Tag: video games

The Stop Killing Games campaign will set up NGOs in the EU and US

Posted on by faz_business


The Stop Killing Games campaign is evolving into more than just a movement. In a YouTube video, the campaign’s creator, Ross Scott, explained that organizers are planning to establish two non-governmental organizations, one for the European Union and another for the US. According to Scott, these NGOs would allow for “long-term counter lobbying” when publishers end support for certain video games.

“Let me start off by saying I think we’re going to win this, namely the problem of publishers destroying video games that you’ve already paid for,” Scott said in the video. According to Scott, the NGOs will work on getting the original Stop Killing Games petition codified into EU law, while also pursuing more watchdog actions, like setting up a system to report publishers for revoking access to purchased video games.

The Stop Killing Games campaign started as a reaction to Ubisoft’s delisting of The Crew from players’ libraries. The controversial decision stirred up concerns about how publishers have the ultimate say on delisting video games. After crossing a million signatures last year, the movement’s leadership has been busy exploring the next steps.

According to Scott, the campaign leadership will meet with the European Commission soon, but is also working on a 500-page legal paper that reveals some of the industry’s current controversial practices. In the meantime, the ongoing efforts have led to a change of heart from Ubisoft since the publisher updated The Crew 2 with an offline mode.

Commodore 64 Ultimate Review: An Astonishing Remake

Posted on by faz_business


Blue screen menu

Photograph: Matt Kamen

Boot up the C64U, and you’re greeted by a re-creation of the C64’s menu. Here, you can type in operation commands just as you would back in the day, using the BASIC programming language. Problem: I don’t have the first clue about BASIC. However, in what is possibly the greatest throwback of all, the C64U comes with a spiral-bound, 273-page user guide. It is an absolute tome. Somewhat surprisingly, it’s not a reprint of anything that came with the original, but rather a tailored guide to what the C64U does, where it differs from the C64, and how to get to grips with the computer’s capabilities. Equal parts history book and instruction manual, it starts out teaching you some simple commands and builds up to teaching you how to code. I’m still very much working my way through it, but that tactile approach—referring to the book, trying something out on the computer, back and forth—is a great touch.

Hidden Upgrades

If you don’t fancy having to do homework, the C64U’s own default menu, accessed at any time with a flick of the multifunction power button on the right-hand side of the unit, is a simple list of options and settings. Hit RETURN to go into any section—say, “Video Setup” to adjust whether the C64U outputs in original resolution, in PAL or NTSC modes (surprisingly important, given some games will only work with one display standard or the other), or a crystal clear 1080p with scanlines removed—and back out to save any changes to the system’s flash memory. It’s still a minimalist approach, but feels fairly intuitive.

This is also where you can start playing around with some of the other modern touches of the C64U, like how to leverage its far greater power. Well, “greater” in comparison to 1982. Spec-wise, this isn’t going to threaten any more modern machine, but running on an AMD Xilinx Artix-7 FPGA chip and packing 128-MB DDR2 RAM—compared to the 64 KB of the C64—it blows its inspiration out of the water. While at baseline it replicates the performance of the 1982 hardware, meaning it operates as if there’s only the original 64 KB were there, you can menu-dive to activate a virtualized RAM Expansion Unit, or activate a “Turbo Boost” to accelerate the clock speed to a lightning-fast (in this particular context) 64 MHz.

Asus ROG Ally X Review: More Battery and Storage, Same Windows Problems

Posted on by faz_business


I was harsh on the original Asus ROG Ally. Maybe a little too harsh, since many of the problems I had with it are inherent to the very concept of a Windows-based handheld gaming console. So, when I got my hands on the new ROG Ally X, I tried to be a bit more open-minded. It wasn’t hard, because the newer model is a substantial improvement. But some hurdles just can’t be overcome.

The ROG Ally X looks almost identical to its predecessor, save for a new coat of black paint. There are subtle differences, like rounded-out grips that are more comfortable to hold, slightly elevated ABXY buttons, and an eight-direction D-pad that handles diagonal movements a bit better. If you didn’t look too closely though, you’d be forgiven for thinking little has changed.

But under the hood, Asus has made some massive improvements. Most notably, the battery size has doubled. The original ROG Ally had a 40-Wh battery, roughly comparable to the original Steam Deck. The ROG Ally X, on the other hand, somehow packs a massive 80-Wh battery. That’s larger than the battery in Asus’s Zephyrus G14 gaming laptop, which I loved for its lengthy battery life. Despite this massive increase, the Ally X is only about 70 grams heavier.

Asus also beefed up the storage capacity—it now comes with a 1-terabyte SSD instead of 512 GB—and 8 more gigabytes of DDR5 RAM. The company also swapped out the XG Mobile port that’s only really useful for Asus’ external GPUs for a USB4 port that can reach speeds up to 40 Gbps, making it ideal for connecting to external docking stations. But specs can’t tell the whole story.

Black handheld gaming device with knobs and buttons on either side of a wide screen

Photograph: Eric Ravenscraft

The Insurmountable Wall of Windows

Windows isn’t designed to be run on a handheld. That’s just a simple, unavoidable truth. Microsoft expects you to come to its operating system with a mouse and keyboard, or at least a large touch screen. Trying to navigate the OS with a controller is always going to be an exercise in frustration. No matter how hard I try, I can’t seem to escape the basic problem of trying to interact with things on the screen.

One prominent example of this is the Xbox app. Asus has made some solid strides with its Armoury Crate SE app that’s meant to be the bridge between all the other game libraries on your system. Armoury Crate launches at startup, there’s a dedicated button next to the right control stick to open it when you need it, and it has shortcuts to apps like Steam (which launches in the controller-friendly Big Picture mode) or Xbox so you can access any game you own.

Back of a black handheld gaming device showing the ports

Photograph: Eric Ravenscraft