Latest News - Page 2401

Logitech has announced that it has acquired Saitek for $13 million, taking the company away from competing peripheral maker MadCatz.

Logitech G gaming brand boss Ujesh Desai said that the acquisition of Saitek allows the company to build peripherals that Saitek are known for, including joysticks and customized wheels for racing games and sims. But it was the tease of VR peripherals that is the bigger news in a way here.

Desai said that Logitech G could jump into the VR market with input devices, and with Saitek concentrating more on game-specific peripherals like Star Citizen with themed controllers, Logitech G now owns Saitek and could do this in a much bigger way in the VR market. Saitek will also enjoy the success Logitech has built over the years, solidifying itself with more support and money to continue development on even better products under Logitech G.

Samsung has its own problems with the US government recalling Galaxy Note 7 smartphones, but now Apple has hit a snag with iOS 10, with some users reporting their iPhones and iPads were being bricked after the new OS upgrade.

T-Mobile has now warned its customers against upgrading to iOS 10 on their current iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus and iPhone SE models. T-Mobile took to their website saying that the iPhone could "lose connectivity [to the T-Mobile network] in certain circumstances" by upgrading to iOS 10.

You can get around this issue, but it's a headache: you'll need to totally power down your iPhone and restart it. Apple is expected to push out an update for this issue in the next 48 hours.

IMAX Entertainment boss Greg Foster has revealed some details on the next leap in storytelling, with the company teasing they are working on IMAX VR theaters.

Foster teased details on the future of IMAX:

SlashFilm reports that the first six of these new IMAX VR theaters will open later this year, with some big movies opening in IMAX that could be used in the new IMAX VR experiences, these include:

Now that Remedy is over the Quantum Break mess on Xbox One and Windows 10, the developer is beginning to tease its future games, with a post on the official Remedy website.

Creative Director and the face of Max Payne, Sam Lake, with Game Director Mikael Kasurinen teased their future goals, and their decisions on various games. They said: "As announced last July, we're busy working on CROSSFIRE 2 story mode with Smilegate, as well as building something totally new with a second (as of yet unannounced) game project. This includes working on the long-term roadmap for Northlight, our proprietary game engine and tools".

"We will always strive to be the best storytellers we possibly can, and we want these stories to be shared and elevated through players' cooperation. We believe that a multiplayer experience combined with Remedy's unique world-building provides an exceptional environment for that", they continued.

The US government has announced an official recall of Samsung's troubled Galaxy Note 7 smartphone, but now there's positive news that the company could release its new Gear 360 Pro camera alongside the new Galaxy S8 smartphone.

SamMobile has an exclusive report, where they've said: "we've received information that the company is working on a new 360-degree camera. Dubbed Gear 360 Pro, the camera might be announced alongside the Galaxy S8 early next year".

What would the new Gear 360 Pro do? It would have improved image and video quality, alongside new features. Samsung is also working on iOS compatibility for its current crop of 360-degree cameras, which should arrive soon.

Samsung has hit a new speed bump with its Galaxy Note 7 smartphone recall, with the US government now stepping in and putting its foot down through an official recall by the US Consumer Product Safety Commission. Samsung is also rumored to release the Galaxy S8 early, to help with the PR disaster caused by the Note 7 recall.

With an official recall program with the CPSC, we should see Note 7 replacements happening in larger numbers, with over 2.5 million Galaxy Note 7 smartphones needing to be replaced. The CPSC has already warned consumers that they shouldn't use, or charge their Note 7 smartphones.

There are reports that Samsung will soon push an update for the Note 7 that will cap the battery at 60% charge, which should prevent anymore fires and explosions. The CPSC posted on its site, saying: "Consumers should immediately stop using and power down the recalled Galaxy Note7 devices purchased before September 15, 2016. Contact the wireless carrier, retail outlet or Samsung.com where you purchased your device to receive free of charge a new Galaxy Note7 with a different battery, a refund or a new replacement device. Go to www.samsung.com for more details".

Destiny's microtransactions are no longer purely cosmetic: starting with the next expansion, Bungie will let gamers buy in-game items that allow you to unlock items sooner.

Along with a host of new content, Destiny's new Rise of Iron expac will introduce paid reputation boosts that can be purchased with Silver in the in-game Eververse Trading Co. microtransaction storefront. IGN reports that these rep boosts are a time-saving convenience feature that will raise your standing with PVP and PVE factions. Reputation levels are needed to buy specific Legendary items from main faction handlers like the Crucible's Lord Shaxx, Vanguard's Commander Zavala, or Variks at the House of Judgement.

These reputation boosts can also be unlocked regularly without the Silver microtransaction currency in Sterling or Radiant Treasure Boxes that are likely strewn throughout Rise of Iron and given as quest, Strike, and Crucible rewards.

When the expected inclusion of a 4K UltraHD Blu-ray drive in the forthcoming PlayStation Neo didn't come to pass, Sony execs blamed lack of demand for its exclusion. But that hasn't stopped the company from announcing plans to release a stand-alone 4K player early next year.

