News::Yes, 'Beyond Good and Evil 2' is still happening

Beyond Good and Evil 2 isn't dead yet, according to its mastermind Michel Ancel. If you aren't familiar, the sequel is something of an enigma in the gaming world. Merely mentioning its name elicits complex emotions and dreams of publisher Ubisoft showing the game at its next year's E3 media briefing. The first game was a critical hit but didn't sell well. Consumers in the Aughts weren't down with a game about a plucky photojournalist and her anthropomorphic porcine companion; who'd have thought?

Via: Rock, Paper, Shotgun

Source: YouTube

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News::GameCenter CX - Special - Vietnam

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News::These SteamVR games will make or break virtual reality

In one month, the HTC Vive will be available for pre-order, giving consumers a chance to buy the first room-scale virtual reality system with full head and hand motion tracking. It sounds great, but what are you going to play with it? Valve knew you were going to ask that -- which is why it hosted the SteamVR Developer Showcase in Seattle this week. In all, the company showcased twelve games that stood out as some of the best VR experiences Vive owners can have in 2016. Better still? There's not a bad egg in the bunch -- I've played all of them, and I already want to play all of them again.

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News::That time Twitch jumped the shark

Twitch made its debut in 2011. Since then, the service has evolved from a gaming-only subset of Justin.tv into a popular, culture-shaping phenomenon pioneering the world of live online broadcasting. Justin.tv was quickly swallowed whole by Twitch's immense success, and in 2014 Amazon acquired the entire company for nearly $1 billion. The service has launched careers, beaten YouTube to the punch, attracted celebrities, dominated the streaming eSports market and even spawned its own icon-based language. And it's done all of this in less than five years.

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News::The only video game developer in Mississippi

Mathew Weymouth lives one hour away from the birthplace of the blues, that humid, fertile swampland known as the Mississippi Delta. He grew up along the state's southern coastline, and over the years he absorbed tales of legendary local artists including "The Mad Potter," George E. Ohr, and the painter Walter Inglis Anderson. The Delta fertilizes creativity like it spawns towering cypress trees, and Weymouth is a product of his environment. He's an artist, but with a technical twist.

Weymouth is a self-taught video game developer with big plans for his local community. He wants to build a "gaming incubator" in southern Mississippi, a creative haven for the area's youth, artists, musicians, filmmakers and programmers. It's basically a high-tech neighborhood center where people can work together to create video games and other works of art. But there's one major problem with this idea: He might be the only serious video game developer in the state.

"Here, it's literally just this dead zone in the middle of the United States for technology," Weymouth says.

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News::PS Vita hit with battery and PlayStation Store problems

Sony's PlayStation Vita is usually a quiet little beast, slowly accruing indie titles and the occasional "triple-A" exclusive. Today, however, the under-appreciated handheld has stumbled into the limelight because of some unfortunate technical hiccups. As countless commenters on Reddit, NeoGAF and Sony's PlayStation forums explain, the most recent Vita firmware update (3.57) has rendered the console almost useless for some players. Launching the PlayStation Store can trigger a never-ending "Please Wait" message, and sometimes the console struggles to fall into its sleep/standby mode, draining the battery for many unsuspecting owners.

Via: Kotaku

Source: Reddit, NeoGAF

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News::EA might have revealed secret Xbox One sales figures

We know that Sony has sold 35 million PlayStation 4s, but Microsoft won't talk about how well its rival device is doing. A dignified silence is the stance you normally take when things aren't going too well, but a third party might just have let the key details slip. Eurogamer was listening to Electronic Arts' most recent conference call when CFO Blake Jorgensen revealed the firm's internal sales estimate for the current console generation. According to him, there are 55 million units out in the wild, and simple subtraction tells us that less than 20 million of those are Xbox Ones. We asked Microsoft about the figure, and it came back with a "no comment," as expected.

