Gadgets
Here Are Your Free PlayStation Plus Games for April
Days Gone
A PlayStation 4-exclusive, Days Gone (Review) puts gamers in the shoes (and on the heavily-modded motorcycle) of outlaw-turned-drifter Deacon St. John who embarks on a visceral quest to find his wife Sarah as throngs of zombie-like creatures (known as Freakers) wreak havoc in a post-apocalyptic world. While the story was met with much criticism, Days Gone impressed critics and gamers alike with its tense gameplay and gorgeous visuals. The game’s high point comes whenever Deacon takes on Hordes, which comprises a swarm of Freakers — numbering anywhere between 50 to 500. Taking on Hordes isn’t an easy task, either. You need to constantly craft weapons and special ammo, weave through obstacles, figure out how to best utilise your limited resources — all at the same time while hundreds of Freakers rush at you menacingly, very much like the zombies in the Brad Pitt-starrer World War Z. Not for the faint-hearted, this.
If you aren’t subscribed to PS Plus, you can purchase Days Gone for Rs. 3,999 / $39.99.
Zombie Army 4: Dead War
If Days Gone gives you sleepless nights, Zombie Army 4: Dead War could be the perfect respite you need. Designed to be best enjoyed with friends, Zombie Army 4: Dead War is a third person shooter that lets you take on a zombie army led by none other than Adolf Hitler himself. Although a single-player option is available, the campaign plays out best on multiplayer. With the pandemic not relenting anytime soon, we can’t think of a better way to spend an evening than to take down Hitler and his zombies with your online friends.
You can purchase Zombie Army 4: Dead War for Rs. 2,999 / $49.99.
Oddworld: Soulstorm
Slated to release worldwide on April 6, PS5 gamers will have free access to the platformer on the release date itself. A reimagining of the classic 1998 title, Oddworld: Abe’s Exoddus, Oddworld: Soulstorm is a 2.5D (or pseudo-3D) side scroller that revolves around a strange creature named Abe who must save his even-stranger Mudokan friends from slave labour in the fictional realm of Oddworld. The single-player campaign promises challenging levels and an intriguing story to boot.
Apart from the free PS Plus games, PlayStation users will also have access to 10 games free of charge, as part of Sony’s Play At Home initiative till April 22. From April 19 to May 14, the critically-acclaimed action-adventure RPG Horizon Zero Dawn (Review) will also be available for free under the programme.
As always, you will need to have an active PlayStation Plus subscription to have continued access to the games, once you’ve added them to your library. PlayStation Plus subscriptions are available in India at Rs. 499 for a month, Rs. 1,199 for three months, and Rs. 2,999 for 12 months.
What do you think of this month’s free PS Plus games? Let us know on our dedicated Gaming Community forum where you can connect with fellow gamers, seek tips and guides, or simply rant about any irksome game or feature you came across.
Gadgets
Microsoft Partners With Inworld to Bring AI Game Development Tools to Xbox
“At Xbox, we believe that with better tools, creators can make even more extraordinary games,” Haiyan Zhang, GM, Xbox Gaming AI, said in a blog post. “This partnership will bring together: Inworld’s expertise in working with generative AI models for character development, Microsoft’s cutting-edge cloud-based AI solutions including Azure OpenAI Service, Microsoft Research’s technical insights into the future of play, and Team Xbox’s strengths in revolutionizing accessible and responsible creator tools for all developers.”
The aforementioned AI design copilot is a toolset that will help game designers turn prompts into scripts and dialogue trees. In contrast, the character runtime will enable dynamically generated plot beats and quests. We’ve already seen heavy AI integration in games by way of procedural generation — a more recent example being the 1000+ planets in Starfield. Not to mention, enemy AI has been around for way longer.
