Steam is not currently available on Chromebooks, but following a rise in popularity in devices using the OS, it seems like it soon will be, according to a recent google community post. This means some users could see an alpha test for steam show up on their devices.

Valve have been riding high recently, with the huge success of the steam deck. It launched last month, and has been such a hit that it has seemingly exceeded valves expectations. As for the steam platform itself, in 2021 it grew by 31 million users. All this is down to the accessibility of the service, combined with its huge library of games and frequent sales.

Meanwhile google appear to be pulling out of gaming after the disastrous launch of Stadia and its recent rebranding to google Stream. However in its place they have recently stated they are working with valve to bring the steam platform to the Chrome OS. In the recent “Google for Games Developer Summit”, google reps stated that steam had launched into alpha on the device, although this was later clarified as being an “alpha quality” version of steam to come to select Chromebooks soon. 

While this is vague, google did also recently post a list of supported Chromebook models for steam, which are:

• Acer Chromebook 514
• Acer Chromebook 515
• Acer Chromebook Spin 713
• ASUS Chromebook Flip CX5
• ASUS Chromebook CX9
• Elemi – HP Pro c640 G2 Chromebook
• Lindar (unreleased Lenovo Chromebook)

There was also a release of some minimum specs, such as an 11th gen I5/I7 Processor and over 7GB of ram, which means that for some time steam will probably be limited to higher end devices. However google is reportedly testing steam on 10th gen and AMD processors already, suggesting that they may soon extend the program to lower end devices

Meanwhile recent rumors have suggested Valve may be considering a Subscription style service similar to Xbox Game Pass. Alongside this there are some other games from valve reportedly in development, such as “Citadel”, a rumored halflife universe game, as well as a followup to Half Life Alyx and a Port of Counter Strike Global Offensive to the source 2 engine.

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Good news everyone! Our multi-billionaire corporate overlords are adding policies to REDUCE privacy-invading tracking. Grandpa Google, Father Facebook, Auntie Amazon, all is forgiven!

Specifically, Google is limiting the sharing of user data with third parties across different applications. Altruistic wholesomeness out of the kindness of their own heart or shrewd attempt to increase value of it’s own data collection? You be the judge.

Apple has enacted similar changes with it’s app store, though Mama Meta would get a little nervous, claiming it could cost the company $10 billion in revenue. Thank God the folks at Meta turned out to be wrong, some good news followed the policy enactment… Meta lost $232 billion from their market cap that day! A 26% loss! … I didn’t say it was good news for them.

On a brighter note (for Facebook this time), they seem on much better terms with Google’s use of these policies based on Graham Mudd’s statements on Twitter (VP of product marketing at Facebook). Google has also admitted the existing agreements regarding technologies will last for 2 years, likely to allow more preparation time for the various parent companies of different platforms.

“[It is] encouraging to see this long-term, collaborative approach to privacy-protective personalized advertising from Google […] We look forward to continued work with them and the industry on privacy-enhancing tech through industry groups”. – Graham Mudd: Vice president of product marketing, ads and business.

Google’s super computer collaboration with Nvidia has also lead to suggestions that data collection may not be as necessary with regards to research purposes.

What are the results or upcoming effects? Well, in spite of my earlier flippancy and joy at The Hashtag Big Tech Masterminds taking a little financial blow, the new policies unfortunately mean third parties and smaller start-up businesses (LIKE US) also somewhat lose out on better advertising opportunities to customers, which means fewer avenues of financial success.

The card-carrying commie in me is saying “okay, then let’s eat the rich and radically distribute ourselves like a Mario Party mechanic”! On the other hand, that would only work if whoever gets their hands on that money doesn’t end up defaulting to a “greed is good” mindset once the greenback starts flowing… In other news, we live in a society!

Voucher Codes:

The post Google and Facebook! Policy Changes + VOUCHERS first appeared on Get2Gaming.

