Pokémon X and Y released to the world this past weekend, and Game Freak has already bestowed an event Pokémon — Torchic — upon the gaming masses. Rather than pop into your local game store (like so many Pokémon giveaways of years past), Torchic can be obtained from the comfort of your own room. This time, you don’t have to take a break from your quest to catch ‘em all so you can put on pants and venture out into a public setting to get your prize. However, collecting your Torchic is still not as simple as it sounds.

The distribution event runs from October 12, 2013 to January 15, 2014. The only thing you’ll need to obtain the Pokémon is an internet connection. Perhaps the most confusing part of collecting your free Torchic is that you can’t do it from within the game proper, and have to exit to the main menu. From there, it’s still not quite smooth sailing.

From the main menu, select Mystery Gift. Then, select Receive Gift, followed by Get Via Internet. At this point, a Torchic will make your handheld device temporarily adorable.

That “received” is a bit misleading, though, as you still don’t have a Torchic in your possession, but there’s only one more hoop through which to jump.

Now, load your game, and go to any Pokémon Center. Talk to the delivery girl waiting next to the resting station, and she’ll give you the Torchic.

Torchic comes with two abilities, Blaze and Speed Boost. Blaze increases Torchic’s Fire power when the critter is below one-third of its hit points, while Speed Boost automatically increases the creature’s speed by one step each turn the Pokémon is in battle (excluding the turn it is switched into the fight).

What’s special about this event Torchic, though, is that it comes equipped with a Blazikenite. This item allows a final Mega Evolution — a mechanic new to the series — to Mega Blaziken. The Blazikenite cannot be obtained through normal gameplay, so this event is the easiest way to get ahold of the item.

It’s also worth noting that, if you’re planning on getting the event Torchic, that it’s a Fire type. So, you may not want to choose Fennekin as your starter, as that’s also a Fire type.

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Nintendo confused and excited the world by taking their Game Boy, adding a screen, and folding it in a half almost ten years ago. For some reason, their decision to remove the hinge and ditch 3D in exchange for a smaller overall device has not been so widely appreciated. I decided to take a closer look at Nintendo’s2DS and see exactly what was going on.

At first glance, the 2DS’ wedge design is more than a little awkward. The buttons are up higher on the console, removing that cradled feel as the corners of the console are seated in the center of your palms. Instead what you get is an arguably more comfortable resting position between your index and middle fingers, as the thicker part of the wedge rests so you can firmly grip the console. Reaching the buttons is just as easy in this position, while the placement of the stylus makes removal and use one fluid motion.

It certainly seems counter-intuitive to consider this a better design for the DS, but the 2DS really is quite comfortable to hold even if you prefer 3DS XL’s larger design. (Read: 2DS vs 3DS vs 3DS XL.)

Since there’s no hinge and the 2DS can’t fold in half, this design isn’t exactly pocketable. I’d argue that the most commonly sold accessory for the DS line happens to be a protective case which makes the console just as pocket-unfriendly as the 2DS, but at least you have the option. While we’ve not seen the inside of the 2DS yet, it feels like Nintendo deployed some of their child-friendly tricks from the Wii U gamepad to make this design capable of surviving a drop or two without any problems.

Outside of the physical shape, there was an actual purpose to the hinge closing for most users, which was the sleep function that quickly suspended activity during gameplay so you could go do something else. This feature still exists, but now it is a standalone sleep toggle on the bottom edge of the 2DS. Flick the switch and the system will be suspended, just as though you’d closed the system.

Despite technically being just a single screen under the plastic, the 2DS still very much feels like two different displays. The touch panel on the bottom is just as responsive as the other consoles, and there’s no quality difference in brightness or color that was obvious in comparing the three models to each other. One thing worth noting that could cause an issue in the future for 2DS users is the Home button. It rests right on the lip of the display, and if you press it too hard you can see bottom of the touch display flex a little. This isn’t a dealbreaker by any means, but it is clearly a weak point in the design that should be taken into consideration during use.

Everything on the software end of the console feels exactly the same, only with no 3D. This doesn’t stop you from capturing 3D images to send to friends that do have 3D variants, through the two cameras on the back of the device, but you won’t ever see the effect for yourself on the 2DS. Given how few games in the past year have truly taken advantage of 3D on the DS consoles, most notably the recent Pokemon X and Y release, there’s not a lot lost here.

At $129, unless you absolutely must have the larger screens offered by the 3DS XL, this is clearly the DS to buy. It’s got a nice look to it, and it’s very comfortable to hold and play. Nintendo may not be causing massive waves with this release, but the console is clearly a well-designed product and a very positive step for parents looking to get a new DS for their kids this holiday season.

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Last week the new model of the PS Vita went on sale in Japan. There’s a lot to recommend the PCH-2000 over the PCH-1000. It’s 20 percent thinner and 15 percent lighter, battery life has been extended by an hour, and there’s 1GB of on board memory so you don’t need to purchase a memory card immediately. The addition of a micro USB port also means you can charge the new Vita using your phone charge or some other micro USB-charged device, so it cuts down on clutter.

