Dying Light 2: Stay Human, the hotly anticipated sequel to Techland’s brutal open-world zombie basher (or dodger, if you’re the timid type) was originally slated for release in December this year, just in time for the holiday season. Now, Techland has announced that it’s pushing that date out to February of next year.

Stay waiting for Stay Human

Techland CEO Pawel Marchewka shared the news and a personal message to fans on Dying Light 2: Stay Human’s official website. He explains that while the game is technically finished and currently in playtesting, he and his team think it needs some more time in the oven if they want it to launch in a state they will be happy with.

“[This] is by far the biggest and the most ambitious project we’ve ever done,” he says. “Unfortunately, we’ve realised for us to bring the game to the level we envision, we need more time to polish and optimize it.” 

“More time” specifically means about two months longer. The new release date is the 4th of February 2021.

“We are sorry to keep you all waiting a little longer, but we want the game to meet your highest expectations on release and we don’t want to compromise this,” Marchewka goes on to say.

All things considered, we’d rather endure a delay to ensure a finished product than face a buggy mess on launch day a little earlier. Two months isn’t all that long a wait either, to be honest.

Fortunately, anxious fans won’t have to wait too long for any new Stay Human content at all. Marchewka says Techland should release some “exciting news” sometime later this month. Next month they’ll also get to see influencers and press outlets get some hands-on experience with the game too, so fans won’t be starved for content.

Microsoft’s xCloud service — also known as Xbox Cloud Gaming — has been available on mobile devices for a while, available to Xbox insiders through the beta program and to a select few Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscribers through a browser on their PC. Yesterday, Microsoft announced that it would be bringing the feature to everyone else through the Xbox app on their Windows PC.

If you need a bit of a refresh on what xCloud can do, it’ll work similarly to how Google Stadia works (without the “negative latency” marketing garbage). If you don’t have a powerful enough system to run the games natively, you can effectively stream the games, like you would a Netflix show, to your PC.

Before you get your hopes up, South Africa isn’t on the list of supported countries yet, but that will hopefully change in the future. That isn’t to say that it’s completely unavailable to us here in SA. If you know your way around a VPN you might be able to use one of those, but that isn’t supported and you didn’t hear it from us.

Stream from your cloud or xCloud

If you already own one of Microsoft’s consoles, the company will allow you to stream your games to your Windows PC with a feature called Remote Play, presumably also through the app. This applies to the Xbox Series S|X and Xbox One.

You can stream it over your WiFi connection if you’re at home with your console or over the internet. Although obviously, the local WiFi connection will make for a much better experience than over the internet.

One wonders then if you’re at home with your Xbox, why not just play on the console? Maybe TV time is a premium in your house, in which case this could help.

The original Nintendo Switch console launched back in 2017, and since then gamers have had to rely on the 3.5 audio jack to blast that brilliant Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild score into their ears. Now, Ninty’s announced that it’s bringing Bluetooth audio output to its handheld for the first time via a software update. 

We’re not sure how the feature’s been missing for so long, and now it’s miraculously making its way to the consoles. While OG Switch owners have every right to celebrate, they should know that there are certain limitations to the functionality and it may feature some iffy connections initially. 

Switching to wireless… in 2021

Remember we’re working with tech from 2017 here, and the console is only equipped with Bluetooth 4.1 — that’s… four generations back. So don’t expect BT5.2 performance here. 

According to a Nintendo support page, users will only be able to connect up to two wireless controllers when using a wireless audio output device like a headset. It’ll also disconnect when you’re playing a local game. 

“Bluetooth audio will be disconnected during local communication, such as when starting a local wireless multiplayer game,” the statement reads. 

In addition to the above, Switch players will only be able to connect one audio device at a time, but the system will be able to remember up to 10 different audio devices. 

Another concession you’re making is that microphone input won’t work via Bluetooth at all — which kinda sucks for online multiplayer sessions. Users will have to turn to their old trusty wired earphones in this case. 

Source: Nintendo support via The Verge

A leak from Nvidia’s Geforce Now server has either revealed the next potential Sony PC ports or it’s just a random list or it’s somewhere in between. The point is no one has the answer except Nvidia and they’re not saying anything useful yet.

