News::'Splosion Man' developer Twisted Pixel is leaving Microsoft

Twisted Pixel may have gotten into Microsoft's good graces (and the company itself) through games like Splosion Man and The Maw, but it didn't stay there for very long. The developer has revealed that it's being spun out from Microsoft Studios roughly four years after it joined the fold. The reasons behind the departure aren't immediately apparent. However, it's safe to say that Twisted Pixel's most recent game, LocoCycle, didn't do it any favors -- the Xbox One launch title was so terrible that even the intro movie was hard to bear. Hopefully, the team's departure from Microsoft leads to bigger and better efforts.

Source: Twisted Pixel

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News::Google and Microsoft end their years-long patent war

And just like that, another one of the tech industry's epic patent battles is coming to a close. Google and Microsoft have dropped all 20 (!) of the lawsuits they've filed against each other, ending their five-year dispute over everything ranging from phones (Microsoft's main gripe) to Xbox video playback (Google's gripe, and formerly Motorola's). The two will now partner both on technology as a whole and on "certain patent matters," such as building a royalty-free video format that prevents these kinds of legal fights in the first place. The truce is no doubt a relief if you're tired of seeing endless stores about the lawsuits (guilty!), although it's not a complete shock if you've been following changes in corporate culture.

Source: Bloomberg

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News::Create 'Gran Turismo 6' race tracks on your tablet

For ages, Polyphony Digital has been promising a Gran Turismo 6 track editor that lets you build the race course of your dreams. Well, it's finally here... if not quite in the form you might have expected. Download the Track Path Editor app for Android and iOS and you can design circuits for the PlayStation 3 sim on your tablet. It's not so detailed that you'll recreate every nuance of your local raceway, but you can trace paths with your finger, choose themes and add scenery. Think of it as a way to extend the life of GT6 beyond the occasional new concept car -- you don't have to settle for driving on Autumn Ring or Brands Hatch for the hundredth time.

Source: Gran Turismo, Google Play, App Store

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News::Deadmau5 is on Twitch

If it weren't for Deadmau5's terrible broadband speeds, he wouldn't be on Twitch, the live video-streaming site favored by gamers. Prior to moving to the Canadian countryside just outside of Toronto and building "a goddamned death ray" in his back yard to get paltry 5 Mbps downloads, the electronic musician, whose real name is Joel Zimmerman, had relied on a gigabit connection to broadcast music-making sessions in 2K resolution using his own data service provider. "The quality was pretty comparable [to Twitch], but I didn't have a social network behind it to help it along," he said during an interview from the first-ever TwitchCon. Now his TriCaster streaming setup is as good as "a $50,000 doorstop," and he instead uses the open-source OBS streaming software to broadcast games like Rocket League, and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive; and studio recording sessions from his basement like the rest of us.

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News::'Mass Effect' is getting its own theme park attraction

Theme park attractions tend to be based on well-worn movies, if they're based on anything at all, but games? Not so much. However, Santa Clara-based California's Great America is planning to change that. It's launching a Mass Effect-based attraction in 2016 that will have a performer take you to a "distant planet," where you'll fight "larger-than-life foes" through a blend of 3D and "4D" (time travel?) effects. There's no mention of just who or what will make a cameo, although we wouldn't be surprised if Commander Shepard and the Reapers show up. Let's just hope it isn't too faithful to the in-game experience -- you probably wouldn't get a kick out of scanning planets for a few hours, or watching your favorite characters die.

Mat Smith contributed a ridiculous picture to this post.

Via: VG24/7

Source: BioWare

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News::NVIDIA's Shield TV goes on sale in the UK and Europe

In the six months since NVIDIA launched Shield TV, we've put it through its paces and called it best Android TV box money can buy. Consumers in the US have been able to get their hands on it since May, but now it's time for Europe to get in on the act. That's right, from tomorrow (October 1st), consumers in the UK, France, Germany and Scandinavia can buy the base 16GB model for £150/€200 or the 500GB Shield Pro for £230/€300.