Anyone out here looking for a bit of gaming on their LG Smart TV? No? There’s got to be someone out there surely. Well if you are, and you happen to be reading this article, well then you’re in for a treat! News has just come in that the Google Stadia cloud gaming service is available on LG smart TVs running webOS 5.0 or webOS 6.0. That’s just the news you want to be hearing if you recently took advantage of those TV Black Friday deals!

According to reports, the Stadia app will be available to download from the LG Content store in the US and 21 other countries. This is much bigger news than it seems too, as gamers will have access to more than 200 games without having to plug a device into their TV. Not only this, but you won’t even have to downloaded gigabytes of data first. You know what, fair enough, maybe I haven’t given this the credit it deserves, that’s pretty amazing!

Obviously, you’ll still need a controller, but thats the only piece of equipment it looks like. With only a £10 subscription charge, you can play more than 30 games with no additional charges. Moreover, the app will support 4K HDR and graphics hitting 60 fps. This is exactly what any gamer wants to hear isn’t it?

No Need For Google Chromecast With Stadia Introduction

Have we got your attention now then? It’s certainly got mine! Might have to go out and buy an LG TV as soon as possible now. If you’re still not entirely sold, wait till you hear this.

Due to the fact Stadia can stream games directly on your LG TV, this’ll mean you won’t need additional devices like Chromecast. As such, you could potentially be saving loads of your hard earned cash. What’s not to love about that?

Additionally, it seems that playing through the LG TV you won’t suffer from as much lag. This i because they have easily accessible Ethernet ports for you to keep games going smoothly. Obviously, this’ll come in very handy when in those late night sessions which becomes periods of frustration when the game starts to slow down.

If you want to know what else Stadia works with, well we’ve got you covered for that too! The app functions on Chromecast Ultra, the new Chromecast with Google TV, NVIDIA Shield TV and Shield TV Pro, One FHD Streaming Stick, Philips Android TVs, the TCL 5-Series and 6-Series, the Xiaomi Mibox 3 and Mibox 4, and the Hisense U7G, U8G, and U9G.

So there we have it! As previously mentioned, I certainly underestimated how impressive this all is. We wonder if there will be any of this years game of the year nominees available on the app. Similarly, make sure to visit our store to check out the ones which you can purchase right away!

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The post Google Stadia Cloud Gaming Now On LG Smart TV’s first appeared on Get2Gaming.

You know those times when Google switches up it’s search engine logo along with some kinda theme? Like when you could click a play button on it to be transported to a JRPG-style minigame selection in celebration of Japan’s Olympics? That’s Google Doodle, and the next one is apparently harder than Don Giovanni on a warm summer day.

If you thought Pizzagate was weird, get a load of this!

https://twitter.com/GoogleDoodles/status/1467720483932094469?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1467720483932094469%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fmashable.com%2Farticle%2Fgoogle-doodle-pizza-game

The aim of the game is to go chippity-choppity for a specific number of pizza slices with a limited number of cuts available to you. Then things progress when you have to get specific toppings on certain slices, etc etc.

Why pizza? Turns out that on this day in 2007, ‘the culinary art of Neapolitan ‘Pizzaiuolo’ was inscribed on the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity’.

Why am I covering this? Because I have this weird fetish that makes me want to do something fun to distract from all the horrible stuff in the game industry I’ve covered from alleged nonces in charge of PlayStation to literally everything Activision Blizzard has been up to! Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to play a children’s minigame, so I may be able to give you all a lightly funny review of it!

That was a little underwhelming. It’s hard to get a perfect 3 stars on all the tasks, I’ll give it that, but you can scrape by on one-star random hacky-slashies without really having to worry about failure… EUREKA! I’VE GOT IT! I’m going to try and see if the game has a failure state! I’ll try drawing up teeny tiny itsy bitsy little crust slices and see how that goes!

Okay, so you CAN fail in the game! Let’s see, what else can I fudge around with? The game sure is making me hungry with all that pizza talk! The piano music is quite nice. Very smooth, contemplative, but also rhythmic with those little samba-shakey sounds. Maybe I’ll try making a Pizza rap out of it!

