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Pokémon Diamond and Pearl are getting remakes for Nintendo Switch
Pokémon Diamond and Pearl will be remade for Nintendo Switch. The Pokémon Company announced the news today during a special Pokémon Presents broadcast. Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl will launch in late 2021.
Diamond and Pearl launched in 2006 for Nintendo DS. The game introduced the Sinnoh region, home to pokémon such as Bidoof, Luxio, Drifloon, and Arceus. The updated versions have a cute, chibified look, though both are “faithful remakes” of the originals. A trailer released alongside the news today teases familiar locations and faces in the Switch version, as well as some quality of life upgrades. Pokémon Home developer Ilca is working on both games alongside longtime Game Freak director Junichi Masuda .
There’ve been rumors of Diamond and Pearl remakes online for the past few weeks. This year marks the games’ 15th anniversary, alongside Pokémon’s overall 25th anniversary. The company has been celebrating with virtual concerts featuring Katy Perry and Post Malone.
The Pokémon Company also announced an open-world RPG, Pokémon Legends: Arceus, for Switch today.
Final Fantasy 7 Remake Could Be Coming to PS Plus in March, But Won’t Be Upgradeable to PS5 Version
It’s worth pointing out that Japanese PS Plus games can differ from those in other territories. We’ve contacted Sony and Square Enix for comment.Final Fantasy 7 Remake Intergrade was announced at yesterday’s PlayStation State of Play event, and does offer free upgrades (with save game transfer) to those who bought Final Fantasy 7 Remake on PS4. It seems that privilege won’t extend to those who claim a PS Plus version.
Intergrade is an expanded edition of FF7 Remake, featuring performance and graphics modes, improved textures, fog effects, lighting, and faster load times, as well as a new photo mode and support for the DualSense controller’s haptic feedback. Alongside Intergrade, a bonus episode featuring Yuffie will be released, which will only be playable for owners of the PS5 version of the game.
Joe Skrebels is IGN’s Executive Editor of News. Follow him on Twitter. Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com.
iPhone 13 release date: When can we expect to see the new phones?
Though it’s been only a few months since the iPhone 12 went on sale, Apple is already setting its sights on its next flagship smartphone, the iPhone 13 (or whatever it ends up being called). We’re expecting to see four versions of the new phone: the iPhone 13, the iPhone 13 Mini, the iPhone 13 Pro and the iPhone 13 Pro Max, according to analyst Ming-Chi Kuo. But when can we expect Apple to unveil its newest phones?
Apple has yet to hint at any iPhone 13 event date. Based on Apple’s history, however, we can typically predict when the company’s iPhone events will happen, and make an educated guess on a release date based on that. While the pandemic changed the usual course for 2020, marking the first September Apple event in eight years without an iPhone due to production delays, Kuo predicts that 2021 will see a return to the company’s typical cadence.
Read more: Every iPhone 13 rumor we’ve heard so far
If this is true, we can expect to get a first look at the iPhone 13 at an event at some point in September.
Apple usually holds its events on Tuesdays or Wednesdays, and iPhone release dates typically are set about a week and a half after Apple announces the new devices. Usually, new iPhones are released on a Friday, around the third week of September.
A few years ago, CNET took a deep dive into the Apple event timeline and emerged with a compelling Labor Day hypothesis, which you can read about here. Based on the 2021 calendar, the Labor Day rule would put the September Apple event (and the unveiling of the iPhone 13) on Sept. 8, with a Sept. 17 release date.
We won’t know if this is true until Apple announces an event, and shows off the phones. But if you want to plan ahead and save up for an iPhone 13, we’d bet on the September timeline, at least for now.
For more, check out why the iPhone 13 could have a 120Hz always-on display, and our review of the iPhone 12.
Hot Wheels Unleashed – Official Announcement Cinematic Trailer – IGN
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Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time – Official PS5 Gameplay Trailer | State of Play – IGN
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Sick of smart TVs? This Google TV feature could turn all that noise off
Google’s latest Chromecast was announced last year and heralded the eventual transition of Android TV to Google TV. But unlike custom skins, this new interface — with features like the Live tab and better Assistant integration — is also being made available to third-party TV manufacturers like Sony and TCL. We’re now learning that these sets will also ship with a Basic TV mode that strips them of their smartness.
Spotted by 9to5Google on an ADT-3 dongle, the new mode will be available as an option during the initial setup process on televisions that ship with Google TV. The Basic TV mode only offers Live TV and support for external devices while taking away just about everything else that Google TV offers, including the ability to cast content.
Google TV vs. Basic TV
As you’d expect, the homescreen in this mode is pretty…basic. There’s a dedicated button for Dashboard, and there will presumably also be buttons to quickly access live TV and HDMI inputs. The screenshot below doesn’t show these buttons since the ADT-3 lacks the inputs needed to trigger these UI elements.
Perhaps the good news is that it won’t be too difficult to switch to the smart experience if users wish to do so. There’s a permanent banner on the homescreen and a prominent notice in the settings menu that will allow users to quickly flip over to the smart side of things. However, users wanting to switch from Google TV to Basic TV look like they’ll have to perform a full reset.
Google says that the new mode was designed keeping in mind users who lack internet access. This may satisfy the needs of those who may prefer the simplicity of a dumb TV. Get out those rabbit ears!
The Framework Laptop is an upgradable, customizable 13-inch notebook coming this spring
A San Francisco-based startup called Framework has just launched an ambitious project: a thin, lightweight productivity laptop that it claims can be “upgraded, customized, and repaired in ways that no other notebook can.”
Framework founder Nirav Patel told The Verge that the company aims to address his long-standing frustrations with consumer technology companies. Patel was one of the original Oculus employees and has worked for Apple as well. During that time, he says he “saw an industry that felt incredibly broken across the board.”