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News::GeForce Now puts PC games on your NVIDIA device for $8 per month

NVIDIA's GRID service wasn't the be-all, end-all of its cloud gaming ambitions... if anything, the company was just getting started. The crew in Santa Clara has unveiled GeForce Now, an $8 per month subscription service that streams PC games to all of NVIDIA's Shield devices, ranging from the original handheld through to the Shield TV. It's still streaming at GRID's 1080p resolution and 60 frames per second, but you'll get a brand new interface with better parental controls. There are over 50 (mostly) major titles to start, including most of the Batman games (but not Arkham Knight), numerous Lego games and Ultra Street Fighter IV. You can buy other games outright, such as The Witcher 3, and there are promises of future games reaching GeForce Now as soon as they launch. The service goes live on October 1st in the US. Slideshow-324014

Source: NVIDIA

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News::PlayStation Vue adds EPIX Hits to its streaming selection

You might not be able to catch Optimus Prime on Netflix anymore, but soon you'll be able to see the autobot on PlayStation's TV alternative. After expanding its reach in the US, Vue has announced that it will offer EPIX Hits to the digital buffet of content already available. Joining the ranks of Machinima and a variety of channel packages, you'll be able to flip between gaming and blockbuster movies like Transformers: Age of Extinction all from the one place. EPIX Hits offers a free 30-day trial, with the option to add it onto your Showtime subscription or even as a standalone monthly purchase. Even if you're not a fan of Michael Bay, the service still has a relatively low cost of entry and plenty more to keep you watching.

Source: PlayStation

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News::Xbox One update increases party chat to 12 of your friends

Who says big companies never listen? Based on user feedback, Microsoft has increased the number of people in a local Xbox One party chat from the current eight. "Garnering over 2,200 votes on Xbox Feedback, we are expanding party chat to include 12 people," said Microsoft's Major Nelson (Larry Hryb). The new feature has rolled out to all Xbox One and Windows 10 Xbox app users, though it's not something visible, as Hryb said it's "all server side." The extra comms will be especially handy during Xbox One FIFA parties when 11 separate players are on the pitch per team.

Source: Microsoft

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News::Playdate: We take on the Empire in 'Disney Infinity 3.0'

It is a period of civil war. Sean and Tim, two video game streamers from the Engadget Alliance, have begun their first battle against the Galactic Empire. Pursued by the Empire's sinister agents, the pair enlists the help of Disney Interactive's John Vignocchi to guide them through the wastes of Tatoonie, Hoth and Endor. Together, they'll stream Disney Infinity 3.0's Rise Against The Empire Playset on Twitch.tv/Joystiq, the Engadget Gaming homepage and in this post. Join them today at 6PM ET (3PM PT) and help the trio restore freedom to the galaxy...

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News::1TB Xbox One bundle includes 'Gears of War' and two more games for $399

Do you have a special someone on your Christmas list who deserves a shiny new console this holiday season? Even if you're just shopping for yourself, there's a new Xbox One bundle that might catch your eye. Microsoft is offering the 1TB version with three games for the cost of the console alone. The trio of titles includes Gears of War: Ultimate Edition, Rare Replay and Ori and the Blind Forest. All of that will set you back $399 when this so-called Holiday Bundle goes on sale in October.

Source: Xbox Wire

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News::'The Stanley Parable' developer's new game launches in two days

We know just a few things for certain about Davey Wreden's follow-up to The Stanley Parable:

• It's called The Beginner's Guide
• It's a "narrative video game" for PC and Mac
• It launches on October 1st

Aside from a few equally vague screenshots, that's about it. But, considering the massive success of The Stanley Parable, that might be all The Beginner's Guide needs to generate a ton of hype (and sales).

Source: @HelloCakebread

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News::Sony's big PlayStation 4 update arrives tomorrow

Sony is set to release one of its biggest updates ever for the PlayStation 4, and now we know when it's coming: tomorrow, September 30th. Update 3.0 includes some significant new changes, especially if you want more streaming options and extra online storage. You'll soon be able to broadcast or watch games on YouTube Gaming, send 10 second highlight clips to Twitter and "Request to Share Play and Broadcast" a friend's game or gaming session. Storage on PlayStation Plus has also gone up dramatically from 1GB to 10GB.