Side tangent before I go on, have a looksie at my colleague’s blog on Venba, an upcoming (or possibly already out) story-based cooking game on PC. Think a mashup of Cooking Mama (psst! which we have!) and Spiritfarer.

Well… I discovered a new method of torturing war criminals. Just tell them to try and rap to an oddly-specific piano instrumental to a Google Doodle game and the self-inflicted cringe will be so much that they’ll spill the beans on everything!

Broke: Waterboarding. Woke: Cringe-torture!

Before you head off, we’ve got lots of non Google related deals and voucher codes available, so get em while they’re hot. But like, hot in the fun way, not the illegal way… I mean, sometimes hot can be fun in the illegal way if you’re talking about the 50+ countries that make being LGBT a crime, but- STOLEN, the initial joke was meant to be stolen! No, I didn’t steal the joke Brenda, I was talking about the first sentence of- Nevermind, ROLL IN THE AD!

The post The Dark Souls of Minigames: Google Doodle first appeared on Get2Gaming.

Alright mother *fffff*Final Fantasy fans! Let’s get stuck in!

The “Tragic” Backstory: Final Fantasy VII: First Soldier is Square Enix’s upcoming foray into the world of Battle Royale gaming via the App Store and Google Play. Players will Square (Enix) off against 75 players, going live at 3am on November 17th, but the game is available for download TODAY so you’re on time for the opening event!

The game will also allow for mobile controller support, some of which you can get here at Go2Games like the Razer Mobile Gaming Controller, the Power A MOGA XP5-X Plus and more. We’ve also got Final Fantasy VIII Remastered for just £13.99 if you feel like experiencing the legendary fable of The Final Fantasy Flex Jacket!

Also, if you think it’s impossible for me to naturally go from discussing a release date, to the nature of addiction in live-service games, to endorsing a video on the economics of Animal Crossing, then you can have a butcher’s hook right here.

For a peak at the game’s opening cutscene, click here.

Square Enix confirmed that it crossed 2,000,000 pre-registrations so all players get the Shinra Helicopter skin when servers go live.

Fun Features:
A training mode for any newbies and ‘n00bz’ that need a helping hand to “git guud” (pardon my Lothric).

Controller support.

A ‘revamped’ tutorial. As opposed to the ‘unvamped’, ‘prevamped’ and ‘post-vamped’ tutorials, I assume.

Ninja style gameplay for the weeb-master extraordinaires among us.

The ability to trade collectible monster pieces for items.

Fire up your Shintranet and Shinrattach your Shreddit Card to your in-game account to purchase Shinra Credit Sets. These function similarly to optional purchases in Fortnite and Apex Legends.

My Thoughts:

I haven’t played Final Fantasy VII First Soldier yet, but based on the trailers I’ve seen so far, it looks very fun gameplay-wise! My only gripe is that the game is on mobiles first and is seemingly staying that way, which rubs me in the ever so slightly less comfortable way because I prefer the feel of a curvaceous controller or a nice chunky D(-Pad). Otherwise, while the gameplay looks good, it will basically live and die on how comfortable the player is with the control scheme itself.

As for Final Fantasy as a whole, I’ve only played a little of the Final Fantasy VII Remake, but I am aware of the game’s impact on the wider JRPG scene and how influential it is. I also highly recommend giving the Final Fantasy and Metal Gear Solid reviews by Jeremy Jahns over on YouTube. He specializes in film reviews, so a little something for everyone… Also, I’d kill a small village to have that man’s beard, I mean-

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The post Final Fantasy First Soldier: Release, New Skin and More first appeared on Get2Gaming.

That’s right folks, between the Minecraft storymodes (psst, we got some cool Minecrafterooneys here), that one Carmen Sandiego special, Bandersnatch and the League of Legends adaptation Arcane (more on that here), Netflix states plans to make games accessible for the App Store and IOS. For a little catch-up, we have some backstory on Netflix’s own recent gaming service for Android users.

