Lionhead Studios may have been shuttered, but that doesn't mean it's the end of the beloved Fable franchise. Flaming Fowl Studios, a studio created from the ashes of Lionhead's closing in March, is looking to revive the series, albeit in a very different format.
Via: IGN
For its upcoming Polaris GPUs, AMD doesn't just want to entice hardcore gamers. Instead, it's aiming to bring virtual reality-capable PCs to just about everyone with its new Radeon RX480 video card, which will retail for a mere $199. The RX480 is capable of more than 5 teraflops of computing power, whereas NVIDIA's new GTX 1070 packs in over 6 teraflops for $380, and the high-end GTX 1080 sports around 9 teraflops for $600. On paper alone, AMD's new card is an astounding value.
Mojang's putting its blocky foot down when it comes to brands and Minecraft. In an open letter to the community on its site, Owen Hill, the company's director of creative communications, laid out new guidelines specifically directed at companies, ad agencies and any other non-gamer entities looking to capitalize on Minecraft's massive user community.
For an idea of just how vast that base is, consider that, in 2014, creator Markus "Notch" Persson revealed that the PC version had over 100 million registered users. It's understandable that a pool of users that large would prove a tempting lure for brands that want to market their wholly unrelated wares to the community. But no more -- according to the new building promotion guidelines, it's no longer permissible to build servers or maps to "promote unrelated products in playable form." So what does that translate to? Well, you can say goodbye to awkward promotions like the giant, working cellphone CaptainSparklez made on behalf of Verizon, or Disney commissioning a map of Tomorrowland to promote its film of the same name. All that said, if you're a mega fan and you do these sorts of things on your own time and dime, well, that's just fine by Mojang.
Source: Mojang
If Microsoft is hoping to quell rumors of new Xbox hardware at E3, it isn't doing the greatest job. The company has permanently cut the prices of Xbox One consoles by $50 across the board, lowering the base price to $299 -- even some of the nicer multi-game 1TB bundles now sell for $319. These are tremendousprices, of course, but they're coming just a couple of weeks before E3. While this could just be an attempt to goose sales during the historically quiet summer, it's only going to fuel talk of a possible smaller 2TB system that would become the new flagship. The price drop is great if you're looking for the most affordable Xbox One possible, but it's otherwise worth holding off a little while... especially if you want to see what Sony brings to the table.
Via: Polygon
Source: Xbox.com
It's often hard to convey what's happening inside virtual reality. HTC Vive's green screen idea attempts to do just that -- and also make it more interesting to watch. I will admit: Watching someone else play in VR is typically pretty damn boring. But this concept from HTC represents a rare opportunity to show what someone's doing when they strap on a headset. The tech is clever, but not rocket science: A camera (with a HTC Vive controller attached for positioning within the VR world), captures you on green screen. The camera then sends this feed to a connected PC which processes it in tandem with the VR game (in this case, teleporting-shooter Jeeboman.) Then, like a hyped video-game promise from decades ago, it's like you're inside the game.
Now that Intel has officially trotted out Core i7 Extreme Edition processors based on its shiny new Broadwell-E platform, gaming PC makers are coming out of the woodwork with systems that tout these extra-fast chips. You'll now find up to a 10-core processor in models from Origin PC (the Chronos, Genesis, Millennium and Neuron) and Velocity Micro (the Raptor Z95, Raptor Signature Edition and ProMagix HD80). If you like to run multiple apps at once or use software that thrives on multi-core CPUs (such as video editors), you're in paradise.
Source: Origin PC, Velocity Micro
The trend of gigantic all-in-one gaming PCs isn't ending any time soon. Digital Storm has unveiled a new version of the Aura, a 34-inch curved system that packs some truly high-end hardware. To begin with, it's one of the first PCs to use Intel's enthusiast-oriented, Broadwell-E-based Core i7 Extreme Edition processors -- you can equip it with up to a 10-core chip if you're bent on juggling multiple apps at the same time. You can also stuff in a GeForce GTX 1080 to make sure games play smoothly at the Aura's ultra-wide 3,440 x 1,440 resolution.
