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Light Start: Nintendo World opens soon, Santa plays a different tune, Samsung rumours make us swoon and Volvo makes cars and games commune.

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Super Nintendo World Theme Park has an opening date

It’s baffling to us how turning the myriad of worlds Nintendo has created into a theme park has taken this long. Fortunately, we won’t have to wait much longer for the gates of the Super Nintendo World Theme Park to properly open as it was announced this morning that the park will be open for business on 4 February 2021. That’s just two months before you can fly to Japan and race around a real Mario Kart course! Exciting!

The theme park itself has been constructed to mainly represent the Mushroom Kingdom, meaning you’ll probably be encountering plenty of Marios and Luigis while you’re walking from attraction to attraction. There’s a reconstructed version of Bowser’s Castle, the aforementioned Mario Kart circuit, a Mario themed café and even coins that can be collected for fun while roaming the park. It sounds like a hoot and a half so hopefully, we’ve managed to get this whole pandemic situation under control by then. Although two months might be pushing it a little close…

Source: IGN[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]

Samsung’s next wireless earbuds have been leaked

We were big fans of the Samsung Galaxy Buds Live when they dropped earlier this year. They offered some excellent sound, properly good noise cancelling and they looked… quirky, shall we say. As it turns out, that unconventional bean shape we liked so much might not be making a return as the design for the next range of Galaxy Buds has been leaked.

The leak comes out of Indonesia’s telecommunications certification authority which has a listing for a Galaxy Buds Pro. Doesn’t really tell us all that much but a source over at SamMobile has described these new earbuds as featuring a design that’s closer to the original Galaxy Buds rather than the Buds Live. They’ll also feature active noise cancellation and a better ambient mode. Whether this pans out to be correct remains to be seen; the Galaxy Buds Pro are probably a thing but whether or not they’re going back to an older design is the thing that might be worth being sceptical over.

Source: The Verge[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]

Fatman, a movie about Santa Claus fighting an assassin, sounds like our next favourite Christmas movie

Christmas movies are just such a saturated market right now. Hallmark is pumping out all kinds of drivel every single month so seeing something of an Anti-Christmas movie in Fatman is more than a little refreshing. It’s the kind of premise that’s so dumb it just works: Santa Clause has fallen on hard times and makes a deal with the US military which eventually results in a trained assassin wanting his head. Thus, the two are locked in a battle of wits (and guns, presumably).

According to initial reviews, it’s not an amazing film but it’s certainly fun. Really, what more can you expect from a movie with this kind of premise? Give the trailer a watch, it’s a really cut slice of hype. Fatman is streaming on Amazon Prime Video if you want to give it a watch.

Source: Ars Technica[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]

Volvo is using video games to make self-driving cars safer

Video games are good for more than your reflexes or hand-eye coordination. If you ask Volvo, they’re also really good at making cars a whole lot safer. Especially self-driving cars, that promise of the future that’s seemingly been around the corner for decades. Volvo has developed it’s own driving simulator, built using the latest gaming technology, to test and train its AI to ensure that it can handle more scenarios than could be constructed in reality.

The company is using a full-motion driving seat, a gaming steering wheel with haptic feedback, a VR headset and the whole simulation is built out of Unity, a game engine that’s been used to create some amazing games like Hollow Knight and Cuphead. Honestly, it’s just cool to see different industries melding together to improve one another. Hopefully, it helps make those self-driving cars all the safer.

Source: TNW[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

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