Month: October 2022

Enlarge / Leon brings a knife to a zombie fight.

Game design has come a long way since Resident Evil 4 first hit the GameCube and PlayStation 2 in 2005. That's why the upcoming remake of the game, highlighted during Capcom's Resident Evil Showcase Thursday night, will be "modernizing the playfeel," according to producer Yoshiaki Hirabayashi, by updating mechanics that might seem dated to a modern audience.

Watching gameplay footage from that event, one of the most immediately apparent changes is the ability to move and shoot at the same time, something that was previously possible only in the recent virtual reality version of the game. That might seem like a necessary part of any action-oriented third-person shooter today, but Resident Evil 4 still had one foot in the more awkward "stand your ground" shooting of its PlayStation 1 predecessors when it launched. The more modern control scheme should make the remake feel a bit more dynamic.

The new footage also showed off Leon's new knife parry move, which lets him fend off attacks from encroaching undead Ganados with a quick slash. Even the fearsome Chainsaw Man can be temporarily held off with a well-timed parry.

Enlarge / Leon brings a knife to a zombie fight.

Game design has come a long way since Resident Evil 4 first hit the GameCube and PlayStation 2 in 2005. That's why the upcoming remake of the game, highlighted during Capcom's Resident Evil Showcase Thursday night, will be "modernizing the playfeel," according to producer Yoshiaki Hirabayashi, by updating mechanics that might seem dated to a modern audience.

Watching gameplay footage from that event, one of the most immediately apparent changes is the ability to move and shoot at the same time, something that was previously possible only in the recent virtual reality version of the game. That might seem like a necessary part of any action-oriented third-person shooter today, but Resident Evil 4 still had one foot in the more awkward "stand your ground" shooting of its PlayStation 1 predecessors when it launched. The more modern control scheme should make the remake feel a bit more dynamic.

The new footage also showed off Leon's new knife parry move, which lets him fend off attacks from encroaching undead Ganados with a quick slash. Even the fearsome Chainsaw Man can be temporarily held off with a well-timed parry.

Enlarge / Sonos' Arc and Sub. (credit: Sonos)

Sonos issued a software update this week to address audio quality complaints brought on by a prior software update. Numerous customers said that update 14.12 made their Sonos devices play at lower volumes and that they lost bass when using Sonos' Trueplay tuning.

As detailed in a couple of threads on Sonos' troubleshooting forum, as well as on Reddit and YouTube, Sonos' 14.12 update, which promised "improvements to the clarity of Arc’s audio while playing dialogue," had undesirable effects as well.

As spotted by What Hi-Fi and The Verge, a Sonos staff member responded to commenters on Sonos' forum this week, saying that the 14.12 update changed the Sonos Arc soundbar's sound profile to improve audio quality, especially dialogue clarity, but also created "issues."

Enlarge / Sonos' Arc and Sub. (credit: Sonos)

Sonos issued a software update this week to address audio quality complaints brought on by a prior software update. Numerous customers said that update 14.12 made their Sonos devices play at lower volumes and that they lost bass when using Sonos' Trueplay tuning.

As detailed in a couple of threads on Sonos' troubleshooting forum, as well as on Reddit and YouTube, Sonos' 14.12 update, which promised "improvements to the clarity of Arc’s audio while playing dialogue," had undesirable effects as well.

As spotted by What Hi-Fi and The Verge, a Sonos staff member responded to commenters on Sonos' forum this week, saying that the 14.12 update changed the Sonos Arc soundbar's sound profile to improve audio quality, especially dialogue clarity, but also created "issues."

Enlarge (credit: Jericho / Ron Amadeo)

Not content with doing $28.8 billion in revenue in 2021, YouTube has recently gone on the hunt for more revenue-generating strategies. So far, we've seen canceled experiments like saddling videos with up to 10 unskippable pre-roll ads and charging for 4K content. Now, the Google division has announced a price hike for YouTube Premium family plans.

As 9to5Google was the first to spot, the family plan is jumping over 27 percent in the US, from $17.99 to $22.99, with other regions also seeing price hikes. Instead of making an official announcement, Google is quietly emailing existing subscribers. So far, it does not seem like the single-person YouTube Premium price (still $11.99 per month) is going up. The family plan lets a user share ad-free YouTube Premium with up to five same-household family members for a discounted rate.

On iOS, all the prices are higher if you sign up through the App Store, which charges a 30 percent fee on every transaction. In Apple land, YouTube Premium's family plan was always $22.99, and now it's jumping up to $29.99 a month. You can avoid the Apple tax by just paying Google directly through the YouTube website.

Enlarge (credit: Jericho / Ron Amadeo)

Not content with doing $28.8 billion in revenue in 2021, YouTube has recently gone on the hunt for more revenue-generating strategies. So far, we've seen canceled experiments like saddling videos with up to 10 unskippable pre-roll ads and charging for 4K content. Now, the Google division has announced a price hike for YouTube Premium family plans.

As 9to5Google was the first to spot, the family plan is jumping over 27 percent in the US, from $17.99 to $22.99, with other regions also seeing price hikes. Instead of making an official announcement, Google is quietly emailing existing subscribers. So far, it does not seem like the single-person YouTube Premium price (still $11.99 per month) is going up. The family plan lets a user share ad-free YouTube Premium with up to five same-household family members for a discounted rate.

On iOS, all the prices are higher if you sign up through the App Store, which charges a 30 percent fee on every transaction. In Apple land, YouTube Premium's family plan was always $22.99, and now it's jumping up to $29.99 a month. You can avoid the Apple tax by just paying Google directly through the YouTube website.

Enlarge (credit: John Shearer / Contributor | Getty Images Entertainment)

After the richest man in the world, Elon Musk, decided he would move forward with his plan to buy Twitter for what experts say is nearly four times its current worth, even Twitter doubted that Musk actually meant to see the deal through. Now, as Musk remains under federal investigation for his merger conduct, the Washington Post reports that if Musk does take over Twitter, he plans to gut Twitter’s staff by 75 percent. And Bloomberg reports that the Biden administration is considering launching national security reviews into Musk’s Twitter and Starlink satellite Internet deals. Those reviews could end up blocking the Twitter deal after all, which many commenters think is exactly what Musk wants.

Twitter immediately sent out a staff memo denying any company-wide layoffs, according to Bloomberg. Musk seemingly isn’t talking about any of this on the record, but he did tweet to show how humorous he finds the situation.

Famed mixed martial arts fighter Nik Lentz tweeted, “It would be hysterical if the government stopped Elon from overpaying for Twitter.” Musk replied with two emojis: a 100 percent sign and a cry-laughing face.