Source: Eurogamer

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News::Win college tuition if you're good at 'Heroes of the Storm'

If you're good at throwing, catching or hitting objects with sticks, then it's possible to go to college for free on an athletic scholarship. Kids who spent warm summer days indoors working out how to trounce their foes online, on the other hand, get nothing more than a raised eyebrow and a sneer from the admissions tutor. ESPN and Blizzard are hoping to rectify that situation with its Heroes of the Dorm contest, which is coming back for a second year. The tournament matches teams from various colleges, with the members of the winning team earning free tuition for the rest of their degree.

Source: Activision, Heroes of the Dorm

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News::'Need for Speed' becomes a little more social next week

Need for Speed's next Living Game update, dubbed "Showcase," arrives next week, and with it comes a handful of improvements both paint-level and a bit deeper. Taking screenshots has always been pretty easy in the game (click the right stick), but developer Ghost Games is going one step further and adding something that should've been in the game at the outset: A real photo mode with focus, depth of field and other effects that've become all the rage since Infamous: Second Son busted the feature wide open in 2014.

Source: Need for Speed

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News::PlayStation sells well (again), but mobile is hurting Sony

Sony made money. Again! The company saw in tiny increase (0.5%) in sales compared to the same quarter last to 2,581 billion yen (or $21.5 billion), but income now stands at $1.69 billion. This quarter's financial results was yet more balancing (and canceling) out of Sony's many moving parts -- profitable and not. Gaming and Motion Picture arms saw increases in sales, but these were cancelled out by woes in Mobile and Devices arms. Once a positive part of the company's earnings sheets, Sony's smartphone camera sensors saw a decrease in sales -- reflecting the tough times that all companies are experiencing with phone sales. The company seems to be stabilizing its giant electronics ship.

Source: Sony

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News::USC will publish its student's games on PlayStation and Xbox

The premise of college is that it's going to prepare you with what you need to survive in a real-world work environment, but whether or not it fulfills that is another matter altogether. To that end, the University of Southern California has launched its own publishing label for video games in an effort to help students experience every aspect of making a game -- all the way to getting it in the hands of people outside of academia and onto PCs, PlayStations and Xboxes. USC Games Publishing's Tracy Fullerton tells Wired that the imprint is akin to the MIT Press. "These are not books that are going to necessarily be on The New York Times best-seller list, but these are the books that are important, that need to be out there in the zeitgeist."

Source: Wired

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News::No, 'Fable' designer Peter Molyneux isn't retiring today

Peter Molyneux is not done making video games. Molyneux appeared to announce his retirement from the video game industry in a series of tweets today, but it turns out that his account was hacked. The impersonator also claimed that Molyneux was shutting down his latest game, Godus, but that's not true, either.

Source: @pmolyneux

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News::I watched someone commit suicide in VR and it freaked me out

This wasn't how it was supposed to go. I was standing on a junkyard hovercraft, pointing my revolver at the young lady floating on the adjacent skiff. She was my enemy, but I couldn't pull the trigger. Her hand hovered between us, waving back and forth in the universal sign for "stop." Her gun aimed away from me, its barrel touching her temple. I lowered my weapon. She pulled the trigger anyway. In the world of Hover Junkers, a virtual reality game where scavengers wage war over scrap metal and resources, I was a killer -- that's my role -- but nobody ever said anything about suicide.

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News::'Song of the Deep' is GameStop's first published game

GameStop is making its debut as a gaming publisher with Song of the Deep. Created alongside none other than Insomniac Games, the studio behind acclaimed titles such as Ratchet & Clank, this 2D platformer promises an action-packed journey -- and there are stunning visuals to boot. Song of the Deep's story wraps around a girl's search for her missing father, through an underwater adventure that will require you to explore and use discovery skills to accomplish your goal.

