Hey everyone, welcome to the afternoon on WRUPerday the 14th. I missed last week due to working an event the whole weekend here locally and frankly I didn't expect it to run so long or be so busy. So I just didn't get to WRUP. But here I am the week after and though I'm relatively late in the day I do have a few things to toss in the info section. So let's get to it.
Sony's Access controller for PlayStation is now available to pre-order. The new circular game pad is meant to give much better gaming access to disabled players out there and that's awesome. Access was announced earlier this year and provides gamers with a large circular pad rimmed with large customizable buttons and a joystick that sits off to the side. Extra ports are built in that add points to connect extra controllers and accessories and the entire unit is reversible to fit righties and lefties just the same. According to CNET the controller sells for $90. This is a little more than a regular DualSense controller, but that's more than $100 less expensive than the DualSense Edge pro controller. Full release is on December 6th, just in time to be completely sold out all through the holidays.
Epic is changing it's pricing for Unreal Engine licensing. Developers will not be effected by the changes, but companies who use Unreal for renders like say, film companies will be charged a subscription fee instead of the usual royalty fees. Unreal will remain free for education. Here's more from The Verge
Yamaha has decided that a riderless motorcycle with no human operator controls is good idea for some reason. The Morotoid2 is an electric bike that balances itself and has no handle bars. It's technically capable of carrying a rider but that rider appears to be completely in a passenger role. Foot pegs and hand pegs are there to hang on to but that's all you get. There's a relatively small battery on the down tube of the frame and the bike will use facial recognition software to allow an owner access.
Now for my own opinion - let's get real here. Self driving tech barely works as it is. In fact for the most part it doesn't work. Self driving technology has resulted in not only traffic jams and accidents but at least one fatality that was blamed on the emergency operator because they didn't disengage the tech in order to take over even though they were told to trust said self driving tech because it would save them in the event of an incoming accident. And the human element seems to be removed from this motorcycle package all together. Not to mention there's absolutely zero utility in a riderless electric motorcycle with an undersized battery. This seems dangerous and utterly pointless to me. But hey, here's the word from Electrek.
What are we playing?
Greywolfe: finished off castle adventure during the week - a whale i've been hunting since 1986 [!] - now tackling dragonsphere, a game i've even posted about in wrup before, but have never actually ever finished since 1994. so. hopefully this time? [to be fair to it: i've finally cleared a massive and frustrating hurdle in that i've finished what is arguably the durdliest and dumbest puzzle in that game, so maybe it'll work out.]
AJ: Getting into the October spirit with some Castlevania: Rondo of Blood, and I may play some Ghostwire: Tokyo as well.
Scrooloose: I plan on starting Lords of the Fallen.