Nintendo's Animal Crossing Switch is still more than a month away, but that isn't stopping the gaming giant from teasing would-be buyers. It recently posted an unboxing video that shows you what to expect if you pick up the special edition console. There aren't too many surprises, although it helps point out little touches like the color-matching Joy-Con straps and the ever-so-slightly textured pattern on the back of the system. This probably won't convince you to buy the Switch if you weren't already inclined, but it could whet your appetite if you were just waiting for Tom Nook and crew to reach the hybrid system before jumping in.
There are some caveats attached. North American and European buyers shouldn't have to worry about the coronavirus outbreak affecting their orders, but March 13th is still relatively distant. And that's assuming that stores haven't run out of pre-orders by the time you read this. There's also some not-so-small print mentioning that this doesn't include the Animal Crossing: New Horizons game. If you're going to show your devotion, you'll have to pay another $60 for the title itself on top of the $300 for the matching hardware.
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Foldable phones, at least for the moment, are significantly more fragile than more common types of smartphones. The screens are plastic to allow folding, not glass, and the gap between the screen and phone body can allow dirt to get inside — something Samsung learned very quickly with the first batch of Galaxy Folds. We already have a general idea of how durable the Motorola Razr is, but now Zack from JerryRigEverything has given us a better picture.
The video doesn't start out particularly well, with the screen scratching very easily. The rest of the phone fares better, with most of the other components covered in metal and glass. The fingerprint sensor even still works after being scratched and dented.
Zack later tries pushing sand and rubble into the middle screen gap, and even though the sound of the display opening makes me physically recoil like I'm watching Scott's Tots, the display continues to work. Pocket sand can't hurt the Razr (at least within a few minutes).
Finally comes the bend test, where Zack tries to fold the phone backwards. Surprisingly, the Razer never snaps in half, even with immense pressure and rubble inside the mechanical components. The screen is eventually pulled out of its retaining brackets, though.
The video seems to paint the Razer in a positive light; I certainly didn't expect the touchscreen to continue functioning after dirt was shoved underneath the display. Let's hope the Galaxy Z Flip is just as (or more) durable.
We could be just around a month away from the official announcement of Apple’s long-rumored iPhone 9. Ahead of that unveil, rumors continue to circle around the device’s pricing and how it will fit into Apple’s lineup. This week, a new report from Fast Company corroborates that the iPhone 9 price will start at $399.
iPhone 9 price:
Reliable Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo had previously predicted that the iPhone 9 will start at $399, following the precedent set by the iPhone SE in 2016. Fast Company’s report this week doubles down on that starting price, citing its own sources near the iPhone supply chain.
The iPhone SE was positioned at the low-end of Apple’s iPhone lineup, starting at $399 with 16GB of storage. It was unique at the time for offering specifications of the then-modern iPhone lineup, but in a smaller form factor. Apple now appears to be mimicking that strategy this year with the rumored iPhone 9.
The iPhone 9 is expected to feature a 4.7-inch display, which is bigger than the iPhone SE, but smaller than the flagship iPhone 11 lineup. It’s also expected to be powered by Apple’s latest A13 processor, which guarantees iOS updates for many years down the line. In terms of design, we expect an iPhone 8-style body with Touch ID.
For that $399 iPhone 9 starting price, Kuo has predicted that you’ll get 64GB of storage. For comparison’s sake, Apple still sells the 64GB iPhone 8 for $449. Essentially, the iPhone 9 will get improved performance and the same amount of storage, but for $50 cheaper. This week’s report from Fast Company doesn’t detail storage capacities.
What’s Apple’s logic behind the iPhone 9? With its new focus on Services, such as Apple Arcade and Apple TV+, Apple has a major incentive to keep as many iPhone users on the latest version of iOS as possible. An iPhone 9 priced at $399 could be a major incentive for those still using devices like iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus to upgrade to a device capable of running iOS 13.
Enlarge/ Look at everything that comes in the box. It's mostly plastic and neoprene.
Welcome to Ars Cardboard, our weekend look at tabletop games! Check out our complete board gaming coverage at cardboard.arstechnica.com.
Locating the perfect tabletop MOBA is a bit like looking for a unicorn. It simply doesn’t exist and no amount of begging or fist clenching will make it appear. While the “multiplayer online battle arena” genre remains popular in the digital realm, it seems impossible to nail its feel in cardboard form. Perhaps that’s why Chip Theory Games elected to go in a different direction with Cloudspire, drawing not just from MOBA games but also real-time strategy and tower defense as well.