Source: Sony

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News::Logitech's latest mechanical gaming keyboard is also pretty light

Mechanical keyboards aren't just for old school PC users anymore -- they've also become fairly popular among the PC gaming crowd. The downside for all that glorious, mechanical keyboard feedback? They're usually pretty hefty. Logitech aims to solve that problem with the G410 Atlas Spectrum TKL ($130), a gaming keyboard that eschews the right-hand number pad for a slimmer design. Unlike some mechanical keyboards, it also doesn't have a metal plate inside, which adds quite a bit of weight. Logitech claims its Romer-G mechanical switches allow the G410 to register key presses 25 percent faster than other mechanical keyboards, and they're also designed to withstand 70 million keystrikes (around 40 percent more than the competition). At 1.8 pound, the G410 is half the weight of Logitech's larger G910 keyboard, making it a far better option for lugging around.

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News::Microsoft's 'Project Spark' game creation tool will be completely free

Microsoft's Project Spark game creation tool has embraced the free-to-play model for a while, but that has still meant paying a fair chunk of change to build the experience you really want. However, even that cost is going away soon. As of an October 5th update, Project Spark is switching to a completely free model where all downloadable content will be accessible. You'll get refunds if you bought either content or a retail disc from July 28th onward. Microsoft is also handing over the keys, in a manner of speaking -- rather than focus on adding content and features, it'll spend more time on highlighting user-made material and opening things up.

Source: Project Spark (1), (2)

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News::Konami's canceled 'Silent Hills' featured a horror manga master

Konami didn't just waste the talents of famed director Guillermo del Toro when it canceled Silent Hills -- it also tossed aside a legend of the comic book world. Del Toro has revealed that horror manga master Junji Ito (of projects like Gyo and Hellstar Remina, above) was supposed to be collaborating on the project. It's unclear just what he was working on, but his tastes for unnerving imagery and warped storylines are likely good clues as to what you were going to get. And that's a real shame: Ito's approach is a perfect fit for the psychological horror of the Silent Hill series, and he might have helped the new title escape the common tropes of the genre. Let's just hope that Ito shapes other games in the future.

Via: The Verge

Source: Guillermo del Toro (Twitter)

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News::What's on your HDTV: 'Daily Show', 'Avengers' Blu-ray, 'Tony Hawk'

Tonight Comedy Central's Daily Show brings its first episode with Trevor Noah as the new host. While we wait to find out if he'll be able to fill Jon Stewart's shoes (and compete with a tech-focused Stephen Colbert), this is also the week Avengers: Age of Ultron arrives on Blu-ray, along with the Entourage movie, and a new release of Christine. There's a slew of new games dropping too, with the first new Tony Hawk game in years, NBA 2K16 and NBA Live 16, and Fallout Anthology on the PC. On TV, AMC's zombie spin-off Fear the Walking Dead wraps up to make room for the main show's return, and The Strain closes out its second season. Brand new shows include The Grinder, Grandfathered and Code Black, while others like Bones and The Leftovers are back for new seasons. Look after the break to check out each day's highlights, including trailers and let us know what you think (or what we missed)

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News::See an unreleased 'South Park' game running on the original Xbox

Legend has it that back in the early 2000s, Oregon studio Buzz Monkey was working on an officially licensed South Park game for the original Xbox. The game never shipped, but an incredibly early version appears to have made its way to an Xbox debug console -- and it's now on YouTube. The folks at HappyConsoleGamer unearthed the forgotten South Park game on an original Xbox and they've posted (extremely rough) gameplay, featuring a split-screen mode and Cartman walking around his house, driving a school bus and fighting a pack of dogs. Yep, this game has a combat system. Also included in the video is a taste of an unreleased Happy Feet game, which is appropriately adorable.

Via: Eurogamer

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News::Sony doesn't see a market for a PlayStation Vita sequel

You may be jonesing for a follow-up to the PlayStation Vita, but Sony isn't so sure that it's a wise idea. The company's Shuhei Yoshida told those at a recent developer session that the "climate is not healthy" for a Vita sequel. Simply put, he believes that smartphones have dampened enthusiasm for gaming handhelds. Why get a dedicated device and buy games when you can play free games on the device you already have? He hopes that the culture of portable gaming will live on, but he doesn't currently see Sony fostering that culture with new hardware.

