All products recommended by Engadget are selected by our editorial team, independent of our parent company. Some of our stories include affiliate links. If you buy something through one of these links, we may earn an affiliate commission.
It took the better part of a year, but Razer’s smart face mask is finally available. You can buy the Zephyr either by itself for $100 or a $150 Starter Pack with three replacement filter kits. Individual replacements are $30. Just be prepared to hunt around, or at least to be patient — the Starter Pack is already listed as “out of stock,” and the mask by itself is still “coming soon.”
The Zephyr is, effectively a high-end pandemic protection kit for gamers. The transparent design and RGB lighting give it a bit of flash (this is a Razer product, after all), but the highlight is a dual-fan active air filtration system with N95 filters. This theoretically protects you as well as it does others. There’s even a mobile app to customize the lights.
In a sense, Razer’s mask is a gamble that paid off. While it’s arriving relatively late in to the COVID-19 pandemic, there are many places that still require masks, some of which might mandate that protection for a while to come. The Zephyr could help people in those areas feel more comfortable in public, particularly if they’re already Razer enthusiasts.
In the past decade we’ve seen the tag “gamer” used increasingly as a lifestyle sales pitch. Sure, you can buy gaming headsets and gaming mice and gaming keyboards, but there are also gamer hoodies and gamer drinks and even gamer furniture. Chairs made especially for playing have been proliferating over the past few years and until now, they’ve tended to be overpriced and ostentatious. Razer’s new Enki chair is still a bit over the top, but at least it’s a more affordable over the top, starting at $299.
To build the Enki, Razer called in ergonomics experts, paying attention not just to lumbar support, but also to how test subjects sat on the bottom cushion. The 21-inch-wide seat is shaped to distribute your weight more evenly, so you can sit for hours without getting a sore ass. They even considered the needs of those who like to sit in more unusual positions, like a half- or full-lotus. As someone who often sits cross-legged in my chair, I am grateful for the extra space and support.
Gallery: Razer Enki gaming chair | 7 Photos
Gallery: Razer Enki gaming chair | 7 Photos
Perhaps the most impressive thing about the chair is how far back it can lean. It’s not quite 180 degrees, but 152 degrees is still pretty good — the kind of angle you might only see on an airliner’s international business class. It’s the kind of chair you can fall asleep in. It seems precarious but in use, the chair held my weight well when I opened it to its max. It didn’t feel too top heavy, like it would fall backward, but it felt a bit unnatural due to the lack of a footrest. But let’s be honest, you really should just retire to your couch or bed when you need a proper snooze. This is good for when you need a bit of a stretch between Overwatch matches or Zoom meetings.
Kris Naudus / Engadget
My one nitpick besides the lack of a footrest is the head pillow, which is only included with a more expensive $399 package. It’s a nice shape and the fabric feels good to the touch, but it’s also not very adjustable. It has to be strapped on around the moon-shaped cut out toward the top of the seat, which means the height is non-negotiable. I found it ended up in that limbo between my head and neck, where it just jutted out and supported neither of them. I found it incredibly uncomfortable and ended up tearing it off. However, it also felt weird to not have something supporting my head in this chair. I can only hope that Razer ends up offering more options for users of different heights.
Kris Naudus / Engadget
Aside from that, it’s a very good chair offered at a very good price — other chairs from Secretlab or Logitech might cost hundreds more, and a good non-gaming office chair can easily go above $1,000. And, while some might find it silly to buy a “gaming” chair, there’s no rule this has to be used only for gaming. You can use the chair for work, meetings and anything else. It’s not gaudy in any way that would draw attention on a video call, as Razer eschewed its usual use of lime green highlights.
In the end, it’s just a chair. A nice, comfortable chair that you can buy directly from Razer or various retailers starting today, for $299 for the Enki X or the $399 Enki that includes the head pillow, a more reactive seat tilt and an armrest adjustable in four directions. With all the time you’ve been spending in front of the computer lately, you should make it a little nicer.
All products recommended by Engadget are selected by our editorial team, independent of our parent company. Some of our stories include affiliate links. If you buy something through one of these links, we may earn an affiliate commission.
I hope to one day be as brave as Lara Croft.Image: Crystal Dynamics
It’s kind of serendipitous that Square Enix is celebrating Tomb Raider’s 25th anniversary in October. Just in time for Halloween, likely unintentionally honoring the spooky season, the publisher has unveiled early development footage of a canceled Lara Croft adventure that saw the British explorer trying to survive the horror.