Source: Digital Storm
Nintendo and The Pokémon Company have caused a minor international kerfuffle after deciding to reduce the number of languages it translates Pokémon games into. Back in February, the pair revealed that Pokémon Sun and Moon would be released in traditional and simplified Chinese -- the former for Hong Kong plus Taiwan, and the latter for Mainland China. But rather than keeping the three original sets of localized character names for these markets, the companies dropped Cantonese -- the main dialect of Hong Kong and many overseas Chinese folks -- and unified the Mandarin Chinese names used by the two other larger markets. The news didn't go down well with Pokemon fans in Hong Kong, and yesterday, around 20 locals staged a protest outside the Japanese consulate, with help from anti-communist political party Civic Passion. They came armed with banners demanding that Pei-kaa-jau (Mandarin for Pikachu) should be restored to Bei-kaa-chyu (Cantonese Pikachu) for their local market.
Source: HK01, Quartz, Next Media
In the middle of humid Taiwan, Computex is a show mostly all about computers. There's always other stuff, but it centers on PCs. ASUS started the show a little early, but we're also hearing from Intel, Microsoft and more about what to expect over the next year or two. Mobile computing is The Thing now, so the likes of Qualcomm will have something to say as well. Virtual reality has ushered in a renaissance in PC gaming, and we're sure that'll also inform what we see this year.
You'll find the news right here -- we''ll be reporting all week.
Now that the megahertz race has slowed down in the desktop processor world, the new race is all about more and more cores. To that end, Intel just announced its first 10-core desktop CPU, the Core i7-6950X Extreme Edition, today at Computex. (It's had 10-core Xeon CPUs for servers since 2011). The new processor will run at 3GHz (with boost speeds up to 3.5GHz), pack in 25MB of cache and feature Intel's new Turbo Boost 3.0 technology. Just but be prepared to pay through the nose for the privilege of owning it, as the 10-core i7 Extreme Edition will run you $1,723.
It's almost E3 time, and that means something big for theater-going PlayStation fans: Sony's PlayStation E3 Experience is back. This year, you can watch the company's gaming presentation on June 13th at over 85 theaters in not only North America, but Latin America as well. Everyone who gets in will walk out with some obligatory swag, including a currently-mysterious digital "gift basket." Tickets will be free when they're up for grabs on May 31st at 1PM Eastern, so you'll want to move quickly -- there will be plenty of gamers curious to see Sony's future products on the biggest screen possible.
Source: PlayStation Blog
Computex is typically ASUS' show. Every year, the Taiwanese company takes to Taipei to unload a host of its wares and, in the process, steal the lion's share of the show's headlines. Well, 2016 is no different as ASUS has taken the wraps off a slew of devices including an ultraportable that's thinner than Apple's own MacBook, Surface-like 2-in-1 PCs, three new ZenFones, a charming robot assistant for the home and a me-too mobile VR headset. Don't fret if you whiled away the holiday weekend and need to get up to speed on day one of the show -- we've got you covered in the video above and the gallery below.
If you miss the days of playing Pong with old-school dial controllers but would rather not track down a vintage console or arcade cabinet, today's your lucky day. Daniel Perdomo and crew have built a real-world Pong machine that replicates the pioneering game with physical parts. Despite what it looks like, it's not just an Atari-themed air hockey table. Instead of letting physics take over, the machine maps virtual ball and paddle movements to objects. All the eccentricities of Pong gameplay are intact, just in a more tangible (and arguably, far more immersive) form. LEDs track the score, while the controllers are rejiggered hard drives.
Via: Gizmodo, Popular Mechanics
Source: Daniel Perdomo (YouTube)
There's a special place in cinema hell for video game movies. From 1993's cringeworthy Super Mario Bros. -- a high-profile abomination that even Nintendo wants to forget -- to the basic-cable-worthy schlock that was Mortal Kombat and even the underwhelming Jake Gyllenhaal-vehicle Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, games have failed to make the big screen translation. But that's precisely why director -- and son of the late, great David Bowie -- Duncan Jones (Moon, Source Code) agreed to tackle the theatrical debut of developer Blizzard's massively multiplayer online role-playing game Warcraft.