Via: The Verge

Source: Insomniac Games

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News::Chrome extension makes quick clips from Twitch broadcasts

In the words of Harlan Ellison, "Pay the writer." Or, in this case, attribute and pay the streamer. Plays.tv is launching a a Chrome app that enables Twitch casters to recieve full attribution for clips that fans make from watching their broadcast sessions. It's a solution to a problem many streamers face: They're spending five or more hours streaming per day and afterward, should they do something pretty crazy in-game, if they want to make a shareable clip of it that means more time spent editing and sitting in front of his or her computer. It's a vicious, time-consuming cycle when some Twitch partners are already spending seven days per week on camera and in front of their gaming rigs.

Source: Plays.TV

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News::Good Old Games is selling still-in-development titles, too

Who says only Steam users get to have all the fun with Early Access games? Well, not Good Old Games anymore. Today the PC-gaming seller is announcing its curated take on vending still-in-development software. Purchases are refundable within 14 days, no questions asked. More than that, if an update breaks one of these games or changes in a way you don't like, you can roll back to a previous version via the service's Galaxy desktop client. And this version of access to non-final games wouldn't truly be a GOG endeavor if any of them were locked behind digital-rights management, so they aren't. Basically, it's treating these builds like any other type of game it'd sell.

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News::ICYMI: Smart sweat detector, AI for gaming and more

Today on In Case You Missed It: Berkeley researchers developed a wearable sensor that can track the chemicals inside your sweat. The idea is that it can help identify dehydration, muscle fatigue and stress, though it could also help spot disease flare-ups for the diabetic.

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News::BBC Radio 1 will broadcast a monthly gaming show

Slowly but surely, BBC Radio 1 has expanded beyond radio and into social and video. It now has its own iPlayer video channel, for instance, which hosts original shows, Live Lounge recordings and interviews with musicians and celebrities. MCV reports that for its next trick, Radio 1 has commissioned a new gaming show, titled The Radio One Gaming Show, which will be hosted by games presenter and YouTuber Julia Hardy.

Source: MCV

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News::Bungie has a new CEO

While Bungie is trying to keep its head down and focus on development of its Destiny sequel, a management reshuffle has thrust the company's operations back into the spotlight. After more than 15 years at the studio, president Harold Ryan has stepped down. Long-time COO Pete Parsons has been chosen to lead the company forward, but will do so as Bungie's new chief.

Via: GamesIndustry

Source: Bungie

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News::'Minecraft' creator wants you to go on a kaleidoscopic trip

Markus "Notch" Persson, the creator of Minecraft has something to show you, but you might not be ready for it. Okay, "your browser might not be ready for it" is probably the more accurate statement. The project? A kaleidoscopic "ray marching fractal generator" that'll run in virtual reality on certain browsers, or just plan old 2D on basically everything else. Spotted by Road to VR, the mesmerizing geometry project (dubbed Unmandelboxing) apparently only weighs about 3.5 KB.

Via: Road to VR

Source: Markus Persson (Twitter)

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News::The CW is bringing eSports to broadcast TV next month

The growing popularity of eSports is making traditional TV networks take notice. We know ESPN's already working hard to embrace that community, and now The CW seems to be on a similar path. In partnership with Machinima, the popular YouTube gaming production company, CW will be airing the ESL Mortal Kombat X Pro League Finals on its broadcast television channel in the US. If you're into it, you can watch the primetime special event February 15th at 8PM ET -- no pay-TV needed.

Source: Variety

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News::Def Leppard uses 'Guitar Hero Live' to debut new music video

Def Leppard is still crankin' it to 11 in 2016, on the heels of a new self-titled album released in October. To debut its latest music video, though, the band is taking a rather interesting approach. The video for the track "Dangerous" will first appear in the game Guitar Hero Live as a playable track. If you missed the revival of Guitar Hero last year, the latest installment pairs gameplay with "live" visuals of artists playing gigs. It includes everyone from Carrie Underwood to Avenged Sevenfold.

Via: The Verge

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News::'The Witness' causes motion sickness in some players

Some first-person games -- including Skyrim, Fallout 4 and The Talos Principle -- trigger motion sickness and nausea in certain players, and The Witness is the latest addition to this list. The Witness is Braid creator Jonathan Blow's latest game, and it's a vast, introspective puzzler populated with pastels and intricate, physical riddles. While the puzzles are designed to induce figurative headaches, some players have taken to the game's Steam page, NeoGAF and Reddit complaining of queasiness and dizziness while playing.