According to Digital Trends, Sony's UBP-X1000ES maiden 4K UltraHD Blu-ray player will be positioned as a high-end device capable of playing HD Blu-ray, DVD, CD and SA-CD discs and will play friendly with custom installations. Sony Electronics director of home entertainment systems Yukio Ishikawa said the player was "specifically designed to deliver the highest quality video and audio possible and will excite the most demanding A/V enthusiasts", but a more comprehensive set of specifications, including whether the player will be one of the first to hit the market equipped with Dolby Vision playback were not immediately forthcoming.

Sony's UBP-X1000ES is due to hit the market in the first quarter of 2017.

We all know what happens when you drive a Delorean over 88 miles per hour - you see some serious shit. Well, at least in the 'Back to the Future' universe. But that hasn't stopped one owner of the classic vehicle from testing it out for himself. Except he had the long arm of the law on his tail.

According to the Daily Mail, Nigel Mills from Essex was clocked by a police speed gun travelling at 98MPH, but while the man is a self-confessed fan of the time travel series which the Delorean famously appeared in, he told media that he "was not trying to time travel." While Nigel was summoned to appear in a Magistrates' Court for his alleged crime of speeding, luckily for him the case was thrown out when the two police officers who clocked his vehicle didn't make an appearance.

The reconstituted DeLorean Motors factory announced plans earlier this year to take the car back into limited production using vintage parts.

Tesla Motors is suing an oil company executive said to have impersonated its CEO Elon Musk in order to obtain financial information on the company.

The lawsuit names Todd Katz, CFO for Quest Integrity Group, and claims he used a similar email address to Musk's (elontesla@yahoo.com) to achieve his goal. Quest is partnered with BP, Chevron, and ExxonMobil, among other notable companies.

"The point of this action is that this was perceived as an effort to gain inside information, non-public information," said LA attorney John Hueston, representing the car maker. "Although it was caught here, Tesla is worried about this happening in some other form. This could have resulted in highly valuable information being improperly disclosed."

4A Games, the studio that brought us the excellent Metro 2033 and Metro: Last Light games, has teased a look at their next project...and it looks like a futuristic FPS.

We know that 4A Games was working on "two exciting new projects," and now the devs have given us a glimpse at what they have in store. 4A shared two different images on their Facebook and Twitter streams that are obviously pieces from the same image, showing what appears to be the first-person HUD of a high-tech shooter like Halo or even Crysis.

While I originally thought the devs were working on Metro 2035, these images completely nix that theory. There's just no evidence of a post-apocalyptic world. 4A Games is on the cusp of something interesting, and it could very well be a fresh new original IP that taps the impressive FPS foundation they've worked so hard to cultivate in the Metro games.

Ever wondered what would happen if you mixed Dark Souls with Castlevania: Symphony of the Night? You get this nifty indie platformer, Dark Flame.

I've been on a big Castlevania kick lately, so any game that remote resembles an awesome Metroidvania style side-scroller has caught my attention. So when I came across Dark Flame earlier today, I squeed with delight.

Dark Flame is a love-letter to anyone who's entranced by the macabre style and relentless platforming hack-and-slash chaos of the Castlevania series. One look instantly conjures up nostalgic memories playing Symphony of the Night on PlayStation, getting lost in Dracula's winding castle and battling bit-style foes. Although I haven't played it (I hope to remedy that very soon!) Dark Flame checks all the right boxes: giant boss battles, that classic gothic eeriness infused with delicious retro visuals, a pretty dynamic RPG system with weapons, armors, and abilities, and more.

Resident Evil 7 is about to get a lot weirder--considering how freaky the game's original Beginning Hour demo is, I'm both trepidatious and excited.

Capcom has announced a new Twilight content update for Resident Evil 7's excellent (and super disturbing) teaser demo, along with a fresh batch of screenshots and a new trailer.

Starting today the Resident Evil 7 demo (including the new Twilight update) will be available to all PS4 gamers and won't require PlayStation Plus, so be sure to check it out--it's definitely worth a playthrough, and has a very real PT vibe to it. Capcom has also announced that Resident Evil 7's Deluxe Edition will include a new story expansion, bringing up the grand total of season pass story missions to three. To make up for this extra bit of content, the deluxe edition will jump from $79.99 to $89.99, but if you pre-order it before the adjustment you'll get all three missions.

AMD is celebrating the first birthday of Radeon Technologies Group, with the announcement of a new Battlefield 1 upgrade code for Radeon RX 480 graphics cards in certain markets.

The bundle will arrive in the form of an upgrade code for Battlefield 1, which turns the Standard Edition copy of the game to the Deluxe Edition. Effectively, AMD is providing a voucher for an upgrade worth $20 - the difference between the Standard and Deluxe Edition of Battlefield 1 on Origin.

You'll need to redeem your code before October 21, where your Battlefield 1 Standard Edition will be upgraded to the Early Enlister Deluxe Edition, which also lets you get into the early pre-launch of the game, 3 days earlier than everyone else. If you use the code after October 21, you'll receive the normal Deluxe Edition of the game, without the pre-launch access.

