This week, we continued taking stock of 2023 with looks back at how the Switch and the Steam Deck fared, our picks for the cream of the crop among shooters and role-playing games, and more juicy commentary on everything the year had to offer.
I love the idea of annual top 10 lists until it comes time to actually make one. Then my perpetually indecisive brain freaks out about whether the game I spent 100 hours playing was actually any good, the tension between an interesting game and a fun one, and the cries of all the games I never finished or even got…
Granzella has announced that R-Type Tactics I • II Cosmos will launch for PS4 & PS5 as well as other major formats in Fall 2024.
The game was previously delayed to a vague 2024 window, so this is a little more concrete.
The press release details what to expect from the spin-off shooter.
”As the Bydo continue to eliminate humanity, you must outsmart and outmaneuver them if the Space Corps has any hope of victory. That is until you find yourself fighting alongside the very forces you were tasked with destroying…”
”R-Type Tactics I • II Cosmos combines the side-scrolling, shoot ’em-up action the series is known for with tactical, turn-based strategy gameplay for a one-of-a-kind R-Type experience! Remade in Unreal Engine 5, this two-game collection blasts its way onto Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, and PC, with R-Type Tactics II also making its debut in the west for the first time! Deploy your forces across multiple campaigns, playing as both the Space Corps and the Bydo. You can also set your sights on competitive online play to see who the ultimate tactician really is. With hundreds of ships and levels to choose from between both games, along with branching missions and a new third campaign (all exclusive to R-Type Tactics II), R-Type Tactics I • II Cosmos is packed with out-of-this-world content!”
The release window came with a trailer seen in this showcase video.
R-Type is one of the longest-running game series of all time, having debuted back in 1987 in arcades before being ported to a variety of early consoles and computers. The latest mainline entry came this year with R-Type Final 3 Evolved.
The post R-Type Tactics I • II Cosmos Coming to PS4 & PS5 Fall 2024 appeared first on PlayStation LifeStyle.
The next part of the epic Final Fantasy 7 remake is coming in 2024 with Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth and it is set to bring at least one big change from the original.
Sephiroth had a much larger presence in the 2020’s Final Fantasy 7 Remake than he did in the same portion of the original game, and with Rebirth set to cover the middle section of the game, the promise of more Sephiroth than before has been made by producer Yoshinori Kitase.
Speaking to Game Informer, Kitase talks about the game’s world map and how it will contain a greater presence from Sephiroth as the group pursues him across the map.
“Remake covers your encounter with Sephiroth, and now within Rebirth, we wanted to make Sephiroth this very clear antagonist and target for the characters to go and pursue through their journey in Rebirth,” said Kitase. “Within the original game, Sephiroth was not seen very much in the world map, but in this title, we put this element forward.”
There will be plenty of character development for one of gaming’s most notorious antagonists and Kitase explained “We felt it was necessary to have this very clear depiction of how he came to be the person that he is now in Rebirth.”
Sephiroth will feature as a playable character during a flashback sequence in Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth.
Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth will be released on PS5 on February 29, 2024.
The post Sephiroth Will Have a Bigger Presence in Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth’s World Map appeared first on PlayStation LifeStyle.
As we round out 2023, we asked you to chime in with your own Game of the Year picks, as well as your own memories of wonderful gaming gifts from holiday seasons past. We also give you the lowdown on a PS5 controller that promises never to raise the spectre of drift. Venture forth for this and more, and we’ll see you…
From a secret Santa at Valve making one user’s day to a look at what how an upcoming Star Wars game could fulfill our Han Solo dreams, here are some of the best news stories from the past week.
A rumor recently emerged that the original God of War trilogy’s PS5 remake is in the works, with some expressing skepticism due to the source of the rumor. Now, some fans think that Sony’s cooking something, and the rumor might be true, much like how reports of God of War Ragnarok: Valhalla turned out to be true despite Santa Monica Studio denying that it was working on DLC.
As spotted by Redditor ThingBudget, YouTuber GameBreakerGod recently live streamed Valhalla DLC and held a question-and-answer session with two Santa Monica Studio developers during the stream. When a follower asked the YouTuber why he didn’t quiz the developers about the rumored remake, GameBreakerGod said that Santa Monica Studio didn’t approve those questions.
Some fans have taken this as an indication that the God of War trilogy is probably headed to PS5, but it’s entirely possible that Santa Monica Studio simply didn’t want to answer anything not relevant to the subject matter of the video: Valhalla DLC.
Recently, current Kratos voice actor Chris Judge revealed that he was contacted to match the voice of former Kratos voice actor Terrence Carson, which he refused to do. Judge later issued a clarification that the request didn’t come from Santa Monica Studio after rumors of the remake began to circulate.
Just to clarify, NO ONE at @SonySantaMonica asked me to voice match TC. The respect for what he did as Kratos goes from top to bottom. It was another game that asked me to do a voice match (not War for Wakanda)
— Christopher Judge (@iamchrisjudge) December 28, 2023
Make of this what you will.