First seen on Github from a post by SteamDB creator Pavel Djundik, the list of 5,749 entries probably won’t make sense to a lot of people. But developer Ighor July found a similar, larger list while scratching around in the GeForce Now files with some interesting entries. If we were to speculate here, we had a couple of thoughts as to what it could be because some of them certainly look legit.

Did Nvidia make an oopsie?

With all those entries that list is definitely exhaustive. It includes a lot of different entries, from Adobe applications to PlayStation games that are not currently available on PC. Could this mean these games are coming to PC? God of War is among those titles, so we definitely hope so.

It helps a little that we know the list is real. Nvidia confirmed as much to The Verge but said the list was “used only for internal tracking and testing” and includes “speculative titles.” There’s no telling what Nvidia means by that. Do they think these games might come to PC, so they created entries for them ahead of time? That seems like a bit of a stretch.

After the massive success that the Horizon: Zero Dawn PC port received, it makes sense that Sony would want to do that again. Just last week, the Japanese company announced that the two most recent Uncharted games would be coming to PC in the Legacy of Thieves Collection. Death Stranding, Detroit: Become Human and Days Gone have also already been ported over. 

Alternatively, we might never get a God of War PC port and that was just some designer messing around in GeForce Now and with our hopes and dreams. 

While some people may argue that porting the games to PC diminishes the need for a PlayStation console and the exclusivity of Sony’s games, there’s no denying that this makes Sony more money. If that means we get more games, we’re okay with it. We’ll be in the God of War and The Last of Us PC port waiting room if you need anything.

Last night, Sony held its annual PlayStation Showcase event. This year it was virtual, no surprises there. Those of you who have been lucky enough to get your hands on a PlayStation 5 since its release have a lot of awesome new titles to look forward to. As for the rest of you, we suggest a dark corner where you can sit and cry. As great as restocks, are unless you’re smacking F5 63 times second, you’re still not getting one. Anyway, here are the games.

There were a few highly-anticipated titles shown off, a surprise or two and the omission of the next generation of PlayStation VR. Is that still even happening? If you want to watch the whole thing you can, or you could read our summary.

Fans have only been asking for this for over 10 years

We don’t want to sound dramatic or anything, but this was probably the best opening of any games event since the start of games events. Knights of the Old Republic is getting the next-gen remake treatment, built from the ground up for the PS5. The launch will be exclusive to PS5 to begin with but should also come out on PC before long.

A sequel was always going to happen

Insomniac has been hard at work on a sequel after the success of the studio’s first two Spider-Man games, Spider-Man and Spider-Man: Miles Morales. Spider-Man 2 is set for a 2023 release and will feature Venom.

But wait, there’s more…

One of the surprises of the night was that Insomniac is also working on a new standalone game, titled Wolverine. Three guesses as to who’s in it. It’s still very early in the development process so no date yet.

God of War vs other Gods

The highlight of the night, for us at least, was the trailer of the sequel to the acclaimed God of War reboot that launched on PS4 in 2018. Kratos is being a good guy for once and wants to stop Ragnarok or something. We also see Boy again. He’s older. 

Tiny Tina’s Wonderland gets a release date

Gearbox announced during the new gameplay trailer that the standalone Borderlands fantasy spinoff will be released on 25 March 2022. While this one is releasing on PlayStation, it’ll also be available on Xbox and PC.

Some info on the Forspoken story

If you’ve got a hankering for spellcasting, then definitely keep this one on your radar. The Forspoken story is fleshed out a bit more in this trailer. Gameplay looks like it’ll have a focus on fast-paced movement and spellcasting combat. You’re looking at a launch around Q3 next year.

Yet another remaster

We’ve known about the Alan Wake remaster one for a while, but now we finally know what it’ll look like with this new trailer from Remedy. The original game was never available on PlayStation, so this could be the first time for many PS fans.

Is this even news at this point?

