Microsoft has spent years developing its cloud streaming service, and today is the big moment. After more than five years in beta, Xbox Cloud Gaming has transitioned from preview to full production. Subscribers can now stream games at higher resolutions, with improved visuals and smoother animation, without the need for a high-end console or PC. These improvements will primarily affect the top-tier Game Pass Ultimate subscription, but they will also extend cloud access to lower-tier plans.
When you open the Anbernic RG DS, you’ll see two 4 inch IPS panels, each with a resolution of 640 x 480 pixels. And let me tell you, that resolution makes the original Nintendo DS screens appear tiny in contrast – 2.5 times larger, no less. The end product is clear and clean, with no jagged edges to speak of, and no need to squint and guess what’s happening. Close the lid, and the entire device shuts down, thanks to a secret Hall sensor that saves the day (and your battery life).
A single frame from Halo: Campaign Evolved depicts Master Chief standing on the Ring’s beach, with sunlight cutting through palm fronds so sharp you can count the veins. Twenty-four years after the original Halo debuted on a clunky Xbox, the same shore shines in Unreal Engine 5.
Joel Creates spent his childhood staring at Nintendo 64 game displays, believing that the luminous box led to another world completely. Thirty years later, he was able to distill that universe into a handheld gadget that is a true trip back in time: a portable game system with a color CRT screen and a Nintendo Switch 2 that slides straight into the front, much like a tape does into a VCR. The end result is a beast that weighs more than a laptop, lasts approximately an hour on a single charge, and looks like it came directly from the 1996 assembly line (which most likely never existed).
Seventeen years after its debut, Grand Theft Auto 4 is still stuck with the same ancient engine it first trotted out way back in 2008. But even as the streets shine under those familiar sodium lamps, it all just looks kind of flat. Shadows aren’t really doing much, reflections are dull and matte, and every surface goes for that tell-tale sheen of a game that was built before global illumination went mainstream. Then the magic happens with the RTX Remix mod courtesy of the genius Xoxor4d. Path tracing kicks in, and suddenly Liberty City is a whole different world.
Photo credit: Bangooh
Bangooh stunned the internet with a Game Boy Advance SP carrying a DeWalt power-tool battery on its back. The setup claims 404 hours of playtime—enough to finish many RPGs without needing to recharge.
Flight simulators need precision, but ordinary joysticks isolate pilots from the action. Zeroshot, a creator who goes deep into virtual skies, was painfully aware of the gap. Commercial choices for force feedback exist, however they are expensive and difficult to get. Instead of compromising, he designed his own from scratch, integrating 3D printed parts, stepper motors, and ingenious circuitry to create a controller that resists every movement.
Tito Perez of Macho Nacho Productions spent months staring at a grainy photograph of Microsoft’s 2000 Xbox prototype. A 40-pound X carved from solid aluminum, polished so it mirrored the room like a dark mirror, and topped with a glowing green diamond. The original is kept away at Microsoft headquarters, a relic that no one could touch. So he created his own, a version that could actually play games.
Pac-Man turns 45 this year, and Google is celebrating with a macabre twist on the iconic game to get you in the Halloween spirit. This little yellow circle has been nibbling its way into people’s hearts – and high scores – for generations, having first appeared in arcades in 1980. Now, the search engine giant offers a completely new Halloween-themed Google Doodle to your doorstep. When you nudge the doodle, you’re immediately whisked into a browser-based chase that combines the original’s simple thrills with all of the terrifying shivers.
Duke Nukem tried something fresh back in the day, 26 years ago to be precise. Zero Hour dropped on the Nintendo 64 in 1999 as a third person shooter – and not just any third person shooter, but one with time travel, Victorian London levels and a Wild West showdown, all wrapped up in one. Critics thought it was okay, while fans largely gave it a miss. The game just sort of vanished from sight, stuck in that cartridge age, trapped behind ancient hardware. Well now a small team has dug it out from the ashes and rebuilt it, and its performance is a surprise to just about everyone.