"There's been a rough track record of movies based on video games," says Jones. "I do like the challenge. I like the idea of maybe making a film which is way better than anyone expected it to be because I know the expectations are all over the place."
ROG, ASUS' well-respected gaming PC arm, likes to unveil a barrage of weird systems at Taipei's Computex -- and this year is no different. To start with, its insane liquid-cooled GX700 gaming laptop is coming back for another round. The GX800 still has the giant attachment at the rear, but will now be powered by an NVIDIA SLI GPU, along with Intel's K-series CPU -- there's two 330W power supplies to ensure all that liquid-cooled overclocking you'll be doing. If you're not planning to overclock, then you're possibly looking at the wrong gaming machine. We'll add more specifics when we hear them.
If you're a serious enough gamer, you've likely looked into building your own PC for the ultimate gaming experience. But the process can be a little tedious, especially if you're new to figuring out where all the different components fit. ASUS's ROG (short for Republic of Gaming) division has unveiled a new product called the Avalon that's designed to alleviate exactly that concern. Think of it as a semi-homemade approach to DIY PC building.
Well, look at what we have here. Tucked away in the corner of ASUS' Computex event is what looks like a VR headset, and a particularly fancy-looking one at that. The goggles part of it is a shiny silvery metal and its straps seem to be made out of leather. After digging around, we found out that it's meant to be used in much the same way as the Gear VR, except you'd use it with an ASUS' ZenFone instead. Like with the Gear VR, you'd use the touchpad and buttons on the side for navigation. There's not much else we know about it, but we're guessing we'll learn more about it later this year. At IFA, perhaps?
Come next year, ARM has one major theme in mind for its next batch of mobile processors: virtual reality. Its new Cortex-A73 chip and Mali-G71 GPU are, naturally, faster than its current lineup. But more so than the past few years, where incremental improvements were enough, ARM sees VR as the ideal goalpost for its chips. The new Mali chip, for example, will be able to push up 4K screens with refresh rates of up to 120Hz (90Hz is the bare minimum for decent VR). And both new processors will also be easier on battery life, which means you'll be able to stay jacked into virtual worlds for much longer.
It's no secret that the new Doom is chock-full of Easter eggs and other surprises, but the latest is one you wouldn't find just by wandering around the game's tortured halls. Intrepid fan TomButcher has noticed that at least one tune in the soundtrack, "Cyberdemon," shows both pentagrams and the number 666 when you visualize the music's frequencies through a spectrogram. Composer Mick Gordon recently teased that this hidden sinister imagery might be present in a video (below at the 3:29 mark), but there's no doubt about it now. Clearly, he remembers the days when the original Doom's hellish artwork had some parents in a frenzy.
Via: Reddit
Source: TomButcher (Imgur)
Smashing pots and vases as a rampaging virtual kitty sounds so much more fun if you can physically act it out, doesn't it? Good thing you can do just that if you have an HTC Vive. Catlateral Damage, that game that puts you in the body of a mischievous cat, now has a virtual reality version for the headset. Motion controllers serve as your paws and tools of destruction as you walk around houses and museums causing havoc. The VR version is available as a free DLC on Steam -- even better, the game itself is 50 percent off until May 31st. Of course, if you don't have a Vive, you can always unleash your inner feline on the PS4.
Source: Steam
NVIDIA's official GeForce GTX 1080 is fast, but let's face it: you're really waiting for the third-party cards that push the limits of what the high-end graphics chipset can really do. And it looks like your patience just paid off. ASUS has revealed the ROG Strix GeForce GTX 1080, and it pushes well past what NVIDIA's board can do. The regular Strix runs at a 1.76GHz base clock speed (with a boost to 1.9GHz) versus the reference model's 1.6GHz, and an overclocked version bumps that to 1.78GHz (boosting to 1.94GHz). You're only looking at a few more frames per second in your games, but that can make the difference between a glass-smooth 60 frames per second and the occasional hitch.
Via: Polygon
The rumors are true: No Man's Sky isn't coming out in June, as originally planned. Instead, the world will have to wait until August to play developer Hello Games' ultra ambitious space-exploration game. Writing on the PlayStation Blog, lead developer Sean Murray says that the game will now launch this August 9th domestically and August 12th in the UK. The reason? He says a few bits weren't up to snuff. "We understand that this news is disappointing," he writes. "Making this game is the hardest thing I've ever done in my life, but we are so close now, and we're prepared to make the tough choices to get it right.