Scholars have theorised that GTA V might very well be the definition of a cash cow. Rockstar is releasing yet another version of this game. Don’t get us wrong, it’s a great game. But do you know what would also be a great game? GTA 6, we hope. We’ve included the trailer, but you’ve almost definitely seen it before.

The next PlayStation exclusive to get a PC port

The two most recent Uncharted games, A Thief’s End and Lost Legacy are being remastered, which in itself is great. But that’s not even the best part. The remastered versions are also coming to PC early next year.

For when you need some vroom vroom

The latest entry in Sony’s Gran Turismo series, Gran Turismo 7, has a trailer and release date. If you’re a petrol head or racing enthusiast, you’ll want to check this one out. It’s out on the 22nd of March next year.

Lego might be the brick with a thousand uses but the company’s various partnerships, with Nintendo, Disney, Land Rover and pretty much anyone else who wants a licensed set, are more or less designed to suck money out of wallets and into Danish bank accounts.

It’s Ninty who has the most recent new set of constructible bricks for fans to marvel over — a new 2,064-piece Super Mario 64 Question Mark Block construction that a) looks like a Mario question mark block and b) conceals tiny little Mario 64 dioramas inside.

Any more questions, Nintendo?

Unlike other Nintendo sets from Lego, this one’s not a seriously detailed replica, nor does it have many interactive features. It’s just a large yellow block that contains reproductions of four iconic Super Mario 64 levels, that can be revealed or concealed depending on how you want to display the thing.

The levels themselves are really tiny, and include so-called microfigures of Mario, Peach, Yoshi and Lakitu that look like their namesakes if you squint a little. But at least they got Mario’s facial hair right. And you will obviously notice that someone at Lego was tasked with making sure that the number of pieces in this set ends in ’64’. Sure, it might be a coincidence, but since someone took the time to make sure that Lego’s Apollo 11 Saturn V rocket was made up of exactly 1,969 pieces (the year that particular mission was launched), that seems pretty unlikely.

The Super Mario 64 Question Mark Block set launches from 1 October this year, where it’ll cost $170 — or about R2,500 here at home.

Sony is acting like that partner your friends tell you to avoid. It says one thing but then, once you’ve got your hopes up, goes back on it almost immediately saying it was a one-time thing and now you’re overreacting, stop being so emotional why are you always like this your mother was right, I can’t even.

The company initially laid out a rather complex plan to only allow the higher costing deluxe preorder packages the ability to upgrade from the PS4 version to the PS5. There was no way to own the game on both consoles with the standard edition. This was met with significant backlash and Sony did an about-turn very quickly.

“It’s abundantly clear that the offerings we confirmed in our preorder kickoff missed the mark,” said PlayStation CEO Jim Ryan in a company blog post. So from that, we gather that it will now apply to the standard edition as well. But not for any other Sony games going forward.

No Sony, why u do this?

In an interview with The Washington Post last year, Ryan said Sony would, “have an upgrade path for PS4 users to get the PS5 versions for free. It’s about people having choice. I’m really quite pleased about the situation.” Well, now that’s changed a little. 

In the blog post, Ryan has now confirmed that going forward, “PlayStation first-party exclusive cross-gen titles (newly releasing on PS4 & PS5)–both digital and physical–will offer a $10 (R140) USD digital upgrade option from PS4 to PS5.” He specifically mentions the next God of War and Gran Turismo 7 games.

While paying more for games you already own leaves a weird taste in our mouths, at least now we’re all on the same page. That’s nice, at least. 

In an effort to curtail how much time young people spend playing video games, China has banned students from playing them during the school week and limits them to just one hour per day on Fridays, weekends and holidays.

The new rule took effect Sept. 1, 2021.

From my standpoint as a video game designer and scholar who specializes in game-based learning, I don’t see a need to limit video game play among students during the school week. Instead, I see a need to expand it – and to do so during the regular school day.

Video games are one of the most popular mediums of our times. One estimate shows that by 2025, the global gaming market will amount to US$268.8 billion annually – significantly higher than the $178 billion it is in 2021.