The project was called Tomb Raider: Ascension. It eventually got scrapped in favor of Crystal Dynamics’ successful 2013 reboot. But based on newly revealed prototype gameplay, Ascension sought to take elements from games such as Resident Evil and Shadow of the Colossus to make a tense, grotesque survival horror experience sorta like The Evil Within.
Read More: Square Enix’s Crystal Dynamics Also Working On The New Perfect Dark Game
And it’s actually frightening! The prototype footage below shows a pre-rendered (and eventually, a lo-fi) Lara Croft roaming around some viney underground cave before encountering a monstrosity with tentacles and stretchy appendages and other weird shit. These enemies are very gross.
But one of the more terrifying parts is a sequence about two minutes into the seven-minute gameplay video. Lara burns her way through what looks like an ornate temple, setting ablaze not just the structure itself, but also a number of creepy, frenzied, spiky-headed enemies with long…fingernails? The music set over the footage is eerie and has plenty of sharp stings to induce a jump scare or two.
Things get stranger when Lara hits more open environments. After some horseback riding, she’s greeted by a big-ass monster that could have been a Dark Souls boss in another life. This horrifying thing initiates a chase sequence that would scare me half to death.
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There are two other, albeit shorter, videos that accompanied the prototype gameplay. One dives into early concept art, showcasing that Lara Croft in Tomb Raider: Ascension would have traveled with a young girl, recalling a core mechanic in Ico. The other highlights Xbox 360 box art and even gives us some voice-over.
According to Video Games Chronicle, Square Enix’s digital book Tomb Raider: The Final Hours reveals that Crystal Dynamics abandoned the project because doubt fomented. Apparently, the team had no faith that Tomb Raider: Ascension would be as good as Batman: Arkham Asylum. This comparison drove the studio to pivot development, ultimately resulting in 2013’s Tomb Raider.
It’s worth noting that while Tomb Raider: Ascension may have never materialized, much of the prototype’s vibes can be sensed in Tomb Raider. Furthermore, the 2013 game’s plot involves a ceremony called an “ascension.” They may be totally different games, but the DNA of Ascension nevertheless seems present in the reboot.
Read More: Creepypasta Spins The Strange And Unsettling Circumstances Around Cancelled Tomb Raider Game
The reveal of this canceled Lara Croft adventure comes several months after fans uncovered yet another scrapped project. That one, a 10th anniversary PSP remake of Core Design’s very first Tomb Raider game, resurfaced in January and is now playable on PC via direct download.
Sony has finally revealed its mainstream $2,500 Alpha A7 IV full-frame mirrorless camera and it looks to have been worth the wait. Borrowing technology from the recent A1 and A7S III models, it offers large improvements over the A7 III introduced well over three years ago. Key features include an all-new 33-megapixel sensor, 4K 10-bit 60 fps video, new AI autofocus tricks and a lot more.
The A7 IV resembles the A7S III in terms of size and layout, but you can now select between still, video and S&Q (slow and quick) options with a new dedicated dial below the mode dial. Each mode completely changes the settings and control layout of the camera to favor either photo- or video-centric controls. As with the A7S III, the video record button has been moved to a more practical spot on top for vloggers.
Sony
It comes with a 3.68-million dot electronic viewfinder (EVF) with a more comfortable 120 Hz refresh rate, up from the 2.36-million dot, 60Hz EVF on the A7 III. For videographers, the A7 IV offers a flip-out 1.03 million dot rear LCD display, making the camera far more usable for vlogging than the A7 III.
The 5-axis in-body stabilization delivers 5.5 stops of shake reduction, up slightly from before, but far below the 8 stops promised by Canon’s like-priced EOS R6. However, it now offers an “active mode” for movies that helps smooth footsteps.
In terms of storage, the A7 IV offers two slots, with the top dual slot taking either SDXC UHS II (up to 300 MB/s speeds or CFexpress Type A (up to 800 MB/s), and the bottom slot compatible with SDXC UHS II only. On the A1 and A7S III, by comparison, both slots support both those formats. As for battery life, the A7 IV delivers 610 CIPA shots on a charge, compared to 700 on the A7 III.
Sony
The 33-megapixel backside illuminated (BSI) sensor provides a significant resolution boost over the A7 III’s 24.1-megapixel sensor, while still offering good low-light sensitivity, Sony told Engadget. However, it doesn’t offer the stacked chip-on-sensor technology of the A1 and A9/A9 II, so it lacks the sensor readout speeds of those models.
