Category: Games

Licensed music has been an issue for many streamers in the past, with takedown notices coming from rights holders and making certain games complicated to stream or post videos of. It’s made streaming games with big licensed soundtracks, like Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1+2, difficult. Twitch is testing a solution to this issue, an app called Soundtrack By Twitch that will allow streamers to play license-cleared music in their streams.

In a blog post, Twitch has detailed Soundtrack, which has an interface very similar to Spotify. “Soundtrack gives you a curated collection of rights-cleared music and integrates with your streaming software to separate your audio sources, allowing you to keep your channel safe while you create compelling content and grow as a creator,” the post says.

Artists currently available, according to the blog, include Above & Beyond, mxmtoon, Porter Robinson, RAC, SwuM, “and many more”. Claude Von Stroke, Cloudchord, Chrome Sparks, and Tia Nomore are also listed on the Soundtrack website.

The current beta is compatible with OBS Studio v26.0 or later, and compatibility with Twitch Studio and Streamlabs OBS is planned. Streamers can join a waitlist now, and invites to the program will be sent out over email.

This is an issue that streaming platforms seem to be increasingly aware of–Facebook Gaming also recently licensed a bunch of music for streamers. Microsoft, meanwhile, closed down its streaming service Mixer earlier this year.

The saga of Stadia, Google’s streaming game service that still hasn’t released in many regions around the world, keeps getting stranger. Google has just released a new Chromecast for TVs, and while it comes with over 6500 apps, Stadia isn’t one of them right now.

The Verge got their hands on the new Chromecast, which comes with Google TV, and found that there was no official Stadia app at launch. While they were able to get Stadia working through sideloading, it’s not an ideal solution, and it means that using Google’s service on this Google product at launch is inconvenient.

According to The Verge, the device will be updated to support Stadia officially in “the first half” of 2021. Stadia is officially supported by the Chromecast Ultra, which makes its lack of inclusion here especially confusing. The only way to get the Ultra now is through the Stadia Premiere Edition kit, strangely enough.

The Verge speculates that this might have something to do with the Android TV operating system that the new Chromecast runs on, and the higher expectations for latency and clarity players have when gaming on a television.

Stadia currently doesn’t have an official iOS app, either, although someone has found a way to get the service working on an iPhone.

While the Stadia has had some clear issues, game streaming does not appear to be going anywhere–Microsoft’s purchase of ZeniMax, for instance, was likely motivated by a desire to get their hands on Bethesda’s Orion streaming technology, as well as their games.

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Portable consoles featuring internal batteries need to be charged occasionally to maintain the health of the battery, as a drained battery left for a long time can run into problems. Nintendo has reminded people of this fact with a tweet about the Switch, and it’s gone viral.

The Japanese Nintendo support information account made the tweet below on September 28. It translates to “The battery built into the game console may become unchargeable if it has not been charged or used for too long. Please charge it once every six months.”

This is an issue that few owners of the system have likely thought about, but it’s also a solid reminder for the health of the older systems that are gathering dust on shelves and in cupboards, from the Game Boy Advance SP to the Nintendo 3DS. Owners of the Sony PSP have recently found that their units have suffered from swelling batteries that have rendered them unusable–especially since PSP batteries are in short supply these days.

This is more likely to be an issue for Switch Lite users than owners of the standard Switch–the console will charge when placed into the dock, after all.

Most players would be keeping their system charged, though–22.4 million Animal Crossing sales suggests that the Switch’s owner base is quite active.

The Switch has two major Nintendo-published exclusives coming later this year: Pikmin 3 Deluxe on October 30 and Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity on November 20. The next fighter for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate will also be revealed very soon, which should be a very good reason for fans to make sure their system is charged.

Idris Elba has faced off against powerhouses like Hela, Hobbs, and Shaw, but can he survive an encounter with a lion? Elba’s is in for a rough day in survival thriller Beast, according to a report from THR.

Initial reports offer very little on the film’s plot, other than that Elba will be fighting for his life as a lion hunts him; reports compare the film to Blake Lively’s The Shallows, which has her surviving a shark attack.

The thriller is an original idea from producer Jamie Primak-Sullivan, with writer Ryan Engle working on the script. Icelandic director Baltasar Kormakur is set to direct, and will produce alongside Primak-Sullivan, Will Packer, and James Lopez. Kormakur is best known films made in his native Iceland, but has directed movies like Adrift and Two Guns. Ryan Engle, meanwhile, penned screenplays for Dwayne Johnson’s Rampage and Liam Neeson’s The Commuter and Non-Stop.

Beast marks the second time that Primak-Sullivan, Engle, and producers Packer and Lopez will work together. The quartet previously produced and wrote Gabrielle Union’s 2018 film Breaking In, which featured the star defending her family during a home invasion.

Beast currently has no scheduled release window, but Elba can be seen in the upcoming film The Suicide Squad as Bloodsport, and in movies like Thor Ragnarok and Cats.

Netflix’s follow-up series to The Haunting Of Hill House, The Haunting Of Bly Manor, is right around the corner–and there has been no shortage of extra spooky content released to keep us curious. The first trailer was packed with possible clues as to the show’s story and the Manor’s resident ghosts, creepy dolls, and deeply unsettling children.

Now, the official Bly Manor twitter account has released the episode titles for the season with a series of posters. Take a look at them here.

Notably, the title for Episode 8 seems to be censored out. It looks like it’s going to be six words, probably starting with “the,” but that’s as far as we can guess. It’s poster features a very scary looking chest with water pouring out of it, so maybe it has something to do with drowning or that lake we saw over and over again in the trailer.

Like Hill House before it, Bly Manor will be loosely adapting a literary classic–Henry James’ gothic romance novella The Turn Of The Screw. It’s the story of a live-in nanny, called a Governess in the original story, who goes to work caring for a set of young and recently orphaned siblings on the grounds of a sprawling and possibly haunted house.

While you won’t be seeing any of Hill House’s Crane family in this season of the anthology show, you will see some familiar faces in new roles like Oliver Jackson-Cohen who played Luke, Victoria Pedretti who played Nell, and Henry Thomas who played Hugh.

The Haunting Of Bly Manor is arriving on Netflix on October 9.

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The Hori Split Pad Pro is one of the best Nintendo Switch controllers you can buy. Each handle slides into the Switch, replacing the Joy-Cons and giving you more substantial pads to use in handheld mode. Hori recently released a number of different colours, and now the company has revealed a Pac-Man-themed version of the Split Pad Pro. It’s available to preorder now for $60 with a release date of November 19.

The new Pac-Man design has the little yellow guy on the left controller, accompanied by the blue ghost Inky, while the right controller features red ghost Blinky, pink ghost Pinky, and orange ghost Clyde. Beneath them, the controller features the classic Pac-Man map.

If you’re interested in more product recommendations, check out our Nintendo Switch gift guide. There are a lot of different controllers, headsets, and accessories that will make any Nintendo fan happy this holiday season.