The post God of War Trilogy PS5 Remake Rumor Takes Hold as Dev Refuses to Comment appeared first on PlayStation LifeStyle.
‘Tis the season to promote indie games with AI-generated junk, apparently. A Microsoft Twitter account recently posted low-effort, energy-intensive art promoting indie games on Xbox before later deleting it after getting roundly mocked by fans and developers alike.
CD Projekt RED (CDPR) has denied rumors of a potential acquisition yet again, stressing that the studio wants to remain independent. CDPR is a name that repeatedly comes up when it comes to talk of games industry consolidations, with prior reports that Sony has been in talks with the studio for a possible acquisition.
Although CDPR outright denied that it was ever in talks with Sony, we know for a fact that rival Microsoft did have an actual interest in acquiring the developer… at least to the extent that it was one of the companies that it had listed as a buyout consideration in internal documents made public earlier this year.
Now, CEO Adam Kiciński has told Polish publication Parkiet (via MP1st) that CDPR is also protected against a hostile takeover. “We have always had a clear position, supported by the regulations included in the statute [to prevent hostile takeovers],” Kiciński said. “We are not interested in being included in any larger entity. We have worked our whole lives to get to the position we have now, and we believe that in a few years we will be even bigger and stronger.”
The post CD Projekt RED Doesn’t Want to Be Acquired, Is Protected Against Hostile Takeover appeared first on PlayStation LifeStyle.
According to a new report, GTA 5 single-player story DLC‘s cancellation was the unfortunate byproduct of intense disagreements between higher-ups at Rockstar Games. Rockstar has previously confirmed that GTA 5 DLC was planned and ultimately scrapped, but it has long been assumed that GTA Online‘s success was the prime reason for the cancellation. While that’s true, there seems to be more to the story than that.
Recently leaked internal documents have confirmed that Rockstar had plans for several GTA 5 DLCs and expansions, none of which panned out. According to YouTuber Mors Mutual Insurance, who has examined the matter in great detail, it was creative differences between Rockstar founders — the Houser brothers — and long-time GTA lead Leslie Benzies that resulted in the DLC’s cancellation.
The Houser brothers were reportedly in favor of single-player projects, whereas Benzies had an inclination towards live service. The disagreement resulted in Benzies famously going on a lengthy sabbatical and eventually leaving Rockstar before suing the company — a matter that was settled out of court. According to the report, Benzies’ departure spurred a large number of resignations, with Rockstar struggling to remain focused on its single-player endeavors.
Following this debacle, Rockstar pivoted to Red Dead Redemption 2 while continuing to support GTA Online. Other single-player projects like Bully 2 and a new Midnight Club were also shelved in the process.
The post GTA 5 Story DLC Was Reportedly Canceled Due to Internal Rift at Rockstar appeared first on PlayStation LifeStyle.
2023 was yet another solid year for fans of shooty-shooty-bang-bang video games. While the Golden Era of shooters might be slowing down as the year wraps up, we still got some dang good ones, both in first-person and third-person variants, over these past 12 months.
Sony Interactive Entertainment has hired former Call of Duty producer Jason Blundell along with a number of former Deviation Games employees. The circumstances surrounding the recruitments are a bit curious considering that Deviation Games is working on a AAA PS5 game for Sony… or was.
Founded by former Call of Duty veterans including Blundell, Deviation Games went on to sign a partnership agreement with Sony to work on a AAA PS5 project. However, beyond a PS Blog announcement, nothing ever came out of the partnership and Blundell departed the studio he co-founded. Then, rumors emerged that Deviation Games’ PS5 exclusive has been canceled.
Twitter user and insider Zuby_Tech recently discovered that not only is Blundell now employed by Sony, but that a large number of former Deviation Games employees are also now working at Sony. Many, if not all, of them ceased working for Deviation around the same time, too.
This begs the question of Deviation Games’ existence and what it’s working on, if it still exists. Fans are also left wondering if Deviation’s PS5 project — rumored to be a shooter — is one of the live service games that Sony canned.
The post Sony Quietly Hired Former Call of Duty Bigwig and Deviation Games Team appeared first on PlayStation LifeStyle.
Apple's designer exodus continues as product design chief Tang Tan is leaving the company and joining Jony Ive's design firm LoveFrom, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. There, he'll reportedly work on a new artificial intelligence hardware project backed by OpenAI's Sam Altman with aim of creating devices deploying the latest deep learning technology.
Tan was in charge of design for Apple's main products including the iPhone, Watch and AirPods, so his departure leaves a sizable hole. As part of LoveFrom, Tan will act as hardware design lead for the new AI project, with Altman providing the software running underneath. All products are supposedly in the early concept phases, with a focus on devices for the home. None of the parties (OpenAI, LoveFrom or Apple) have commented on the news.
It was already known that Tan would be likely be leaving Apple, but it hadn't yet been revealed where he'd go. Earlier this year, Jony Ive's successor Evans Hankey left the company after just a few years in the product design chief role. In all, about 14 members of Ive's former team have left Apple since 2019, with only a half dozen or so remaining. Ive worked as a consultant for Apple until 2022, and more than 20 former Apple employees have joined Ive under LoveFrom.
