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We’re officially getting more of the Cult of the Lamb comic expansion. Following last year’s miniseries, which built on the game’s existing lore and injected some real emotional depth, writer Alex Paknadel and artist Troy Little are returning to the story of the Lamb and their followers in a one-shot 48-page issue that’s due out in the fall from Oni Press. Cult of the Lamb: Schism Special #1 will be available on October 29 for $8, with covers by Troy Little and Peach Momoko, alongside a foil variant for $10.

Schism Special picks up after the emotional events at the end of the first story arc. Per Oni Press:

In the aftermath of their first and closest follower’s sacrifice, Lamb continues the bloody quest to defeat the Bishops of the Old Faith, but they lack the conviction to tend their growing flock back at the cult. More potential followers are rescued by the day, but with no one to indoctrinate them, Lamb’s power stagnates and The One Who Waits becomes weary of his earthly vessel’s resistance to the full power and responsibility of the Red Crown. When famine strikes the cult, a challenger to Lamb’s mantle emerges, and a new struggle begins…

I genuinely can’t wait to dive back into this story (even though it broke my heart a little) after being pleasantly surprised by how good the comics turned out to be. They’ve done a great job so far of honoring the game’s tone, serving up both cuteness and brutality, and at this point, I’ll pretty much take all the Cult of the Lamb content I can get.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/the-cult-of-the-lamb-comic-is-coming-back-with-the-schism-special-this-fall-211027564.html?src=rss 

You might have to be extra careful who you buy your used Nintendo Switch game cards from if you don’t want to get mistakenly banned. A Nintendo Switch 2 owner posted on Reddit that they got banned after downloading patches for a few Switch game cards that were bought off Facebook Marketplace.

Reddit user dmanthey said they inserted each game into their Switch 2 to patch, but found out that their online services were restricted the day after. The Switch 2 user contacted Nintendo support and discovered they were banned, but provided proof of purchase and was unbanned shortly after. The Redditor said the “whole process was painless and fluid,” but this reactionary banning protocol may be an alarming precedent for anyone looking to save a few dollars by buying used games. 

To understand why this happened, it’s important to note that Nintendo attaches unique codes to its Switch game cartridges to prevent piracy. However, bad actors can copy games onto a third-party device, like the MIG Flash, and then resell the physical game card. Once Nintendo detects two instances of its unique code being online at the same time, it will ban any accounts using it. Anyone pirating Nintendo’s software understands this is a potential consequence, but it would come as an annoying surprise to oblivious second-hand buyers. After proving they bought the Switch games, Redditor dmanthey said they were told the cartridges were fine and even able to be resold.

This anti-piracy policy isn’t new — Nintendo has long had a reputation for fiercely combating any type of piracy – but it has become relevant again thanks to the recently released Switch 2, which offers backwards compatibility with original Switch titles. The company even recently amended its user agreement to allow itself the power to brick a Nintendo Switch that’s caught running pirated games or mods.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/nintendo/nintendo-reportedly-bans-switch-2-user-playing-preowned-game-cards-192452163.html?src=rss 

If you can’t get your hands on the latest Nintendo Switch 2, you might be able to keep the FOMO at bay in the meantime with a clever mod for your Switch Lite. Retro Remake’s co-founder, Taki Udon, posted a video showing off a working version of the SUPER5 OLED Touch HDMI mod. As the lengthy name suggests, this third-party mod adds an OLED display, a glass touchscreen and HDMI output to the Switch Lite.

The Nintendo Switch 2 is barely a month old so it’s too early to expect any news on a Switch Lite successor. However, the Retro Remake’s mod adds some crucial upgrades to Nintendo’s handheld that was released in 2019 and gives us some idea of what a next-gen version could look like. Notably, it’s a no-solder mod that mostly only requires connecting cables and can output 1080p HDMI video to a larger screen than the Switch Lite’s 5.5-inch LCD touchscreen.

Retro Remake previously offered a SUPER5 OLED Touch mod, which lacked the HDMI feature. Adding the extra feature proved to be a serious challenge, according to the company’s co-founder, who said the project took “18 months of R&D, just as many failed revisions, and more than $200K in costs.”

“I can’t describe how soul-crushing it was to go through so many failed revisions,” Taki Udon wrote on X. “After the third failure, I was hopeful every subsequent version would be successful, but they weren’t.”

Testing is still underway for the SUPER5 OLED Touch HDMI upgrade kit, but the latest post shows that the Switch Lite mod playing Mario Kart on a larger display. Retro Remake’s HDMI upgrade kits start at $90, but are currently sold out on its website. According to an email sent out to preorder customers, the company is unsure of when it will ship these kits out.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/nintendo/this-hdmi-mod-lets-you-play-nintendo-switch-lite-on-a-big-screen-164625907.html?src=rss 

Meta has finalized the agreement to purchase Play AI, a startup based in California providing users with an AI voice cloning tool, according to Bloomberg. The news organization says the “entire PlayAI team” is joining Meta next week, based on the internal memo it has seen. After joining the company, the team will be working under Johan Schalkwyk, who used to oversee speech AI research for Google and who was also a recent hire from another voice AI startup. 

