Latest Technology Content

Half-Life is back, and Valve isn't just stopping with its new prequel VR project. Other games could happen too, including that magical threequel everyone's been dying to see.

Today Valve did the unthinkable: Not only did it announce a new game, but it announced a new Half-Life game. Unfortunately, it's not Half-Life 3. The new project, Half-Life: Alyx, is a VR-exclusive endeavor that packs a full singleplayer-driven campaign that takes place between Half-Life 1 and 2. You play as Alyx Vance in immersive, real-time VR FPS chaos--Valve built the game from the ground up for VR, and it supports motion tracking, multiple inputs, and allows for realistic interactions like dodging enemy attacks, scouring the environment for ammo and gear, and leaning around corners (to name a few).

But what about everyone who doesn't have a VR headset? Valve apparently has you covered. In a recent interview with The Verge, Valve's David Speyrer confirmed Half-Life will continue after Alyx's VR romp.

Valve just revealed Half-Life: Alyx, a new VR-exclusive shooter that takes place before Half-Life 2. And like any Half-Life game, the new VR project will support user-created mods for lots of chicanery, chaos, and fun.

With its high-def visuals, immersive real-time combat, and realistically-reactive environments, Half-Life: Alyx looks like the killer VR app. But the real excitement could come after launch as gamers and fans alter the game with their own levels and scenarios. The game may not have multiplayer...but it has the second best thing that'll ensure it doesn't die a few months after release.

Tucked in Half-Life: Alyx announcement is confirmation of full Source 2 modding support, effectively allowing anyone to create their own unique customized slices of gameplay. Half-Life has a long history with modding and level-editing--the original game still has an active playerbase thanks to Sven Co-op and Deathmatch action--and it's great to see this tradition continue with the VR project.

Games development is, and always has been, pretty expensive. Even back in the day when 3D gaming was just hitting its stride, a Sega Saturn devkit would cost over $70,000...and that's not even including licensing and publishing fees.

ResetEra user Krejlooc recently got their hands-on a Sega Saturn devkit to make old-school games with. The kit came with documentation that outlined the price of all the components and tech you'd need to make a Saturn game in the 90s. The results aren't too pretty.

Making a Sega Saturn game would cost you roughly $77,000 to start (roughly $128,000 in today's dollars). That's not including your time, the miscellaneous fees required to pass and publish your game, nor does it include the astronomically expensive Indigo2 workstation used for 3D modeling way back when.

Would it be surprising if Capcom decided to do another remake of a Resident Evil title? No it wouldn't, Resident Evil 2 Remake sold extremely well, so why wouldn't Capcom continue with the nostalgic goodness?

A new rumor has surfaced online from Spawn Wave, who has said that he has received some news privately that Capcom is currently developing the next Resident Evil remake. This remade title is rumored to be the Capcom development pipeline is none other than Resident Evil 3: Nemesis.

If you remember back to the start of the year, Capcom did say that they would be willing to continue remaking old Resident Evil games if fans want them to -- in other words, if they sold well. Then in March this year a rumor came out that Capcom wasn't going to develop Resident Evil 3: Nemesis Remake, and that another developer was.

It's FINALLY happening! Valve just revealed a new Half-Life game, but it's exclusive to VR.

Half-Life: Alyx bridges the story between Half-Life and Half-Life 2, and puts you in the shoes of Alyx Vance, complete with immersive virtual reality motion-tracking and interactive realism. You'll be able to scour the environment to find bullets on a shelf, for example, or lean around corners too shoot from cover and even dodge enemy attacks in real-time.

Half-Life: Alyx was built from the ground up specifically for VR and aims to be the platform's killer app when it releases March 2020. The game is compatible with all SteamVR headsets, including Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, the Valve Index, and even Windows Mixed Reality headsets.

While Google Stadia falters with a rough launch, Amazon is watching on the sidelines and taking notes for its own game streaming service.

Amazon wants in on the new game streaming craze, and plans to reveal its own cloud subscription service in 2020, sources familiar with the plans tell CNet. The company plans to leverage its million-dollar Twitch game streaming empire and its rich ecosystem of interconnected products to supplement the service.

The idea is Amazon will arrive as another competitor to Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo, especially as the first two roll out next-gen consoles like the PlayStation 5 and Project Scarlett in 2020. Amazon is also watching closely at Google's missteps with Stadia.

A bit ago we spotted a patent for a Wi-Fi-enabled PlayStation game controller, presumably used as a receiver and host for console-free PlayStation Now gaming. But the controller might do more, and it could serve as a very powerful entry point for the PlayStation ecosystem.

What if you could go and buy a DualShock 4 controller, for, say PC gaming, but still hook it up to your TV to sample free user-created PlayStation game demos? That could happen, at least that's what a recent patent suggests.

Just yesterday I reported on an interesting patent that would allow PlayStation gamers to create their own custom gameplay demos and send them off to friends. It turns out this patent is linked to the previous cloud-powered DualShock controller patent. All of the permutations, embodiments, and drawings are the same, and the game demos (also referred to as mini-games) are specifically mentioned.

NASA has said that the Hubble Space Telescope is giving astronomers a look at the location of the most powerful gamma-ray burst ever recorded.

According to the post on the official NASA website, in January this year, a gamma-ray burst was detected by many of NASA's telescopes, and since then further study has been made by Hubble and astronomers. This gamma-ray burst was a trillion times more powerful than visible light, and just within the few seconds of the blast happening, it emitted more energy than the sun has provided over its 10 billion year life.

Andrew Levan of the Institute for Mathematics, Astrophysics and Particle Physics Department of Astrophysics at Radboud University in the Netherlands said, "Hubble's observations suggest that this particular burst was sitting in a very dense environment, right in the middle of a bright galaxy 5 billion light years away. This is really unusual, and suggests that this concentrated location might be why it produced this exceptionally powerful light".

Have you ever wondered what a city would look like if it was able to 100% self-sustain itself? Well, those design plans are out and its currently in the works near Mexico.

A Milan-based artchitecture firm, Stefano Boeri Architetti has layed out plans for what has been called a smart "forest city" located near Cancun, Mexico. The city is designed in a way that allows for its residents to be completely self-sustained, this includes all water, food and power needs. According to the press release, this city will be spaced out over 557 hectares. Out of the 557 hectares, 400 of those will be taken up by 7,500,000 plants.

The press release says that the city is designed for around 130,000 residents and it will feature a selection of different housing options. Plans indicate that solar panels will surround the entire city, powering all the needs for the residents living there. Water will be pulled from the Caribbean and desalinised and then fed back into the plant life growing there through navigable canals. There will be no cars in the city and instead transportation will consist of an electric "mobility in chain" transit system. For more information about this smart city, check out this article here.

Exactly a month before the release of the upcoming Witcher TV series, Netflix has teased fans with a brand new poster.

We are only a month out before the launch of The Witcher TV series, and Netflix has decided to keep the hype train chugging along with the above poster release. From the poster, we can see Geralt of Rivia, played by Henry Cavill, Ciri, played by Freya Allan and Yennefer, played by Anya Chaltotra.

If you have been out of the loop for Witcher news, we found out that Henry Cavill prepared for the role of Geralt of Rivia by playing CD Projekt Red's Witcher games, more on that here. Netflix is that confident that The Witcher TV show is going to do well that they have already officially green-lit season 2, catch up on that news here. Finally, if you haven't seen the trailer for the upcoming show, check that out here. Netflix will debut The Witcher TV show on December 20th.