There may be some push-back, as tech reporter for Bloomberg Mark Gurman has pointed out the App Store’s primary policy being against letting third-party companies make their own gaming hubs in the store. And don’t even get me started on the Fortnite-Chinese store debacle or the play store legalese that became the impetus for a 1984-style ad on the topic by Epic Games.

Xbox Cloud Gaming, Nvidia GeForce Now, and Google Stadia have also tried (and currently failed) to appeal to Apple, but as of yet, the only way way these services have gotten to work is via Cloud-based gaming services, like how Facebook (possibly soon to be Meta) has a bunch of accessible mini-games of varying quality you can play with friends on Messenger. I like Words with Friends and the basketball hoopy-shooty-woosh-dunkery one.

Gurman has gone on to state that despite Netflix’s games being playable via the in-app login, it can’t be downloaded from the app itself. You’ll have to get it from the app store first, then log into Netflix. For Android games, Netflix’s gaming system functions this way for the Google Play Store.

“Apple will need to change its rules or grant Netflix an exemption” […] “That leaves the ultimate success of Netflix’s service in the hands of Apple, a longtime partner but also a growing rival.” – Mark Gurman

The Funtime Netflix Recommendation Hole: Because I’ve heard many a sad tale from friends of mine complaining they ran out of stuff to watch on Netflix, so here’s some recommendations for anyone using Netflix UK, or anyone who’s international and uses Nord VPN or the like.

1. White Tiger (Netflix Original): A shrewd young man from a poor family uses his wit and intellect to rise to incredible wealth. A darkly funny and emotionally raw exploration of class struggles and inequalities. Think Wolf of Wallstreet but double the wolf (or tiger rather) and half the Wallstreet.
2. Inside Job (Netflix Original): What if every single majorly insane conspiracy theory (besides the Flat-Earther’s) was real and kept under wraps by a corrupt government? Boom! Quirky adult sitcom fun times written and produced by Gravity Falls creators Shion Takeuchi and Alex Hirsch! I especially liked the episode parodying James Bond that also acted as a critique of toxic masculinity and incel culture. For a breakdown on the Incel crowd, have a butcher’s at the video by Contrapoints on the topic.
3. Om Shanti Om: My very first Bollywood experience and a welcomed one! You know how a lot of JoJo fans (myself occasionally included) point to all the weird wacky plot points without context in a non-sequitur jokey way which leads to a “you gotta see it to believe it” method of encouragement? Om Shanti is basically THAT for Bollywood, so I won’t go too in-depth on the plot, but I will say it is a hilarious and beautiful watch alone or with friends. Overcome the one-inch-high barrier that is subtitles and you’re in for a world of fun.

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The post Netflix Plans for App Store and IOS Games + Recommendations first appeared on Get2Gaming.

Google has revealed that its Autumn hardware event will be held on October 19th at 6pm BST.

The company has already shared some details regarding the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro, including the visual designs. Google announced in August that Tensor, the first system-on-chip it designed, will debut on these new devices. The SoC will power the Pixel 6’s AI-heavy features, such as speech recognition and on-device live captions and translation.

The new models come with significant camera upgrades. The Pixel 6’s camera will allow approximately 150 percent more light in than previous models, and the Pro will also have 4x optical zoom and an additional telephoto option. The new chip, Tensor, will supposedly enhance the phones’ photo processing capabilities too.

Google claimed that a full battery will provide for a day’s usage, but did not give information on exactly how many hours a ‘day’ constitutes.

Both the 6 and 6 Pro will be 5G compatible.

Android 12 is set to be the most significant update to the Android operating system in years.

A few new handy features are dropping with this update.

Monet

Google has created a new theme engine code-named “monet”. Monet generates a palette of pastel colors derived from the user’s wallpaper. These colors are then applied to various parts of the system and their values are made available through an API that the user’s applications can call, thus letting apps decide whether they want to recolor their UI. It looks to be a very aesthetically pleasing update, and perhaps serves as a more efficient alternative to manually customising widgets and application icons.

