News::'No Man's Sky' developer ends 'legal nonsense' battle over name

There's no sign that it contributed to the delay, but Hello Games founder Sean Murray said today that after "3 years of secret stupid legal nonsense," his company's game can be called No Man's Sky. They had to settle with trademark owner Sky TV to use the name. According to Murray's tweets, he's learned a lot about trademark law, and might have a good idea about why Skynet never happened. Seriously though, the highly anticipated game should be on track for its rescheduled release date of August 9th, and we can't wait to see it procedurally generated universe unfold.

Source: Sean Murray (Twitter)

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News::Valve tests Steam Controller customizations and 3D VR screenshots

When Valve announced that it had sold over half a million Steam Controllers, it also noted a new feature on the way called Activators. With Activators, gamers can customize each press of an input on the gamepad, with tweaks for haptic settings, or distinguish between a normal press, a long press or a double tap -- all on a single input. Now the feature is live for users in the Steam beta, to try out and see if there's another level of precision for controller customization.

Source: Steam Community

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News::Twitch sues viewerbot sellers to curb fake popularity ratings

Twitch has long been the de facto prime source for streaming video game content, but with popularity comes internet crime. Seedy online outlets are selling bot followers in bulk to make accounts look more popular than they really are, which the streaming service monitors and bans where it can. But enough is enough: Twitch is finally suing seven of the most active sellers of online viewbot services.

Source: Twitch blog

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News::Razer's OSVR headset is still a work in progress

When Razer announced the latest version of its HDK ("Hacker Development Kit") virtual reality headset, it positioned it as a competitor to premium devices like the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive. On paper, that's very much true: the HDK 2.0 has a 2,160 x 1,200 low-persistence OLED panel, a 110-degree field of view and a 90Hz refresh rate. It also has a low price of $399, which is way less than the Rift's $599 and Vive's $799 (both headsets come with accessories that go a way to explaining the price difference).

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News::These were our favorite games, hardware and toys from E3 2016

Another year, another massive, exciting E3 showcase. The biggest names in the video game industry brought out their newest games and hardware, including two console announcements (and controllers) from Xbox and a ton of fresh games from PlayStation with an emphasis on VR experiences. There was no sign of Sony's new PlayStation 4, but that was just fine.

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News::'World Rally Championship 6' in VR is full of off-road rage

Virtual reality makes everything better, right? Not so fast. I got a chance to play World Rally Championship 6 with an Oculus Rift and a bucking, hydraulic-powered racing rig with a steering wheel and pedals. As you'll see in the video above, I spun out a ton and caught the VR sickness that's been going around. That's because with all the spinning I was doing, my eyes saw it, but my body didn't feel like it was doing 360s. The result was me feeling sweaty and queasy after pulling the headset off. Oh, and I swore an awful lot too. Sorry Mom and Dad.

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News::A tour of Devolver's E3 anti-booth

Devolver Digital sees itself as the punk rockstar of video game publishing. Although it's never officially had a booth at E3, it has done the conference equivalent of sneaking round the back, setting up shop in a parking lot opposite the Los Angeles Convention Center and next to a Hooters. After our day on the actual show floor, the Engadget E3 crew descended on Devolver's lot to check out what the publisher had to offer.

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News::A one-button wearable defeats the purpose of Pokémon Go

Whenever you ask Pokémon players what they enjoy about playing the games, it usually involves the actual Pokémon in some way. Some enjoy training up their creatures to create the ultimate battle team; others really get into the breeding aspects of the game. In some titles you can even enter your Pokémon in beauty pageants where you dress them up in gaudy accessories. And of course, there's the thrill of finding as many species as possible in order to achieve the ultimate goal: a complete Pokédex containing every single known Pokémon. These characters lie at the heart of most of Pokémon gameplay.

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News::E3 was secretly terrible for the future of virtual reality

After years of being teased with prototypes, developer kits and tech demos, it's finally happening: Virtual reality is on the cusp of going mainstream. Need evidence? Just look at the events of E3 2016. Over the past week, the first-ever VR headset for a home console got a release date, and we caught a glimpse of virtual reality games from popular franchises like Star Wars, Final Fantasy and Batman. Better still, pretty much every major player in the industry (save for Nintendo) promised to support VR in 2017. On the surface, things are looking amazing. Dig a little deeper, though, and the situation just might be terrible.

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News::'Portal 2' and 'Left 4 Dead' are now playable on Xbox One

The list of Xbox 360 games backwards compatible with the Xbox One has now reached 200 titles with the addition of fan favorites Portal 2 and Left 4 Dead. Additionally, support was also added for Flashback, Brain Challenge and Babel Rising. Microsoft announced the backwards compatibility feature during last year's E3, and rolled it out over the holiday season.

Via: Polygon

Source: Major Nelson (Twitter)

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News::IndieCade is the best it's ever been at E3 2016

IndieCade's E3 installment always features a lineup of nifty games from independent developers, but this year it went above and beyond. Multiple games on display used physical objects or installation pieces as part of their gameplay, making the entire IndieCade booth a hub of joyful activity.

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News::'ReCore' is the mashup of 'Metroid' and 'Mega Man' I didn't know I wanted

Several of the games I've written about at this year's E3 have been massive reinventions of huge franchises. That made the all-too-brief time I spent with ReCore (developed by Comcept and Armature Studio) one of the more relaxed and enjoyable gaming experiences I had at E3 this year. Even though it's not remaking legendary games of years past, ReCore still has a lot of fun and unique gameplay elements -- it looks like you'll get to do a lot of Metroid-style exploration, and swapping through your three robotic "bot" companions adds a level of depth and strategy to your encounters.

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