“As a consumer electronics company, your business model effectively depends on churning out constant tons of hardware and pushing it into channels, and into market, and into consumers’ hands, and then sort of dropping it and letting it exist out there,” Patel explains. “It encourages waste and inefficiency, and ultimately environmental damage.”
To that end, Patel sees the Framework Laptop as more than a product — he sees it as an ecosystem.
The Framework comes with a 13.5-inch 2256 x 1504 screen, a 1080p 60fps webcam, a 57Wh battery, and a 2.87-pound aluminum chassis. Inside, you’ll get 11th Gen Intel processors, up to 64GB of DDR4 memory, and “4TB or more” of Gen4 NVMe storage.
As is the case with all kinds of consumer laptops, buyers can swap out and upgrade various internal parts of the Framework, including the RAM, battery, and storage. The company is trying to bring three additional benefits to the table. The first is that you can also customize and upgrade external components of the chassis, including the keyboard, screen, bezels (which are magnetically attached), and ports (via an expansion card system). If you’re someone who hates dongles and docks, you can select four ports from an assortment that includes the usual suspects (USB-C, USB-A, HDMI, DisplayPort, microSD, etc).
The second is that Framework will be selling its own modules in a centralized online marketplace, which is also open to third-party sellers and resellers. The idea is that if your screen cracks or you feel like changing your bezels, you can hop onto Framework’s site to find replacements that are custom-made for your laptop rather than having to search around. Framework’s components are printed with QR codes that, when scanned, will bring you straight to a purchase page for their upgrades.
The third is that in addition to a pre-built Framework system, you can purchase a “DIY” kit of your selected parts, which you can then use to assemble the laptop yourself. The DIY Edition provides some operating system flexibility: you can install “your preferred Linux distribution” on it or your pick of Windows 10 Home or Windows 10 Pro.
It’s a cogent plan, to be sure. But Framework won’t be able to achieve its upgradable, sustainable future just by announcing an ecosystem — it has to actually create an ecosystem that will last. And whether Framework will continue to manufacture modules for this specific laptop model far into the future, or whether third-party partners will pick up the slack, is certainly a question mark.
If you’re any kind of PC enthusiast, you probably know that Framework is far from the first company to try a scheme like this. Intel has given modular computers a shot in the past, to little result — its Compute Card was a commercial failure, and its modular Ghost Canyon NUC (which had hardware partners on board at launch) still has yet to receive any new components. Alienware’s original Area-51m also never received its promised future-proof upgradable parts. Phone makers have tried modular devices as well: Google’s Project Ara smartphone, composed of Lego-style bricks that users could rearrange and swap in and out, didn’t go anywhere. The reality is that hardware is hard to build and modular hardware is even more challenging.
Patel, for his part, believes those OEMs weren’t committed enough. “Other companies, they put it out there, and someone internally decided, ‘Eh, we’re going to focus on something else this year,’ and shut down the project,” says Patel. “This is not something we’re dabbling in. It’s not a side project for us that someone thought was interesting. This is the core of our company.”
“We are releasing new modules, and upgrades, and accessories, and so on to drive the health of the ecosystem, and we’re going to continue doing that for as long as customers want us to,” Patel adds.
Framework will be taking preorders this spring, and the device is expected to ship this summer. Pricing hasn’t yet been announced, though Patel says it will be “comparable to other well-reviewed notebooks.”
A 500GB PS4 May No Longer Be Able to Fit Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War and Warzone
It’s common knowledge that Activision’s latest Call of Duty games take up swathes of storage, but it seems that they may be stretched beyond the capacity of a base PS4 as they receive more updates. It may be that, without compression, external storage may become the only way to have the full Call of Duty package on one console for some players.The blog notes that players can click R3 on the main menu of Black Ops Cold War to uninstall “content you may not have played in a while,” say the Campaign or Zombies, for example. The same can be achieved in Modern Warfare or Warzone by heading to the ‘General’ tab in the options menu and then clicking the ‘Games Installs’ option. Of course, you don’t need to download the Warzone Season 2 update if you only plan to play Call of Duty Black Ops Cold War.
This news arrives ahead of the launch of Season 2, which brings with it a new Zombies mode called Outbreak, new operators, weapons and maps. Zombies also appear to be headed to Warzone, if recent leaks are to be believed.
Back in October of 2020, Epic Games pushed a patch to the similarly sizable Fortnite to cull its storage real estate by 60 GB. At this point, hopefully, Activision is looking into similar measures, as this certainly won’t be the final Call of Duty update.
Jordan Oloman is a freelance writer for IGN. Follow him on Twitter.
PUBG: New State is a futuristic mobile battle royale
A new PUBG battle royale is heading to mobile platforms. PUBG: New State is a new PUBG game developed by PUBG Studios. The developer announced the new game with a short trailer on Thursday morning.
The trailer includes some of the things PUBG players might be used to like furious gun fights, vehicular chases, and a bit of silliness mixed in along the way. One thing the trailer makes clear right away is that this is definitely not the same setting PUBG Mobile players are used to right now. While the environment’s still a little grimy there’s shiny new technology everywhere and everything looks to be a little more futuristic than the current game.
PUBG: New State is set in the near future of 2051 and that means plenty of changes have happened in the world since the original PUBG Mobile. Players will jump into a huge new map called TROI, that will include new vehicles, weapons, and equipment, as well as plenty of areas to explore.
Outside of the setting, PUBG: New State also introduces a few new features to the PUBG Mobile series including combat rolls, drones, a shield, and new ways to customize your weapons with things like fire-mode selectors or grenade launchers.
PUBG: New State will only be heading to mobile devices including Android and iOS tablets and phones, and is set to launch sometime in 2021.