Fallout 4 Special Edition will include a real Pip-Boy for your phone

Anthony Garreffa | Gaming | Jun 15, 2015 7:19 AM CDT

E3 2015 - With the sea of announcements from Bethesda this morning, including Doom 4, Dishonored 2, and Fallout 4, the news of the Fallout 4 Special Edition including a real-life Pip-Boy got fans of Fallout salivating.

Fallout 4 Special Edition will include a real Pip-Boy for your phone

The special edition of the game will include a real-life Pip-Boy that you can strap to your wrist, and use your Android or iOS smartphone with. If you're a Fallout fan, you know that you'll be pre-ordering this. Bethesda hasn't released any numbers on Fallout 4 yet, but I'd dare say this will be an extremely limited edition item that is going to sell out in less than 30 seconds.

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Uber is massively successful in China, with 1 million rides per day

Anthony Garreffa | Business, Financial & Legal | Jun 14, 2015 11:35 PM CDT

It looks like Uber is very successful in China right now, with the ride sharing giant saying it is logging over 1 million daily rides in China. Keep in mind, that's more than the company was logging in every single market it is in across the world, as of December 2014.

Uber CEO Travis Kalanick has said that the company wants to raise $1 billion in orders to boost its dominance in China, with the company claiming that trip volume is climbing in Chinese cities faster than it is in New York City. But by how much? Well, Chengdu is logging 479 times the trips that NYC was logging at the 9-month mark, with Hangzhou logging 422 times as many trips. You'd think that these cities had more people living in them when compared to NYC, but that's not the case - Chengdu is home to 4.3 million, while Hangzhou is home to 2.5 million.

The growth that Uber is experiencing in China seems unstoppable at this point in time, with the company creating 100,000 "new full time equivalent jobs per month" according to Kalanick. With Uber only operating in 11 cities across China, most of this growth can be attributed to the heavily promoted service 'The People's Uber', which sees Uber not taking commission from completed rides.

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Fallout 4 starts before the nuclear bombs dropped

Anthony Garreffa | Gaming | Jun 14, 2015 9:59 PM CDT

E3 2015 - Bethesda showed off Doom 4 and Dishonored 2 during E3, but it was Fallout 4 that had the crowd going nuts. The studio has been working on Fallout 4 since 2009, right after Fallout 3 was released.

You can play as both a male and female character in Fallout 4, another large change from the previous titles in the franchise. Fallout 4 starts before the nuclear bombs dropped and caused the world to go into turmoil, another large change for the franchise. Character creation is done before the bombs drop, where you can completely modify the look of your character and all of his or her facial features and hair.

You survive the nuclear attack, but emerge from Vault 111 some 200 years after the attack. Your city has been demolished, but it's an "enormous, dynamic world" where you can "create any character you want, go wherever you want, and do whatever you want", according to Bethesda.

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Dishonored 2 officially announced at E3 for Xbox One, PS4 and PC

Anthony Garreffa | Gaming | Jun 14, 2015 9:44 PM CDT

E3 2015 - Arkane Studios took to the Bethesda conference at E3 to officially announce Dishonored 2. The studio teased a trailer that wasn't in-game, but it looked impressive, and most of all, fun.

Dishonored 2 will be hitting the Xbox One, PS4 and PC sometime in 2016. Arkane Studios also announced Dishonored: Definitive Edition, a remastered version of the first game that will be released on Xbox One, PS4 and PC. The Xbox One and PS4 versions of the game will receive a graphically-enhanced version of the game, when compared against their previous generation counterparts.

Dishonored: Definitive Edition will include all of the DLC that was released for Dishonored, and will be made available in the fall.

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Bethesda unveils Doom 4 at E3, with a bunch of gameplay footage

Anthony Garreffa | Gaming | Jun 14, 2015 9:29 PM CDT

E3 2015 - Bethesda was the first to start up E3 2015, and for their first unveiling we have Doom 4. Yes, Doom 4! The next-gen first-person shooter was shown off in all of its gory detail, but does it live up to the hype?

Bethesda unveils Doom 4 at E3, with a bunch of gameplay footage

Doom 4 is powered by id Software's id Tech 6 engine, where you play a marine based on a USAC facility on Mars, where you have to kill pretty much every single demon you can. From the gameplay video, there was a ton of gibs, with lots of violence to be had. There are a bunch of weapons to use, including the Super Shotgun, a fan favorite from the original Doom games.

But I did notice a considerable chunk of motion blur, and a very console-like experience. The field of view seemed like it was at 60, and most likely played on the Xbox One. The blood count was high in the first few minutes of the video, but then I noticed that the violence started to be toned down, with less and less blood being spilled from killed demons. I don't know if this was a resource-related issue that Bethesda didn't talk about, but I hope that it's not something that happens in the final game.

