Monday
Jun062022

Say goodbye to the original Wordle game

There's now only one Wordle game that exists. The New York Times Games announced in a tweet that game creator Josh Wardle's website will no longer host a playable version of the megahit word-guessing game. The game will fully migrate to the New York Times page starting on June 9, 2022. NYT bought Wordle for an undisclosed seven-figure amount, promising then that the game would "initially remain free." There isn't any word yet on what changes will happen now that the switch is almost completed. If you still haven't been able to port your Wordle streak data from the old site to NYT's page, tech writer Seth Michael Larson made a tool that makes the switch easier.

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Monday
Jun062022

'Diablo Immortal' seems unplayable on some Exynos-powered Samsungs

Art: Blizzard Entertainment / NetEase

Blizzard's Diablo Immortal has been about four years in the making. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to be working for a subset of users. On some devices using Samsung's own Exynos chipsets, the game is unplayable, with most complaining about textures not loading correctly. In a Reddit comment, a Blizzard spokesperson said that they are exploring the issues" and "For now, we may disable downloads for this set of devices while we work to address this. Apologies on this and we will be working on getting a fix up and ready as soon as possible."

Affected handsets include older Galaxy devices like the S10, Note 10, and A51 5G—even some S22 users have complained, though. But if you have a Qualcomm-powered version of the phone, you can download the game without any issues. If you're unsure what chipset your Samsung is running on, head to About Phone in your Settings menu.

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Sunday
Jun052022

Groot gets animated series on Disney+ this August

Poster: Marvel Studios

Groot is getting his own animated series on Disney+ with the aptly named I Am Groot. The animated shorts will hit the streaming service on August 10, with Baby Groot played by Vin Diesel. Marvel Studios teased the series in a tweet with an official poster of the cute anthropomorphic sapling chilling on a blanket and leaning against Peter Quill/Starlord's iconic Walkman while he's listening to music on headphones with what we assume is a mocktail complete with a tiny umbrella. He's lying beside a palm tree-shaped air freshener, reminding us how small he is, with two four-eyed, penguin-like creatures peeking out.

We don't know much else about this animated short series, but Marvel vaguely describes it as "following Baby Groot's glory days growing up, and getting into trouble among the stars." It's also unclear if the other Guardians will show up. For now, we can only speculate from the poster what will happen. The Verge pointed out that this series will be the first original Guardians of the Galaxy spinoff, but it isn't the last. A live-action Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special will be streaming exclusively on Disney+ in December.

Sunday
Jun052022

Sega announces new mini Mega Drive in Japan

We're getting a new entry in the mini-console space. This time, Sega introduces a new miniature Mega Drive (also known as the Sega Genesis). The Mega Drive 2 will have both cartridge games and titles from a Mega CD add-on. This tiny console gets 50 built-in games, including titles like Shining Force CDSonic the Hedgehog CD, and Virtua Racing. The downside to this new product is it's been announced in Japan only, at least for now. It's expected to launch on October 27 for 9,980 yen (around CA$96).

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