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Earlier this year, the first annual Virtual Reality Developers Conference (VRDC) ran alongside the Game Developers Conference (GDC) and was quickly sold out. Beyond that, GDC basically felt like a VR party this year, with developers and companies from around the world showcasing their new products, software, games, and experiences. Its maiden voyage was so successful that the organizers have decided to host a standalone VRDC event in San Francisco this November.

"Now that VR platforms have hit the market, virtual experiences that entertain, inform, and provide entirely new ways to engage are increasingly in demand," explained Meggan Scavio, General Manager, VRDC and GDC. "We're thrilled to provide the highest quality content for VR developers, while exploring innovative applications for the technology across entertainment, healthcare, journalism, travel, manufacturing, retail, live events, real estate, training, and so much more."

Not only is it getting a standalone event (VRDC will also continue alongside GDC), but the November edition is expanding to include more augmented and virtual reality games, entertainment, brands, and a "wide range of innovative use cases." The organizers have already confirmed talks by NASA and the developers behind modern day history book Chernobyl VR Project.

The long-awaited Competitive Play mode for Overwatch is now available for testing. If you're the beta type, find the Overwatch tab in Battle.net, select "PTR: Overwatch" from the Region/Account menu, and get to playing.

If you haven't been keeping up, Competitive Play means ranked matches with rewards (including golden weapons). While the jist of it has been known for awhile, with the beta launch comes some new details.

First up: you'll need to play 10 placement matches before diving in. Once complete, you'll be assigned a skill rating and then be matched against players of a similar rating when actually playing competitive matches. If you do well enough throughout a given season, you'll be matched against higher skill players as it progresses.

If I had seen the below video as a child, I may have eagerly chosen engineering as my career. Make Magazine has not only uncovered the top secret prototypes hiding in Valve's VR labs, but their interview with engineers Alan Yates and Monty Goodson is downright inspiring. The pair behind a significant majority of the HTC Vive's early research and prototyping make it look genuinely fun. Sure, they're reserved on camera, but you can see little moments where childlike glee still escapes.

Yates and Goodson give the world a rare glimpse into not just the creation of the Vive and Lighthouse tracking system, but also the research that got them to the starting line. Valve solved a lot of crucial problems before modern VR could become a thing, and amazingly, a bunch of the early prototypes were essentially assembled from cheap parts they purchased from Amazon -- even hard drives from the trash bin. Others were 3D printed and hacked together.

You'll want to watch for "The Susan," an early part of Valve's research into discovering how vestibular ocular reflexes work. They carved out the inside of a Lazy Susan, mounted a modified gaming monitor to it, and then placed it over their head with a bunch of wires and sensors. Through this crazy contraption, they learned how your eyes and the vestibular system in your ears (that detects motion) worked together.

E3 2016 - Battlefield 1 footage in itself makes for incredibly entertaining World War 1 chaos, but 64-player carnage in glorious 3840 x 2160 60FPS is almost overkill. Key word: almost.

At this year's E3, EA livestreamed Battlefield 1's first-ever 64-player multiplayer session to give players a better idea of how truly dynamic and fluid the game's wide-scale combat really is. Now YouTuber jackfrags has uploaded 22 minutes of earth-shattering 4K 60FPS footage for our perusal, showing off biplane assaults, boots-on-the-ground skirmishes, booming tank destruction, and the amazing sky-burning havoc that ensues when a mighty zeppelin is annihilated. TweakTown's own Jason Evangelho tried Battlefield 1's multiplayer at E3, so be sure to check out his impressions here.

The entire experience is so alive and enthralling, and I highly recommend you watch the footage listening to headphones--you'll hear everything, from the tremulous tank-fire to the booming grenades and the shredding of assault rifle fire as players spray and pray like mad. The warzone itself feels alive with death, with ruins of buildings still aflame even though the dynamic rain drizzles down above.

In 2009, Intel was penalized by the European Commission with a $1.2 billion fine for achieving an unfair market advantage against AMD when it provided rebates to manufacturers in exchange for purchasing 95 percent of chips for their computers from Intel. Additionally, the remaining 5 percent from AMD were said to have had "restrictive conditions" imposed on them by Intel.

Intel appealed the ruling two years ago, which was rejected; now it's making a final attempt. Intel lawyer Daniel Beard says the Commission did not analyze "all relevant circumstances" to definitively determine whether the rebates in question did indeed shut out AMD.

Meanwhile, the Commission's lawyer Nicholas Khan maintains the position that Intel intended to "[marginalize] or even [eliminate] its only competitor."

The news broke a few days ago that MSI and ASUS were shipping GeForce GTX 1080 and GTX 1070 cards with a modified BIOS, with higher-than-normal clock speeds on the GPU.

MSI have sent me an email explaining the GeForce GTX 1080 Gaming X 8G and GTX 1070 Gaming X 8G shipping with higher speeds out of the box for the press, versus a few extra MHz slower on the retail cards. MSI has said that the MSI Gaming App isn't used by most reviewers, which is true, so they ship their GeForce GTX 1070 and GTX 1080 cards with 'OC Mode' enabled by default to the press. The retail cards on the other hand, are shipped to consumers with 'Gaming Mode' by default, which is slightly slower than the clocks on the OC Mode.

MSI has responded with links to an updated vBIOS for their GeForce GTX 1080 Gaming X 8G, and their GeForce GTX 1070 Gaming X 8G - so that they'll both spool up to the 'OC Modes' which are 1607MHz Base, and 1797MHz on Boost compared to 1582MHz Base and 1771MHz on Boost with Gaming Mode.

Right now, I'm benchmarking two GIGABYTE GeForce GTX 1080 G1 Gaming video cards in SLI, and I went online with a 1.5-hour Facebook Live video when I installed the second GTX 1080 G1 Gaming card. Check out my FB Live stream below!