Inworld made headlines in August when it launched a modded story mode for Grand Theft Auto V, Sentient Streets, in which players had to investigate the rise of a bizarre AI-worshipping cult — a segment loaded with characters that spoke in AI-generated dialogue, on the fly. The mod was later taken down by publisher Take-Two, leaving a permanent strike on the creator Bloc’s YouTube channel. As per The Verge, Inworld’s AI technology can also be used for narration in top-down RPGs to warn players about any events awaiting off-screen and respond to questions like we’ve seen in the past year with AI chatbots like ChatGPT and Bing Chat. Microsoft has also been heavily banking on artificial intelligence, having made a $10 billion (about Rs. 83,254 crore) investment in OpenAI. The company has also integrated AI tools into its popular suite of services and also added an AI copilot to Windows.
Despite being a Microsoft-affiliated AI toolset, it would be interesting to see whether titles using them will be allowed to thrive on other platforms. In July, Valve claimed that it would be cracking down on games that included AI-generated assets if the developer didn’t own the copyright to the piece of art. For the uninitiated, when you insert a prompt to create something in AI, the software simply repurposes existing assets found online and mushes them together — basically stealing from other artists and writers without appropriate commercial licenses. Infringing them would lead to the game not being distributed on Steam, forcing the developers to seek proper licenses for the asset by reaching out to the AI companies involved. It’s unclear how Microsoft’s partnership will play out — as long as AI content is being used as a catalyst to innovate and create something new, it should be fine.
Gadgets
BSNL Offers Free 4G SIM Upgrade: Here’s How to Get It
In a post on X shared by BSNL’s Andhra Pradesh (@bsnl_ap_circle) unit, the company confirmed that BSNL users can upgrade their older 2G or 3G SIMs to a 4G SIM for free. Not only will the upgrade be free, but a promotional image shared with the post suggests that users who opt for the upgrade will also receive 4GB of free data that will be valid for three months. It is speculated that BSNL is aiming to boost its upcoming 4G services with this offer. The announcement was first spotted by Telecom Talk.
To access the free data offer and the free upgrade, BSNL users are requested to get in touch with executives at BSNL’s Customer Service Centre, franchisee or retailer stores, or contact one of their Direct Selling Agents (DSA). The promo image also adds in a finer print that the offer is available with certain terms and conditions, but hasn’t detailed any, so far.
Reliance’s Jio recently launched the 4G-supported Bharat B1 feature phone in India. The handset is priced at Rs. 1,299 in India. Alongside 4G connectivity, the phone comes with JioCinema and JioSaavn applications pre-installed.
The Jio Bharat B1 is equipped with the JioPay application, which is said to allow users to make UPI payments. Aiming to increase accessibility, the phone supports 23 languages overall, including multiple regional languages.
Gadgets
Realme GT 5 Pro Teased to Feature 3,000 Nits Display; More Details Revealed
Realme, via Weibo, announced the arrival of the Realme GT 5 Pro in China. The display of the handset is confirmed to offer 3000 nits peak brightness. It has also been teased to offer heat dissipation with a surface area of around 10,000mm2. It is confirmed to ship with Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 SoC. The post doesn’t specify the exact launch date of the smartphone, however, given the release of the teasers, the launch could be just around the corner.
The Realme GT 5 Pro has been in the news a lot lately. It is expected to feature a 6.78-inch (1,264×2,780 pixels) AMOLED display and is tipped to come in 8GB, 12GB, and 16GB RAM options along with 128GB, 256GB, 512GB, and 1TB inbuilt storage options.
For optics, the Realme GT 5 Pro is said to have a triple rear camera unit comprising two 50-megapixel sensors and an 8-megapixel shooter at the rear. The camera setup might include a Sony LYTIA LYT808 sensor, an OmniVision OV08D10 secondary sensor, and a Sony IMX890 telephoto sensor. For selfies, there could be a 32-megapixel sensor at the front. It is said to carry a 5,400mAh battery with support for 100W wired charging and 50W wireless charging.
The Realme GT 5 Pro is expected to come with upgrades over Realme GT 5. The latter was launched in China in August with a price tag of CNY 2,999 for the base model with 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage.
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