Video Games
Will Xbox Cloud Gaming Kill Xbox Series X|S?

Published
2 years agoon
By
Chris Rausch
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The battle of physical vs digital gaming has been waging for the better part of a decade now. While digital games began as just a small percentage of sales back during the Xbox 360 and early Xbox One days, they’ve actually become the majority now. Plus, the introduction of the Series S and the last year of COVID19 isolation have only increased the disparity and led gamers to further embrace the digital space.
All this hype around digital gaming begs the question: can the recently released Xbox Series X|S co-exist with Xbox Cloud Gaming, or will hardware eventually be forced to take a back seat?
Xbox Series X|S vs Xbox Cloud Gaming
The release of the next generation of Xbox was the biggest technological jump that Microsoft gamers have seen since the launch of Xbox One. As a result, avid Xbox gamers jumped at the opportunity to upgrade their hardware to the latest and greatest for a steep $300-500 retail (or even more secondhand). However, that was before another viable option was available to enjoy Xbox games in high quality.
Xbox Cloud Gaming provides the first alternative that has been presented to this generational upgrade model – for no $300+ entry fee. For the cost of a Game Pass Ultimate subscription (approximately $15 USD per month with EA Access and Xbox Live Gold included), the now officially released Cloud Gaming webapp can be accessed on PC, mobile, and even consoles themselves. This means that gamers can work with what they already have while still enjoying Xbox Series X levels of quality streamed right to their device.
How Console and Cloud Gaming Fit Together
While it’s true that Xbox Cloud Gaming is capable of doing just about everything a console can do, that doesn’t mean it is replacing it anytime soon.
Streaming games can be incredibly convenient for those without the hardware to run their games at optimal conditions. However, in most cases there is going to be a problem with latency (lag) that inhibits its use for competitive games. With Cloud Gaming, titles are processed at Microsoft data centers and then streamed directly to your display, with your inputs being recorded and sent back to the data center as you play. While just a few milliseconds each way, this can lead to a noticeable delay in some games. While single player and arcade games may not be too affected, added latency in an FPS is a death sentence – and it only gets worse with potential network problems added in.
With a console, you don’t have to worry about input delay or latency problems from the game itself because files are rendered locally. Online features are the only parts of games subject to latency in this case, which cuts potential problems in half and allows you to stay more competitive. Plus, you (mostly) don’t need the internet to play offline on a console so network connection doesn’t limit playability.
Conclusion
While it’s hard to say exactly what will happen in the next few years, it looks likely that Xbox Cloud Gaming will not kill the Xbox Series X|S.
There is still a lot of work to be done to make cloud gaming a viable method of gaming for a wider audience, so the two systems currently complement each other well – cloud gaming for casual, console gaming for competitive. Fortunately, their costs also align with their intended audience which means that gamers will have the choice of whether or not the investment into a new Xbox is worth it.
In my 4+ years as a professional tech copywriter, I've written about everything from laptops & routers to the software that facilitates billions in online sales each day. If it relates to, connects to, or belongs on the Internet, I'm in. Equipped with my Associate's in Computer Science and a computer I assembled myself (no big deal), I write about all things hardware, software, gaming, and digital tech to keep you up-to-date on important news, releases, and tips & tricks.

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No one can deny that Kirby, with his round little pink self, has captured the hearts of millions and garnered international fame. The franchise has spun out more than thirty games starring the blush blob, earning big bucks for Nintendo and HAL Labs. But before becoming a video game icon, Kirby was actually created rather haphazardly.
How Kirby became an adorable pink circle
The first Kirby game was called Kirby’s Dream Land, released on the Game Boy in 1992. Young designer Masahiro Sakurai was assigned to create a game that was simple enough for anyone to pick up and learn to play. (To this day, Kirby games are easy and accessible.)
While the game was in development, Sakurai created a basic avatar to perform the primary movements of play – a little ball with arms and legs. This was meant as a placeholder, later to be swapped for something more definite. But throughout testing and animation, the team fell in love with this white blob, and they ended up sticking with it. But he was just that – white.
Since Kirby’s Dream Land released on the original Game Boy, its protagonist’s color was indefinite. Adding to the confusion, the game’s North American box art depicted a white Kirby, while the Japanese art showed the pink character we’ve come to recognize. Sakurai always imagined Kirby to be pink, while Shigeru Miyamoto (who created Mario and worked as a producer on Kirby) always imagined our hero to be yellow. Color was an afterthought – literally. They didn’t nail down the official pink hue until after the first game’s release.
Another thing that didn’t come until the second game was Kirby’s ability to copy his enemies’ powers after slurping them up. Kirby’s Adventure dropped on the NES in ‘93, and implemented copy abilities, which are now a characteristic trait of the spherical savior of Dream Land.
How Kirby got his name
Sakurai’s project had a working title of Twinkle Popopo. But Nintendo wanted to go with a name that could create more draw for Western customers. After throwing around several options, the team finally named their character after… a lawyer.
John Kirby was a lawyer who worked long and hard on Nintendo’s behalf in a legal fight with Universal. The movie studio had sued over Donkey Kong, claiming the primate videogame character’s name was too akin to King Kong. (It’s like, totally a different Kong, geez.) Nintendo eventually won the suit, and named a character after Mr. Kirby as a way of saying thank you.
After many platformer adventures, pinball titles, 3D games, and Super Smash cameos, Kirby is now one of the most beloved characters in the video game industry’s history. Whether happily floating above Planet Popstar or bravely dueling with Meta Knight, his innocence and simplicity has captivated kids and grownups alike. And from the looks of it, he’s not stopping anytime soon.
AR/VR
The Best Asymmetric Virtual Reality Games Out Now

