IS Magazine Blog

Indivisible's Turbulent Launch on Nintendo Switch

Indivisible's Turbulent Launch on Nintendo Switch

IndivisibleNintendoSwitch
Lab Zero's lauded 2019 RPG platformer release, Indivisible, finally made its way into the Nintendo eShop April 28th to the surprise of, well, everyone. There was no lead up announcement, no press of any kind. Even the developers themselves were blindsided by the sudden game drop.

Mark Zaimont, Project Lead on Indivisible's development team, also appears to be the spokesman for the team in this awkward time.

"Feel like you missed the announcement? You're not alone, our team found out because people on Twitter sent us congratulations! I had no idea! But there it is! :^P," Zaimont posted on Twitter. Apparently, publisher 505G neglected to share their plans with the Lab Zero, or anyone else. Unfortunately there are several issues that prevent this from being a pleasant surprise.

What's Wrong With the Port?

To begin with, the eShop listing for Indivisible doesn't even show the correct cover art! That's a small oversight, however, and seems all the more so relative to the other more egregious errors.

The build of the game released for Switch is older than what's available to current players on other platforms. This means it lacks actual gameplay elements, namely Co-op and New Game Plus, along with numerous small changes and additions made in recent months.

Moreover, contributors to Indivisible’s Indiegogo funding campaign have another reason to be upset. One reward for donors of a certain level was a code bestowing a free copy of the game on the donor’s platform of choice. Switch owners who have been patiently awaiting this reward are understandably upset that they haven’t received the promised compensation.

According to Zaimont, it is currently unknown when, how, or even if this agreement will be honored. 505 Games has yet to release a statement of their own.

This botched release may remind gamers of another 505 Games release fiasco. Artplay’s “Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night” suffered several unexplained delays to its Japanese release. Another crowd funded game, the original backers were among the absolute last to get their promised copies. This may not bode well for the Indiegogo set this time around.

Is There A Bright Side?

It would be unfair to say that all the news surrounding this release is bad. While in its current state the Switch port is missing newer game elements, it is still a technically solid port of a much anticipated game. According to Zaimont, the game runs smoothly, with a “stable frame rate, even handheld.” And, while there has been no statement detailing 505 Games’s future plans, it seems safe to assume the game will eventually be updated to match its current iterations on other platforms.

Indivisible | Nintendo Switch Gameplay & Frame Rate

Minecraft with Nvidia RTX ray tracing releases on April 16

Minecraft with Nvidia RTX ray tracing releases on April 16

minecraft-rtx-dxr-ray-tracing

Minecraft is one of the most popular computer games worldwide and new themes, enhancements of Minecraft are always being released. In one of the most significant changes in visual effects for Minecraft in many years, Microsoft will collaborate with graphics card manufacturer, Nvidia to create a special version of Minecraft with Nvidia RTX ray tracing. This enhanced visually attractive version of Minecraft will be released on April 16, 2020 and is eagerly awaited by Minecraft fans worldwide. In this version Nvidia will use drivers, its upgraded RTX graphics card and a specially created version of Minecraft with light ray tracing, to give a realistic look for the game.

Nvidia Geforce RTX20

In most computer games, including Minecraft, the conventional graphics technologies which are used allow the game designer limited control over the illumination and colors displayed on the screen. For more realistic colors using ray tracing, a high capacity graphics processor and software will be required, which are not easily available. To overcome this limitation of Minecraft, Nvidia has released the Nvidia Geforce RTX20 series graphics card with specially designed Graphics Processor Unit (GPU). This card is using the Deep Learning Super Sampling (DLSS 2.0) technology for ray tracing without affecting the performance of the game, computer.

Artificial Intelligence Tensor Cores

The Nvidia RTX GPUs are using Artificial intelligence (AI) tensor cores and machine learning, to render life like and realistic visuals. The rendering technique uses super resolution using AI, in which a few pixels are rendered in the conventional way. Then AI is used to construct high resolution images which are sharper. The frames are also being generated at a faster rate. All the illumination effects like shadows, atmospheric effects, reflections, refraction,transparency, scattering, are created using this technology. Since AI is being used extensively for rendering the graphics, the load on the GPU and CPU, power consumption is lower compared to other hardware used earlier.

For the convenience of the users, Minecraft and Nvidia are releasing specially developed textures which showcase the enhanced visual effects, collaborating with different creators. The six textures are Temples & Totems from Razzleberries, Imagination Island developed by Blockworks, Crystal Palace by Gemini Tay, Aquatic Adventure by Dr. Bond, Color, light & shadows by Pearlescentmoon, Neon district from Elysium Fire. These adventure, creative and other themes can be downloaded from the Minecraft marketplace by graphic designers developing their own themes or Minecraft players who wish to enhance their gaming experience.