As such, the A7 IV is limited to the same 10 fps shootings speeds as the A7 III, both with the mechanical and electronic shutter — whereas the A1 can shoot at triple that speed. However, the A7 III was limited to around 90 RAW frames at a time, but the A7 IV can shoot an incredible 828 uncompressed RAW+JPEG images in a burst, provided you capture to a CFexpress Type A card.
Powered by the A1’s BIONZ R processing engine, it offers the same 759 phase-detect AF points as the A1 with around 94 percent sensor coverage. It also comes with the same AI-powered image tracking that can process spatial information “in real time at high speed,” Sony said. That means more tenacious tracking, along with faster and more accurate eye AF for humans, animals and birds.
Sony
Perhaps the biggest improvements with the A7 IV are on with video. Where the A7 III was limited to 4K/30p with 8 bits of color depth, the A7 IV can handle 4K at up to 60 fps with 10 bit, 4:22 All-I capture — putting it on par with Canon’s EOS R6 and the Panasonic GH5 II. 4K 30fps is super-sampled using the entire 7K width of the sensor, while 4K/60p uses a 4.6K Super35 1.5X crop. That means there’s no pixel binning, so video should be very sharp.
It supports a number of video file types, including XAVC S All-I at up to 600 Mbps for 4K/60 10-bit, 4:2:2 movies. All of the video modes, except one S&Q setting that requires CFexpress Type A, can be captured to an SD UHS II card. However, unlike the A1 and A7S III, there’s no support for 16-bit RAW video capture to an external recorder. RAW video isn’t found on the EOS R6 either, but is available on Panasonic’s $1,800 GH5s and the $2,000 Nikon Z6 II, via recorders from Atomos and Blackmagic Design.
Video autofocus is improved with faster and more accurate tracking, and the A7 IV is Sony’s first camera to support both human and animal/bird eye tracking for video. If the A7 IV’s AF works nearly as well as the A7S III, it should be nearly on par with Canon’s Dual Pixel AF.
What about overheating, the EOS R6’s primary bugbear? With a heat-dissipating body structure, the A7 IV can record 4K 60p 10-bit 4:2:2 video continuously for more than an hour, Sony claims. The R6, meanwhile, is limited to around 40 minutes at 4K/30p before a cooling off period is required.
Sony
With most camera lenses, pulling video focus from a foreground to background subject can cause an ugly change in framing. The A7 IV’s Focus Breathing Compensation system essentially uses a digital zoom to compensate for that, making the transition smoother. However, since the system needs to track lens elements, it only supports Sony-branded glass — and only the rather expensive G and GM models, at that.
If you’d rather focus manually, the A7 IV is debuting a new feature called Focus Map. It overlays colors onto a scene showing the parts within, behind and in front of the depth of field (DOF). That’s supposed to help you pull focus quickly and in the right direction toward your subject. Related to that is the new “AF Assist” function borrowed from Sony’s FX6 cinema camera that allows for manual focus, even during autofocus operation.
Sony
Lastly, Sony has introduced new live streaming and sharing features, though they’re not quite up to the level we’ve seen on other recent cameras. If you use Sony’s Imaging Edge mobile app, it will now use Bluetooth to maintain a continuous connection, rather than disconnecting as before.
It also offers faster transfer speeds with 5GHz WiFi and superspeed USB-C 3.2 Gen2 (10Gbps). You can do video and audio streaming over USB-C at up to 1080p 60 or 4K 15p if resolution is a priority over smooth video. That allows for webcam or livestreaming via apps like OBS with digital audio and effects like soft skin. The camera can also record internally while you’re live streaming, providing a backup. Unlike Panasonic’s GH5 II however, you can’t transmit via RTMP to Twitch, YouTube or other services without a phone or laptop.
The A7 IV is clearly a massive leap forward for Sony’s “basic” full-frame mirrorless camera series, putting it on par or ahead of most rivals. The only deterrent is the $2,500 price tag ($2,699 with a 28-70mm f/3.5-5.6 OSS kit lens), which is $500 more than the A7 III cost at launch. I’d wager, though, that it’s going to be just as popular as the original, provided it delivers the promised performance — so stay tuned for our review. The A7 IV is set to arrive by the end of December 2021.
All products recommended by Engadget are selected by our editorial team, independent of our parent company. Some of our stories include affiliate links. If you buy something through one of these links, we may earn an affiliate commission.