Scrolling screenshots

Android 12 finally adds a highly requested feature: scrolling screenshots. With this feature, you can take a screenshot of a full scrolling page, without needing to take and combine a confusing series of screenshots. This feature won’t work in every application, but it should work most of the time. It’ll certainly be handy for screenshotting web pages or conversations.

One-handed mode

This will lower the top of your screen so that you can reach the top with your thumb and interact with your phone one-handed. To be honest, I just prefer to use a phone that I can reach the top of with my thumb at any time, but this will be a handy edition for those who want accessibility plus a larger screen for reading & watching videos.

Game dashboard

With the new game dashboard, you get quick access to useful tools like an FPS meter and screen recorder that can be accessed in-game through a floating button. You can also change the device’s performance profile on a per-game basis, stream live to YouTube, or check up on your achievements in Play Games from the dashboard.

Privacy dashboard

This new feature lets you see how often apps request the most sensitive permissions. You will be able to view a timeline of usage for permissions like location, camera, and microphone. From here, you can easily manage which apps have access to sensitive permissions.

Whenever an app is accessing your phone’s camera or microphone, you’ll see an indicator in the status bar. New toggles let you cut off access to the camera and microphone, preventing any app from using them.

Conversations widget

Do you have a contact you frequently talk to? Android 12’s new Conversations widget lets you see their latest message or status update, right from your home screen.

This is just a small selection of some of the new Android 12 features, and of course you can expect the Google Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro to take full advantage of them all.

We still lack some key information on the new phones, for example, how many CPU and GPU cores there are and how much RAM the devices boast. All will surely be revealed at the event this month.

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Before you go: grab these voucher codes for use at Go2Games!
These offers end on October 18th

Use HARVEST5 for 5% off Monster Harvest!
Use WRC10 for 10% off WRC10 on all platforms!

3 days to go…

The post Google Pixel 6 launch event on October 19th first appeared on Get2Gaming.

Using your phone as a controller now possible with Google Stadia

Google has revealed a new feature Google has added “Phone Link” to Stadia, allowing you to play games using your smartphone as a gamepad on Android TV devices, your Chromecast, and through a web browser. Previously, Stadia required that you have a dedicated Stadia controller to play games using the service; you can use the phone link to connect a third-party gamepad. These include Xbox and PlayStation controllers that can be connected through Bluetooth, wifi, or USB via the Phone Link accessory.

To connect and utilize this is simple, the “controller” icon has to be pressed in the Stadia app, and “Phone touch gamepad” would then be connected. Tapping this will launch a new menu that confirms that you can use your phone as a virtual controller to play on any screen. To utilize this fully, one would have to use the same Wi-fi network to operate this within a local server.

Stadia’s “bridge mode” is very helpful in this instance. The game streaming platform will immediately recognize any controllers connected to your smartphone via Bluetooth or wired connection. Once connected, the controls on the screen disappear and you will have gaming access for your phone; with this, “Playing on TV” is shown on the screen.

You can use your phone as a bridge to connect unsupported controllers to your TV for playing. With Phone Link utilized, you can connect third-party controllers to your smartphone and then have those controllers work when playing on your TV.

YouTube channel 9to5Google has outlined much of its setup here:

Using your phone screen as a controller may not work for many 3D games due to the lack of tactile controls. This means it lacks the precision of an actual gamepad. But, if you don’t have enough controllers for a multiplayer experience, it is a useful tool.

Stadia’s “Phone Link” tool is available to use now.

The post Google Stadia’s new “Phone Link” feature turns your smartphone into a controller first appeared on Get2Gaming.

“Remember: stay groovy.”

The Discord music bot Groovy is coming to the end of its life, following a cease-and-desist order by Youtube. The creator of the widely popular music bot, Nik Ammerlan, has agreed to shut it down on August 30th.

For those who do not know, Groovy is effectively a tool for adding background tunes to a chat room; Groovy worked by pulling audio directly from YouTube videos, joining voice calls, and playing music queued up by users.