Altman was recently fired (and then rehired) by OpenAI, in part because he was raising funds for other endeavors. One of those was the team-up with Ive to create AI hardware backed by Softbank, according to a previous Bloomberg report.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://ift.tt/IAquxn0
From big-name franchise revivals to small-scale indie productions, horror gaming on PlayStation was in good health in 2023. PlayStation LifeStyle selects 14 of the year’s best horror games on PlayStation consoles.
Few remakes would come with such expectations as Resident Evil 4, and yet Capcom managed to exceed them.
Resident Evil 4 Remake takes everything players loved about the 2005 classic and integrates a flurry of modern touches to make it feel like a natural evolution of the original.
While Resident Evil 4’s remake reimagined the original, EA Motive’s Dead Space largely stuck to the script with a smattering of improvements where they were needed.
The spirit of the original is kept intact, but a PS5 sheen made every Necromorph encounter and gore-splattered outcome a grisly treat. But the real star of the new show is the Ishimura, which no longer feels like a series of interconnected rooms masquerading as a spaceship but more like an actual place.
Finally getting a console release, Marevo Collective’s atmospheric PSX-style horror is a delightful slow-burner that makes the most of its minimalist structure.
The ambiguity of the story keeps players on edge, and when chase scenes kick in, the perspective shift adds another layer to the unsettling atmosphere.
Frictional Games’ ability to rewrite the rulesets of its story-led horror games is admirable and with Amnesia: The Bunker, it does its biggest edit yet.
Amnesia: The Bunker is a self-contained sandbox set in a wartime bunker where the player has to find the means to escape whilst evading a deadly monstrosity. Think of it as small-scale Alien Isolation meets Immersive Sim.
PSVR2 had plenty of horror goodies in 2023. The Walking Dead: Saints and Sinners 2 was my personal pick from the brand-new bunch.
Why? Well, its immersive, intense gameplay translates so much better to the PSVR2 than the original game did with PSVR. The dread of getting cornered by the undead is offset by improvised weapons. Throw in a seemingly unstoppable behemoth out for blood and Saints and Sinners 2 will have you working up a sweat.
Killer Frequency stands out for me because it’s clearly doing something quite different in the horror space. Playing the part of a washed-up DJ who finds themselves having to help save locals from a returning legendary serial killer. Killer Frequency limits you to the radio station as to the extent of your help, but within that station is plenty of exploration and opportunity.
Not only can you find things to guide potential victims away from their fate, but you get the chance to play as a DJ, putting on records, ads, and, of course, taking calls. Killer Frequency does everything possible to immerse you in the role.
Oxenfree’s dialogue system remains one of the most refreshing and ingenious of its kind, so a return to that with Oxenfree II would always be welcome. That system is more refined now, but it’s Oxenfree II’s story is where it excels.
After the teen-centric tale of the original, Oxenfree II shifts things to an adult perspective and, in doing so, gives us a wonderfully melancholy flipside to the first game.
Homebody puts a modern spin on classic survival horror, with plenty of homages to Clock Tower, especially on show.
A young woman and her friends are stuck in a time loop that keeps them inside a strange old house. She must solve the many puzzles of the house in order to break the loop, but every time the loop begins, the threat of a masked killer arrives with it.
If you miss the frenetic supernatural shooter action of F.E.A.R. then Trepang2 has your early 2000s needs covered. A labor of love that transformed into a full game, Trepang2 is a lovely reminder that shooters can simply be big, loud, bloody slabs of nonsense.
The slo-mo ability turns large-scale chaos into a ballet of bullets and blood, but truly the art of Trepang2 comes in chaining together kills at full speed, utilizing the various other superpowers at your disposal.
Thirteen years after Remedy Entertainment’s Alan Wake, a sequel finally arrived, and it’s the quintessential distillation of everything the developer has done up until this point.
It’s a weird, meta tale that blends mediums in an impressively seamless way. The shift between Alan’s and Saga’s sides of the story gives us two distinct flavors of horror that intertwine at key moments.
It was pretty remarkable that Amnesia: The Bunker condensed a horror immersive sim into such a small space, but Puppet Combo’s Stay Out of the House manages to pack that into an even smaller space.
You have to escape the house of The Butcher by utilizing whatever you can find. Get caught, and it’s back in your cage. Each run gives you the opportunity to discover more about how the house works and the backstory behind The Butcher.
After an unfortunate licensing drama with Friday the 13th, Gun Media clearly wasn’t deterred from bringing beloved horror franchises to life in video game form, and we should be glad because it gave us The Texas Chain Saw Massacre.
Taking the asymmetrical multiplayer model of games like its Friday the 13th game and Dead by Daylight, Gun, and Sumo change things up by pitting a team of three family members against four unlucky potential victims. The change makes for an intense cat-and-mouse dynamic distinct to this game.