Microsoft has announced new 2TB and 512GB Seagate storage expansion cards for the Xbox Series X and S.
Seagate already has a £200 1TB storage expansion card. The 512GB and 2TB cards will be available soon in all Xbox markets, Pamela Wang, from the Designed for Xbox team, said in a post on Xbox Wire.
The 512GB card costs $140 in the US and launches mid-November. The 2TB card costs $400 in the US and launches early December. We expect UK pricing soon.
To use either card, plug it into the storage expansion port on the back of your Xbox Series X or S. You can use it as you would any external storage device.
You can install games to the card by default, play games directly from it, move or copy games between local and external storage, or do anything you can now with an external hard-drive.
The difference is these Seagate cards are designed to match the exact performance of the internal SSD of the Xbox Series X and S.
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As announced earlier this month, Sora became Super Smash Bros. Ultimate’s final DLC character. But how did Sora, Keyblade and all, end up in Smash Bros.? In his latest Weekly Famitsu column, creator Masahiro Sakurai explains just that.
Sakurai noted how Sora was the number one choice among players for a new character. The Kingdom Hearts character seems like such an obvious choice, too—especially because the character’s name is the same as Sakurai’s company. (This is something Sakurai humorously acknowledged in the reveal, and in a photo caption in the Famitsu article, writing, “Yeah, his name is the same as my company’s.”)
“As I think some can imagine, the barriers for Sora entering the battle were quite high,” he writes. “Even though players’ expectations were great, I honestly thought it was impossible.” According to Sakurai, the team that handles external negotiations thought the same.
However, one day everything changed. “By chance, I met a higher-up at Disney at an awards show,” Sakurai writes in the column. “I talked about how I’d like Sora to join the battle [in Smash Bros.], and I was told that they also thought it would be good if he was able to join the battle. What a surprise!”
After the chance meeting, Disney, Square Enix, and Nintendo all entered into long discussions about bringing Sora to Smash Bros. And in the end, Sakurai got the okay.
But why did Sakurai originally think it would be impossible? When characters come from other companies to the fighting game franchise, it’s not just a matter of adding them to the game. There are requirements, issues, and concerns about how they are depicted in game—companies are extremely protective of their characters. Sakurai and his team, of course, are incredibly sensitive to all of this; however, considering that he would not only need to approach Square Enix but also Disney, I guess he wasn’t initially optimistic.
“Supervision from both Disney and Square Enix is required for anything that Sora does [in Smash Bros.],” explained Sakurai. “It did feel like the various hurdles were high, and in reality, there were various rules in place for development to go forward.”
The development team created a high-quality character model from the start, and production was going more smoothly than Sakurai had expected. However, things were still difficult. In Kingdom Hearts, Sora uses aerial combat, and the challenge was bringing that style of fighting to Smash Bros. in a way that made sense, worked in-game, and was still true to the character.
“I think we got the feeling of the original games,” writes Sakurai. “What do you think?”
During the “Pixel Fall Launch” event, Google formally launched the new Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro as well as its Pixel Pass. Beyond that, however, the tech giant didn’t divulge much more about other new products — like Google’s first folding phone. Google previously confirmed in 2019 it’s working on prototyping foldable device technology, has applied for patents on foldable screens, and we’ve since reported on a number of leaks suggesting the Pixel Fold might arrive as soon as this year.
For example, Korean industry site TheElec suggested Samsung was going to produce folding OLED panels for the device this very month — and that’s just one of many recent leaks. Here’s a catch-up on everything else we think we know about the Pixel Fold.
Internal documents from 2020 suggest a “Passport,” a name used internally for one of the Pixel Fold designs, would launch during the fourth quarter of 2021. That’s a prediction that was repeated by TheElec in mid-2021, as well as reliable leaker Evan Blass in September. That’s why some predicted Google would show off the Pixel Fold during the “Pixel Fall Launch” event, which obviously it didn’t. Of course, we still have a little over two months left of 2021, so there’s still a possibility of seeing it this year.
A diagram from Google’s 2019 patent application filing was one of the earliest reports suggesting it’s experimenting with foldable device tech.Patentscope
The public first found out about the “Passport” codename in August 2020 after leaked internal documents referred to the device accordingly. That was the only Pixel Fold we’d heard of for over a year, and the one that would supposedly launch in 2021. In September 2021, however, 9to5Google’s sources reported Google is also testing a second foldable Pixel smartphone dubbed “Jumbojack.”