Via: Geek

Source: Eurogamer

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News::The 'Halo 5' Warzone REQ system gives you a leg up in multiplayer mayhem

We're going to need a lot more time to properly judge the main story campaign in Halo 5: Guardians, but -- as with all Halo games -- the story mode is far from the only reason to play. Halo 5 will come with co-op multiplayer in the main game and the classic "arena" four vs. four deathmatch, but there's also a new mode this time around. The new Warzone is a vast 12-on-12 multiplayer matchup where your team fights not only other players but also computer-controlled AI as well.

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News::PlayStation Vita TV hack gives you a way to play more games

If you have a PlayStation TV collecting dust in a cabinet somewhere, this might make it useful again. A user called "mr.gas" from the Hackinformer forum has detailed how you can tweak the device to play games that it's currently not compatible with. The best thing about the procedure is it's actually doable, even if you're not that adept at hacking hardware. You only need to send PS TV a message from your email app with the writer.eml file attached (a download link can be found on the source's website) and renamed as #0 without an extension.

Via: Kotaku, TinyCartridge

Source: Hackinformer (1), (2)

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News::'Mighty No. 9' demo gets a Humble Bundle and a new release date

Even though Mighty No. 9, the new crowdsourced video game from venerated MegaMan creator Keiji Inafune, won't be available until some time in 2016, fans can still get a slice of the action. The game's production team tweeted Friday that the game had both a new release date and that it's playable demo has arrived on Humble Bundle. Per the game's Kickstarter page, Mighty No. 9 will hit American consoles on February 9th, 2016 and launch worldwide on February 12th. And, according to the Mighty No. 9 official site, users must log in to Humble Bundle using the same email address as their Kickstarter/Paypal pledge and follow the download link for the Special Demo Version.

Source: Mighty No 9 (Twitter)

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News::'Call of Duty: Black Ops 3' nixes campaign on last-gen consoles

If you're still rockin' a PS3 or Xbox 360 and are looking forward to the next Call of Duty release, Treyarch dropped a bit of bad news. The studio announced that Black Ops 3 won't feature a campaign mode on those last-gen consoles. Why? "The ambitious scope of the 1-4 player co-op Campaign design of the PS4, Xbox One and PC versions could not be faithfully recreated on old generation hardware," the company explains. Due to the fact that the game will only offer multiplayer and Zombie modes, Treyarch is setting the price at $50. As you might expect, other features that take advantage of the power of the Xbox One, PS4 and PC -- like eSports tools and the Weapons Paint Shop -- won't be available either. The game arrives on November 6th, and if you were really looking forward to that co-op campaign, there's the 1TB PS4 bundle.

Via: Kotaku

Source: Treyarch

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News::Twitch learned a lot from YouTube Gaming

When YouTube announced its new gaming-focused livestreaming program, YouTube Gaming, Twitch SVP of Marketing Matthew DiPietro released a statement reminding everyone that his company did it first. "The opportunity in gaming video is enormous, and others have clearly taken notice," he said. "We're proud of what we've accomplished in the last four years, but our eyes are on the future." DiPietro said that Twitch was listening to its users' requests and it had a lot of changes in store. And, following YouTube Gaming's robust, feature-laden launch, Twitch needed a serious update. Now, as announced at the first-ever TwitchCon keynote address, it's getting exactly that.

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News::Twitch announces VOD feature and video uploads

At it's first-annual TwitchCon, the video-streaming service announced that broadcasters will be able to schedule saved streams and uploaded videos to play any time of day. Your favorite stream potentially just became a 24-hour source of awesome. Now when viewers hit a page they enjoy, even if there isn't a live stream, they will see a video playing. This gives the folks that use Twitch the ability to create shows with higher production values in addition to their live events. The company is rolling out beta access (you can request access here) over the coming weeks.