Given the rocky history of Dead Island 2’s path to release and the emergence of rival franchise Dying Light by original Dead Island developers Techland in the years since it would have been understandable if Dead Island 2 turned out to be a bit of a stinker.
Yet, thanks to Dambuster Studios, it turned out to be not only good, gory fun but the best Dead Island game by far. Its tongue-in-cheek humor, detailed zombie degradation system, and general blood-splattered combat combine to make for a fine multiplayer hoot.
Fishing has been a staple of game activities for some time now, but few outside actual sims make that the basis for an entire game. Black Salt Games thought it was worth a go, and Dredge was the unholy result.
This open-world fishing sim has an increasingly dark undertone that taps into the core of Lovecraftian horror. The murmured warnings not to stray too far at night, the messed up fish you occasionally haul in, and the strange, ambiguous way locals talk about things. When the horrors of the deep do finally show themselves, your little fishing boat never felt more vulnerable.
The post Best of 2023: PlayStation Horror Games appeared first on PlayStation LifeStyle.
A video of Taters the cat beamed across 19 million miles of space because NASA had to try it. It was a successful demonstration of new laser communication technology, through which NASA beamed an ultra-high-definition video across deep space, from the Psyche spacecraft back to Earth. The signal from the video, sent on December 11, made it to Earth in 101 seconds.
That data speed — through space — is faster than most broadband connections on Earth.
— Mat Smith
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How we built a less-explodey lithium battery and kickstarted the EV revolution
The best books we read in 2023
Engadget Podcast: Diving into the Apple Watch sales ban
The best budgeting apps to replace Mint
Apple has apparently started negotiating with major publishers and news organizations to use their content to train its generative AI system. The company doesn’t expect to get its hands on content for free, though, and The New York Times says it’s offering them multi-year deals worth at least $50 million. While some of the publishers are reportedly concerned about the repercussions of letting Apple use their news articles throughout the years, the company is building goodwill simply by asking for permission and showing willingness to pay.
The Humane Ai Pin is expected to start shipping in March. On Friday, the company posted on X that “those who placed priority orders will receive their Ai Pins first when we begin shipping in March.” The company previously gave an “early 2024” estimate for the screen-less, $66 wearable device, which Humane believes is the next-gen hardware to replace smartphones.
Instead of a screen, the Ai Pin relies on voice cues and a projector that beams info onto the user’s hand.
Mint Mobile, the prepaid mobile carrier backed by Ryan Reynolds, notified customers via email this weekend that their information may have been stolen in a security breach. That information includes names, phone numbers, email addresses and SIM and IMEI numbers. Hackers did not access customers’ credit card information, which Mint says is not stored, nor were passwords compromised.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://ift.tt/zme12Gl
First Contact Entertainment, the studio behind PSVR and PSVR2 shooters Firewall Zero Hour and Firewall Ultra, is shutting down. The developer was in operation for almost eight years and specialized in VR content, which became the reason for its closure.
PSVR’s Firewall Zero Hour earned generally positive reviews but PSVR2’s Firewall Ultra failed to exceed or match its predecessors’ reception. However, sales and reviews don’t seem to be the primary reason for First Contact’s closure. In a statement published on Facebook, the company cited “lack of support for VR within the industry” that eventually “took its toll.”
The statement — which gives the closure date as “end of the year” — only appears on First Contact’s official Facebook page at the time of this writing, and is neither up on its website nor on its Twitter/X page (which is currently active).
“As a AAA VR game developer, we are just not able to justify the expense needed gouging forward,” part of the statement reads. “We are a team of fearless innovators willing to push new technologies to its limits. I am extremely proud of the team and grateful to our investors, our partners and of course our community of dedicated and passionate players. It’s been a wild ride, Thankyou!”
The post Studio Behind PSVR/PSVR2’s Firewall Games Shutting Down appeared first on PlayStation LifeStyle.
Insomniac Games has said that despite their magnitude, Wolverine PS5 leaks will not impact the game’s development. The studio suffered from a devastating ransomware attack that saw not just company data stolen but also employees’ personal data. However, Insomniac says it’s too “resilient” to allow the breach to impact its work.
In a statement published on Twitter ahead of the holiday, Insomniac acknowledged the “emotional” toll of the ransomware attack and said that it appreciated the outpouring of love and support while the team focused “inwardly” to support one another. Insomniac decried the data theft, which included information pertaining not just to the studio’s own employees but also former employees and independent contractors.
“We’re both saddened and angered about the recent criminal cyber attack on our studio and the emotional toll it’s taken on our dev team,” part of the statement reads. The studio added that the leak includes “early” development details of Marvel’s Wolverine. “Like Logan, Insomniac is resilient,” the statement continues. “Marvel’s Wolverine continues as planned.”
According to Insomniac, Wolverine is in early production so we can probably rule out all those rumors of a late 2024 release.
The post Wolverine PS5 Development Not Impacted by Ransomware Attack, Says Insomniac Games appeared first on PlayStation LifeStyle.
