Playstation blog

Audio player loading… The music video embedded above has the power to crash computers. Back in the hazy days of Windows XP, a major computer manufacturer discovered that playing the music video for Janet Jackson's 'Rhythm Nation' would crash some models of laptops. And not just its own laptops in some quirky coding error: it was affecting competitors' laptops, too. This is a tale taken from Raymond Chen's blog and book 'The Old New Thing', and it recounts a bug fix story (opens in new tab) told to Chen by a colleague in Windows XP product support. "And then they discovered something extremely weird," Chen says. "Playing the music video on one laptop caused a laptop sitting nearby to crash, even though that other laptop wasn’t playing the video!" Now Rhythm Nation goes hard, but there was something else going on here. "It turns out that the song contained one of the natural resonant frequencies for the model of 5400 rpm laptop hard drives that … [Read more...] about Janet Jackson’s Rhythm Nation is a form of cyberattack

Audio player loading… The Xbox Adaptive Controller has proven itself a tremendously useful device for anyone with limited mobility to game without compromise. So much so that Nintendo may have been eyeing up its own version of the accessibility controller, with a view to making it platform agnostic. Former Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aimé has spoken about the possibility of such a controller in an interview with Inverse (opens in new tab) (via TechRadar (opens in new tab) ). "Imagine an adaptive controller that you could play with your latest Xbox, PlayStation, or Nintendo platform. That's what we were working on three years ago." Fils-Aimé left Nintendo in 2019 and cannot say for sure whether Nintendo still has hopes of creating such a controller. He notes that he would like to see it reach the market sooner rather than later, however. "My hope is that the effort has continued. I'm not sure if it has or has not," Fils-Aimé says. "But … [Read more...] about Nintendo was working on its own cross-platform version of the Xbox Adaptive Controller

Audio player loading… Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance was an action-RPG spin-off initially released only on consoles that finally came to PC late last year . Its sequel—made by Black Isle Studios rather than the first game's developer Snowblind Studios, though using the same engine—will be following it to PC this year, as Black Isle have announced on Twitter (opens in new tab) . No relation to Dungeons & Dragons: Dark Alliance , the 2021 co-op game that received some pretty mixed reactions, and honestly not that much like the Baldur's Gate RPGs by BioWare or Larian's sequel to them, Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance 2 came out on ye olde PlayStation 2 and Xbox back in 2004. A couch co-op staple, it let players choose from five characters rather than the original's three: a human barbarian, dwarf rogue, drow monk, elf necromancer, and human cleric, with two secret bonus characters who could be unlocked. Dark Alliance 2 added more NPCs and interactions to the first … [Read more...] about Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance 2 is coming to PC this year

Audio player loading… Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance is an action-RPG spinoff of BioWare's big Dungeons & Dragons adventure that debuted on the Xbox and PlayStation 2 in 2001. Earlier this year, a remastered version made a surprise appearance on PlayStation and Xbox consoles, and publisher Black Isle Studios confirmed that it would make its way to PC (opens in new tab) as well. And now we've got another surprise appearance on our hands: The PC version is out today. Dark Alliance is quite different from the Baldur's Gate games that inspired it, with a strong emphasis on action over RPG. It offers three customizable characters to choose from—an elf sorceress, a dwarf warrior, and a human archer—and a three-part journey from the sewers beneath Baldur's Gate to the peak of Burning Eye Mountain and into the Underdark itself. You can take on the campaign solo or in two-player local co-op mode, and the Steam version supports Remote Play, so you may go adventuring with a … [Read more...] about Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance is finally on PC

Audio player loading… Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance is an action-RPG released in 2001 for the Xbox and PlayStation 2. It's more in the vein of Diablo than Baldur's Gate , though, with preset characters, linear progression, and a relatively small number of NPCs. It was also never released for PC—but that will change later this year. Last week, IGN revealed that a surprise re-release of Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance, updated with support for 4K resolution, was coming very soon: It arrived the next day, on May 7, for the PlayStation 4 and 5, and Xbox One and Xbox One X consoles. A Nintendo Switch version was also planned, but was delayed at the last minute "due to an unforeseen issue ." Today, publisher Black Isle Studios confirmed that a PC port is in the works as well, and will be out later this year. Hey all!The PC port of BG:DA is in the works and coming later this year. We're also hoping to ensure it has online co-op using Steam's remote play.Once we … [Read more...] about Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance is coming to PC later this year

Audio player loading… Another Nvidia leak bears out: 12 seconds of footage from a Helldivers 2 trailer has leaked on Twitter ahead of an official announcement. As sequels go, Helldivers 2 shouldn't be a big surprise at this point: developer Arrowhead Game Studios (also the makers of Magicka) hasn't released a new game since Helldivers in 2015, and last October Arrowhead tweeted some cryptic binary code that seemed like a tease for an announcement that never materialized. In other words: it's about time. The first Helldivers was published on PlayStation by Sony, and actually arrived on Steam under Sony's banner back in 2015. It was one of only three Sony-published games on Steam, all indies, until Horizon Zero Dawn kicked off the new era of PlayStation games on PC in 2020. Arrowhead kept supporting Helldivers for years, which perhaps explains why the sequel has been so long in coming. Here’s roughly 10 seconds of footage from the #Helldivers 2 trailer, made by … [Read more...] about Helldivers 2 is definitely real, and probably announcing soon

Audio player loading… Every year around Liberty Day, which is October 26 in the futuristic Super Earth of Helldivers' setting, Arrowhead Studios release an update for their game of twin-stick co-op chaos. This year it comes with a new subtitle, and will be called Helldivers: Dive Harder from now on. The main change in Dive Harder is a mode called Proving Grounds, a replayable urban mission where big alien bugs have been let loose in a training facility. Three different Proving Grounds will be available during the campaign, unlocking as you go, then resetting at the end. If you make it to the top of the leaderboards during that time, you get a cape. And bragging rights, I guess. The loadout system is also changing, gaining an option to preselect favorite loadouts or randomize them. A bunch of tweaks and balance changes are on the way as well and will be detailed in the next set of patch notes. One change Arrowhead note in their blog (opens in new tab) : "yes, you can … [Read more...] about Helldivers is four years old and still being updated

Fans of video game packaging can prepare to get their hands on a new Nintendo-branded box soon, as the Switch will soon be sold in a cardboard container that shrinks the packaging size down by roughly 20%. According to Nikkei , the box redesign for the original Switch model will help move consoles around the world more efficiently and improve the company's bottom line by using fewer materials. In comparison, the Switch OLED Model happens to ship in a box that's already 14% smaller than the regular version's box, so Nintendo has likely taken a few design cues from it. The OLED Model also switches the general orientation of the Switch packaging to a more vertical format, as opposed to the horizontal design of the regular Switch box. This isn't the first time that Nintendo has slimmed down the packaging for its hardware, as its handheld 3DS and 2DS consoles switched from a bulky box when they first launched to a smaller container as the years went on. In other Nintendo news, … [Read more...] about Nintendo Reportedly Planning Smaller Switch Packaging