The FTC is apparently trying to find out what is in Sony’s Call of Duty contract with Microsoft.
02.11.2023 - 21:03 / destructoid.com
I’m a bit strange with my keyboards. I spend more time touching one than I do touching absolutely anything else. However, I couldn’t tell you what makes one mechanical keyboard better than the other.
Until now, because without hyperbole (okay, with some), the 8BitDo Retro Mechanical Keyboard is the one I want to be touching until I die. And that’s not because of ergonomics, reliability, or how hardcore the key mechanics are; it’s because of its look.
Gosh, it’s gorgeous.
I’m a bit of a weird choice to review a keyboard, but I wasn’t going to say no when I was offered one for review. I only know the general details about what makes one keyboard better than the other. I worked in IT for nearly 10 years, and the only thing that lawyers and engineers cared about was if it put letters on the screen. Some people wanted weird ergonomic models, but that was rare. I didn’t even care about how they sounded.
Until I watched the 1995 film Hackers.
That film features some of the clickiest keys I have ever heard, and I knew that my current keyboard wasn’t enough. I need something louder. I have to have that aesthetic for when I play the hacker games that make me feel smart. I need my neighbors to be able to hear my WPM from down the hall.
Initially, I was going to try and find a keyboard from the ‘90s before I discovered the audible greatness of mechanical keys.
The 8BitDo Retro Mechanical Keyboard has some great key sounds. If you’re not down with the particular key switches, the PCB is hot-swappable, so you can fit in something that suits your needs. Built-in is Kailh Box White Switches V2, which means absolutely nothing to me. However, I immediately fell in love with the sound. It has a lot of click, but less sharpness than my old Razor Blackwidow Ultimate (which uses Razor Green Switches).
What I really love is the aesthetic, which comes in two flavors. There’s one that is based on the grey/darker grey color scheme of the NES, and another that lifts the red/beige look of the Famicom. Unfortunately, they didn’t use a metallic gold plate for the marquee, but otherwise, it looks fantastic.
On top of the 87 keys, they put the 8BitDo touch to it with two knobs and three buttons, which grace many of the controllers, including my beloved arcade stick. The left knob is for switching between BlueTooth and 2.4Ghz, while the off position is used when you’re using USB. The other knob is volume, and rather than a tri-direction switch like the input method knob, it revolves freely but has a little click so you can feel each unit of volume you increase or decrease. You can adjust how much this unit is in the control panel.
The only drawback is the fact that it doesn’t have a numpad, but I think that’s because they wanted to
The FTC is apparently trying to find out what is in Sony’s Call of Duty contract with Microsoft.
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The ongoing saga of layoffs and studio closures in 2023 has been bad for developers of all shapes and sizes. But one notable surprise has been the dramatic impact they've had on companies behind live service games—and not just poor-performing ones, but successful ones like Fortnite and Destiny 2.
With Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League getting close to its 2nd February 2024 release date, Rocksteady has kicked off a new video series to talk about the game, the first episode featuring around 20 minutes dedicated to the game’s story and gameplay. Has the hefty game delay helped to address some of the complaints from earlier this year?
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The game remains in pre-production.
Lucid dreams are defined as the experience of knowing you are dreaming while you are asleep, and can range from the sublime to the genuinely terrifying. According to the CEO of new startup Prophetic, its latest project aims to «detect when dreamers are in REM to induce and stabilize lucid dreams» via a wearable device they call «The Halo». And if that doesn't sound like a cyberpunk future developing in front of our very eyes, I'm not sure what does.
We have some monster hits in video games this season as a lot of titles have been released as companies finally recover from the slowdown in game development due to the pandemic.