News::'Life is Strange' disc puts every episode in a tidy package

If you've been holding off on playing Life is Strange until there was a really cool, commemorative physical release, your wait's over. Developer Dontnod's episodic game about time-traveling high school girls hits retail today with a pretty snazzy limited edition packing an art book, the game's soundtrack (featuring both licensed and original songs) and all five installments for PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. The collector's edition will run you $40, while the vanilla version is priced $10 cheaper. But! If you're an Amazon Prime member, Jeff Bezos is knocking $8 off the special edition and reducing the standard version's price by $6. That only applies to console copies, though.

Source: Square Enix (1)

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News::'Tropes vs. Women in Video Games' is changing a bit

Culture critic Anita Sarkeesian has made some significant waves since launching her wildly successful Tropes vs. Women in Video Games Kickstarter over three years ago. But it wasn't without a heavy cost. In an update to the backers of her crowdfunding campaign, Sarkeesian reveals that she was dealing with a very serious case of burnout that was affecting both her physical and mental health last year after the scope of the project ballooned unexpectedly. Sarkeesian says she's been coping with depression her entire life, but the online harassment at her expense since launching Tropes, combined with the decline in her physical health, amplified it.

Source: Kickstarter

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News::Sony Online's former chief opens his own game studio

John Smedley may have left Sony Online Entertainment just months after its acquisition, but he's still staying true to his roots. He recently co-founded a studio, Pixelmage Games, and is already off to the races building his first title: meet Hero's Song, a crowdfunded action role-playing game with a few unique twists. It's more "measured" than frantic hack-and-slash titles like Diablo III, and it revolves around a system of gods that shape the world, the challenges when you die (if you lose, you're dead forever) and your future. You can even become a god, if you're good enough. Unsurprisingly, Hero's Song will be playable both solo and online against many other adventurers.

Via: IGN

Source: Kickstarter

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News::Xbox One gets a smarter home screen and leaderboards

After a holiday break, Microsoft is back to trotting out Xbox One software upgrades... and the next one is a doozy. The impending February update will introduce a smarter home screen that lets you rearrange pins and update your activity feed whenever there's something new. Also, it's much better if you're particularly competitive -- there's a Gamerscore leaderboard that lets you know whether you're the top achievement hunter among your friends.

Source: Xbox Wire

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News::'Minecraft: Education Edition' is launching this summer

Minecraft has become a popular tool to teach children about countless subjects including art, geography and computer science. A tweaked version of the game called MinecraftEdu has long helped educators with this task, but now it has a new owner: Microsoft. The company, which bought developer Mojang and Minecraft for $2.5 billion in 2014, is now working on a new version called Minecraft: Education Edition. It'll be available as a free trial this summer, before individual and group pricing models are introduced for institutions that want long-term access.

Source: Mojang, Minecraft: Education Edition (FAQ)

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News::London is getting a 10-day 'Games Festival' this April

The UK has never held a video game event with quite the same clout as E3, the Tokyo Game Show or Gamescom. There's EGX and the indie-focused EGX Rezzed, but neither attracts quite as much attention as their international counterparts. To remedy the problem, Film London and games trade body Ukie are launching a new "London Games Festival" this April, which will offer 15 events across 10 different venues. These include a weekend "Now Play This" convention at Somerset House, industry talks at BFI Southbank and a bunch of smaller London Games Fringe events.

Source: Ukie

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News::Samsung is building chips for next-gen gaming graphics

Samsung likes being the first kid on the block with new memory products, and has done it again with a type of DRAM. The so-called HBM2 modules can power through data at the rate of 256GBps (with a capital "B"), making them a whopping seven times faster than the best DDR5 chips on the market. The company said the 20-nanometer chips are mainly aimed at server manufacturers who are willing to spend for the latest toys. However, they will also allow NVIDIA and AMD to accelerate performance (and reduce power consumption) significantly on upcoming graphics cards.

Source: Samsung

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