Source: PlayStation Blog
The best part of Battleborn is its prologue cinematic. That's not to say the game itself isn't any good -- in fact, it's a wonderful single- and multiplayer experience for the fantastical first-person-shooter crowd. However, the opening video is divine. It's evocative, rich and effortlessly cool, built on a base of smooth hip hop and anime-inspired, neon-coated illustrations. When I think of Battleborn, my mind is immediately saturated in the cinematic's soulful rhythm.
This is a new brand of video game artistry. As a game, Battleborn doesn't feature cartoon characters; it's a fully realized 3D experience from Gearbox, the creators of Borderlands. In the same vein as Borderlands, Battleborn is highly stylized, but it looks nothing like the opening cinematic.
That was on purpose.
Ars Technica reports that a "well-known European studio" is currently working on a VR game for "set in the universe of an established, long-running franchise" the Xbox One console. The unnamed game is slated for a 2017 release. Ars received the news as part of its E3 pre-briefings and was able to confirm it with the developer's PR rep. A PC and PS4 version are both also supposedly in the works. This news lends significant credence to rumors that the upgraded Xbox One models that are expected to debut at the expo will be VR capable and compatible with the Oculus Rift headset.
Source: ArsTechnica
By Kimber Streams
This post was done in partnership with The Wirecutter, a buyer's guide to the best technology. Read the full article here.
After putting in 15 hours of research and testing—in addition to hundreds of hours gaming on controllers in years past—and enlisting the help of an experienced panel of gamers, we found that the Sony DualShock 4 Wireless Controller (yes, the one that comes with the PlayStation 4) is the best gaming controller to use with your computer. In fact, we concluded that all the best PC controllers are console controllers. But a gaming controller is a highly personal object, and your preferences may differ based on your hand size, gaming style, and operating system. If you already own a controller that you love, you probably don't need to buy a new one.
HP revealed an arsenal of new gaming gear yesterday, but it had one more device up it's sleeve. Another PC that's part of the recently announced Omen line is a backpack machine that's VR-ready. It's still in development, so details are a bit scarce at this point, but the mobile setup packs a Intel Core i5 or i7 processor, up to 32GB RAM and everything else you'll need to power an HTC Vive or Oculus Rift. There's no word on the graphics card just yet, but a belt holds two batteries -- one for the CPU and one for the graphics card.
HTC is cooking up a game of its own for the Vive virtual reality headset. Little is known about the title, other than its name -- Front Defense -- and that it'll be shown at the Computex conference in Taiwan next week. A quick translation of HTC's announcement describes a military shooter with "fierce fighting on the battlefield" and "classic" weaponry spanning pistols, rifles and anti-tank rockets. HTC has little experience as a game developer, so the announcement comes as a surprise. Given the Vive's competition -- which will soon include PlayStation VR and Google Daydream -- a new, exclusive title could help it to sway people still sitting on the fence.
Via: The Verge
Source: HTC
It's hard to talk about Dragon Quest Builders without mentioning Minecraft. Clearly, Square Enix's title is inspired by the block-building phenomenon developed by Mojang. But the two play quite differently -- Builders is a more structured adventure with clear objectives and villagers to help. The game launched on PS4, PS3 and PS Vita back in January, but that was only for Japan. Today, Square Enix has confirmed it'll be coming to the West too, arriving on PS4 and PS Vita (digital-only) this October.
The menagerie of content-specific top level domain (TLD) names grew once again on Tuesday when registry service, Uniregistry, opened up .game to the public. It joins other custom TLDs like .beer and .nyc, which have already been around for years.
Via: Polygon
Source: Uniregistry
LEGO Star Wars: The Force Awakens is coming to a galaxy near you this June, and it's bringing a bevy of downloadable content with it accessible via Season Pass.