Announcing Minecraft with RTX for Windows 10

Is The Wait for Grand Theft Auto 6 Near to an End?

Is The Wait for Grand Theft Auto 6 Near to an End?

GrandtheftAuto6

Rumors and leaked pieces of news are now the basis of the video game industry. Before the release, more or less credible unofficial sources reveal and share information as fast as they can. In the case of Grand Theft Auto 6, however, the rumors began to circulate before the official team announced the next chapter during the last E3.

About the official source

In 2019, any enthusiast thought the game was on its way. In the gaming community, many believed they were lowering everybody's expectations. In this early 2020, Rockstar Games has not yet announced anything official about the next episode of the Grand Theft Auto series.

Not only do we not know a real release date, the setting, the characters, or even the central theme of the next chapter, but we also do not know if this game is actually in development. We can't even assume the existence of the development project.

The latest rumors

The more recent rumors are coming from the popular leaker named gonnaenodaethat. Through several cryptic messages, the leaker wanted to share some information regarding the announcement date of Grand Theft Auto 6. In fact, after those messages, a thread appeared on Reddit to evaluate the actual reliability of the source. Gonnaenodaethat got popularity on the web for having discovered the release date of the PC version of Red Dead Redemption 2 before its announcement.

According to what gonnaenodaethat wrote, a possible release date of the announcement of Grand Theft Auto 6 was 03/20/2020. However, nothing happened. Some Reddit users guessed another date, March 25th. Yet, this was also wrong.

GTA 6 Fans Are FURIOUS That GTA 6's Announcement/Reveal Hasn't Happened Yet...

Fighting COVID 19 with Folding@Home

Fighting COVID 19 with Folding@Home

Folding@Home

As diseases such as COVID-19 ravage around the world the average person might wonder just what they can do to help in combating it, luckily for us there are many ways however an effective and rather not intrusive way is via the program Folding@Home.

What is Folding@Home?

Folding@Home launched on October the 1st of 2000 is a program that is available on many Personal Computers that uses your idle processing resources in order to help simulate processes such as Protein Folding, hence the name Folding@Home. Using the Idle resources of thousands of volunteer computers, Folding@Home has helped achieve massive scientific advancements in the field of dealing with diseases while also breaking world records for technology-related achievements such as being one of the worlds fastest computing systems rated at 98.7 petaflops, which for the less tech-literate of us is very, very quick.

Can I get it on my PC?

If you are hooked on the idea of helping the world by letting a scientific company use your unwanted Idle CPU processes then you may wonder on whether or not your computer will support it. Luckily, specifications aren't much of a concern and it will most likely run on anything that can at least boot up without crashing, meaning you could put all your old laptops to good use by installing Folding@Home on them.

Luckily, Folding@Home now is pretty much universally compatible with all major operating systems such as Windows, Mac OS, Most Major Linux Distros (such as Ubuntu) as well as even phone operating systems such as Android (though it has to be version 4.4 and above). What this means is that you can put any device with these operating systems to use to help us fight against diseases, from using it on your Windows Gaming PC to letting it use your phone's CPU while it is in your pocket.

How do I start using my computer for folding?

Now you know that your device most likely supports Folding@Home you might now wonder on just about how you install it on to your device. Luckily, it is very (I mean very) simple and is about as complicated as downloading any other application.

If you are on a Personal Computer with Windows, Mac or Linux then all you have to do is head to foldingathome.org, find your operating system in the download list and click "Download". Simple as that, follow the setup and then you will have Folding@Home installed on your PC, simple as that.

For Android, all you have to do is go on Google Play and download it from there.

How can this application fight against modern diseases (like COVID-19)

Folding@Home has been helping scientists do revolutionary advances against many modern diseases ever since 2000, and for diseases like COVID-19, Folding@Home plays an important part in helping researchers utilize the necessary computer power in order to help simulate and research the Virus.

Saving Lives with Your PC Hardware - Folding@Home - NGON

Cooking Mama Games on Nintendo Switch

Cooking Mama Games on Nintendo Switch

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Cooking Mama: Cookstar for Nintendo Switch is set to be released March 2020, and it is reported to have a unique Instagram-like mode that involves food photography; in addition to this, it is also said that this game will be sold at a price of $39.99. The game has been out of the limelight for quite sometime now after it was delayed as it was supposed to be released on February 2019.