DOTACraft?
Little cardboard can be found in this enormous box. Units are thick poker chips, while the game’s surface is neoprene tiles that interlock to form randomized configurations. The sheer quantity of stuff in the box attempts to justify its high price tag while threatening to make you throw out your back if you don’t lift with your legs. By the end of Cloudspire’s three-hour playtime, plastic discs will be scattered about the table as if a slot machine exploded.
There is a lot going on here. The various factions to explore include warrior birds, the cast of Avatar, Groot’s family tree, and a group of bearded men, because of course. These disparate cultures are warring over a bountiful resource that has been discovered in floating islands named Cloudspires.
The structure of play is as hodge-podge as the game’s warring factions. The MOBA genre is an easy comparison, as a lot of time is spent pushing stacks of minions along a path toward your opponent’s base. Freedom of maneuvering is limited for the majority of troops, although your selection of heroes has more autonomy. Strategy intersects with tactics as you determine the deployment formation, the line order of your processional army, and whether you group troops to protect certain valuable units.
Game details
Designer: Josh J. Carlson, Adam Carlson, Josh Wielgus Publisher: Chip Theory Games Players: 1-4 Age: 13+ Playing time: 120-180 minutes Price: $129.95 (Direct from Chip Theory)
But calling Cloudspire a mere MOBA would be lazy. The game draws equally from the real-time strategy genre. You can purchase upgrades and new technologies, unlock new units to field, and even plop down defensive towers across various choke points on the map.
The game also draws a bit on tower defense. This style of play is made explicit through the round structure. Instead of a constant, mindless creep, your various troops are unleashed in waves which mark the four distinct rounds of play. Tempo escalates as players alternate between purchasing upgrades and the lengthier Onslaught phase. Eventually, troops push through defensive lines and start bashing the castle walls.
The moments where you break away from the battling to assess your growth and potential as a faction—these are the sweetest spots to be found in the game. You’re afforded time to breathe and reassess your direction as new powers are unlocked. Placing a little plastic peg into your neoprene faction mat and gaining some bonkers new ability is delightful. It’s a shame that the bulk of play actually comes from executing the rote movement and attacks that are better relegated to processors whizzing away behind the curtain.
Upgrading your faction with new powers.
A closeup of units moving across the battlefield.
The game's "Onslaught" phase.
Even the storage for this game is nice.
One of the game's factions. This is not for the faint of heart!
How many players?
Cloudspire provides a mountain of additional features and mechanisms to explore. You can alter terrain on the map, you can explore many different vectors within your faction, and you can battle the neutral units littering the island. Yet I could never quite shake the feeling that the best bits of gameplay take place largely in scattered moments throughout the game.
This problem is most severely felt with three or four players, when game length drags. As dozens of units dot the field, you must juggle tiny stat lines printed on the surface of the chips. As you’re struggling to formulate your own strategy, you need to pass the various faction references around simply to understand their capabilities. The whole thing is simply too much to internalize over your first several plays, and you will have to be content in simply getting a small glimpse of the greater picture. Frustration lands as often as satisfaction; Cloudspire doesn’t always feel like it respects your time and effort.
Fortunately, the head-to-head format is much more personal. The field is narrowed and, with the burden lessened, there’s a stronger sense of control and agency. You can focus on exploring the depths of your faction instead of reeling from constant external surprises. This is where the game begins to show its potential.
That potential is most fully realized in the solo format. With a full suite of 16 solitaire scenarios, the game takes on a more narrative bent. The story of Cloudspire unfolds in a beautiful and gripping way. Each scenario functions as a puzzle, throwing scripted challenges your way with the goal of prodding your strategic thought to a certain solution. Some challenges require a specific style of play in order to best them, while others allow a little more freedom. Because of this, you will likely not want to replay a specific scenario once you’ve conquered it, and the design’s solution to this issue is to throw quantity your way. (The game even includes eight two-player cooperative missions against the built-in artificial intelligence.)
It comes as no surprise that this mode, along with other Chip Theory Games releases, was designed from the ground up as a solo endeavor. This isn’t to say the multiplayer format is slapped on, but it certainly feels as though the breadth of the system is stretched a good mile beyond its limits. As complexity collides with complexity, you will question whether there’s legitimate depth to plumb here—or whether it’s all just busy work to keep your noggin spinning. When you lower the player count and the Onslaught phase becomes leaner, these larger issues turn into minor quibbles and the fun is more discernible.