But the main concern facing gamers is to do with the change of display. The original PS Vita ships with an OLED panel, but Sonyswitched the new one to LCD. Is the LCD as good as the OLED, much worse, or not different enough to be a concern?

YouTube user MysticRB managed to get his hands on a PCH-2000 over the weekend and proceeded to create the video you see below comparing the two displays. We’ve seen video comparisons before, but this one is much more thorough and shows both panels displaying a number of common screens.

As you can see, the PCH-1000 has a clear advantage with its OLED panel over the new PCH-2000. There are noticeable lines on the interface screens that can’t be seen on the OLED. But the biggest difference seems to be in color reproduction. The OLED panel outputs richer colors, and something is definitely lost on the LCD. This is most clearly seen on the menu screen forUncharted: Golden Abyss with a lack of blue displayed by the LCD.

The thing is, even though the OLED looks better, it’s not that much better. You would only really notice if you were playing the same game side-by-side on the two Vitas, which is likely not going to happen. Also, the LCD isn’t a bad screen, it’s just different. And I can guarantee that extra hour of battery life and lighter, easier to hold unit will more than make up for slight display differences in the long run, or during an extended gaming session.

There’s no official launch date or price for the PS Vita PCH-2000 outside of Japan yet, but hopefully it reaches the US and Europe in time for Christmas. I bet a lot depends on how much stock of the OLED version Sony has left to sell in each region.

Nintendo surprised everyone when the company announced the 2DS back in August. The newly revealed handheld was somewhat shocking at first — it dropped 3D, the 3DS’ trademark feature, an is the first non-folding Nintendo portable since the failed Gameboy Micro — but after thinking it over for the past few months we are considerably less shocked by Nintendo’s decision. The 2DS is available today for a very reasonable $130 and has already garnered a number of rather good review scores.

At first glance the 2DS looks like budget version of the 3DS, but this makes until you also take into account that Nintendo is aiming this device squarely at the 7 and under age range. The non-folding design is said to be more rugged than the hinged 3DS and 3DS XL, and the dropped 3D feature is not a factor as it was never recommended for children in the first place. Finally, the $130 price tag puts the 2DS well below the starting price for popular, but less kid-friendly options, like the iPad mini and iPod touch.

As Geek’s Russell Holly put it:

It may look like an awkward cousin, but the 2DS actually addresses some important use cases. I turned 3D off permanently on my son’s 3DS, and he almost always uses it fully extended. I’ve also heard several parents choose not to buy a 3DS for their very young kids because they were concerned about the hinge and how it snapped shut.

It’s time to put Nintendo handheld against Nintendo handheld. In this grudge match we’ll drop the PS Vita and iDevices altogether, and put the 2DS versus the 3DS versus the 3DS XL.

Price

The 2DS is by far the cheapest of the three handhelds at $129.99. By comparison you can pick up a 3DS for $169.99 and a 3DS XL for $199.99. That 2DS’ price must contain a substantive profit margin for Nintendo, but is still low enough to entice a purchase for younger kids.

A 2DS and a couple of games is also going to come in at around the same price as a PS Vita ($199), which is significant especially now Sony has dropped the price of the Vita to match that of a 3DS XL. That noted, Nintendo’s games are generally regarded as being more kid-friendly and franchise like Super Mario andPokemon resonate with most children more so than ones likeUncharted. Games for the two systems are about the same price.

Dimensions & weight

Even though Nintendo has removed the hinge from the 2DS, it’s not the lightest of the three handhelds. The 3DS weighs in at 235 grams, the 3DS XL is 336 grams, while the 2DS sits in the middle at 260 grams. It’s unclear why this is the case. The weight may have been added in the process of making the 2DS as indestructible as possible, preparing it to be in the hands of young children.

The dimensions of the 2DS confirm it’s about as thick as the 3DS models, but shorter and slightly wider than the 3DS:

• 2DS: 127 x 144 x 20.3mm
• 3DS: 74 x 134 x 21mm (closed), roughly 148mm tall when open
• XL: 93 x 156 x 22mm (closed), roughly 186mm tall when open

The 2DS, by default, becomes the largest of the three to carry around simply because you can’t fold it in half. That also means no carry case reuse and more accessory sales for Nintendo.

Display size

You’ll be glad to hear that although this is the cheapest of Nintendo’s handheld units, the company isn’t skimping on display size. The 2DS matches the 3DS in that regard with an upper screen that is 3.53-inches and a lower touchscreen of 3.02-inches. The best experience is still on the relatively massive 3DS XL screens, but then you want to be playing on that while your kids are focused on the 2DS.

The jury is still out on whether the 2DS actually has a single or two screens inside. It has been suggested it’s just a single display unit to save on costs and Nintendo has hidden the rest behind the casing. As soon as iFixit manages to get their hands on one we’ll know for sure.

