Bits: The Byteside Blog
Exploring a Gold Road in 2024. The Elder Scrolls Online does story so well, making the annual chapter reveal always a moment for excitement. This new chapter picks up on the same story threads from last year as we learn more about a new Daedric Prince and their plot to – you guessed it – wreck our world.
Lots of juicy details here.
The third season of Diablo IV kicks off January 24. Season of the Construct adds a lot of new features, like Companions, Vaults, and a new town centre. A lot of meat to flesh out the game. Nice to see.
We recently mentioned the arrival of body trackers for HTC VIVE XR Elite. Now there's the VIVE Full Face Tracker as well. It tracks eye movement as well as face and mouth expressions. Also adds auto calibration to the headset for better comfort, while opening the doors to detailed capturing facial expressions in virtual environments and experiences.
Final Fantasy XIV has revealed the next expansion, Dawntrail, will launch 'Summer 2024' (so mid year here in Australia). Two new jobs, Viper and Pictomancer, will arrive with it – Picto in particular looks rather colourful!
SQUARE ENIX Ltd.
Google Gemini upgrades AI powers in Bard, Pixel, and more
Can the arrival of Google Gemini give OpenAI the serious competition we've been waiting for?
Make spatial videos for your family's science fiction future
Apple's iOS 17.2 update enables Spatial Video capture on iPhone 15 Pro models. Your descendants will thank you for using it.
Donate to cancer research and win prizes: do it now!
Give $50 to charity and win a prize worth the same or more? Yes! Help fight cancer through the gift of giving and get a gift of giving in return.
Logitech G goes high-end with Astro A50X wireless gaming headset
Logitech G ASTRO A50 X LIGHTSPEED gaming headset goes seriously premium, with a base station to switch between Xbox, Playstation and PC.
Holiday themed game festivities are always a bit of fun. And World of Warships isn't being left out of the yuletide joy. There's 20 stages of rewards available through their 'Holidays in Santa City' update. In Blitz you'll also find an Advent Calendar of goodies, and in Legends you'll find a free Holiday Box gift bundle.
So remember to relax for a few moments and enjoy the vibes. Then get back to blowing your enemies out of the water.
Clever new launch from CRKD (pronounced 'Cracked') that give you a chunkier, more comfortable in the hand controller setup for your Nintendo Switch (both OG and OLED). The Nitro Deck gives adds swappable thumbsticks, and a generally improved control setup with drift-free sticks and remappable back buttons, plus a carry case.
Get it in white, black, mint and purple. $99 for the first two. $149 for the others. It's at JB Hi-Fi, EB Games, Big W, and The Gamesmen.
The zeitgeist according to Google. Here's an interesting post on the things we were searching in 2023. From the Optus outage to the referendum, to our glorious Matildas and Barbie mania.
Sea of Thieves finds some chill for casual good times
Safer Seas aims to make Sea of Thieves more welcoming for beginners and laid-back veterans by excluding pesky human pirates from being a concern.
All the attention on AI might give VR/AR/XR more breathing room to keep iterating and get us somewhere exciting in coming years. Like HTC Vive Ultimate Trackers adding positional data for your limbs for more detailed immersion in virtual spaces. A nice add-on.
Commonwealth Bank has significantly reduced incidents of abusive transactions (where money is sent to someone to send them a threatening message) over recent years. Now it's sharing its machine learning code via GitHub to help other financial institutions do the same. Nice one, CBA.
The LG StanbyME is a very clever smart TV you can wheel to wherever you need it around the home. A 27-inch Full HD touch screen with webOS offering all the important streaming apps built-in. It rotates and tilts to suit your needs and just generally oozes cleverness. At $1,999 it feels like a high utility extra TV that is quite an alternative to sticking an iPad on the kitchen counter.
My relationship with Magic has been all about how much I like a set theme or not. There's so many sets these days it's hard to keep up with every release, but when the right set catches the eye I'm keen.
Wilds of Eldraine is one of those 'love this vibe' sets for me.
It's safest to assume you're about to be scammed online these days. For the less technical, it's hard to keep up with all the types of attacks you need to be wary of and what to watch out for.
Norton's "Phictionary" is a nice way to get an overview of what's what out there. Well worth a look and a share with family members you're worried about.
A fascinating look at the less obvious pop culture wars playing out online.
Aja Romano
Ever heard of Cuboro? These marble tracks made of beautifully machined wood blocks are amazing.
Sadly, they're wildly expensive so I'll just enjoy watching other people's fancy setups.
Valve pulled off a solid anti-cheat switcheroo that saw over 40,000 accounts banned for using a third-party cheating client. After fixing the cheat, Valve added a special honeypot to identify exactly who was running the cheat before dropping the hammer. Solid crackdownery.
Nicole Carpenter