Mirror's Edge, the cult-classic video game franchise from EA, is set to become a television series from the makers of Big Brother, The Biggest Loser and Hell on Wheels. Endemol Shine Studios acquired the TV rights to Mirror's Edge and is working with EA to transform it into a female-centric action series (much like the game itself). Deadline originally reported the deal and EA confirmed its existence to Engadget.
"We are excited to be working with Endemol Shine Studios to explore a potential Mirror's Edge project for television," an EA spokesperson said.
Minecraft is about to get a whole lot more competitive. Mojang, 4J Studios and Microsoft have teamed up to introduce a special new PvP mini game for Minecraft: Console Edition, and it's called simply Battle.
Source: Microsoft
Indie studio Sloclap has teamed with Devolver Digital on a new melee-based MMO, dubbed Absolver. The game is currently scheduled for release on both consoles and PC some point in 2017.
Twitch viewers know the problem: you've seen something amazing on a stream that you're dying to share, but you'd rather not make friends watch the whole stream (or remember the exact time) to relive the moment. What to do? After today, it should only take a few clicks. Twitch is rolling out a Clips feature that creates a shareable video capturing the 25 seconds before you tap the button, and 5 seconds afterward. After that, you get a web link that takes people directly to the broadcaster; if the feed is no longer live, you'll go to the exact moment the clip began in the finished video.
Source: Twitch
Oxenfree's soundtrack is an electronica daydream that fades into a bumping nightmare; it's the aural interpretation of the sun setting over an abandoned, beachside military base packed with deadly secrets. In other words, it's perfectly suited to the game's haunting storyline and award-winning visual style. Thanks to iam8bit, the Oxenfree soundtrack is now available in vinyl form, including art from comic illustrator Austin James (Wet Brain) and a holographic portal on the front cover.
Deus Ex: Mankind Divided explores a future where humanity is torn by the rise of augmentation. Set fifteen years in the future, it's now commonplace for people to equip themselves with artificial limbs. But after the so-called "aug incident," where augmented humans were covertly hacked and forced to turn violent, society is split down the middle -- both ethically and physically. Augmented and non-augmented individuals are separated in the streets, fuelling civil unrest. It's a gripping backdrop for a video game, and one you can now absorb through a live-action trailer.
Source: Deus Ex: Mankind Divided (YouTube)
I know what you're thinking -- another special edition for an indie game? Sure it's been done before, many times, but the Hyper Light Drifter Collector's Edition looks pretty sweet. It comes with a cyan "SNES cartridge," a 24-page manual, a 24-inch by 18-inch world map poster, a box to store it all in and a digital code for the game. That manual is particularly welcome; a full-color booklet with information on enemies, drifters, and tons of beautiful artwork. The SNES cartridge is in quotes because it's just a non-functional piece of art. Also it's a North American-style SNES cartridge, so if you owned a European or Asian console, it won't look very familiar to you.
Source: iam8bit
Visual novels and dating sims run the gamut from benign to completely out there. Hatoful Boyfriend, a dating sim all about birds, is quirky but not totally unapproachable. It's just cute enough to pique your interest and then reel you in. It's also finally made its way to the App Store.
Sony has announced a new milestone in PlayStation 4 sales: 40 million. And it says it plans to sell another 20 million by April next year.
Anyone with a basic knowledge of math could've worked out the milestone from the company's annual earning report last month, where it announced it had sold 17.7 million PlayStation 4s over the past year. Add that to 2014's 14.8 million and 2013's 7.5 million and that's -- you guessed it -- 40 million.
The 40 million figure covers sales up to and including March 31st, and Sony obviously didn't stop selling PS4s then. That's why today's announcement now states "more than" 40 million. In reality, given the pace of sales, we're probably a couple million over that by now. Either way, the news has the added bonus of being some positive PR as we head towards the annual E3 conference.
Although Microsoft stopped reporting Xbox One sales, third-party statistics had the console at 20 million sales in February. If that's accurate -- Microsoft hasn't confirmed or denied the figure -- then the PlayStation 4 has outsold the Xbox One by around two to one.
Sony is rumored to be announcing a new version of the PlayStation 4, codenamed Neo, at E3 in June, prior to its release later this year. The new console would exist alongside the PS4 as a more powerful alternative capable of displaying 4K content. The Neo would certainly help Sony meet its aggressive target of selling 20 million consoles this financial year.