An insider has claimed that Sony‘s remastering the original God of War trilogy for the PS5. The first two games in the series have previously been remastered for the PS3 and were also available on the PS Vita. God of War 3, which originally released on the PS3, has also been remastered for the PS4 and is currently playable on PS5 via backwards compatibility.
This rumor — which has been circulating all weekend — came from Nick “Shpeshal Nick” Baker, who doesn’t exactly have an impeccable track record when it comes to leaks. However, Baker has previously shared insider information pertaining to Sony that was corroborated by reliable sources and turned out to be true.
In an XboxEra podcast with fellow insider and journalist Jeff Grubb, Baker claimed to have heard that the first three games in the God of War series will eventually land on the PS5 but he couldn’t confirm whether they will be straight ports of the PS3 remasters or not.
Baker added that he doesn’t believe God of War: Ascension will be part of the package. Ascension released in 2013 for the PS3, and was the last game to feature Terrence C. Carson as the voice of Kratos.
The post Original God of War Trilogy Reportedly Getting PS5 Remaster appeared first on PlayStation LifeStyle.
Ubisoft’s internal services were compromised in a security breach this week when hackers attempted to steal 900GB of data, including Rainbow Six Siege user data, according to VX-Underground. Ubisoft spotted the breach 48 hours later, and was able to revoke the hackers’ access before they could successfully exfiltrate the data.
In a statement to BleepingComputer, Ubisoft said, “We are aware of an alleged data security incident and are currently investigating. We don't have more to share at this time.” VX-Underground posted redacted screenshots shared by the attacker that allegedly show they accessed Microsoft Teams conversations, the Ubisoft SharePoint server, Confluence and MongoDB Atlas. “The Threat Actor would not share how they got initial access,” VX-Underground wrote in a post on X. “Upon entry they audited the users access rights and spent time thoroughly reviewing Microsoft Teams, Confluence, and SharePoint.”
December 20th an unknown Threat Actor compromised Ubisoft. The individual had access for roughly 48 hours until administration realized something was off and access was revoked.
— vx-underground (@vxunderground) December 22, 2023
They aimed to exfiltrate roughly 900gb of data but lost access.
According to VX-Underground, the attackers’ attempt to get Rainbow Six Siege user data was unsuccessful. It’s unclear at this time if they were able to get any sensitive information before Ubisoft shut the whole thing down.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://ift.tt/vMwCOBz
In the immortal words of Future Islands, “Seasons change.” It’s that bittersweet time when we savor the memories of the past and prepare for what the future will bring, and this week, we here at Kotaku asked you to chime in on what games you loved most in 2023, and what you can’t wait to play in 2024.
Sand, salt, iron, copper, oil and lithium — these foundational materials are literally what the modern world is built on. Without sand for glass, say goodbye to our fiber optic internet. No copper means no conductive wiring. And a world without lithium is a world without rechargeable batteries.
For the final installment of Hitting the Books for 2023, we're bringing you an excerpt from the fantastic Material World: The Six Raw Materials That Shape Modern Civilization by Ed Conway. A finalist for the Financial Times and Schroders Business Book of the Year award, Material World walks readers through the seismic impacts these six substances have had on human civilization throughout history, using a masterful mix of narrative storytelling and clear-eyed technical explanation. In the excerpt below, Conway discusses how the lithium ion battery technology that is currently powering the EV revolution came into existence.
Thanks very much for reading Hitting the Books this year, we'll be back with more of the best excerpts from new and upcoming technology titles in post-CES January, 2024!
Excerpted from Material World: The Six Raw Materials That Shape Modern Civilization by Ed Conway. Published by Knopf. Copyright © 2023 by Ed Conway. All rights reserved.
The first engineer to use lithium in a battery was none other than Thomas Edison. Having mastered the manufacture of concrete by focusing religiously on improving the recipe and systematising its production, he sought to do much the same thing with batteries. The use of these devices to store energy was not especially new even when he began working on them at the dawn of the twentieth century. Indeed, the very earliest days of the electrical era were powered almost exclusively by batteries. Back before the invention of the dynamos and generators that produce most of our electricity today, the telegraphs and earliest electric lights ran on primitive batteries.
Their chemistry went back to Alessandro Volta, an Italian who, at the turn of the nineteenth century, had discovered that by stacking layers of zinc and copper discs separated by cardboard soaked in brine, he could generate an electric current, flowing from one electrode (in this case the metallic discs) to the other. His pile of electrodes was the world’s first battery — a voltaic cell — or as it’s still sometimes called, a pile (since a pile is precisely what it was). That brings us to the prickly question of what to call these things. Purists would argue that a single one of these units, whether it was Volta’s first effort or the thing you find in your smartphone, should be called a cell. A battery, they say, is a word only to be used about an array of multiple cells. But these days most people (including this author) use the words interchangeably.
Half a century later the French physicist Gaston Planté came up with the first rechargeable battery using a spiral of lead electrodes bathed in acid, housed in a glass container. Lead-acid batteries, versions of which are still used to help start car engines today, could provide quick bursts of power, but their relatively low energy density meant they were not especially good at storing power.