Published
1 year agoon
October 23, 2021By
Jesse Hoyt
Virtual reality is fun, but playing with friends makes it better. The problem is that not everyone can afford a VR headset, so we put together a few games you and your friends can play with only a single VR system.
5. Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes
Better talk fast because the clock is ticking and there’s a bomb in your hands! Available in VR and regular screen, Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes puts one player in charge of manipulated bomb components to keep it from blowing up. Another player is supplied only with a guide. The thing is that every bomb is different and the reader has no idea what your bomb looks like. Speed is vital. Communication is key.
4. Fast and Low
Shoot and move in this SWAT simulator game. Despite its less-than-finished appearance, this game has solid bones with “realistic” gunplay, suspect interactions, damage, and room clearing. One player can hop in on PC while another gets ready to get rowdy in virtual reality. Take your time as you move room to room searching out hostels, but don’t be too trigger-happy because some are going to surrender. Take them alive if you can.
3. Reiko’s Fragments
Do you want to scare the living daylights out of your friends and family? The Reiko’s Fragments might be for you. Virtual reality is already pretty terrifying with even the smallest of scares, but now your friends can take control. One person takes the reins and puts on the headset; the rest can pull up their phones and get to scaring.
2. Takelings House Party
This is a true party game. Grab a few friends with phones to take up the mantle of “Takelings,” thieving humanoids hell-bent on making your home life miserable. The person in VR needs to take these things out by any means necessary. That includes hammers, nailguns, toasters, and waffle makers. It’s still in early access but is worth a buy if you like party games.
1. Smush TV
Have you ever wanted to face your fear of being crushed under tetrominoes while electronic music pumps in the background? Smush TV is just that where a player in VR does their best to climb to the top of a Tetris tower while avoiding getting smushed. The other flatscreen player is on a mission to drop these blocks on the other’s head.
AR/VR
No, Shooting Guns in VR Does Not Translate to Shooting Firearms in Real Life

Published
1 year agoon
October 16, 2021By
Jesse Hoyt
Guns and virtual reality go together like peanut butter and jelly. The shooter genre is one of the biggest in the VR space right alongside melee hack and slashers. Naturally, some people are bringing up the idea that video games may cause violence once again or rather may teach people how to be violent. There’s a mild connection there with VR being a highly interactive medium where you physically act out an action, but the truth is that there’s just not much you can learn especially with complex things like firearms.
It’s important to note that VR can only teach people to use firearms only as effectively as any other learning medium like books or videos. There are no special movements or techniques taught in VR that aren’t found elsewhere. In fact, I’d wager that most people who consume media on the regular probably already know how to load a magazine into a firearm and pull a trigger. These actions are already intuitive though and would be fairly easy to figure without instruction anyway.
Virtual reality can’t simulate the weight of a firearm nor dealing with concussive force from a gunshot. Virtual makes firearms simple. Reload. Click. Shoot. Easy. It removes all of the individual actions necessary for operating a weapon. It doesn’t teach you how to clear a malfunction or even load rounds into a magazine. Or control recoil and correct trigger pulling technique. The list is long. Although, manipulating firearms isn’t a particularly difficult process in the first place. Virtual reality doesn’t cover any of the things that make for a proficient shooter.
I’d even argue that virtual reality might actually teach terrible habits for people that might get into hobbyist shooting later on. The first is reinforcing poor trigger control. With real firearms, you need to be particular in the way you pull a trigger. Incorrect technique can throw shots off target by a lot. Virtual reality controls have more stability and little trigger resistance. They don’t require a consistent form.
Recoil control is something else that’ll suffer when using VR. With real firearms, recoil is typically controlled by tightly bracing it to your body or locking your wrists. Virtual reality is a different story. Most recoil control is done just by pulling the controllers down, yet another way to throw off your shots in real life.
Virtual reality isn’t effectively teaching anyone to use firearms. In fact it’s probably doing just the opposite. This is just a recycled argument of “video games cause violence.”