Source: Twitch

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News::Twitch goes full HTML5 in 2016, revamps private messages

Twitch is revamping its live-streaming systems in 2016, starting with a rollout of HTML5 video players and controls in Q2 2016. This means Twitch is officially ditching Flash. Second, Twitch's private-message program, Whisper, is getting an update that pops out personal messages so users don't miss them. Plus, these conversations will transfer from web to mobile and vice versa. Twitch will also allow streamers to create custom thumbnails for their past broadcasts and highlights. All of this info comes courtesy of today's TwitchCon 2015 keynote address.

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News::PlayStation is finally getting a dedicated Twitch app

PlayStation 4 is finally getting a proper Twitch app. As you can see from the render above, it looks a lot like the one you'll find on the Xbox One. Twitch cofounder and CEO Emmett Shear took the stage during the TwitchCon keynote and said that the app on Sony's current-gen console will have full chat integration and even have full support for emoticons (whatup, Kappa?) and highlight PS4 broadcasts much like the Live From PlayStation app currently does. The difference here is that you won't be limited to only PS4 broadcasts. Want to watch a League of Legends tournament? Have at it once the application launches this fall. What's more, Twitch is also coming to PlayStation 3, PlayStation Vita and PlayStation TV.

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News::Watch the first-ever TwitchCon keynote right here!

What do you do when you're a burgeoning video game start-up that gets bought by Amazon for just under a billion dollars? Well, if you're game-broadcasting platform Twitch, you take over the Moscone Center in San Francisco for a few days and host all manner of panels featuring the top people in your community, game developers and maybe even a few musical guests. TwitchCon kicks off with a keynote address at 1 pm ET / 10 am PT today and you can watch it below via, you guessed it, a Twitch streaming window. In addition to the opening address the weekend's panels and interviews will be broadcast as well.

Source: Twitch

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News::Epic Games' new shooter is virtual reality's killer gaming app

"Everybody wants to be Neo." That's how Nick Whiting, lead programmer at Epic Games, describes the main thrust behind Bullet Train, the developer's recently announced virtual reality shooter for the Oculus Rift. What Whiting's referring to, of course, is "bullet time" -- that slow-motion technique made famous by the Matrix films. It's a core part of the gameplay in Bullet Train, which has the player madly teleporting (in slo-mo) around a train station and assassinating wave after wave of masked enemies with an assortment of available weapons. That I greatly enjoyed the demo, playable at Oculus' Connect 2 conference in Los Angeles, is not only a testament to how transformative Oculus' Touch controllers will be to VR, but also to how well Whiting and his partner Nick Donaldson understand VR design. It's also major coup when it comes to winning over a certain segment of the gaming population: I simply don't like shooters; I like this shooter very much.

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News::Oculus VP: 'Our number one goal is to make developers successful'

2015 is the year of virtual reality. That's been the consistent messaging coming out of Oculus VR's executive leadership since early this year. And with this week's announcement of a $99 GearVR headset, a mobile VR solution co-produced with Samsung, and the promise of a retail Rift headset coming in early 2016, Oculus finally appears ready to make good on that promise. But although all the pieces of the VR puzzle seem to be coming together -- and the recent press has been (mostly) glowing -- there are still a lot of unknowns. Namely, will the average consumer, once properly introduced, buy into VR? I sat down with Nate Mitchell, Oculus VR's VP of Product, at the company's Connect 2 developer conference in Los Angeles to find out more about GearVR's potential as a gateway to the Rift, what consumers can expect to come bundled with that first retail headset, and whether we'll get to use it with Sony's PlayStation 4.

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News::Play a game about YouTube stars in 'PewDiePie: Legend of the Brofist'

The gaming stars of YouTube were recently turned into physical action figures, but their next big feat takes them back to the digital realm. PewDiePie: Legend of the Brofist is a pixelated action game for iOS and Android starring YouTube sensation Felix "PewDiePie" Kjellberg and a host of his fellow online entertainers, including Marzia, CinnamonToastKen, JackSepticEye, Cryaotic and Markiplier. Legend of the Brofist features a mix of platforming, bullet hell and and sidescrolling action genres, and it comes courtesy of retro-focused Canadian studio Outerminds. It's $5 on the App Store and Google Play.

