GameCenter - Issue 70 - 11

IT'S-A ME,
LEGO MARIO!

SONY UNVEILS PLAYSTATION 5 SPECS,
DUALSENSE CONTROLLER
Sony finally unveiled the PlayStation 5's
technical details in full, as well as its new
DualSense controller.
The CPU powering the PlayStation 5 will
be an AMD Zen 2 with 8 cores, 16 threads,
and a variable frequency of up to 3.5 GHz,
and its AMD RDNA 2 GPU will allow for
raytracing. These specs-along with its
16 GB GDDR6 system memory-are pretty
much identical to those of the Xbox Series
X, though the PS5's
10.3 teraflops do fall
just slightly short
of the Xbox's 12
teraflops.
However, where
the PS5 does shine
is in its SSD. While
its storage capacities are slightly under
1 TB, weighing in at 825 GB, its read
bandwidth clocks in at a blistering speed
of 5.5 GB/s raw. Practically speaking, this
means that the PS5's loading times will
be as close to nonexistent as possible on
a console, with faster asset retrieval than
ever before. Like its competitor, the PS5
will be compatible with 4K 120Hz TVs and
8K TVs utilizing HDMI 2.1 for even less
input latency.

Audio is another aspect that Sony is
focusing on with the PS5. Touting a new
Tempest 3D AudioTech custom engine,
the PS5 is targeting the most realistic and
immersive sound output you've ever heard
on a console.
One area where Sony is trying to pick
up the slack is with its backward compatibility offerings. Lead system architect Mark
Cerny stated that the PlayStation team is
tracking its top 100
most-played PlayStation 4 games for
backward compatibility with the PS5.
However, platform
planning and
management SVP
Hideaki Nishino later clarified this by stating that "the overwhelming majority of the
4,000+ PS4 titles will be playable on PS5"
with "higher or more stable frame rates
and potentially higher resolutions."
Finally, Sony revealed the DualSense
controller. Its curvy, wider design is different from traditional PlayStation controllers,
but it offers a ton of interesting features
like a built-in microphone, a new Create button (details forthcoming), haptic
feedback for more realistic rumble, and
adaptive triggers that make the tension in
the shoulder buttons correlate with what's
happening on the screen.
The DualSense controller will launch
with the PS5 during the 2020 holiday
season.

Two of the top names in entertaining
everyone from the young to the young
at heart are Nintendo and LEGO. Now,
the two companies are coming together
for a new project that mixes the world's
most famous brick smasher with the
world's most popular brick builders.
LEGO Super Mario is a new line of
LEGO sets created around Mario and
his adventures in the Mushroom Kingdom. Kicking off with the Mario Starter
Course, these sets will let you recreate
famous scenes from the Super Mario
Bros. series in real life using a wide
variety of LEGO.

Sony revealed the
DualSense controller. Its
curvy, wider design is
different from traditional
PlayStation controllers.

may/june 2020

Beyond the pieces themselves, there
will also be a deeper technological level
to the LEGO Super Mario sets. Mario
himself, for example, will feature LCD
screens that animate his eyes, mouth,
and belly, allowing him to react to or
interact with the playsets. A free LEGO
Super Mario smartphone app will be
available to enhance the sets as well,
offering more advanced building guides
and suggesting "other creative ways to
build and play."
LEGO Super Mario will launch on August 1, so find out how to get your own
Mario Starter Course set on Walmart.com
or at your local Walmart store.

http://www.Walmart.com

GameCenter - Issue 70

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of GameCenter - Issue 70