Your JungleDrums host, AcuteJungle66, is joined by Gimboid and SergeantJay to delve into this week’s latest tech and gaming news. Stalker 2 is back in development, Microsoft announces their Adaptive Controller, Net Neutrality is still under threat, Battlefield V is most certainly a thing, and more!
- Stalker 2 was originally announced back in 2010, with a projected release date of 2012. As we know, the game was unfortunately cancelled, but fast forward to 2018 and GSC Game World has announced that the sequel is being worked on. This eagerly anticipated comeback is expected to arrive in 2021, and fans of the series will be rejoicing at the prospect of a true sequel made with a modern game engine. I may just have to fire up the original as well as the follow-ups.
- Microsoft has officially announced (following a leak earlier in the week) a new Xbox controller that is designed for people with limited mobility. The controller was designed in collaboration with charities such as Warfighter Engaged, The AbleGamers Charity, and several others. Microsoft has been working on this particular controller for years, and it appears that the Xbox Adaptive Controller is only the first step along their journey of inclusive design; so it will be interesting to see what they develop next. More details will be shared during E3, but it will likely be sold exclusively through the Microsoft Store for around $100 U.S.
- Hot on the tail of the 2nd Gen Ryzen CPUs, the next iteration of Threadripper is already being sampled and should be available to all partners. AMD has listed three processors, which will likely have the same core count as their predecessors and use a similar naming/numbering scheme albeit belonging to the 2000 series (so, 2900X/2920X/2950X). Whilst it is too early to tell whether the performance increase will be significant or not, as they will be using the 12nm fabrication process they should certainly run faster and more efficiently than the 1st generation.
- It has been several months since we last discussed Net Neutrality, but once again it is in the news this week. The first step toward overturning the FCC’s repeal of net neutrality was successful, as the U.S. Senate voted 52-47 to restore the regulations. Whilst this is a great victory, this was just one battle and the war itself rages on. The bill still needs to be approved by the House of Representatives, which does not look too promising; and of course even if it did pass, the President could veto it. Considering the President appointed Ajit Pai, well I think we can speculate on the potential outcome.
- Every other week there seems to be some new sob-or horror-story concerning YouTube. This particular article discusses, at length, some of the issues that some of the automation the site uses can cause. Regardless of how you feel about the Content ID system that YouTube uses, the prospect of ‘losing your job’ for 90 days due to an algorithm is certainly unsettling.
- It is official, the name of the next Battlefield game is Battlefield V, and will be revealed on May 23rd. Just a couple of weeks ago, we were discussing whether it will have a Battle Royale mode or not (it is worth noting we called it Battlefield V already back then); whilst we are still none the wiser, hopefully the reveal next week will at least inform us of the setting. My money is on the WWII era, let us know in Discord or on Reddit what you think it will be.
About JungleDrums:
JungleDrums is a weekly news show run by Scholarly Gamers’ Content Coordinator, AcuteJungle66. Topics discussed in the show focus heavily on gaming, highlights, streams, and tech, but will typically hover around hot-button topics of the week. Joining AcuteJungle66 are a rotating selection of guests, ranging from friends and those interested in the topic at hand, fellow Scholarly Gamers, or members of raiding parties from gaming staples of his such as Destiny 2, The Division, Rainbow Six Siege, or Monster Hunter: World