Cooking Mama Gameplay

Cooking Mama has been one of the most popular games in the Nintendo franchise and was known to be one of the best in the cooking simulator genre. This appealed to a lot of people because the gameplay allows players to learn how to cook different dishes from the countries where they originated from, and these are done through mini-games that are part of the entire cooking process. What players enjoy most about learning these recipes is that they are able to experience different actions involved in cooking these dishes in real life; some of these actions are stirring, chopping, peeling, and many more.

Cooking Mama Trailer

The leaked video trailer of this game displayed a new ability that players will be able to experience, which is becoming a food photographer by simulating how Instagram works. In this new feature, the players will be given the power to rotate their final dish, zoom in or out on it, and even adjust the angle of their camera, just to be able to get the best shot of their completed dish. And again, just like on Instagram, players will also be able to choose different stickers and filters to add to their photo to be able to attract more people to their dish.

Cooking Mama: CookStar - Debut Trailer for Nintendo Switch HD

Review of Plague Inc. and a Coronavirus Update

Review of Plague Inc. and a Coronavirus Update

 

PlagueIncConoraVirus

Amidst the Coronavirus outbreak in China, a strategy game has increased in popularity. While some people say playing the game takes their mind away from the fear of the virus, others have been playing it for as long as the Plague Inc. Game has been available.

What is Plague Inc.?

In May 2012, the strategy game came out with a simple task: infect a country with a disease and wipe out the world's population before they invent a cure. Of course, there are factors that are built in to stop you. If you use birds to spread the disease, prominent countries will wipe out the bird population before it spreads. If a healthy country creates a cure and they eliminate all of the infected people, you lose. Over the years, expansion packs have upped the ante with varying ways to infect people such as a Neurax Worm Expansion, Simian Flu, and more.

How do I play Plague Inc.?

One great thing about Plague Inc. is its self-explanatory interface. Of course, you can follow the tutorials that provide suggestions on how to play, but its really fairly simple to navigate. First, you select a plague type. If you're using the absolute basic version, the only option you have is Bacteria. All other types of plagues are locked until you win the game with a previous disease type on 'Normal' or 'Brutal' difficulty levels. 'Casual' is best for those who are new to the game. Next, you name your plague, then modify the genetic code, which allows you to customize how the plague mutates. To start, you pick the country you want to infect, i.e. your Patient Zero. Throughout the game, you earn DNA points, which helps you spread the infection and stop the world from creating a cure, as well as choose from a variety of symptoms. You get to choose how the disease transmits through saliva, blood, insects, birds, and more. One tip is to make sure you keep the disease low on the world's radar, which in turn will delay the cure. The key is to focus on the transmission and ensure there are no healthy people left by the time the pathogen starts killing people.

Where do I play Plague  Inc.?

What started off as a mobile game has spread onto other gaming platforms. You can buy it on your smartphone app store for $0.99 (with an additional $8.99 for expansion packs). Or, you could purchase Plague Inc: Evolved for $14.99 for the full experience on your Xbox One, Playstation 4, PC, Mac, or Linux (which includes multiplayer, co-op, and more). It's also available on Steam. While the mobile app is cheaper, it allows you the freedom to play it wherever you want (like the doctor's office to make sure you don't have the Coronavirus). However, the expansion packs and full Evolved version allow for ways to wipe out the population that you simply can't on the app.

Plague Inc: Custom Scenarios - 2020 Wuhan Coronavirus

Blockchain Cell Phone BOB

Blockchain Cell Phone BOB

BlockchainCellPhone

Over the past few years there has been an increasing concern about how private our data really is. And various scandals and leaks have made a lot of people start thinking of ways to better secure our data. Whenever you post something on social media or put information into a website, you are in most cases giving up control of that data for the platform or website you've given it to to be able to do what they want with it. A lot of the time we know this because we will get a popup requiring us to give permission and accept that our data is being used. But in many cases the tracking of our data is done a lot more discreetly. With the data gathered often sold to marketing and data analytics companies, with none of that profit returned to the user. That is why the Blockchain Cell Phone BOB has been created.

Blockchain Secure Calling

There has also been a shift recently to people doing a large amount of their internet activity on their mobile devices as apposed to personal computers or laptops. So it only makes sense that a blockchain powered cell phone would be developed, ensuring all calls, texts and internet activity are secure.

Function X

This is why FunctionX, part of the PundiX Foundation have developed the Blok On Blok or BOB blockchain smartphone. The phone operates on the FunctionX(FX) blockchain protocol. This allows for calling, texting and browsing without ever having to use a centralized service provider. With such a new operating system some people may be concerned about how they will get their favorite apps and use them to connect with their friends and family who don't have a blockchain phone. But BOB's operating system was built off of the latest Android operating system and allows for a unique dual mode where the user can seamlessly switch between blockchain mode and normal Android mode. This gives the user the comfort of knowing their data is completely secure when they want to use the blockchain mode, but they can also use their favorite apps in the normal Android mode. It should be noted however that even if the person you are talking to in blockchain mode doesn't have a blockchain phone, your data will still be secure as long as you are in blockchain mode.

