It was Sony’s turn at the mic yesterday at E3, and they didn’t disappoint. But, they may have also weirded us out a bit, too. The PlayStation maker debuted or updated numerous games, but two that stood out were the combat-heavy The Last of Us Part II, and the especially combat light – and definitely different – Death Stranding. Both are on the way, but Sony didn’t give release dates for either game. The Last of Us Trailer gets going with some downtime for Ellie – and even a bit of romance – but quickly transitions to some brutal gameplay, not against the typical zombie hordes, but against actual human hordes doing unspeakable things out in the wilderness. Check out the full trailer but heads up: It’s definitely adults only and probably very much NSFW.
Death Stranding, despite the title, looks to be quite the opposite experience. Set in a bleak but beautiful open landscape, it traces the perilous journey of a delivery person of sorts, traversing a wilderness populated by misty ghosts only detectable by a special light… attached to a baby… that is encased in some sort of special fluid. Like we said: pretty damn weird. And the ghosts, while apparently indifferent to some degree, attack at one point, so there is a certain menace to the game as well. We’ve got the extended trailers to both games in our full coverage all of Sony’s announcements, along with full coverage of E3.
Not quite in touch with the touch thing yet
We’ve been spending time with HTC’s latest top of the line smart phone, the U12 Plus – there is no “non-plus” version, FYI – and while the idea of a phone with no real buttons sounds interesting, in the case of the U12 Plus, it’s an idea apparently not quite ready for prime time. That’s not to say the U12 Plus is a bad phone – it has a solid camera, great sound and a big battery, among other positives – but the “digital button” approach has translated into endless interruptions while using the phone as they are too sensitive.
That and our review unit came weighed down with bloatware, which didn’t help performance. But still, the design is a nice blend of weight and size, and the back case is semi-transparent glass, which is cool, but it also means there’s no wireless charging option – a pretty big miss in an $800 phone.
USB-C to steal lightning’s thunder?
Digitimes is reporting that Apple is going to ditch their Lightning connector for USB-C, perhaps as early as next year. USB-C has become the defacto standard across the tech industry for both power and data transfer, and it also meets one core Apple design goal: simplicity. Unlike USB, USB-mini and USB Micro plugs, USB-C doesn’t need to be plugged in a certain way, and it’s both small and up to the data transfer and power specs Apple requires from the Lightning cable.
Apple has been fairly quick to integrate USB-C into their laptops – in fact, that’s the only port on the machines, much to the dismay of some users. So we’d say this rumor definitely has legs, and we wouldn’t be at all surprised to see future iPhones, iPads and pretty much everything Apple adopt the port. What do you think? Smart move by Apple? Let us know in our YouTube comments section.
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