Games to Play With Your Kids on Nintendo Switch
If you’re a parent of a young child (or two), you may be wondering about the best way to navigate the world of video games. After all, it’s easy to demonise “screen time,” but games have an awful lot to offer. They can be visually, aurally and mentally stimulating, good for hand-eye coordination and also a fun way to spend time together. There’s no definitive way to approach video games as every child is different – and every child is constantly changing too - but I’ve been playing games with my (almost) six year old son for a few years now, and thought it might be useful to share some of the gaming experiences we’ve had that I think have been most compelling and enriching. Again, your mileage may vary - and it's important to decide what's appropriate for yourself, too - but hopefully this will be good food for thought.
Taika Waititi Reveals When Thor: Love and Thunder Will Begin Filming
During an interview at the BAFTA Tea Party, writer/director Taika Waititi gave his best guess as to when Thor: Love and Thunder will start rolling cameras.
Obviously, this could all change due to the devastating wildfires that have enveloped Australia -- and Variety asked Waititi about that situation as well -- but Waititi's sees the film beginning production in Australia in August. Check it out...
Though the Love and Thunder plot is still a mystery, the film will be Chris Hemsworth's ninth outing in the MCU and will feature Tessa Thompson as Valkyrie, Waititi as Korg, and Natalie Portman as returning as Jane Foster - now as Thor: Goddess of Thunder!Taika Waititi speaks about #Thor4 and the Australia wildfires: "It's absolute chaos" https://t.co/SUepqRWrbK #BAFTATea pic.twitter.com/prM2pfKMBA
— Variety (@Variety) January 5, 2020
Box Office: Rise of Skywalker Closes in On a Billion Worldwide
Though tracking behind both The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi, The Rise of Skywalker still dominated the weekend box office with an estimated $34.5 million.
This brings Episode IX's domestic total, per Variety, to around $450 million, with the film getting ever closer to a billion worldwide. Right now, globally, it stands at $919 million.
Meanwhile, the Sam Rami-produced The Grudge, written and directed by Nicolas Pesce, brought in a better-than-expected $11.3 million.
The film -- which stars John Cho, Betty Gilpin, and Frankie Faison (and is more of a spinoff/sequel than a remake) -- has received poor reviews from critics, including our own review (which you can read here).
Acer’s Latest Gaming Monitor Burns at 1,400-nits
Gaming monitors have been getting awfully expensive as top-tier models began promising up to 1,000-nits in peak brightness and a 4K picture paired with a high-refresh rate. Now Acer is upping the ante yet again with a 32-inch gaming monitor that hits a peak brightness of 1,440-nits.
The Predator X32 is Acer’s latest G-Sync Ultimate gaming monitor and it’s the biggest 16:9 model we’ve seen from this series so far, leapfrogging over the previous 27-inch Asus ROG Swift PG27UQ and Acer Predator X27. It packs a mini LED panel with 1,152 zone local dimming spread across its UHD (3,840 x 2,160) resolution display.
Silent Hill Artist Masahiro Ito Says He’s Working on a New Title as ‘Core Member’
Masahiro Ito, one of the artists behind the Silent Hill games, is working on a new project.
He shared the news in a tweet, revealing that he's a core member on some mysterious title which he hopes won't get cancelled. Masahiro follows up that tweet stating that he can't yet reveal anything about the project at hand.
I'm working on a title as a core member. I hope the title won't be cancelled.
— 伊藤暢達/Masahiro Ito (@adsk4) January 4, 2020
You Can Now Pre-Order the Cyberpunk 2077 Figures From McFarlane Toys
We got our first look earlier this year, but you can finally pre-order McFarlane Toy’s Cyberpunk 2077 figures, including two different versions of Keanu Reeves as Johnny Silverhand.
The hottest item is undoubtedly the 12-inch figure of Keanu Reeves’ Johnny Silverhand, an in-game character who will provide support to the player character, rocking out with his guitar.
Lenovo Announces New Ultra Light Gaming Laptop, Inexpensive eGPU Box
Lenovo has announced an ultra light gaming laptop that can be paired with a relatively inexpensive eGPU box to provide an impressive on-the-go gaming experience.
The Lenovo Legion Y740S is Lenovo's "thinest and lightest Windows 10 gaming laptop" and can be built with up to a 10th Gen Intel Core i9 processor that can reach more than 5GHz.
The Y740S claims it will have a battery that will last up to eight hours, and it also features a 15.6-inch 4K IPS screen with Dolby Vision and a 60hz refresh rate that can reach brightness of 600 nits.
Certain builds can include up to 32GB DDR4 of memory, 1TB PCle SSD storage capacity, and "an exclusive thermals design with five-point sensor array and quad fan for four times the cooling when playing graphically intensive titles."
Next Call of Duty Won’t Have Jetpacks, Treyarch Developer Tweets
Treyarch Studio Design Director David “Vahn” Vonderhaar wants you to know that he really hates jetpacks, and judging from some recent comments of his, it’s unlikely that we’ll see their return in Call of Duty’s 2020 game.
First reported by CharlieIntel, Vonderhaar took to Twitter to respond to a fan tweeting “you butter
have jetpacks in the next COD.”
“NO,” Vonderhaar replied succinctly.
Vizio’s 2020 4K TVs Get a Major Overhaul Along With New Panels
Vizio’s 4K TVs have always impressed us by offering great specs at a reasonable price, but there have always a few sacrifices made in processing power and software. This year at CES 2020, Vizio’s changing all that and given its full TV lineup a major overhaul.
Firstly, all of Vizio’s new 2020 TVs will feature a new IQ processor, which the company claims to be a first of its kind ARM processor that delivers up to a gigahertz in speed. Combined with AI capabilities of this 64-bit CPU, these new IQ chips will be able to improve image quality with real-time noise reduction and detail enhancement algorithms.
Tarantino: A Four-Hour Cut of OUATIH Might Happen a Year From Now
Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon a Time in Hollywood is already getting an additional 20 minutes of new footage for its home release, but an even longer cut of the movie might be coming on the horizon.
During an FYC screening in Los Angeles, Tarantino, along with stars Brad Pitt and Leonardo DiCaprio, answered some questions regarding whether or not a longer version of the film existed. Tarantino recounted showing the entire thing to Sony's Tom Rothman (per Collider).