We don’t know when this second device will be released, if ever. In fact, we don’t know whether the “Jumboback” is a second type of Pixel foldable device, or an internal prototype Google is using to build out foldable phone features. What we do know, however, is that both seem different from each other.
There’s some speculation the “Jumboback” codename name is a reference to Jack in the Box’s Jumbo Jack cheeseburger. This implies the phone may fold “hamburger style” like a powder case, as Samsung’s Z Flip does. That differs from the Passport’s alleged “hotdog” style, which folds like a passport similar to the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold.
The “Jumboback” may fold in this Samsung Z Flip’s “hamburger” style.Photo by Dan Seifert / The Verge
Interestingly, the “Passport” design’s folding display might even have the same screen size as Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold 3. A June 2021 report from TheElec indicates the phone could come with a 7.6-inch folding display panel that folds inward.
The “Passport” design, meanwhile, may fold like the Samsung Z Fold.Photo by Dieter Bohn / The Verge
That same report from TheElec also suggests Samsung would start producing folding OLED panels in October for the “Passport” device. Google may also use Samsung’s proprietary ultra-thin cover glass, which is bendable (and is technically produced by Schott). Samsung worked closely with Google to support foldable screens in Android to begin with.
In September 2021, 9to5Google’s sources revealed the Jumbojack foldable device due to references in a future version of the recently released Android 12, which 9to5Google says could be Android 12.1. Incidentally, Android 12.1 is an update that may also offer several foldable-focused improvements, an analysis of leaked code by XDA Developers suggests.
According to the publication, these Android 12.1 enhancements include a better split-screen UI and a new taskbar to easily access and use multiple apps using both screens simultaneously. The lock screen could also make better use of horizontal space, showing, for example, notifications on one side and the clock on the other, while placing Quick Settings and notifications panels side-by-side.
Android 12 launched on October 19th and offers more design customization options. Photo by Cameron Faulkner / The Verge
Will the Pixel Fold, or at least the Jumboback, need to wait to launch until Android 12.1 is ready. Is that why we have yet to see the Pixel Fold? Android 12 only just released, after all.
CoD Mobile Season 9 is here, as the popular handheld title gears up for another big Halloween event. From new weapons and maps to the return of Undead Siege, here’s included in the huge October 20 update.
Another new season in CoD Mobile has finally arrived after Season 8 and the second-anniversary celebrations begin to wind down. As always, players are in store for another massive update with tons of new content on the way.
Season 9 brings the fright again for Halloween: From spooky map overhauls to a frightening ‘Nightmare’ theme, the devs are going all in for the 2021 spectacle.
CoD Mobile Season 9: release date & time
The CoD Mobile Season 9 update arrived on Thursday, October 21 at 5PM PT / 8PM ET / 1AM BST (October 22). Players were immediately able to jump in and access all the latest spooky content in the handheld title.
Activision
Halloween Standoff is back in CoD Mobile Season 9.
CoD Mobile Season 9 Nightmare theme
As The Haunting takes over in Black Ops Cold War and Warzone, the Nightmare is taking over CoD Mobile.
CoD Mobile Season 9’s theme is a chilling one as the Halloween celebrations take full effect. From creepy skins to scary menus, every aspect of CoD Mobile has been tweaked to provide a true Nightmare-inducing experience.
Activision
Prepare for a frightening season in CoD Mobile.
New CoD Mobile Season 9 maps
No different from every recent season, CoD Mobile Season 9 has brought with it some interesting new maps.
First up is Hovec Sawmill, another map from 2019’s Modern Warfare making the jump to CoD Mobile. This medium-sized map features multiple lanes, a mix of verticality, and opportunities for both indoor and outdoor engagements.
Fitting the Halloween theme, the CoD Mobile rendition has Hovec Sawmill set at night, so be sure to crank your brightness up.
🆕📍New location disclosed & incoming!
🗺Hovec Sawmill coming to #CODMobile in the next season! pic.twitter.com/07Fr9aHj6Y
— Call of Duty: Mobile (@PlayCODMobile) October 15, 2021
Next is the return of Halloween Standoff in CoD Mobile Season 9. While the original version of the map quickly became a fan favorite, the yearly Halloween overhaul has become iconic.
Halloween Standoff functions just the same way as before, though CoD Mobile devs have teased “new content” in this year’s iteration of the famous map. We’ll be sure to keep you updated as we learn of any new features or easter eggs.