In an effort to improve on the chemistry, Edison began to experiment his way through the periodic table. Out went lead and sulphuric acid and in came a host of other ingredients: copper, cobalt and cadmium to name just a few of the Cs. There were many false starts and one major patent battle along the way but eventually, after a decade of experimentation, Edison landed upon a complex mixture of nickel and iron, bathed in a potassium hydroxide solution and packed into the best Swedish steel.
“The only Storage Battery that has iron and steel in its construction and elements,” read the advertising.
Edison’s experiments underlined at least one thing. While battery chemistry was difficult, it was certainly possible to improve on Planté’s lead–acid formula. After all, as Edison once said, “If Nature had intended to use lead in batteries for powering vehicles she would not have made it so heavy.” And if lead was a heavy metal then there was no doubt about the lightest metal of all — the optimal element to go into batteries. It was there at the opposite end of the periodic table, all the way across from lead, just beneath hydrogen and helium: lithium. Edison added a sprinkling of lithium hydroxide to the electrolyte solution in his battery, the so-called A cell, and, alongside the potassium in the liquid and the nickel and iron electrodes, it had encouraging results. The lithium lifted the battery’s capacity by 10 per cent — though no one could pin down the chemistry going on beneath the surface.
In the following years, scientists followed in Edison’s footsteps and developed other battery chemistries, including nickel–cadmium and nickel–metal hydride, which are the basis for most consumer rechargeable batteries such as the AA ones you might have at home. However, they struggled to incorporate the most promising element of all. Decade after decade, scientific paper after paper pointed out that the ultimate battery would be based on a lithium chemistry. But up until the 1970s no one was able to tame this volatile substance enough to put it to use in a battery. Batteries are a form of fuel — albeit electrochemical rather than fossil. What occurs inside a battery is a controlled chemical reaction, an effort to channel the explosive energy contained in these materials and turn that into an electric current. And no ingredient was more explosive than lithium.
The first breakthrough came in the 1970s at, of all places, Exxon-Mobil, or as it was then known, Esso. In the face of the oil price shock, for a period the oil giant had one of the best-funded battery units anywhere, staffed by some of the world’s most talented chemists trying to map out the company’s future in a world without hydrocarbons. Among them was a softly spoken Englishman called Stan Whittingham. Soon enough Whittingham had one of those Eureka moments that changed the battery world forever.
Up until then, one of the main problems facing battery makers was that every time they charged or discharged their batteries it could change the chemical structure of their electrodes irreversibly. Edison had spent years attempting to surmount this phenomenon, whose practical consequence was that batteries simply didn’t last all that long. Whittingham worked out how to overcome this, shuttling lithium atoms from one electrode to the other without causing much damage.
At the risk of causing any battery chemists reading this to wince, here is one helpful way of visualising this. Think of batteries as containing a set of two skyscrapers, one of which is an office block and the other is an apartment block. These towers represent the anode and cathode — the negative and positive electrodes. When a rechargeable smartphone or electric car battery is empty, what that means in electrochemical terms is that there are a lot of lithium atoms sitting in the cathode — in the apartment block — doing very little.
But when that battery gets charged, those atoms (or, as they’re technically called, since they hold a charge, ions) shuttle across to the other skyscraper — the anode or, in this analogy, the office block. They go to work. And a fully charged battery is one where the anode’s structure is chock-full of these charged lithium ions. When that battery is being used, the ions are shuttling back home to the apartment block, generating a current along the way.
Understand this shuttling to and fro between cathode and anode and you understand broadly how rechargeable batteries work. This concept — the notion that ions could travel across from the crystalline structure of one electrode to nest in the crystalline structure of another — was Whittingham’s brainwave. He called it intercalation, and it’s still the basis of how batteries work today. Whittingham put the theory to work and created the world’s first rechargeable lithium battery. It was only a small thing — a coin-sized battery designed for use in watches — but it was a start. Per kilogram of weight (or rather, given its size, per gram), his battery could hold as much as 15 times the electrical charge of a lead–acid battery. But every time Whittingham tried to make a battery any bigger than a small coin cell, it would burst into flames. In an effort to tame the inherent reactivity of lithium, he had alloyed it with aluminium, but this wasn’t enough to subdue it altogether. So Whittingham’s battery remained something of a curio until the following decade, when researchers working in the UK and Japan finally cracked the code.
The key figure here is an extraordinary man called John B. Goodenough, an American physicist who, as it happens, was born in Jena, the German city where Otto Schott and Carl Zeiss first perfected technical glassmaking. After studying at Yale, Chicago and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Goodenough eventually found himself in charge of the inorganic chemistry lab at the University of Oxford in the late 1970s and early 1980s, where he played the pivotal role in the battery breakthrough. Among his team’s achievements — commemorated today in a blue plaque on the outside of the lab — was the discovery of the optimal recipe for the cathode (that apartment skyscraper) in a lithium-ion battery. The material in question was lithium cobalt oxide, a compound that improved the safety and the capacity of these batteries, providing them with a stable cathode matrix in which the lithium ions could nest. It wasn’t that battery explosions could be ruled out, but at least they were no longer inevitable.
