Pokemon GO

One of the unique elements that Pokemon GO introduced that was never part of the original game and lore are Teams and their respective Team Leaders. A lot of fiction, not to mention fan fiction, have risen around this addition and some may have developed a certain fondness and loyalty for their team. Others, however, might want to play the field for one reason or another and Niantic Labs will finally give into those wishes. Unsurprisingly, there are a few catches.

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Though it was a hit with fans, popular mobile game Pokemon GO spurred complaints far and wide from businesses and homeowners plagued by players seeking Pokemon only they could see. The nuisance was extreme in some cases, prompting multiple lawsuits eventually consolidated into a class action suit against Niantic, the company behind Pokemon GO. At the heart of the matter is an important question: what is considered trespassing when it comes to augmented reality?

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Last year, Niantic rolled out a Pokemon GO feature it called AR+, which enhances the in-game augmented reality effect when you've got it turned on. After that feature launched, a lot of people starting sharing screenshots of their Pokemon encounters, which in turn led to the development of another new feature that Niantic is announcing today. Dubbed Pokemon GO Snapshot, this new functionality should make it easier to take good looking pictures of your Pokemon with the real world as a backdrop.

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After teasing trainer battles for Pokemon GO last week, Niantic has now detailed how the feature will work. Trainer battles, of course, are an integral part of the mainline Pokemon games, and they've been noticeably absent from Pokemon GO ever since the game launched back in 2016. Though they're finally coming to Pokemon GO, they're going to be a bit different from what seasoned Pokemon veterans are used to when they arrive.

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Though Pokemon GO seemingly took over the world when it released, it launched missing a few core features from the Pokemon series. One of them, trading, was added to the game earlier this year, and Niantic is signaling the arrival of another major feature: trainer battles. To that, we simply say it's about time.

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At their Blizzcon event early this month, game developer Blizzard announced Diablo Immortal, a new entry in the long-running series but the first to be released on smartphones. What followed was a huge backlash from fans, mostly on the basis that the game wasn't a true Diablo 4 for PC that they had been expecting. But rather than backing down on plans for additional mobile titles, it appears Blizzard is moving forward with another project based on the Warcraft franchise.

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When people think about addicted Pokemon GO players, at least those who even know what Pokemon GO is, they probably think about people walking like zombies who suddenly stand still for now apparent reason and start flicking their smartphone screens like crazy. That may be true for the average addicted Pokemon GO player but those have nothing on Chen San-yuan. At 70 years of age, he might be Pokemon GO's oldest player. And given how he plays it, he is definitely its most dedicated and addicted one yet.

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Today Nintendo revealed a super secret feature already embedded within an accessory for Pokemon GO and Pokemon Let's GO! The Poke Ball Plus is a piece of plastic with lights, a button, and a tiny computer in its belly that does things when its button is pressed. The secret mode makes it so the user doesn't have to press the button in order to gain the bonus that'd come otherwise only if said button was pressed.

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During its peak, Pokemon GO has been credited for getting people off their butts and on their feet and walking around, sometimes even walking into things, unfortunately. But how much walking and activity did Pokemon GO really produce. Unfortunately, there’s really no way to get that past data and can only get it directly from tracking data from smartwatches or smartphones. To fix that, Niantic Labs is launching a new feature called Adventure Sync that records our steps, syncs with Apple and Android phones, and hatches eggs.

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Some might contest branding Pokemon GO as an augmented reality game. Yes, it does use your real-world location and, at least, can at least use streets and building structures in maps. But the Pokemon themselves look more like stickers superimposed on the real world when you enable AR mode. Pokemon GO’s AR+ mode took care of that last year and it’s now finally available for Android smartphones. Provided yours is one of the few dozen that supports the ARCore framework.

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Pokemon GO is still going strong but, like any game, it has its periods of ups and downs. The game might soon be experiencing another spurt of popularity now that developer Niantic Labs has confirmed what many players have been expecting since April. The game will soon be “moving” towards the Sinnoh region, though at a yet unannounced date. But more than just new Pokemon, the preparation for that next stage of the game will also be bringing in some subtle but big changes as well.

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Pokemon GO Halloween 2018 is nearly upon us, and today we're taking a peek at what's about to roll out. This year's event will come after the current madness that is Meltan. That's the Mythical (or is it Legendary?) Pokemon that's been appearing in Pokemon GO over the past week or so, always turning into Ditto whenever it was caught. This is easily one of the strangest tricks Niantic's played thus far on the Pokemon GO public, that's for certain.

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