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Despelote is a living memory. Julián Cordero, the game's co-creator, invites players to spend a few hours in the city of Quito, Ecuador, in the early 2000s, and experience a nationwide soccer fever from the perspective of his own childhood. Wrapped in layers of static and shadow, Despelote follows an 8-year-old Cordero as he interacts with his family, attends school and kicks a ball around with friends. Pivotal national events, revealed in news reports and overheard conversations, color the game's runtime. But its focus remains squarely on Cordero's experience a charmingly self-centered child viewing the world from hip height. In Despelote, its the summer of 2001 and Ecuador is on the verge of qualifying for its first-ever World Cup, which has created a soccer frenzy across the country. Soccer is a storytelling mechanic in Despelote, as Cordero runs around Quito kicking a ball, playing a FIFA-style video game, watching World Cup matches on TV and generally annoying his neighbors. Using actual recordings from Quito, Despelote captures intimate conversations, inside jokes and everyday chatter among Corderos friends and family members (in Spanish, obviously, with translations provided in speech bubbles). The games environments are built out of photographs of Quito that have been stylized to mimic the way memories feel single-color, fuzzy backgrounds with people and important objects outlined in crisp black and white. Actual footage of the Ecuador team making its World Cup run plays out on in-game TVs, and youre able to sit and watch an entire match on a small, staticky screen, if you wish. These true-to-life elements ground the game in reality, while visual flourishes make everything seem like a daydream, and the combination of styles is hypnotic. Transitions come in the form of nearly imperceptible camera zooms and slowly blurring environments, and at every turn, theres space to luxuriate in the simple activity of being a kid. The games mechanics are intuitive flick the right stick to kick the ball; hold any trigger to run; press any button to interact; look down to check your watch so you can get home on time and this simplicity helps Quito come alive. Poignant moments of magical surrealism cut through the flow like memories inside of memories, providing glimpses into Corderos future as a teenager and Ecuadors evolution as a country. These scenes appear just enough to provide a sense of tension and context without breaking the immersion of the childhood memories. Panic There isnt much in terms of a moment-to-moment storyline here, but Despelote effortlessly builds a sense of place and self with each new vignette. Its night and Cordero is sitting in the back of the family van, idly listening to his parents conversation and drawing shapes in the window fog. His mom stands in front of the television and tries to pull his attention away from the video game hes playing, exasperated. His younger sister asks him to draw a frog. A grumpy neighbor steals the ball that Cordero and his friends are playing with, so they start kicking around an empty bottle instead. These are the building blocks of Corderos childhood, and while theyre deeply specific, theyre also highly relatable. Despelote is a study in the beauty of mundanity. I havent played many games like Despelote. Im tempted to say Ive never played anything like it, that this is the first true memoir in video game form, but of course thats not entirely accurate. Games like That Dragon, Cancer and Dys4ia offer similar glimpses into their creators lives, and theyre similarly vulnerable and grounded. Theyre also examinations of moments of acute pain and while stories about trauma compose a substantial and valuable portion of the memoir market, theres room for Despelote's slower, lighter reflection in this genre. Despelote is a stellar addition in the category of memoir video games, proving that a thoughtful rumination on one persons childhood can translate into a powerful interactive experience. The key, as always, is authenticity. Panic Cordero breaks the fourth wall at the end of Despelote in a way that feels completely natural. The style of the game changes in an instant and Cordero narrates the scene, talking about how he and co-creator Sebastián Valbuena traveled to Quito to collect Despelotes audio and location data. He discusses the fickle nature of memory and clarifies some of the games timelines. He says he really just wanted to get it right. He wanted players to understand the magic of this moment in Ecuadors history, when soccer was everything, and he was just a kid. I believe he succeeded. Despelote is available now on Steam, PlayStation 4, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S, published by Panic. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/despelote-review-a-poignant-memoir-masquerading-as-a-soccer-game-124526276.html?src=rss
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Apple has updated its App Store guidelines to comply with the orders of a California court, which required the company to immediately stop collecting commissions on purchases that weren't paid through the App Store. As noticed by 9to5Mac, the most prominent change in the guidelines states that there are now no prohibitions on "buttons, external links, or other calls to action that direct customers to purchasing mechanisms other than in-app purchase," as long as it's for an app on the US storefront. Further, developers don't have to request for an entitlement from Apple to be able to offer external link purchases on apps for the United States storefront anymore. In the section stating that certain applications, such as reader apps and apps that sell goods and services, cannot encourage users to opt for third-party purchasing methods in-app, Apple added that the prohibition doesn't apply to apps on the US store. "The App Review Guidelines have been updated for compliance with a United States court decision regarding buttons, external links, and other calls to action in apps," Apple said in a statement. These changes come as a result of a recent ruling by Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, who found that Apple violated her 2021 ruling for Epic Games' lawsuit against Apple. Back then, she ordered Apple to allow developers to direct users to other payment systems that would let them avoid paying the company a 30 percent cut. However, Apple still took a 27 percent cut from external purchases, prompting Epic Games to accuse the company of non-compliance in a new legal filing last year. Apple also showed users a "scare screen" when they try to make external purchases, discouraging them from using third-party payment systems. In addition to ordering Apple to stop collecting fees from purchases made outside the App Store, Gonzalez Rogers also prohibited Apple from creating rules that would prevent developers from presenting customers with buttons and links for external payments In response, Epic chief Tim Sweeney announced that Fortnite will be coming back to iOS next week. He also said that the video game company will bring back Fortnite on iOS for everyone and will drop all litigation regarding the issue if Apple adopts the no-commission policy worldwide, but that doesn't seem to be the case for now. Other companies are now also looking to roll out updates that would allow them to bypass Apple's commission for external payments. One of them is Spotify, which announced that it had already submitted an update that would allow customers in the US to pay outside the App Store. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apps/apple-updates-its-app-store-guidelines-to-allow-external-payment-options-123039994.html?src=rss
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Microsoft has teased a new Surface Copilot+ PC set to be revealed on May 6th, the company announced on X. "Something new is coming find out next week," the post states. The new model(s) will be revealed nearly two weeks before the company's Build 2025 developer conference. That appears to be a change from last year when the company kicked off its Build 2024 event by launching two new Surface Copilot+ PCs the day before. The rumor mill has it that Microsoft is working on a smaller 11- or 12-inch Surface Pro to directly compete with Apple's 11-inch iPad Pro. It may also be working on a Surface laptop with a Snapdragon X processor. Earlier this year, the company unveiled the new Intel-equipped Surface Pro (11th Edition) and Surface Laptop (7th Edition) for Business. It's not clear whether Microsoft will hold an event to announce the new machines or just issue a press release. It also begs the question as to what hardware (if any) the company will announce at Build 2025. That conference kicks off on May 19 and is expected to be heavily focused on AI. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/computing/laptops/microsoft-surface-team-has-something-new-coming-next-week-121507230.html?src=rss
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