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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News::Kids prefer to play games on mobile devices over consoles

You may have fond memories of playing games on the family TV as a kid, but the next generation might not feel the same way. The NPD Group has published a report showing that more 2- to 17-year-olds in the US are playing games on phones and tablets (63 percent) than on consoles (60 percent). That may not sound like a big gap, but it was only two years ago that consoles captured 67 percent of young eyeballs. They're playing more often on those mobile devices, too, at an average 6 hours per week. And sorry, PC gamers, your platform of choice isn't as popular as it once was. Computer gaming has fallen from a heady 67 percent adoption back in 2013 to 45 percent today.

Source: CNET

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News::'Batman: Arkham Knight' never feels too big to play

This article contains spoilers for Batman: Arkham Knight; you've been warned.

I didn't want to like Batman: Arkham Knight. In the long run-up to its release, I'd become increasingly disinterested every time developer Rocksteady Studios mentioned how the game had grown compared to its prequels. Twenty times bigger than Arkham Asylum! My eyes glazed over. Drive the Batmobile around Gotham! Yawn. My worry was that Arkham Knight would be a product of the Warner Bros. Interactive marketing department, riddling the series I love with bloat and unnecessary features solely because the PlayStation 4's and Xbox One's more powerful hardware allowed for bigger experiences. It's been a while since I was this happy to be wrong: Arkham Knight's genius is that despite its physical size, the game never feels larger than whatever carefully constructed moment you're in.

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News::Ultimate VR simulator throws you around in mid air

Virtual reality headsets can trick our eyes and ears into believing we're someplace else. Fooling the rest of the body is a little trickier though. Companies have tried spinning chairs and omnidirectional treadmills, but nothing comes close to the "Cable Robot Simulator" developed at the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics. The player wears a wireless VR headset inside a carbon fibre cage, which is then suspended in mid-air and thrown around the room using eight steel cables. The exposed pod is able to tilt, bank and move with an acceleration of up to 1.5g in response to the VR experience. Researchers have shown off some basic flight and racing simulations, but we're already imagining how it could be used in our favorite video games. A dogfight in Star Wars: Battlefront? Tearing around corners in F-Zero GX? The possibilities are endless. It's still very much a prototype, and hardly suitable for home use, but we're desperate to have a go ourselves.

Via: Eurogamer

Source: Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics

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News::'No Man's Sky' will get a Stephen Colbert 'Late Show' demo

With Apple CEO Tim Cook and other guests, Stephen Colbert has shown that tech will be a big part of his Late Show appeal. That includes gaming, judging by two segments scheduled for next week. On Friday, Colbert will welcome Hello Games founder Sean Murray, who will do an interview and demonstration of No Man's Sky. The title has made numerous appearances of late, including in our own Twitch interview (below). Sony is no doubt building hype for a release of the presumed blockbuster, which will debut on the PS4. The question on everyone's mind, of course, is "when is it coming?" We doubt that'll be answered on Late Show, but you never know.

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News::'Halo 5: Guardians' is good fun, but it's better with friends

I'm a pretty huge video game fan, but I've never played a minute of the Halo series in my life; I've never even owned an Xbox console. As such, it's somewhat appropriate that a preview of Halo 5: Guardians was my introduction to the series -- it's the first Halo game for the Xbox One, and it's undoubtedly a title that Microsoft is looking at as a system seller. The game shouldn't have a hard time getting long-time fans back into the fold, but what about someone like me?

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