Those seeking an incredibly rich solitaire experience will find a fiercely dedicated product in Cloudspire. Its content is endless, particularly when you consider the game length, and the creativity of each faction warrants dozens of hours of exploration. While the definitive tabletop MOBA doesn’t yet exist, Chip Theory can still be proud of its creative output and outstanding physical product.
As we count down the last few days before Samsung’s Unpacked event Tuesday, here’s yet another Galaxy Z Flip leak that hopefully will help hold you over in the meantime.
As shared by Engadget on Friday, a tipster revealed photos purportedly showing the company’s newest take on a foldable phone. Now, considering that plenty of renders and even a brief video claiming to be a hands-on with the Galaxy Z Flip have already surfaced, a few new pictures may not seem like much of a big deal. But they do appear to clear up a few rumors, including what a monster of a phone this guy is.
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Photo: Engadget
For starters, that crease. Good lordy, that crease. It wasn’t as visible in that previous video I mentioned—likely since the device in question appeared to be a sort of engineering sample—but in these new pics, it’s pretty dang hard to miss. In all fairness, though, it’s a bugbear that, to date, no other company in this foldable phone race has quite conquered. And the presence of a crease, while unsightly, may have little to say about the phone’s durability: Rumor has it that Samsung’s opted for extra-thin glass instead of a plastic film for the Galaxy Z Flip’s screen.
The company’s relying on a verticle hinge this time around, unlike the horizontal one used with its Galaxy Fold. So the Galaxy Z Flip folds out like a traditional flip phone, similar to Motorola’s rebooted Razr, except really, really long. Earlier leaks have suggested its screen clocks in at 6.7 inches, and these new images only further underline that the Galaxy Z Flip is one tall boy.
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As noted by Engadget, the phone’s 22:9 aspect ratio is clearly visible in pictures where it’s opened. When closed, it appears to boast a dual-lens camera and external display for quickly scanning notifications and whatnot.
There’s no word yet on any official release, though some rumors have suggested it may go on sale in a few regions on Valentine’s Day priced around $1,400. A solid chunk of change, but still cheaper than Motorola’s new Razr. And, hopefully, the Galaxy Z Flip will avoid the same headaches and hiccups that have plagued the Razr’s debut so far. Between postponing the phone’s official release, hedging expectations with warnings about the screen’s “bumps and lumps,” and publically feuding with CNET over the outlet’s drop test, Motorola has been having a capital “T” time so far with its 2000s throwback.
The first thing you’ll probably notice is how slowly and surely Motorola’s robot flips that screen open and closed — you’ll only see them fold six times in this video. More importantly, Motorola’s bot doesn’t put any pressure on the hinge itself. It’s a gentle, bar-shaped hand nudging the screen open, and a second hand flipping it closed.
The reason that’s important is because CNET didn’t actually wind up destroying the Razr’s folding OLED screen — the publication wound up damaging the hinge, and it’s not clear whether that hinge damage was the result of CNET’s machine (borrowed from SquareTrade) being improperly designed or calibrated, or because there’s actually a flaw with the hinge in Motorola’s handset.
Motorola, of course, claims that CNET’s machine is the one to blame. Here’s a statement that Motorola sent us alongside the video link:
SquareTrade’s FoldBot is simply not designed to test our device. Therefore, any tests run utilizing this machine will put undue stress on the hinge and not allow the phone to open and close as intended, making the test inaccurate. The important thing to remember is that razr underwent extensive cycle endurance testing during product development, and CNET’s test is not indicative of what consumers will experience when using razr in the real-world. We have every confidence in the durability of razr.
But I have a hard time thinking that Motorola’s robot test tells us much more than CNET’s did. Even if the SquareTrade robot may have put too much stress on the hinge, Motorola seems to avoid stressing the hinge at all, and I’d imagine the reality would be somewhere between. A real human being could put some stress on the hinge — not to mention tossing it in pockets alongside dirt and debris.
It’s worth remembering that Samsung’s original Galaxy Fold needed to be redesigned partly because dust could get inside the hinge and damage the display, even though we’d seen Samsung’s robots fold it many times before, and after the company had felt comfortable enough to claim it would “outlast 200,000 folds,” or roughly five years of use at 100 folds a day.
And it’s not a great sign of confidence that you can’t yet find the Razr in stores, or that the company didn’t broadly seed it with reviewers ahead of launch day, or that — although Motorola says the phone’s screen should last at least two years — it says that “lumps and bumps” might be a normal thing to expect.