Source: @pewdiepie

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News::The new Gear VR is Samsung's public bet that VR is consumer-ready

When Samsung announced the newest edition of its mobile virtual reality headset Gear VR, created in partnership with Oculus, it was less about hardware innovation and more of a statement: VR is consumer-ready. Yes, the headset's overall weight has been significantly reduced and its touchpad's been redesigned for easier access. But it's the combination of its $99 price point, range of compatible (and current) Samsung smartphones and multimedia content like Netflix that could finally usher this new medium into households everywhere. "Virtual reality that's accessible to consumers is still very young and so it was all about developing the ecosystem," said Jim Willson, director of immersive products and VR at Samsung. "We had to make sure there was enough content, both in terms of video content ... and on the gaming side."

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News::Sling TV shows off its improved guide for the Xbox One

As great as Sling TV is, the user interface isn't the best. One of the biggest problems is that it isn't easy to find the content you're looking for, but the company's well aware of this and has been working on a fix. Today, Sling TV announced the first of "several" planned updates to its UI, starting with the app for Xbox One. Aside from bug fixes and under-the-hood improvements to the streaming quality, Sling TV is refreshing the guide on Microsoft's entertainment console -- which should make it less tedious for you to quickly come across the live and on-demand shows you want to watch. For example, when you're browsing the guide and set on a channel, hitting up on the Xbox One controller's d-pad or joystick now brings up all the content available for each network. You'll also find better imagery throughout the app, with a focus on cast, crew and episode artwork.

Source: Sling TV

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News::The Star Wars Battlefront open beta starts October 8th

EA announced Thursday that the upcoming Star Wars Battlefront reboot will host an open beta between October 8th and 12th. Players will reportedly have access to three gameplay modes. There's a 40-person war on Hoth wherein the opposing forces attempt to destroy (or defend) a fleet of AT-AT's. Players can also compete in an 8 vs 8 capture-the-flag-style match called dropzone where they fight for control of escape pods. Finally, there's a solo/co-op survival mode where players must fend off continual waves of enemy troops for as long as possible. The full version of the game hits store shelves on November 17th.

Source: Major Nelson

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News::Epic Games reveals 'Bullet Train,' a sci-fi shooter for Oculus Touch

Epic Games, the studio behind Gears of War, unveiled its brand new virtual reality game, Bullet Train, during the Oculus Connect 2 conference today. Bullet Train is an Oculus Touch experience, meaning players use two motion-sensing controllers to pick up weapons, shoot and interact with the environment. Plus, Bullet Train features bullet time and teleportation, and it's developed in Unreal Engine 4. Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney presented Bullet Train to the world today, and he's been a longtime champion of virtual reality. In February, he told Engadget that VR was "going to change the world."

Source: Epic Games

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News::'Oculus Ready' PC program offers VR-ready rigs for less than $1,000

Oculus Ready is a new program that offers officially licensed, Oculus-branded PCs from Alienware, Dell and Asus. These rigs will be ready to run the consumer Oculus Rift when it launches in Q1 2016, with at least the minimum specs of 8GB RAM, an Intel i5 processor and NVIDIA GTX 970 / AMD 290. All of the Oculus Ready PCs will cost less than $1,000, Oculus announced during its second annual Connect conference.

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News::Minecraft Windows 10 Edition headed to Oculus Rift VR headset

Palmer Luckey, the boy wonder co-founder of Oculus VR, surprised attendees at the company's Connect 2 developer conference today with news that Minecraft is headed to the Rift. Though Oculus has yet to announce a release date for its virtual reality headset, it is expected to be hit retail sometime next spring, at which point Minecraft will be made available on both the Windows Store and Oculus Store. It's no surprise that Microsoft would extend the massively popular crafting game to the Rift platform as it's recently demoed several augmented reality versions for its HoloLens headset, and pledged to support both Oculus and Vive's brand of VR.

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News::'Oculus Arcade' brings 'Pac-Man' and other classics to Gear VR

Oculus Arcade offers classic games from Sega, Midway and Bandai Namco, all playable in the Samsung Gear VR. Oculus announced the nostalgia fix during its Oculus Connect 2 conference, where it also announced the new, $99 Gear VR. The new Gear VR will be available in time for Black Friday in November. Oculus also showed off a slew of new games coming to Gear VR, including Land's End (from the Monument Valley team), Gunjack and the new VR Adventure Time game. The company also briefly showed off Netflix and Twitch running in Gear VR.