PlayAI’s tool can clone a user’s voice and can generate new human-like voices, which can be used on websites, apps and phones. Meta reportedly noted in its memo that the PlayAI team’s work is a “great match” for its own work and roadmap across various products, including Meta AI, its AI Characters and its wearables. The company has confirmed the acquisition to Bloomberg, but it didn’t reveal how much it paid for the deal. 

Mark Zuckerberg has been personally involved in building a team for the company’s new AI Superintelligence lab over the past months with the aim of developing artificial intelligence smarter than humans. In June, Meta finalized a $14.3 billion investment in Scale AI in exchange for hiring its CEO, Alexandr Wang, who will serve as the new lab’ head. Scale AI is a startup, which labels data that its clients can use for AI training. 

Meta has reportedly been offering $100 million bonuses to employees of rival companies to get them to jump ship. Reuters listed several employees it had poached from competitors so far, including the co-creators of OpenAI’s ChatGPT and GPT-4 models, as well as people who worked on Google Gemini. Bloomberg also previously reported that Apple had lost its top AI executive in charge of developing its advanced AI features to Meta. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/meta-reportedly-closes-deal-to-buy-ai-voice-replicator-playai-160037942.html?src=rss 

Welcome to our latest roundup of indie game news and releases. We’ve got some nifty stuff lined up for you this time around, including a stylish co-op shooter and a very cool Metroidvania concept. But first I’d like to bring your attention to a newish game I picked up in the Steam Summer Sale. It is absolutely breaking my brain — or perhaps it might actually improve my cognitive function.

It’s called Ambidextro and it’s from Majorariatto, which self-published the game (the two-person studio’s tagline is “Video games that ruin lives”). The gist here is that you play a wizard sent by a queen to rescue her children after a witch kidnaps them and takes them to two different places. Rather than let him try to find the princess and prince one at a time, the queen bisects the wizard and orders him to the dungeons until he learns to control both halves of his body simultaneously. That’s where you come in.

There are 100 single-screen levels in Ambidextro and you complete them by controlling each half of the wizard at the same time. One with the left thumbstick and the jump button of your choice, and one with the right. The aim is to bring the two halves of the wizard together. The timer doesn’t leave much room for error and when one half dies, it’s back to the start. Sure, you could cheat by getting a friend to control one of the wizard halves, but that defeats the purpose.

I am a truly horrible multitasker, so I was curious how well I’d do at playing Ambidextro. As it turns out, I got through the first 19 levels fairly quickly, and then I was absolutely rotten at it. Granting myself more time through the accessibility settings helped a bit, but it’s still a tough game. I’m going to stick with it to see if I can get better. There’s no way it could be as difficult as simultaneously playing two characters in Overcooked by myself. Now, that’s impossible.

New releases

Mycopunk is a co-op shooter from developer Pigeons at Play and publisher Devolver Digital that arrived in early access on Steam this week. With a Moebius-style look that reminds me a bit of Sable, the fantastic Rollerdrome and the Borderlands series, Mycopunk is certainly eye-catching. 

You can team up with three friends and play as robots that have been hired to eradicate a fungus that’s infected a valuable world. Each of the robots has their own moveset and class, but (as in the Borderlands games) there’s a great deal of variety and customization when it comes to the weaponry.

Inscryption showed what’s possible when you inject horror into a card-based game, and perhaps that was an influence for Occlude, which is out now on Steam. This is billed as a “game of occult Solitaire.” Sure, you’ll arrange cards by numerical rank, but it seems there’s more going on here than might first meet the eye. As the title suggests, the rules are somewhat obscured in this narrative puzzle title from Tributary Games and publisher Pantaloon. Can you figure ’em out?

Everdeep Aurora is an interesting-looking game from Ysbryd Games that landed on Steam and Nintendo Switch this week. This NES-inspired 2D adventure reminds me a little of Animal Well in terms of its tone and look. You play as a cat named Shell who drills down to search for her missing mother amid a meteor shower that has wrecked the planet’s surface. There’s a mix of platforming and exploration here. Everdeep Aurora looks rather pretty and the trailer made me smile. I’m hoping to play it at some point down the line.

Upcoming

I do love a side-scrolling beat-’em-up and Ra Ra Boom is absolutely one of those. This project from Gylee Games features four ninja cheerleaders from outer space who are trying to save Earth from a rogue AI. This is a co-op game for up to four players. Each of the cheerleaders has their own attacks and abilities (including ranged weapons), as well as a skill tree that you can use to unlock new ones.

I’ve played a chunk of Ra Ra Boom and I’m enjoying it quite a bit so far. It looks and sounds nice, and the combat is just the right level of challenging for me up to this point. If you dig games like the Streets of Rage series and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge, you might be interested in checking this out. A two-level demo is available on Steam now. Ra Ra Boom is coming to Steam, Epic Games Store, Xbox and PS5 on August 12.

Rhythm of Resistance is a Metroidvania that has a very interesting mechanic. It’s a rhythm-based game (no points for guessing that after reading its title), but there’s a catch — you can pick the music. For instance, you can switch to a track with a lower BPM to make a trap easier to bypass. You can find new songs that can distort reality “in strange and surprising ways” while you’re on your journey in this game from NetherMoon Game Studio, which is slated to arrive on Steam next year.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/a-stylish-shooter-occult-solitaire-and-other-new-indie-games-worth-checking-out-110019324.html?src=rss