Storage

Both the 3DS and 3DS XL shipped with an SD card thrown in for free. For the 3DS it’s a 2GB card where as the 3DS XL includes a 4GB card. Nintendo has decided to match that for the 2DS and include a 4GB card, which I think points more to them wanting digital purchases happening rather than generosity.

The thing to focus on here is there’s going to be plenty of storage out the box so there’s no need to purchase another, larger card for a while at least.

Pokémon X and Y have finally released, bridging the gap between pocket gamers young and old. The two games are the closest the series has come to looking like the venerable cartoon — the art direction of battles strikingly similar to the television counterpart. Though the Pokémon series hides a glacier-sized level of strategy and complexity underneath the seemingly basic catch-em-all surface, the question we all want to know when we first boost up the game is where we can find our very own Pikachu. This time around, Pikachu is easy to catch, and can be found extremely early on in the game.

Game Freak was merciful this time around and dropped a bunch of the electric mice very close to the starting town. Pikachu can be found in both Route 3 and Santalune Forest — in both X and Y– just a few screens from the starting area of Vaniville Town. The little mouse is one of the rarer critters to appear in either area, so keep on wading through the tall grass until Pikachu pops. To catch one, just damage it a bit, then throw a regular Poké Ball. Check out a video from our sister site IGN:

Pikachu appears in both male and female genders, and at an even 50% split. Rather than just being the series mascot — and seemingly the only voice-acted Pokémon in the early (possibly entire) game — Pikachu is a great starting combatant. Its two abilities, Static and Lightningrod, are very helpful in the early areas of the game. Static has a 30% chance to paralyze an enemy that physically attacked Pikachu, while Lightningrod draws electric-type moves to Pikachu, and Pikachu won’t take damage from those types of attacks.

Furthermore, the early areas of the game feature a multitude of bird Pokémon, which are vulnerable to Pikachu’s attacks, so Pikachu makes for a good combatant to quickly dispatch many enemies, gaining experience points faster for the party. As a bonus, Pikachu looks absolutely great in battles, and could be confused for the cartoon version of the critter at a glance.

Now that you’ll have one in your party, you’ll be faced with the terrible decision of whether or not to evolve it at some point, so maybe keep a box of tissues nearby to soak up the tears if you decide to go through with it.

The CAPTCHA is perhaps a necessary evil in our world. After all, how else are we supposed to know if someone is a robot or not? Now a new take on these human tests might save us from squinting at blurry squiggles, trying to determine if that’s a ’3′ or a ‘B.’ Instead, you’ll just play a minigame.
The gamified CAPTCHA would consist of a small interactive web element that has you complete some sort of simple task. You might have to click on different locations, or drag something across the screen. Whether you’re putting salad cream on a sandwich, per the example, or feeding a virtual fish, the goal is still to prove that you’re a flesh and blood human that can follow instructions better than a machine.
A computer might not be great at recognizing distorted text, but the new CAPTCHAs developed by UK-based Future Ad Labs have another layer. Even if a computer can decypher and input text, it might not have the capacity to interact properly with a game, which requires much more complicated pattern recognition. That’s just a bonus, of course. The main benefit is that gamified CAPTCHAs are not as annoying for real people to use.
Gamified CAPTCHAs might have a better chance of catching on thanks to the potential for product placement. Heinz is one of the first companies to sign up for the CAPTCHA games, thus the salad cream. Some companies are sure to jump at the chance to better imprint their products and name on your brain. And the poor souls being paid by spammers to complete CAPTCHAs will have a little more enjoyment in their lives too.

With OEMs increasingly stacking the deck when it comes to benchmarks, ARM decided to do a real world comparison of its Cortex-based chips with Intel’s x86 mobile chip.The results make for an interesting (and snippy) three minute YouTube video that shows ARM winning by a pretty wide margin.
This test used Need for Speed: Most Wanted running on Android tablets. Most Wanted is a high-end game made by EA, but the tablets in the video are actually a bit old. The ARM device is running a quad-core Cortex-A9 chip, and the Intel one is a Clover Trail Plus dual-core. These were both premium components when they were launched a year or two ago.
The video looks like a disaster for Intel from the start. The ARM device loads the game and gets into the race almost twice as fast as the Intel tablet. Once racing, the Intel device could only manage about 30 frames per second. Meanwhile, the ARM device was up at 40fps. ARM even cheekily pauses the Android device a few times to give Intel a chance to catch up. The difference in gameplay is very clear in the video, but there are still a few unanswered questions.
Clover Trail Plus and Cortex-A9 are no longer the top chips from either company — the market has moved on to Cortex-A15 and Bay Trail. The reason for pitting the old chips against each other isn’t clear, but I’d bet the difference in performance came across better in video with these chips. There is also the fact that the ARM part is quad-core while the Intel one is only dual-core. Probably the biggest issue is that game developers, even big one like EA, spend more time optimizing for ARM than Intel.
Take the video for what you will, but even with the problems this is a more compelling demonstration of how Intel and ARM chips that were sold around the same time perform.