The final intellectual leaps occurred a few years later in Japan, where a researcher called Akira Yoshino perfected the other ingredients. He paired Goodenough’s lithium cobalt oxide cathode with an anode made from a particular type of graphite — that very variety they still make from the needle coke produced at the Humber Refinery — and the combination worked brilliantly. Lithium ions shuttled safely and smoothly from one side to another as he charged and discharged the battery. He also worked out the best way to fit these two electrodes together: by pasting the materials on to paper-thin sheets and coiling them together in a metal canister, separated by a thin membrane. This final masterstroke — which meant that if the battery began to overheat the separator would melt, helping to prevent any explosion — also evoked those first cells created in France by Gaston Planté. The rechargeable battery began life as a spiral of metal compressed into a canister; after more than a century of experimentation and a complete transformation of materials, it came of age in more or less the same form.
But it would take another few years for these batteries to find their way into consumers’ hands, and it would happen a long way from either Esso’s laboratories or Oxford’s chemistry labs. Japanese electronics firm Sony had been on the lookout for a better battery to power its camcorders, and came across the blueprints drawn up by Goodenough and adjusted by Yoshino. Adapting these plans and adding its own flourishes, in 1992 it created the first production lithium-ion battery: an optional power pack for some of their Handycam models. These packs were a third smaller and lighter than the standard nickel–metal hydride batteries, yet they carried even more capacity. In the following years, lithium-ion batteries gradually proliferated into all sorts of devices, but it wasn’t until the advent of the smartphone that they found their first true calling. These devices, with their circuitry, their semiconductors, their modem chips and bright displays, are incredibly power hungry, demanding the most powerful of all batteries. Today, almost all smartphones run on batteries derived from the discoveries of Whittingham, Goodenough and Yoshino. The trio was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2019.
That this invention — first prototyped in America and then mostly developed in England — only came to be mass produced in Japan is one of those topics that still causes frustration in the Anglophone world. Why, when so many of the intellectual advances in battery design happened in Europe and the Americas, was production always dominated by Asia? The short answer was that Japan had a burgeoning market for the manufacture of the very electronic goods — initially video cameras and Walkmans — that needed higher-density batteries.
As the 1990s gave way to the 2000s, lithium-ion batteries became an essential component of the electronic world, in laptops, smartphones and, eventually, electric cars. Smartphones could not have happened without the extraordinary silicon chips inside, powering the circuitry, housing the processing units and bestowing memory storage, not to mention providing optical sensors for the camera. But none of these appliances would have been practical without light, powerful batteries of far greater energy density than their predecessors.
All of which is why demand for lithium has begun to outstrip our ability to extract it from the earth. And unlike copper or iron, which we have many centuries’ experience producing, the lithium industry remains in its infancy. Up until recently there were few mines and the pools in the Salar de Atacama were still relatively small. Today they are big enough to be easily visible from space, a gigantic pastel paint palette smack bang in the middle of the desert.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://ift.tt/g0mVe5f
At one moment in Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, characters are running through a mutated jungle, chased by lion-sized cockroaches while avoiding violent, human-eating plants. In another moment, multiple characters are standing around, their hair flowing wildly, delivering wooden dialogue that’s almost as painful for…
It's Christmas Eve Eve, so I've phoned in this week's TMA and shouted "Lost In Space!" to myself. What a time to be alive. I'm also stoking the flames of the console wars in 2023. Yes, Sony announced its sold 50 million PS5 consoles so far. Xbox doesn't offer its own official figures (because of this eventuality?) but analysts say, during this year, Sony outsold Microsoft consoles three to one.
There's also an outright ban on Apple Watches — at least the two newest models — over patent issues. Apple needs President Biden himself to turn the ban around, but it doesn't look like he will before the ruling come into power.
This week:
⌚️⛔️ The Apple Watch ban is here
🤳🧑🏽🔧 Samsung adds foldables to its self-repair program for the first time
🎮🕹️ Sony has sold 50 million PS5 consoles over three years
And read this these:
We're wrapping up our year with a barrage of features and editorials on the year that was 2023. Want to know how X declined and declined and declined? How about the sudden pause on autonomous taxis and the many disasters in the last 12 months? Or how about a year of layoffs and acquisitions across a lot of gaming industry? There are more stories, of course, but you'll have to wait for next week to read those.
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This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://ift.tt/fGrHoTa
As the air turns increasingly cold and families gather to celebrate the holidays, it’s time to get comfy and reminisce about the year that was. 2023 had more than its fair share of highs and lows, so join us for one last look back as we remember our favorite games, as well as the most crushing disappointments and the…
Sony Interactive Entertainment and Warner Bros. have reached an agreement to stop the delisting of PlayStation Discovery TV shows… at least for now. The original announcement resulted in backlash as Sony announced that PS4 and PS5 owners are set to lose content that they’ve purchased.