Source: Sony (2016 Forecast), (2015 Earnings), (2014 / 2013 sales)
Telltale Games, the very same name behind games like The Walking Dead and The Wolf Among Us, is set to publish its survival horde crafting game 7 Days to Die. It's coming out a lot sooner than expected, arriving on June 28th for $29.99.
HP gave us a brief taste of the legendary Voodoo PC gaming brand with its Omen laptop over nearly two years ago. Now, the company is bringing the Omen name to all of its gaming hardware -- a new lineup of laptops and desktops, as well as a 32-inch quad-HD monitor. On the laptop side, HP is going is going for more aggressive pricing, starting at $899 for the 15.6-inch model ($980 for the 17.3-inch model). And with its new Omen desktop, HP is aiming to be VR ready with enough power to run the HTC Vive and Oculus Rift.
Nintendo's first big foray into mobile gaming, Miitomo, boasts 10 million downloads, but it's more than a game -- it's a quasi social network that's apparently turning into a ghost town. It's generally understood that games see a big bump in players at the outset and gradually that number declines over time. For social networks, where the typical "gameplay," so to speak, is interacting with others, once the user-base declines, there isn't much else you can do. Just ask everyone still on Ello. The folks at the SurveyMonkey Intelligence blog have been keeping an eye on Miitomo and have made some sobering observations on how Nintendo's smartphone app has performed since launch.
Source: SurveyMonkey
Where do you go after murdering the French fashion scene and defending the art of assassination in Italy? For Agent 47, the hired killer that defines the Hitman games, that's up to his handlers -- and on May 31st, they're sending him to Morocco.
Source: Hitman
The Division's Conflict update is here, and it brings some big features for players eager to find new things to do. Great! Only... some of those features aren't working properly. Players are reporting that high value target missions aren't unlocking, and that the Clear Sky incursion resets all on its own. Worryingly, users have also noticed characters going missing -- a problem that surfaced with the last update, and was eventually traced to a server hiccup.
Battleborn, the frenetic team-based shooter from Gearbox Software, has introduced a $20 price cut. What's more, a brand new character joined its ranks, all on the same day rival shooter Overwatch made its debut. Coincidence or genius marketing? It could be a little bit of both.
Source: Polygon
Nintendo has added new characters to its Super Mario Maker before, but this week the title gains another fan favorite. Starting tomorrow evening (May 26th), there will be a new Event Course for players in North America to complete, and doing so will unlock both Hello Kitty and My Melody has playable characters. If you live in Europe or Japan, the two new options will be available the morning of Friday, May 27th.
Via: IGN
Source: Nintendo News
Pokemon Go, the real-world equivalent to kicking off your own journey to becoming a Pokemon master, is finally available for beta testers in the US as of today.
E3 kicks off on June 12th and Microsoft will be there in full-force, showing off the latest and greatest Xbox games and hardware. The company hasn't yet revealed what it'll announce at the big show, but The Verge and Kotaku claim Xbox is working on two new devices -- however, that's where the reports' similarities stop.
You won't be left out of the E3 festivities just because you can't make it to Los Angeles for E3 Live. Nintendo is giving gamers in New York City an opportunity to play The Legend of Zelda for the Wii U between June 14th and June 19th if they're willing to jump through a few hoops. To start, you'll have to show up for a "Super-Fan Signup Day" at Nintendo's New York store on the morning of June 11th to have a chance of playing. If you're one of the 500 people to make the cut, you'll have to line up at the store on June 14th to get a wristband and make an appointment for some hands-on time.
Source: Nintendo (BusinessWire)
It's been less than a year since Honeyslug, the trio behind games like Hohokum and Super Exploding Zoo disbanded to pursue solo projects. Today, we're seeing one of the first such efforts, Loot Rascals, a roguelike strategy game.
Loot Rascals is the first title from Hollow Ponds, a new studio founded by Nikki and Ricky Haggett, both of who were on the Hohokum team, the latter as lead designer. Also working on the game are artists Swatpaz, an animator for Adventure Time, and Meowza, who worked on Alphabear and Road Not Taken.
Source: Hollow Ponds