When Sony's new 4K-ready PlayStation Pro console launches in November, it'll undoubtedly be the most powerful console on the market. Sony has doubled the GPU power, and the PS4 Pro is the first console to leverage AMD's new Polaris GPU technology, and system is outfitted with a 4.2 TFLOPs GPU that sits just below a Radeon RX 470 in power, allowing upscaled 4K gaming and possibly native 1080p 60FPS.

But the PS4 Pro's more powerful GPU will actually be held back by the console's outdated components, mainly the same 8-core Jaguar CPU found in the original PS4, and the same 8GB of unified GDDR5 system memory. Sony has overclocked the Jaguar CPU from its original 1.6GHz to 2.1GHz to eke out more speed and boosted the GDDR5 RAM bandwidth, but the components are essentially still the same, and without a dramatic CPU overhaul and boosted RAM cap, developers are going to run into ceilings.

This means developers will have to compromise specific features while providing upgrades like upscaled 4K 30FPS and native 1080p 60FPS in games, with certain effects like lighting, shadows, environmental features and more being scaled and dialed back.

Just how much of a difference is there between upscaled 4K and native 4K resolution? As Digital Foundry illustrates in the video below, it's like the night and day difference between 30FPS and 60FPS.

On a whim, Eurogamer decided to compare what Rise of the Tomb Raider looks like in 4K on Sony's new PS4 Pro versus a 4K-ready PC running the game at Very High settings. For comparison's sake, the PS4 Pro runs Rise of the Tomb Raider in upscaled 4K 30FPS, whereas the test PC leverages an unspecified discrete video card capable of hitting native 4K resolution at Very High settings with Very High textures.

"But the two most glaring differences come down to key limitations found in the PlayStation 4 Pro hardware itself - the fact that its GPU isn't capable of handling native 3840x2160 UHD resolution, along with the lack of a meaningful amount of additional memory. Developers have access to a number of upscaling strategies for PS4 Pro titles running in the 4K mode, and while Crystal Dynamics wouldn't be drawn on the technique used for this game, what's clear is that the overall presentation is somewhat soft, far more so than the Sony first-party titles we saw that are confirmed to be using the checkerboard upscaling."

Sony has been making the headlines for the past couple of weeks with the announcement of their new PlayStation 4 Pro console, with my video rant available right here, but now they've just announced a new high-end projector.

Sony's new VPL-VW675ES is an enthusiast-level 4K HDR-capable projector, which is the world's first to support Hybrid Log-Gamma, a new standard that will be used to broadcast 4K content. For now, Sony's new projector streams content from 4K content providers like Netflix and Amazon, and works with 4K Blu-ray players and I'm sure, the upcoming PS4 Pro.

The new projector utilizes Sony's own SXRD panels, which are capable of displaying each and every pixel required for true 4K. If you're looking for a new high-end 4K HDR projector, this could bleed your wallet quite a bit when you buy it, but it's going to be so worth it.

Crystal Dynamics sets an example for all other devs to follow concerning PS4 Pro upgrades, and embraces both 4K visuals and FPS improvements in 1080p.

Thanks to the PS4 Pro's new Polaris-grade GPU, the console can upscale games to 4K resolution with HDR support, enable native 1080p 60FPS, and significantly boost performance and visuals for both 1080p HDTV and 4K UHDTV owners. Old PS4 games can be updated with Forward Compatibility patches to enable 4K HDR and 1080p 60FPS, too.

There's only one caveat: it's up to developers to make the most of the hardware, and they get to choose what upgrades to apply. So that means not every PS4 Pro upgraded game will support 60FPS for 1080p HDTV owners, as developers have been told to prioritize 4K HDR support.

Dell has impressed with its XPS laptops in 2015, with the company refreshing the smaller XPS 13 model with Intel's new Kaby Lake processors on the new 14nm process.

The upgraded XPS 13 arrives with the new Kaby Lake-based Core i3, Core i5, and Core i7 processors offering more performance and improved battery life. Dell is touting around 22 hours of productivity in various apps, 13 hours for web browsing or Netflix streaming - not bad for a 13-inch laptop.

Dell's new XPS 13 starts at $799 with the 13-inch display optioned with a 1080p panel, Core i3 processor, 128GB SSD, and only 4GB of RAM. You can option for the higher resolution display and faster Kaby Labe processors, with a 3200x1800 touchscreen option, up to 16GB of RAM, and 1TB SSD. All of the XPS 13 models include high-speed Killer NIC-based Wi-Fi, and insanely fast Thunderbolt 3 connectivity.

Crytek has updated their roadmap for CRYENGINE, with the release of CRYENGINE 5.3 promised for November, where support for Vulkan and PhysX will be included.

The new version of CRYENGINE also has improvements for SVOGI (Sparse Voxel Octree Global Illumination), the voxel-based GI solution that was teased a few months ago. But it's the v5.4 update to CRYENGINE that's coming in February 2017 during the Game Developers Conference that has me excited.

CRYENGINE 5.4 will include Multi-Adapter support thanks to DirectX 12, which will allow gamers to use both discrete and integrated GPUs together, as well as better multi-GPU support overall if you're running a pair of NVIDIA GeForce graphics cards in SLI, or AMD Radeon cards in CrossFire.