Sony had said that it was forced to remove all Discovery content due to licensing agreements but made no mention of refunds for those who had forked out cash for it. The news resulted in widespread concerns, and now Sony says it has heard feedback.
“Due to updated licensing arrangements, the Discovery content removal planned for December 31, 2023, is no longer occurring. We appreciate your ongoing support and feedback,” reads a notice on PlayStation’s website.
Sony separately confirmed to GamesIndustry.biz that PlayStation owners will continue to have access to Discovery TV shows “for at least the next 30 months.” “Similar to other services, we do not own the licensing rights to TV/movie content that was previously available for purchase on PlayStation Store,” the company added. “However, we’ve worked with Warner Bros. to update our licensing agreements, ensuring that consumers will be able to access their previously purchased content for at least the next 30 months.”
The post PlayStation and WB Reach Agreement to Not Pull Discovery Shows for Now appeared first on PlayStation LifeStyle.
Tesla has issued a second recall in the US in as many weeks. This time around, it's recalling 120,423 Model S and X vehicles made between 2021 and 2023 due to an issue that may result in an unlocked door unlatching and opening during a crash. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), this increases the risk of injury and means that the EVs fail to comply with a federal safety regulation. The automaker has already issued a free over-the-air (OTA) update to resolve the problem and owner notification letters are expected to go out in February.
Earlier this month, Tesla recalled more than 2 million EVs over Autopilot safety concerns. The company issued a free OTA update with features that aim to make sure drivers are paying attention while using the system.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://ift.tt/3f1qQLAMotorsport fans who yearn for juicy behind-the-scenes insights might want to circle January 2 on their 2024 calendar. The third season of Formula E's unscripted reality show Unplugged will hit the Roku Channel on that date. It's the first time that the show will be available on Formula E's new streaming home, while fans around the world will be able to check it out on YouTube.
Unplugged will arrive on Roku just 11 days before the motorsport's tenth season starts with the Mexico E-Prix on January 13. That race will also stream on Roku as the platform ventures into live sports.
The latest season of Unplugged follows the events of the 2022-23 Formula E campaign, including a title race that was only decided on the final weekend. Along with the twists and turns and personal drama, the eight-episode season will also highlight some of the motorsport's tech advancements, such as the new Gen3 racecar that drivers had to get to grips with.
In case you need a refresher of what happened in Formula E's last campaign (or you just want to rewatch all the action), it's worth noting that every race from the motorsport's first nine seasons is available to stream on its website. Every Season 10 race will be available on that platform too, albeit one week after each event. Along with Roku, races will air live on Paramount+ and CBS this season.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://ift.tt/QSIsR46The European Union says three porn sites are now subject to stricter rules under the Digital Services Act (DSA). It has designated Pornhub, Stripchat and XVideos as “very large online platforms” (VLOPs) after determining they each have an average of more than 45 million monthly users in the EU. This means they will face the same rules as Facebook, X, and TikTok. (Is the discourse in comments really worse than parts of X? Yes. Probably.)
The three porn sites have four months to comply with additional obligations. That includes measures to prevent the spread of illegal content, which includes “child sexual abuse material and content affecting fundamental rights, such as the right to human dignity and private life in case of non-consensual sharing of intimate material online or deepfake pornography.”
The penalties for failing to comply with the DSA’s requirements are severe. Platform holders can be fined up to six percent of their annual global revenue.
— Mat Smith
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After laying off nearly a quarter of its staff last year, e-scooter rental company Bird has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Bird launched in multiple cities in 2017, amid a lot of hype framing e-scooters as a sustainable urban mobility solution. The company continued to expand despite a lack of profitability (following the Uber model), but the COVID pandemic forced the company to halt operations in multiple locations around the world. Since then, cities have also become more hostile to e-scooter rentals. This filing doesn’t affect Bird Canada or Bird Europe, which are separate organizations. Unfortunately. So, I can expect to keep tripping over the e-scooters dotted around London in 2024.
ResearSo I can expect to keep tripping over e-scooters dotted around London in 2024.chers have developed an AI-powered robot they claim can beat Labyrinth, the physical marble game, faster than humans. The aim of these games is to guide a marble through a maze without falling into any holes, using two dials to angle the board. Thomas Bi and Raffaello D’Andrea of ETH Zurich created CyberRunner, which combines model-based reinforcement with the dexterity needed to beat the game. The joke is on AI, though — marble mazes are boring.
The PlayStation 5 has officially hit the 50 million sales milestone, despite all the supply chain issues that kept PS5s in limited supply. Oh, and a pandemic. Fun fact: It took the PS5 a week longer than PlayStation 4 to reach 50 million sales. According to the Financial Times, Sony has also outsold the Xbox Series X and S by almost three to one this year, based on data from Ampere Analysis. While Microsoft doesn’t release official Xbox sales numbers (I wonder why…), Ampere estimated Microsoft sold 7.6 million next-gen systems this year, while Sony’s sales reached 22.5 million units.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://ift.tt/dVgPOnI