Via: Geek

Source: NeoGAF, Steam, Reddit

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News::Google's AI is the first to defeat a Go champion

Google's DeepMind division has pulled off an impressive milestone. It's AI has beaten a top ranked Go player five matches to zero. While computers winning chess matches against professional players has been old hat for a while, the computational power needed to master the Chinese game is astronomical. According to Google, there are more possible moves in a game of Go than there are atoms in the universe.

Source: Google

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News::Ride along with Apollo 11 astronauts on launch day

David Whelan, lead developer for the kickstarted Apollo 11 VR Experience, announced on Wednesday that the game will be a launch title for three upcoming VR systems: the Oculus Rift, HTC Vive and PlayStation VR. The team is also reportedly working on a version for the Oculus DK2 dev set, however they have no current plans to port the game to the Samsung Gear.

Via: VR Focus

Source: Kickstarter

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News::Vertical scroller 'Downwell' fires its way to Android

Downwell is finally coming to the Play Store. The vertical scroller where your character falls down a well (hence, the name) while battling enemies was only available via Steam and for iOS devices. Its creator Ojiro Fumoto has been developing the Android version for quite a while, and he's just announced on Twitter that it's coming out on January 27th, 12nn PT/3pm ET. He didn't mention how much the Devolver-published game would cost you, but it's priced at $2.99 on iTunes. We don't see it on Google Play yet, though, so you'll just have to try searching for it later.

Source: Ojiro Fumoto

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News::Photo contest awards $10,000 for finding 'everyday heroes'

Attention class, it's time to get your submissions ready for Mr. Jefferson's "Everyday Heroes" photo contest. Well, not really, but Life is Strange publisher Square Enix is bringing the sweepstakes from its tale of a time-traveling teen into the real world. Unlike in the game, you aren't competing for a trip to San Francisco to showcase your work. Here you're vying for a $10,000 scholarship while you hopefully "discover and capture how normal people make the world a better place," as a post on the Square Enix blog puts it.

Via: Square Enix

Source: Everyday Heroes

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News::AMD wants to open up PC graphics chips

AMD isn't just depending on ever-faster chipsets to boost graphics performance -- it thinks coders can lend a hand, too. The company's new GPUOpen effort gives developers the kind of open source code and documentation they need to use low-level PC video card features, port apps and otherwise understand GPU aspects that are normally kept hush-hush (outside of game consoles, at least). If everything goes smoothly, you'll see games that look nicer on current hardware, and general computing tasks that lean more on GPUs to crunch numbers.

Via: Slashdot

Source: GPUOpen

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News::'Monument Valley' is the latest game soundtrack going vinyl

Monument Valley was one of the most interesting, unique and beautiful games released in 2014 on any platform. Forget that fact that it's "just" a mobile game -- developer UsTwo build an extremely memorable experience, and the game's music contributed heavily to that experience. If you want to immerse yourself in the game's soundscape, the geeky art purveyors iam8bit have just the thing for you -- the soundtrack for Monument Valley will go up for sale on vinyl tomorrow.

Source: iam8bit

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News::Platinum is making a 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' game

It's been a bit since we had a new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles game and an even longer time since we had a good one. But that could soon change when Platinum Games unleashes TMNT: Mutants in Manhattan this summer on PC, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360 and Xbox One. Yeah, that's right: the rumors that swirled around last month are true. Over on the PlayStation Blog, Platinum's Robert Cooper says that if you've played any of the studio's previous action games that this shouldn't have a lot of trouble getting comfortable in the solo and co-op campaign.