The money spent on gaming does not just facilitate a virtual escape from the real world. Scholars such as James Paul Gee, a longtime literacy professor, have repeatedly shown that video games can be used to facilitate learning in the K-12 classroom. Education writer Greg Toppo reached the same conclusion in his critically acclaimed book, “The Game Believes in You: How Digital Play Can Make Our Kids Smarter.”

A long history

The use of video games in the classroom is nothing new. Many people who went to school in the 1970s through the 1990s may recall the iconic video game The Oregon Trail, which made its debut in a classroom in 1971.

In the game, players lead a group of settlers across the Midwest following in the footsteps of Lewis and Clark. The game came just before the video game industry was established with the 1972 release of the video game Pong, an electronic version of table tennis.

Even though educational video games have been used in classrooms for 50 years – and despite the fact that research shows educational games can be effective – they are not that common in classrooms today.

Many educational games have been released since the days of The Oregon Trail. Some of the most popular are: Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego?,Math Blaster!, Zoombinis, iCivics, DragonBox Algebra and History Maker VR. Most games are for pre-K to elementary school students.

Here are five reasons why I think video games should be used in every classroom.

1. Video games can help students stay in STEM

In 2020, the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology found that the nation needs to create the STEM workforce of the future. One of the reasons students drop or switch out of science, technology, engineering and math programs is because of the difficulty of introductory courses such as calculus.

The University of Oklahoma has developed a calculus game that can help students succeed in calculus. Research has shown student mastery of calculus increases when using a purposeful designed learning game, such as Variant: Limits – another calculus game that was developed at Texas A&M University.

2. They provide experiential learning

Teaching students 21st-century skills, such as creative problem solving, is important for the future workforce, according to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development. Games such as DragonBox Algebra, where students solve math problems in a fantasy environment, can help students master skills such as critical thinking.

In games such as Civilization, players can be a civic leader and direct the prosperity of nations. In ARTé: Mecenas, learners can become members of the Medici family and become patrons of the arts and successful bankers. Students learn through doing and can gain skills and knowledge through experiential learning that might not be gained in traditional classrooms.

3. Players learn from failure

Games are a natural way to allow students to fail in a safe way, learn from failures and try again until they succeed.

Some games, like Burnout Paradise make failure fun. In the game, players can crash their cars – and the more spectacular the crash, the higher the points. This allows players to essentially learn from their mistakes, correct them and try again.

The late video game theorist and author Jesper Juul wrote in his book, “The Art of Failure,” that losing in video games is part of what makes games so engaging. Failing in a game makes the player feel inadequate, yet the player can immediately redeem themselves and improve their skills.

4. Students stay engaged in content

The average time a student spends learning in a classroom is only 60% of the allocated class time. Extending the school day to give students more time for learning has been shown to be only marginally effective. A more effective way to maximize time for learning is through engaged time on task. When students are interested and care about a topic and it is relevant, they are curious and engaged. This provides a much better learning experience.

In the classroom, teachers can engage students. But when it comes to homework, educators have to rely on other ways to motivate students. One way is through games. Educational games can be designed to improve motivation and engagement, providing students with more engaged time on task.

5. Games make complex knowledge fun

Educational theories state that students cannot be given knowledge; they construct knowledge in their own minds. Learners build on previously learned concepts to construct higher-level and more complex knowledge to make it their own.

The periodic table of elements is challenging to learn and remember for many students. However, learning a complex three-dimensional matrix with 27,624 values is easily accomplished by middle school students playing the popular video game Pokémon. The essence of the game is figuring out how to combine the 17 different types of attack when battling other Pokémon. Each Pokémon has one or two types of attacks they can use. Players do not learn the different possible combinations by studying a large table with 27,624 entries, but by playing the game. Through playing the game, students gradually construct deeper knowledge of the game and develop core skills, such as literacy, how to compete with grace and sportsmanship, and abstract thinking.

Pokémon was not developed as an educational game, but its design principles – and those of other popular video games – could easily be used to design video games for classrooms that enhance their educational experience.

• Andre Thomas is Director – LIVE lab and Associate Professor of the Practice, Texas A&M University
• This article first appeared on The Conversation