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SAPPHIRE teases Radeon R9 Fury X card, and its Radeon 300 series

Anthony Garreffa | Video Cards & GPUs | Jun 14, 2015 7:00 PM CDT

It's now the week of the launch of AMD's new video cards, with the rebranded Radeon R9 390X now being teased from SAPPHIRE in the form of the SAPPHIRE Radeon R9 390X Tri-X OC.

SAPPHIRE's Radeon R9 390X Tri-X OC will rock the Grenada XT (Hawaii XT) GPU, which will include 2816 stream processors, 176 TMUs, and 64 ROPS. We should see 8GB of GDDR5 clocked at 6100MHz on its 512-bit memory bus, while the Core is clocked at 1055MHz. SAPPHIRE has rated the Radeon R9 390X Tri-X OC with a 375W TDP, consuming its power through two 8-pin PCIe power connectors. Where this card is different to other cards, is its Tri-X cooler which sports triple fans and a huge aluminum heat sink array with 10mm copper heat pipes.

But it's the news of the Radeon R9 Fury X that has me excited, based on the Fiji XT core and running that sure-to-be delicious High Bandwidth Memory. We should also expect the Fury, another HBM-powered card that will sport the Fiji Pro GPU. Both of these new cards are expected to be unveiled at the PC Gamer Show hosted by AMD on June 16 during E3 this week.

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Starbreeze Studios' new VR headset features crazy 5120x1440 resolution

Starbreeze Studios, the developer behind the Payday series of games, has just surprised the world by unveiling their own VR headset, known as Project StarVR.

Starbreeze Studios' new VR headset features crazy 5120x1440 resolution

The new VR headset will be shown off at E3 this week, alongside Overkill Software's upcoming shooter based on The Walking Dead. Starbreeze has acquired French VR hardware developer InfinitEye, with InfinitEye turning into Starbreeze Paris. Moving onto StarVR itself, which is sporting a huge 210-degree horizontal field of view, with a resolution of 5120x1440, courtesy of its dual 5.5-inch panels.

StarVR is really upping the ante on VR headsets, offering gamers immersive orientation and positional tracking as it features a plethora of gyroscopes, accelerometers, magnetometers, and an optical tracking system. The developer teased a shotgun prop that was tracked positionally, so just imagine that in The Walking Dead game for a minute.

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North Korea threatens to 'wage a cyber war' against United States

Michael Hatamoto | Hacking, Security & Privacy | Jun 14, 2015 7:39 AM CDT

The North Korean regime didn't like news that the United States tried to launch a Stuxnet-like cyberattack against the country, and threatened it could "wage a cyber war against the US to hasten its ruin."

A report in a North Korean newspaper also said the country "can react to any forms of wars, operations and battles sought by the US imperialists," and added "the US is greatly mistaken if it thinks the DPRK will just overlook with folded arms the provocations in the cyber space."

North Korea has threatened a cyber-based apocalypse against the US in the past - and was reportedly behind the attack against Sony Pictures Entertainment.

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The world's first 360-degree 8K video has hit YouTube

Anthony Garreffa | Internet & Websites | Jun 14, 2015 5:35 AM CDT

If you thought your PC or Internet connection couldn't handle that 8K video we reported on last week, what do you think will happen with this new 360-degree, 8K video that Dubai360 has just posted to YouTube? Your PC will melt in its own flames, that's what.

The world's first 360-degree 8K video is a beautiful one, with a 24-hour timelapse of the Dubai airport. The 8K video was achieved using 88,000 individual shots that created many four-hour videos, that were then stitched together. It's an incredible video, and is sure to test out both your PC, and your Internet connection. Just don't try it with dial up.

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EA rumored to unveil next-gen Battlefield 5 at E3 this week

Anthony Garreffa | Gaming | Jun 14, 2015 1:16 AM CDT

Very shortly after we posted our news on EA showing off three unannounced games with one of them being new IP, we had an industry source of ours say that they've heard that EA will be teasing Battlefield 5 at E3.

We shouldn't be surprised by this, as Battlefield is one of EA's largest franchises. It was shot in the foot majorly with Battlefield: Hardline, and with Battlefield 4 being on the market for 16 months now, it's time to start hearing about a new Battlefield game. EA is already busy with Star Wars: Battlefront, and the new Mirror's Edge Catalyst, but a surprising tease of Battlefield 5 would really shake the walls at E3.

Of course our insider could be wrong, but with EA already saying Battlefield 5 will be a military-themed shooter in the same vein as Battlefield 4, and a release of Q4 2016, it's not too far away anyway. One thing I would like to see with Battlefield 5 is a full concentration on the PC build of the game, where they water it down to consoles. This way we will get one of the best looking games ever released, and please EA - include VR support.

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