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News::2K Games kills off 'BioShock' for iOS

When 2K Games launched a port of the original BioShock for iOS last year, fans of the adored franchise were ecstatic. But it looks like that joy has, unexpectedly, come to an end for some of them. Much to the surprise of people who had already purchased the mobile title, 2K Games appears to have pulled it from the App store -- if you deleted it from your device, there's no way to get it back. The company had recently cited compatibility issues with versions of iOS 8.4 or higher, bad enough that users couldn't play it, but it said a fix was in the works. Now, however, the developer appears to have given up completely. According to a forum post on Touch Arcade, a 2K Games customer service rep told a fan the removal was "a developer decision."

Via: Eurogamer

Source: Touch Arcade

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News::Samsung's new and improved $99 GearVR ships this November

When Samsung released its revised mobile virtual reality headset, the GearVR, earlier this year, it did so with the label "Innovator Edition" still attached since the hardware wasn't quite consumer-ready. Today, at the Oculus Connect 2 developer conference in Los Angeles, Samsung's VP of Mobile, Peter Koo announced a new GearVR priced affordably at $99 and ready to ship in the United States in time for Black Friday this November and worldwide shortly after.

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News::TBS will broadcast eSports in 2016

From 2016 TBS won't just show Conan and Big Bang Theory re-runs, as the channel has revealed that it's launching its own eSports league. Turner Broadcasting has signed a deal to broadcast bouts of Counter Strike: Global Offensive, which'll air on Friday nights for 20 weeks of the year. At this early stage, details are thin on the ground, except to say that qualifying rounds for the main events will be streamed online. Successful teams will then be handed a ticket to TBS HQ in Atlanta where the live show will be recorded.

Source: WSJ

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News::ICYMI: Best VR ride, screen buttons that re-form and more

Today on In Case You Missed It: A haptic controller for gaming that works with the muscles in the user's arms to both give feedback and guide touch is fully funded on Kickstarter, and still available for $212. Staying on theme, this prototype virtual reality set-up centers a seat for a human in the middle of eight steel cables that all move independently, delivering the most lifelike experience for gaming in VR yet. Meanwhile researchers in Germany invented a thin layer of gel that sits on top of a touchscreen and forms into a button while mildly heated. This would create on-demand, real feel buttons.

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News::'Roblox' lets indie game devs publish across platforms -- in a bubble

Roblox CEO David Baszucki has grand plans for his app's launch on Xbox One. Roblox is a free game-creating program that already has 6 million monthly players across PC, iOS and Android, and Baszucki expects that number to climb when it hits Xbox One on November 12th. The app allows users to create their own games -- action, simulators, shooters, capture the flag, basically anything -- and then publish (and make money off of) those creations simultaneously on all Roblox platforms. "An indie game developer, really for the first time ever, is going to be able to create a game that pushes to phone, tablet, computer and console," Baszucki says. "The exact same game." This isn't a simple feat.

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News::'Rise of the Tomb Raider' is more of the same, and that's okay

Crystal Dynamics' 2013 Tomb Raider reboot pulled off a tough task: It successfully brought life back to an aging, muddled franchise and provided heroine Lara Croft with an excellent origin story. Now that Croft has made her transition from a terrified shipwreck survivor to adventuring (but still vulnerable) badass, what does she do for an encore? Rise of the Tomb Raider (coming to the Xbox One and 360 as a timed exclusive on November 10th) answers that by tightening up and refining the first game's core experience while throwing players into an entirely new environment. The world is bigger, there are more skills to improve, more secrets to find and, yes, more tombs to raid. It isn't wildly different than the last game, but that's not a knock: If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

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News::I'm sick of getting sick from VR, but there's a remedy

It's inevitable at this point: After having experienced a variety of virtual reality -- from gaming to cinematic -- whenever I'm about to enter into a new demo, my anxiety spikes. "Is this going to make me massively ill?" I wonder, fearing the subsequent rapid heartbeat, flop sweat and nausea that mark the unwelcome arrival of motion sickness. I mention this not to discredit the coming revolution of VR -- because I do think it's here to stay and I'm glad for it -- but to sound an alarm bell for the industry. If VR is to go mainstream -- and given Facebook's billion-dollar bet on Oculus VR, it very well should -- consumers like me need to stop getting sick. It's a pitfall the brilliant developer Jesse Schell mocked in his talk on making great VR at Oculus Connect 2 in Los Angeles: "Our game is so good it makes you vomit." Schell's comment was obviously made tongue-in-cheek, but it underscored a common symptom of faulty VR development. Thankfully, there's an antidote to this: education.