Influencer Marketing Hub Calculator TikTok Review

Influencer Marketing Hub Calculator TikTok Review

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What is a TikTok Money Calculator?

So what is a Tik Tok Money Calculator? It is a very helpful tool that helps people understand how much they can earn from doing Tik Toks. It calculates your estimated earnings from your Tik Tok account. It looks at your following and how much views you get and gives you a very good and accurate estimate of what you will earning from that account.

This means if you have a lot of loyal and active followers, you will make a lot of money in this app. A lot of followers leads to a lot of views, and a lot views leads to a lot money coming from all types of sources, for example sponsors. This tik tok calculator is not exact however its estimates are very, I mean very close to the real amount you will earn from Tik tok. It gives you good estimates of your account value.

I put in my very own personal account to test it out because I was skeptical at first. But, when I got my results of my estimate earning and matched it with my actual earning, I was shocked how close it was. I am not messing guys, it just missed out by one digit before the decimal in the estimate. It also tells you your monthly results and gives you a graph to show if your earnings increase or decrease.

What I have noticed also from these beautiful detailed graphs is that if you loose followers or don't have that much of an audience then you get less income from that account. If you have less followers this means you will get less views and less companies will sponsor you and that finally leads to less income. This leads us to our next point.

Blade Runner: How GoG Resurrected an Old Game

Blade Runner: How GoG Resurrected an Old Game

BladeRunnerGog

It is 1997. Westwood Studios releases one of the best point-and-click adventure games of the year: Blade Runner. Inspired by the movie but following a parallel storyline. You take on the role of detective McCoy, tasked with investigating a series of disturbing animal murders linked to replicants. With a strong story, captivating cutscenes and simple gameplay, the point and click adventure from Westwood gained a lot of attention from critics.

Since the release of the game, more than two decades have passed and the game seemed to have been long forgotten. The ones that still had the original 3 disk version or the DVD release were no longer able to play it due to hardware compatibility issues.

Blade Runner Game on Gog

Many years have passed and fans of the franchise almost forgot about the game. The good folks at GoG seem to have managed to resurrect this classic title. According to GoG, releasing the game for modern PCs has been a challenging task. Their team worked on the release even before the second movie was launched back in 2017. The biggest issue was acquiring IP rights. Through some fortunate turn of events, GoG got in touch with Alcon Entertainment, the production company that worked on Blade Runner 2049. With their aid, GoG obtained interactive rights to allow them to re-release the game. Sadly, the original game code was lost.

Tasked with another challenge, GoG abandoned the idea of obtaining the original game code to resolve the hardware compatibility issues. The solution came from ScummVM. For the ones that are not aware, ScummVM emulates a virtual machine for the game to run on without any compatibility issues. After many hours of work, the 1997 Blade Runner game was resurrected in 2019, running on modern computers. Funnily enough, the story in the game takes place in 2019, a rather symbolic year since GoG managed to bring it back from the dead the same year.

Amazon Web Hosting

Amazon Web Hosting

All human activities acquire an internet presentation or hosted website that will best describe fields of action, present a product or service that is on offer. Constant changes and improvements in web hosting form the basis for web presentations that are used for personal affirmation or presenting products and services

Amazon Web Services

Web hosting from Amazon offers many low cost services that help their users to make the best presentations with simple and easy to use tools that are designed to meet their needs. Amazon Web Services use cloud web hosting solutions. These can be used for simple web site hosting, single web page web app hosting, simple static web site hosting and enterprise web hosting. Depending on the complexity of web site structure they can be operated by IT team for enterprise web sites to personal handling by owners of less demanding sites. AWS give you a wide range of features that are necessary for quality, visibility, traffic, and presentation that are customary for today's standards.

Why is AWS superb?

Using web hosting from Amazon and AWS provides you with broad platform support. This means you can use different content management system (CMS) such as WordPress, Joomla, and similar programs. AWS provides SDKs (software development kit) for platforms that are widely used such as Java, Ruby, .Net. etc. They provide worldwide datacenters, which means that you can use a content delivery network (CDN) hosting to deliver your content worldwide and reach your customers anywhere in the world. AWS provides great scalability in terms that its infrastructure can grow and shrink depending on your website's traffic. And last, but not least, AWS web hosting can provide you with flexible pricing models that are made to meet everyone's needs.

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