Razer announced pricing and availability for its new Core external graphics box at GDC on Wednesday. The device is available for pre-order starting today and units will begin shipping in April. It will set you back $400 if purchased in tandem with a Blade Stealth or $500 if you buy it separately. But don't worry if you didn't take our advice and have already purchased a Blade Stealth, you'll still get the $100 discount.
Now that the GDC show floor is officially open to attendees, it's time for the routine trophy ceremonies. It all starts with the Independent Games Festival Awards at 6:30PM PT/9:30PM ET tonight, followed directly by the Game Developers Choice Awards. And because we care deeply about you, our readers, we're embedding a livestream of the back-to-back events in this post. We'll also be talking to the 2016 winners as they come off the stage -- more on that soon.
Source: Twitch (GDC)
When most people strap on a virtual reality headset for the first time, their immediate instinct is to look down, attempting to see their hands. And, the majority of the time, they'll be sorely disappointed. VR is a new frontier for hardware developers and so far the focus has been on improving graphics, decreasing latency, upgrading lenses and crafting believable visual worlds. Hands are second-tier -- sure, they're in some demos, but they're not your hands. The fingers don't bend, they can't grab and they don't move as your appendages do in the real world.
The Manus VR gloves fix this.
On top of offering networking compatibility with other gaming platforms, Microsoft had another treat for developers at GDC this week: An easy way to create their own game tournaments with Xbox Live. Think of it as an evolution of Xbox Live's multiplayer matchmaking. The aptly titled Xbox Live Tournament Platform, which will support both Xbox One and Windows 10, is clearly meant to make Microsoft an even bigger player in the burgeoning esports market. To that end, it's also teaming up with esports companies FaceIT and ESL, who will use the platform for upcoming tournaments. The first titles to support the tournament platform should arrive by the end of the year.
Via: Polygon
My most recent virtual reality experience was created by a 9-year-old. That's according to Martin Repetto, CEO of Voxelus, a platform that lets you build, share and play your own VR games. As I roam through this Minecraft-like world, steered by a Gear VR headset, Repetto tells me that a kid is the one who designed what I'm seeing. But for Voxelus, which launched last year at the Oculus Connect 2 conference, there's a clear goal: to let anyone, young or old, make VR games without a single line of code.
Virtual reality is here to stay. That's the resounding cry here at GDC 2016, and it's no wonder, seeing as the conference actually had to move certain VR-related panels to bigger rooms due to the increased demand. That sentiment was certainly shared at the Oculus Game Day event where we mingled with developers, designers and executives and talked to them about the future of the medium. Check out our video above to find out what they had to say.
Virtual reality games are fun and immersive, but making them exciting and interesting can be a challenge. This is especially so for traditional game developers who have had to learn a new way of creating games that demand a whole new set of skills and user design. We had a chance to ask a few developers just what those challenges are at an Oculus Game Day event recently. Check out our video above to find just what they are and how they hope to get better at it.
Do you like the Mac Pro's concept of stuffing a lot of computing power into a small cylinder, but wish there was a gaming PC inside instead of workstation hardware? You just got your wish. MSI has started shipping the Vortex, a riff on Apple's formula that crams a full-on game rig into a tube that's just 10.6 inches tall. It uses similar vertical cooling and includes Thunderbolt ports (Thunderbolt 3 in this case), but it's clearly aimed at a crowd that's more interested in Far Cry Primal than Final Cut Pro. The mini desktop is billed as relatively upgradeable, and there's even customizable lighting if you think the system isn't attention-grabbing enough.
Source: MSI
Although plenty of announcements have already come out of this year's Game Developers Conference, the main Expo doesn't officially begin until today. And Epic Games is kicking off the festivities with an opening keynote, led by none other than its founder Tim Sweeney. It's unclear what we should expect from the Unreal Engine creator, but the company did say the GDC 2016 event will be newsworthy. You can watch it live starting at 9:30AM PT/12:30PM ET, via the embedded stream below.
We already knew Rock Band VR was coming to the Oculus Rift, but now we have a bit more information about the project. In a gameplay demo at an Oculus Game Day event recently, we learned that the game will essentially require that you attach an Oculus Touch to a guitar controller via a clip adhesive (seen above), which confirms what we saw in the promo video that Oculus and Harmonix released a few months ago. That's essentially how the game will communicate your movements and controls to the computer. We also learned that all Bluetooth controllers should work with the VR version of the game, as would Xbox, PS3 and PS4 controllers.
I hid behind a stack of wooden crates in the saloon, trying to hide from the bullets flying at my general direction. Panicked, I frantically reached for the pair of revolvers by my side, pointed them at my assailant and fired repeatedly. She went down, but so did my ammo. Soon, her partner showed up to take me out and without even thinking, I grabbed the dynamite that magically appeared in front of me and threw it at him. Boom. Unfortunately, my first victim came back to life, and before I could take aim again, she lobbed something at me and I was blown to smithereens.
I associate pinball with family, partly because my father convinced me it was cool when I was a kid, just like he did with The X-Files, Mystery Science Theater 3000, ping pong and a handful of other quasi-nerdy necessities from the '80s and '90s. Plus, one of my uncles had a room packed with pinball machines -- yes, he had the Addams Family table -- and as a pre-teen I'd revel in playing them late into the night every New Year's Eve. Now that I'm an adult, it's my turn to show these family members what's cool (or simply how to use Gmail), and virtual reality is absolutely on that list.
I'm not saying VR will take off commercially or change the world, but it is definitely a cool thing. And now, there's a clear way for me to introduce it to my dad, uncle or anyone with an affinity for those rapid-fire flippers: Pinball FX2 VR on the Oculus Rift.