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News::ILM's tools could let you direct your own 'Star Wars' with an iPad

Whether you're familiar with the studio's name or not, you've definitely been touched (and likely gobsmacked) by the computer-generated imagery in one of the blockbuster films to get the Industrial Light and Magic treatment. From Jurassic Park (and its sequels) to the upcoming Disney-backed Star Wars films, the Lucasfilm-run powerhouse is one of the more visible and transformative visual effects forces in entertainment. Now, with a suite of virtual production tools, it's poised to change the way we experience not just film, but storytelling with an iPad and a virtual reality headset.

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News::Oculus Connect 2 virtual reality event will stream live in VR

Tomorrow when the folks at Oculus show off the latest developments in their plan for VR world domination at the Oculus Connect 2 event, a select few will be able to experience remotely just as if they were there. If you have a Samsung Gear VR you can download the Next VR app and get your 360-degree immersion, just like I experienced with the first live stream several months ago. One day we'll all put on headsets and take a virtual trip to press events like Oculus and OnePlus, but since that's not universally available yet, we will be there liveblogging all the action. Assuming you have a compatible Samsung phone and one of the plastic Gear VR headsets, the app will be available before the keynote speech starts at 1PM ET tomorrow. (If you're not VR ready yet, yes there will be an old-school 2D live video broadcast as well.)

Source: Oculus Blog

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News::Babymetal will cute you to death in Rock Band 4

Earlier this summer, a trio of teenage rockers took the internet by storm with their unique blend of J-Pop effervescence and head-banging thrash metal beats. The band's star continues to rise with both a world tour and the announcement that their first hit, "Gimme Chocolate" is coming to Rock Band 4. The song will available as a bonus track beginning October 6th (which is when the game actually hits store shelves). Unfortunately, the track is exclusive to the Xbox One platform and needs to be reserved as part of the game's pre-order bundle.

[Image Credit: Redferns / Getty]

Via: BoingBoing

Source: XBox One

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News::Video game voice actors may go on strike

Voice acting in video games is serious and often thankless work. You have to recite hours of dialog that doesn't always get heard, and only a handful of actors (like Nolan North, John DiMaggio and Troy Baker) have high-profile careers. However, they're now fighting to get a bigger piece of the pie. The actor union SAG-AFTRA is considering voting for a strike that would push for more payments and greater rights for game voice actors. It's proposing that these performers should get bonuses every time a game sells 2 million copies, and stunt pay when they have to strain their voices -- think about every game where your character screamed from taking damage. The guild also wants stunt coordinators for motion capture work, and it hopes to prevent companies from both hiring their own unionless staff as well as instituting fines over relatively arbitrary faults, such as failing to audition for small roles.

Via: GameInformer

Source: SAG-AFTRA (1), (2)

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News::Fighting game inspired by 'My Little Pony' needs cash to become reality

Them's Fightin' Herds started life as My Little Pony: Fighting is Magic, a fighting game created by My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic fans and starring characters directly from the show. That project was shut down when Hasbro sent the developer, Mane6, a cease-and-desist order in February 2013 -- but it was reborn when Friendship is Magic producer Lauren Faust and Skullgirls studio Lab Zero Games hopped on board. Now, Them's Fightin' Herds is a serious fighting game starring a cast of original characters designed by Faust and running on Skullgirls' engine. This week, Mane6 launched a $436,000 Indiegogo campaign to fund 18 months of full-time development on Them's Fightin' Herds, and in two days it's raised more than $100,000. This time around, it looks like crowdfunding is magic.

Via: Gamesradar+

Source: Indiegogo

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