Source: PlayStation Blog

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News::Death Star map coming to 'Star Wars: Battlefront' this fall

Get ready, Star Wars: Battlefront buffs -- there's a ton of downloadable content coming your way. For starters, following the release of the Battle of Jakku in December, DICE will add more DLC content to its game tomorrow, January 27th. This includes the ability for player's to create private matches, support for new multiplayer modes in the Tatooine Survival map, and Battle of Hoth-themed character clothing for Luke Skywalker and Han Solo. While that's all fine and dandy, we know what you're here for: the Death Star.

Source: EA

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News::'Destiny' player matching focuses more on good connections

Destiny's Crucible multiplayer mode can be a blast... up until you're lumped into a match so laggy that you may lose simply because your rivals keep jumping around. That might not be a problem after this week, though. Bungie is trying out a matchmaking update that puts more of an emphasis on connection quality. The move should not only give you a better chance at pulling off that kill streak, but speed up the matchmaking process itself -- you'll spend less time twiddling your thumbs while Destiny finds a final player for that Control game. Skill will still matter in match-ups, but it won't be quite the be-all, end-all factor that it was before.

Via: Polygon

Source: Bungie

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News::'Five Nights at Freddy's World' removed from Steam

Five Nights at Freddy's, the jump-scare franchise depicted above that YouTubers love to make reaction videos to, has just joined company with Afro Samurai: it's had a release pulled from Steam due to poor reviews. Developer Scott Cawthon writes on the Five Nights at Freddy's 4 Steam listing that even though Five Nights at Freddy's World might have had a "very positive" rating at 87 percent, he's removing it because he wasn't happy with the reviews and ratings it'd been garnering. He's also requested that Steam-owner Valve remove the time limit from purchase refunds, so that no matter how long has passed between purchase and return, customers will get their money back.

Via: Kotaku

Source: Steam

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News::The Twitch app is down for some PS4 players

The Twitch app on PlayStation 4 has been down since Friday for some users under the error code CE-34878-0. But, fear not, live-streaming PS4 fans: Twitch is on the case.

"Our team is aware of it and working to get it fixed as soon as possible," a Twitch spokesperson tells Engadget. There's no word on how widespread the issue is, how long it should take to resolve or what's causing it.

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News::'Dangerous Golf' is a crazy game from the creators of 'Burnout'

The co-founders of Criterion Games, Fiona Sperry and Alex Ward, left the EA-owned property last year to start their own company. We now know that venture as Three Fields Entertainment, which today is introducing its first game ever: Dangerous Golf. As the name suggests, it isn't your average take on a sports title, with a story that lets you create chaos on over 100 holes across four different locations -- all insane in their own right.

Source: Three Fields Entertainment

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News::Sherlock Pikachu is the best Pikachu

Nintendo has just announced a new (Japan-only) title starring Pikachu as a world-famous detective. Named Famous Detective Pikachu: The Birth of a New Partnership (translated by our Japan-based editor), it's described as a cinematic adventure game in which a "smug," "wise-cracking" Pikachu will team up with a boy named Tim to solve a mystery. We already have a trailer, which very, very clearly takes influence from the BBC's Sherlock.

Source: Nintendo Japan

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News::ICYMI: California water woes, VR arcade life and more

Today on In Case You Missed It: California adjusted the details in the project to address the water crisis in the state by diverting water, called WaterFix. VR gaming is being visualized at Sundance as a multiplayer theme park paradise. And a new smart mirror designed to simply take photos of full outfits has us feeling a little crazy. Which is where this Japanese product to capture bad guys comes in for the laugh relief.

Please share any interesting science or tech videos, anytime! Just tweet us with the #ICYMI hashtag to @mskerryd.

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News::Sony creates a new company to run everything PlayStation

Okay, so this is kind of weird: Sony just announced that it's spinning PlayStation off into its own separate company, dubbed Sony Interactive Entertainment LLC. It combines Sony Computer Entertainment (basically any and all PlayStation related hardware and software) with Sony Network Entertainment (services like PlayStation Vue and the PlayStation Store) and will be led by Andrew House as president and global CEO.

Developing...

Source: PR Newswire

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