👍 And of course we can’t forget about this one.
🎃 Halloween Standoff is returning for the next season of #CODMobile. A surprise mystery lies ahead… pic.twitter.com/4d2jo9OkSB
— Call of Duty: Mobile (@PlayCODMobile) October 16, 2021
New weapons in CoD Mobile Season 9
Two new weapons have arrived in CoD Mobile’s Season 9 update and both should be familiar to longtime fans of the series.
Up first is the Thumper, a deadly Grenade Launcher that’s featured in numerous mainline CoD titles. Scoring a direct hit with a projectile from the Thumper will secure a single-shot kill more often than not. Next, we have a more recent addition joining the mix in CoD Mobile Season 9 as the Swordfish Tactical Rifle will soon be available. Players will be able to grab this classic gun at Tier 21 of the Season 9 Battle Pass.
This four-round burst weapon first appeared in Black Ops 4 and while it may have a slow rate of fire, it packs one hell of a punch in any gunfight.
Activision
CoD Mobile Season 9 brings two classic CoD weapons to the handheld title.
CoD Mobile Season 9 Battle Pass
As players have come to expect with each new season in CoD Mobile, another fresh Battle Pass is indeed available to grind in Season 9.
The first battle pass reveal came on October 18, with devs confirming a new Operator Skill for the rewards track. The TAK 5 Operator Skill – unlocked at Tier 14 – instantly gets your entire team back to full health, and even overheals an extra 50 HP on top.
Free Battle Pass
Scythe Time – Sticker (tier 1)
Ninja – Dark Flower (tier 8)
New Operator Skill TAK-5 (tier 14)
Charm – Cymbal Monkey (Tier 16)
New Weapon Swordfish (tier 21)
Pharo – Covenant (tier 28)
PDW-57 – Covenant (tier 31)
M4 – Covenant (tier 36)
Fields of the Fallen Calling Card (tier 46)
Striker – Covenant (tier 50)
Premium Pass
Artery – Nosferatu (tier 1)
UL736 – Gourd Loader (tier 1)
On the Prowl Calling Card (tier 1)
Charm – Zom-bale (tier 1)
HS0405 – Skeletal Ignition (tier 10)
Iskra – Arachnis (tier 12)
Generous Giver Emote (tier 15)
Peacekeeper MK2 – Spine Rattle (tier 30)
Nikto – Scarecrow (tier 35)
PP19 Bizon – Haunted Haystack (tier 40)
Swordfish – MKII (tier 50)
Rott – Tomb Bound (tier 50)
We’ll keep you updated here with a full rundown on the CoD Mobile Season 9 Battle Pass once more details emerge now that the patch is live.
New CoD Mobile Battle Royale class in CoD Mobile Season 9
Get ready to soar through the skies in CoD Mobile’s battle royale playlist. ‘Pumped’ is an all-new class that’s landed in the Season 9 patch; one that gives your character a functioning jet pack.
With the Power Jump Active Skill and the Pump Up Passive Skill you’re able to leap into the air and reach new heights. Not only does this completely buff your mobility, but it also lets you fire on enemies from new angles.
⬆👍 Better vertical = more advantage!
🚀 Take flight in the new Battle Royale class, Pumped, coming as a part of the next new season in #CODMobile. pic.twitter.com/8N8dHTIBbg
— Call of Duty: Mobile (@PlayCODMobile) October 18, 2021
CoD Mobile Season 9 Trick or Treat event
It wouldn’t be a new CoD Mobile season without a new limited-time event. As Season 9 is doubling down on its Halloween theme, the latest mode is a trick-or-treat special.
All you have to do is “go door to door,” visiting your friend’s rooms online. Upon interacting with them, you’ll either be tricked or treated. If you land on a trick, you have to complete “an in-game task to get your candy.” But if you’re treated, that candy becomes available right away.
Every treat hands you some event XP to get you closer to unlocking each seasonal reward.
Activision
Trick or Treating is a must on Halloween.
New Drop Zone multiplayer mode in CoD Mobile Season 9
The devs have added a new multiplayer experience in CoD Mobile too: Drop Zone has finally arrived in Season 9.
Players have to fight for control over a specific Drop Zone that’s constantly rotating around any given map. By controlling the Drop Zone, teams can then earn Scorestreaks that will quickly drop in from above.
