic would hastily organize a retreat from exclusives (while honouring our partner commitments) and consider putting our own games on Steam.” Rumors are also there in the industry that Epic games are currently suffering the loss in numerous areas of the world with their unsustainable economic structure of 12 88 percent. Epic games take 12% of the total earning and 88% is divided among the developers and the team. However, Epic game had to pay the taxes for the services like PayPal from their cut, hence suffering the loss in some part of the world. Fortnite is the only thing that is keeping them afloat as millions of dollars are earned from the single game, Fortnite.

Fortnite is actually trying to outsmart the steam with their economic model and trying to create their own user base at the expense of some loss. Once the user base is big enough they can take the leap from 12 to 20% and the business will be more secure. Epic games are trying to force the hand of the Steam to drop their percentage but it is not that easy to compromise on the terms and conditions of the well-developed company like Steam. Steam is spending more money on the forum and Cloud services which explain the increase profit percentage. So, even if Steam thinks about the offer, the expenses are bounding the Steam to take a step like that. And after all, steam is the giant in the PC gaming world, so there is no need for them to take the challenge seriously as the only party that is desperate here is the Epic games.

Epic Games have always been the supporter of an open platform model when you are talking about the game of any sort. While the majority of the companies are rooted for cross-platform gaming. We have heard Microsoft agreeing that they would like to see Xbox games being able to play on any system and  Google Stadia is the newest entry with the revolutionary idea of streaming and playing the games directly from the Google servers without having to worry about the PC or graphics card. Other major Game developing companies like EA, Call of duty franchise. Ubisoft is also supporting the idea and claiming that the users need to decide on which they want to play the game rather than the game dictating the requirements.

Oculus Rift S

Facebook has come up with the all-new Oculus Rift S, which will replace the older version. Setup of the headset is really easy, you don’t need any external sensors, you just plug it in, it will guide you through the setup. They made it super easy. You have to give them credit for making something complicated that easy and consumer friendly.

A headset is made of premium material; you will really appreciate the constructing the built quality. It is very comfortable on your head, considering the previous versions. It comes with the built-in earphones that just go over your ear, which is removable but they are premium quality headphones so you might actually like them. You do have to acknowledge the actual screen on the inside, the quality here is good but nothing out of this world. there can be a slight screen door effect, the visual quality is not that far off if you compare it with Gear VR or Google cardboard.

Oculus home the main game hub is nice too, its very easy and consumer friendly. It gets updated at fairly frequent intervals, so there are going to be new experiences all along. In terms of actual games Rift does have some exclusive games like Chronos, Edge of nowhere and the Climb, which is surprisingly awesome considering you are using Xbox one controllers. Oculus is saying that they are working on touch controllers, we have seen them and they look pretty awesome. As of right now, there is no definitive release date, they seem a little far off and you know they are going to be expensive.

If we talk about fragmentation, in terms of that it is nice to be able to fire up steam VR and play some games that way because dirt rally, for example, has Oculus support and if you won it on steam and not on Oculus home you can still play it. There has been some controversy here and there about how Oculus has been handling their DRM and how their software handshakes with the headset but thankfully seems like those things have been smoothed over. System requirement is very steep as described below:

• Three USB 3.0 ports  
• i5 processor 970
• 8GB of RAM

Some might think that Oculus Rift asks a lot, but the biggest question arises is it worth it? We are personally not very convinced due to multiple reasons. The experiences are great, and that VR magic that you are looking for, that feeling of being transported into the game, it’s there. It is also fun sharing this experience with other people, putting the headset on someone who never experienced VR before is a lot of fun.

Let’s talk about the specs this Oculus Rift S has. It has an LCD with 2560×1440 resolution at 80Hz as compared to the older version which has two screens with 2160×1200 at 90Hz OLED panels.  Now the biggest problem is the price, it starts at whooping 400$. Which means for most people VR experience is out of reach. If you haven’t had a VR experience, you must try it to fully enjoy it, but asking 400$ for VR is a bit over the top.     

Oculus Rift makes the setup, the games, the installation, the way its laid out the store it makes it easy and fun. So because of that, it might not appeal to some skeptics or even some really hardcore gamers looking for a crazy awesome VR experience. Oculus Rift S has convinced a lot of people that VR is not a fluke, it’s just a little underdeveloped technology. Oculus Rift S is almost there but not quite.

Google Stadia

Now we will talk about Google Stadia, it is their new streaming service which will work with nothing more than a browser or a smart TV, an internet connection and then optionally Google’s own game controller. Google is hoping to mitigate the latency issues that have plagued other streaming services. Part of the solution will probably come from the fact that they have more cloud infrastructure, the fact that they have more servers in more places should help to reduce both ping time and latency of your connection. So a Stadia gamer might be connecting to a server 50 miles away instead of one that Is 500 miles away. Hopefully, this will keep games from lagging out but the other major problem is going to be image quality. Google is using arrays of custom AMD Radeon chips that sound pretty powerful. The issue at hand is that like the vast majority of digital video online the rendered frame needs to be compressed before they are sent across the internet. That means there could be some degradation in quality by the time they hit your screen.

 Now Google is expecting a 25 Mbit/s connection to be good enough to stream games at 4K resolutions 60 frames per second. That speed is certainly in reach of many users but in order to keep the game from lagging 25 Mbit/s, the image quality may not be as good as some hardcore gamers would like. we will have to wait and see if Google has a solution to this issue. All the tech in the work won’t matter if people don’t have access to games they want to play. It’s still an open question on how the libraries will be handled on Stadia.

Now the PlayStation Now, Sony streaming offering only offers a rotating list of games so you can never rely on a certain title on the platform for too long. With the amount of storage and connectivity in Google’s arsenal, we hope that Stadia will have a large library of games to pick from at a reasonable price. We hope that it will allow the people who bring their own games in and run them off of Google servers. As compared to PlayStation Now or GeForce Now, Google Stadia is an entirely new platform built on Linux. It is certainly exciting for an absolute Titan of cloud computing like Google to finally throw its hat into the streaming ring.