It was extremely prevalent, having been installed on over 16 million servers. However, it seems Google wasn’t as keen on the bot. A spokesperson for the company told The Verge that Groovy violated YouTube’s terms of service for “modifying the service and using it for commercial purposes”.

Ammerlan admitted that this was a long-time coming as Groovy circumvents YouTube’s front-end and advertising entirely. He stated, “I’m not sure why they decided to send it [a cease and desist] now… They probably just didn’t know about it, to be honest. It was just a matter of seeing when it would happen.”

Groovy’s pending removal is a stark reminder of Discord’s immense popularity. Valued at over £10 billion, it’s probably the biggest messaging app in the world, one that’s long since diverged from its gaming roots. When a bot becomes popular for ripping music onto a platform that large, people pay attention. As Ammerlan said, it is a surprise that it has taken YouTube this long to act.

In an announcement on the official Groovy server, Ammerlaan wrote: “I want to thank each and every one of you for using Groovy. You all had a part in shaping it into what it is today. I hope you all have a wonderful day and remember: stay groovy.”

Go2Games has been nominated for two separate awards (by the Croydon Awards) for our efforts in our community. The first award is for community collaboration in response to Covid-19, and the second, for Covid-19 business commitment to education, training, and skills. Any votes from our fellow Go2Gamers would mean the world to us. You can click on the above links for more information on the individual awards and to vote.

We also have various sales going on at the moment. Use the following discount codes on the items within their partnered URLs:

Use BACK2SCHOOL – For 5% off all Pixie Crew stock!

https://www.go2games.com/back-2-school-g2g

Use MOON10 – For 10% off Harvest Moon: One World (Switch)

https://www.go2games.com/g2g-harvest-moon-one-world-nintendo-switch-plus-key-ring

**Ends Sept 3rd 2021**

Use CODMW5 – For 5% off COD Modern Warfare (Xbox One)

https://www.go2games.com/call-of-duty-modern-warfare-xbox-one

**Ends Sept 3rd 2021**

Use TOON5 – For 5% off Splatoon 2 (Switch)

https://www.go2games.com/cl-splatoon-2-nintendo-switch

**Ends Sept 3rd 2021**

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The post Discord’s Music Bot Groovy Is Facing The Death Penalty first appeared on Get2Gaming.

Starting this week, new YouTube Premium members can get access to a 3 month free trial for Google’s gaming platform

Google is trying to convince more people to subscribe to their YouTube Premium service by tying in a new incentive for gamers.

The technology giants are offering 3 months free to all Youtube Premium subscribers for their subscriber gaming platform, Stadia Pro. Users will be able to have access to all the games available on the gaming platform, two months longer than Stadia’s own free trial.

Stadia Pro

New YouTube Premium subscribers will be able to claim this offer until January 31st 2022 and have until February 14th 2022 to redeem it.

There are a few catches to this deal, of course, noted in Google’s fine print.

If you cancel the subscription at any time, you will lose the games you claimed access to with your Stadia Pro subscription and any add-on or expansion content you have purchased or claimed for those games, however, if you re-subscribe all this content will be restored.

The offer is only available in the following countries:

• Canada
• France
• Germany
• Hungary
• Netherlands
• Norway
• Poland
• Romania
• Spain
• Sweden
• Switzerland
• United States
• United Kingdom

It is worth noting that having Stadia Pro gives users the benefits of a game library and higher resolution video quality for the games that are available to stream. At the moment, some of the games available to stream on Stadia Pro include the classic games Hitman and Killer Queen Black, along with the indie game Floor Kids and Little Nightmares 2. Newer releases tend to be only available to purchase outright, yet Stadia Pro subscribers receive discounts too.

Go2Games are up for awards! If you enjoy our content, please find some time to vote for us here and here!

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The post Stadia: Youtube Premium Subcribers Get 3 Month Free Trial first appeared on Get2Gaming.