Activision
Modern Warfare’s Drop Zone mode has arrived in CoD Mobile in Season 9.
Undead Siege returns in CoD Mobile Season 9
After its introduction in August, Undead Siege has finally returned to CoD Mobile. Not only is the popular Zombies mode back in action in Season 9, but devs have revealed some fresh changes to keep players on their toes.
Dropping into the Isolated Battle Royale map, those in the casual playlist will notice more of a challenge right away. Zombie spawns have been increased and enemies will now dynamically spawn across both casual and hard modes.
Moreover, expect to find plenty of new secrets and easter eggs scattered throughout the mode.
Full CoD Mobile Season 9 patch notes
Multiplayer mode and survival mode
CR-56 AMAX (equipped with M67 magazine):
Reduced the range, the first range was adjusted from 36M to 30M, and the second range was adjusted from 51M to 42.5M
Reduced the damage on the upper arm from 62 to 48
Slightly increased vertical recoil.
M13:
Increased the basic movement speed of the base gun from 0.6 to 0.65
Increased the reload speed of the base gun from 3 to 2.5
Increased the basic bullet velocity of the multiplayer mode from 600 to 900
Heavy long barrel – Reduced the movement speed penalty from 4% to -2%
300 RTC-30 rounds magazine: Replaced the bullet speed increasing effect with a silencer effect; ADS speed -8% → -3%
Apple this week unveiled the new 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro, which are powered by Apple Silicon M1 Pro and M1 Max chips. An early benchmark already revealed that the M1 Max CPU delivers twice the performance of the M1 chip, and now a Metal score from Geekbench 5 shows that the M1 Max offers up to 181% faster graphics than the GPUs found in the previous 16-inch MacBook Pro.
Another benchmark test run with the new MacBook Pro recently uploaded to the Geekbench website shows that the GPU of the M1 Max chip scored 68870 in the Geekbench 5 Metal test. According to the website, the score comes from the high-end version of the M1 Max chip with 64GB of RAM.
Another benchmark test performed with the new MacBook Pro shows that the GPU of the M1 Max chip scored 68870 in the Geekbench 5 Metal test. According to the website, the score comes from the high-end version of the M1 Max chip with 64GB of RAM.
When compared to the AMD Radeon Pro 5300M, which is the GPU found in the base model of the previous 16-inch MacBook Pro with Intel processor, the M1 Max chip has 181% faster graphics, as the AMD 5300M scores only 24461 in Geekbench 5. Even compared to the best GPU available for the previous model (which is AMD Radeon Pro 5600M), M1 Max still has 62% more powerful graphics.
This score puts the new MacBook Pro with M1 Max chip on par with the now-discontinued iMac Pro, which had a model equipped with the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 56 GPU.
While the M1 Pro chip is available with 14-core and 16-core GPU, the M1 Max chip has a 32-core GPU with unified memory, which means it shares the same 32 or 64GB of RAM for graphics. Apple points out that the memory bandwidth speed reaches 400GB/s. This, of course, makes the new MacBook Pro more than ideal for graphics-intensive tasks.
The new 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro are now available for pre-order, with the first units expected to ship next week.
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After ongoing requests, Sora from Kingdom Hearts joined Super Smash Bros. Ultimate earlier this week as the final DLC fighter.
For a lot of fans, it still seems too good to be true, so how exactly did it happen? In Sakurai’s latest column (translated by @PushDustIn and @KodyNOKOLO), the Smash director goes into details about how it all played out. While it was clear Sora was a fan favourite after the Fighter Ballot results, Sakurai himself still thought it would be highly unlikely.
That was until he one day had a chance encounter with a Disney representative at a certain awards venue, who said they were all for Sora’s addition to the all-star roster (it sounds similar to Kingdom Hearts’ original elevator pitch). This then apparently led to a lot of “long and careful discussions” between Square Enix, Nintendo and Disney.
From there, Sakurai apparently had to follow a lot of guidelines and overcome many hurdles when developing the character. His team also had some difficulties creating the model:
“The first Sora model that the Smash team sent to Disney / SE was very quality and there weren’t a lot of issues…just kidding. It was quite difficult.”
In the same column, Sakurai also mentioned how Fighters Pass 2 was originally planned to have only five characters – like the original Fighters Pass until Sora’s addition got approved by higher-ups.
Are you glad Sora made it into Super Smash Bros. Ultimate in the end? What do you think of this latest DLC fighter in battle? Leave a comment down below.
