The Morning After: Thursday, June 15th 2017
E3 continues and 'Minecraft' is looking great.
Hey, good morning! You look fabulous.
A beautiful Minecraft? The return of Beyond Good and Evil? A Firefox browser that can challenge the speed of Chrome? What's happening?! Thursday's Morning After still has a lot of important E3 news to deliver, but Facebook also made a bot that can lie for the sake of a bargain.
'Minecraft' looks like a completely different game in 4K
The best demonstration of the Xbox One X's 4K capabilities comes from an unlikely, blocky source: Minecraft. Behind closed doors at E3 2017, Microsoft showed off a handful of games it upgraded to 4K just for the Xbox One X, including Gears of War 4, but Mojang's cube-based crafting game clearly gets the most drastic upgrade.
Razer's Blade Stealth packs a larger display into a familiar frame
While the Razer Blade Stealth is a solid laptop, that 12.5-inch display isn't for everyone. The company is setting things right, though. A new version of the Stealth stuffs a 13.3-inch, 3,200 x 1,800 touchscreen into a similar body. Yes, the system is slightly heavier (2.93 pounds versus 2.84), but you're still getting that half-inch thickness and a claimed nine hours of battery life. The most conspicuous change is the US option for a gunmetal gray color (shown below) with a much subtler logo on the lid. Meaning, you won't have to explain Razer's bright green touches at your next business meeting.
Firefox finally unveils its faster, more memory-efficient browser
Years after its competitors added multiple process tech that sped things up and reduced memory usage, Mozilla has finally implemented the technology in Firefox. That means version 54 is more efficient than its predecessors, and according to VP Nick Nguyen "make better use of the hardware on your computer, so Firefox can deliver you more of the web ... with less waiting." He even claimed that it uses "significantly less RAM than other browsers on Windows 10, macOS and Linux" -- is that enough for you to switch back?
Engadget editors prove skill is not necessary to enjoy 'Gran Turismo Sport;
There's video evidence.
'Super Mario Odyssey' may look bizarre, but it feels just right
Super Mario Odyssey is an evolution on the now classic open-exploration platforming of Sunshine and Mario 64. Just like in those games, players have free reign to wander around myriad unique and interesting worlds, choosing if and when they want to continue the game's story by hunting down collectibles and completing challenges. The difference here, on Mario's true Switch debut, lies in the worlds Mario explores. They are much, much more vast -- and often wildly different in style to one another.
The ambition of 'Beyond Good and Evil 2' might exceed the hype
Arguably the biggest surprise of E3 2017 was a minute-long trailer teasing a game that barely seems recognizable to the original Beyond Good and Evil. But even the anticipated return of the cult hit might not match the vision that director Michel Ancel and his team has for the sequel. Ancel himself outlines what we can expect from the return of the quirky game.
Netflix has more US customers than the cable companies
Netflix has more US customers than the cable companies
According to Leichtman Research, Netflix's 50 million US subscribers make it bigger than all the major cable TV providers combined (estimated at 48 million or so). That doesn't include the 30 million-plus and growing number who get their TV from satellite (or internet TV, of course), but it's still an impressive mark.
'Shadow of the Colossus' was rebuilt from the ground up for PS4
According to Shuhei Yoshida, when SotC comes to your PS4, the only thing that will remain of the original is its core gameplay. Everything else has been revisited and recreated for high-res gaming.