I've been playing with the two GIGABYTE GeForce GTX 1080 G1 Gaming cards in SLI for a few hours more now, and I've been pushing some hard benchmarks at them. With both cards hitting 98-100% scaling, our entire Core i7-5960X powered system consumed just 490W total. We've put the cards through their paces with some great results, and now I'm overclocking the cards and they're handling over 2GHz on the GPU, even with its single 8-pin PCIe power connector.

Comparing the 2 x GTX 1080 G1 Gaming cards in SLI using 490W of power, the Radeon RX 480 uses 100W under load - but in our system it might use slightly less, or more. Using the chart above, we see that the GTX 1080 G1 Gaming cards in SLI are only using 160W more power than a single Radeon R9 390X. The Titan X uses 315W, while the HBM1-powered Radeon R9 Fury X uses 300W.

Sony Santa Monica's new God of War game is going to be a huge playground for Norse mythology, incorporating tons of amazing mythical events like the Ragnarok, gods, fantastic magic, and massive legendary creatures like the World Serpent Jörmungandr. Just don't expect any Vikings.

The new God of War game was a surprising addition to Sony's E3 2016 press conference, and the reveal footage left fans with many questions. Luckily Sony Santa Monica has jumped in to explain a few things, emphasizing that the game is all about the pre-Viking era where gods and fantastic, world-breaking beasts roamed the Earth.

"It's a fun space to be in because it allows us to paint our own image of Norse mythology as opposed to anyone else's," Sony Santa Monica game director Corey Barlog told GameSpot.

Mass Effect: Andromeda's morality won't be clear-cut into "black" and "white": players will be able to embrace "grey" moral choices in their intergalactic adventures.

BioWare has revealed that the new Mass Effect: Andromeda will have a unique morality system that's not constrained to just Paragon and Renegade, giving players even more ways to handle specific encounters with "shades of grey" responses. Essentially the game won't separate choices into clear-cut good vs. evil, allowing gamers to reflect on the characters and the situations on a case-by-case basis.

"I think in general, with all this sophistication of games or engaging in any kind of entertainment right now, [gamers are] looking for more of those shades of grey," Andromeda's creative director Mac Walters told GamesRadar.

With Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice not being received well (it was a mess), Warner Bros. are trying to change their tune with the follow-up, Justice League. The company has released the official synopsis for the movie, which seems to have Batman front and center.

Justice League has been teased as: "Fueled by his restored faith in humanity and inspired by Superman's selfless act, Bruce Wayne enlists the help of his newfound ally, Diana Prince, to face an even greater enemy. Together, Batman and Wonder Woman work quickly to find and recruit a team of metahumans to stand against this newly awakened threat. But despite the formation of this unprecedented league of heroes--it may already be too late to save the planet from an assault of catastrophic proportions".

The synopsis finishes with "Directed by Zack Snyder, this marks the big screen debut of the Justice League, featuring an all-star lineup: Ben Affleck, Henry Cavill, Gal Gadot, Jason Momoa, Ezra Miller and Ray Fisher". Snyder began shooting Justice League in April from a script written by Chris Terrio - see ya, Jonathan Nolan, it was nice knowing you in the DCEU, but you screwed the pooch with Batman v Superman.

We're only a week away from the launch of the AMD Radeon RX 480, with its release on June 29, and now it's being reported that AMD has plenty of RX 480s on hand and that supply is "strong" on the first Polaris-based card to hit the market. NVIDIA recently dropped the price on its Maxwell-based range, including the GeForce GTX 980 Ti, GTX 980 and even the GTX 970.

NVIDIA has hit a huge snag recently with their GeForce GTX 1070/1080, with global shortages and price hikes on their GP104-based offerings. With NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 1080 is $850+ right now, and even $1999 on eBay at one point for EVGA's GeForce GTX 1080 FTW ACX 3.0 card, AMD could really hit NVIDIA where it hurts if they have a strong supply of their Radeon RX 480, and can keep at the $199 price.

There won't be partner cards at launch, with AMD being the only one selling them on June 29 - AIB partner cards with custom PCBs and coolers will arrive in July. SAPPHIRE, XFX, and many others have cards planned - with samples floating down here to my GPU labs in the coming weeks.

Fans of the FX Network's long running animated hit 'Archer' will be happy today, with confirmation that the show will continue for at least another three seasons.

Despite falling ratings, the network is confident enough in the future of the show to keep it around for at least a total of 10 seasons, which will see it on the airwaves through to 2019. Nick Grad a, co-President of Original Programming for FX Networks told media "We can't say enough about what Adam, Matt and the entire Archer team at Floyd County have done to keep this series so insanely funny and vital through seven seasons. The move to Los Angeles this past season as private detectives was just the latest twist in Archer's legendary exploits and the next three seasons will to be just as amazing and unpredictable. We are thrilled to continue making great TV with our friends and colleagues at Floyd County." While the season order has been reduced to just eight episodes, that means that there's still 9 hours of the show on the way, and that's a very good thing.

'Archer' season eight is expected to hit screens mid 2017.

EVE: Valkyrie is the game that got me hooked on VR, and while it's an exceptional game that showcases the immersion VR is capable of, it's a little light on content. That recently changed, as developer CCP has released the first major, post-release update called Carrier Assault. And it's 100% free.

Unlike before, that giant carrier that's been mocking you is now open to attack, and it'll take coordination and some twitch dogfighting skills to wear it down and take it out. Here's how the battles unfold, as explained by the developers at CCP:

Stage 1: Skirmish

When the fine folks at Volition and Deep Silver scheduled me for a hands-on appointment with an "unannounced game" at E3, my heart started racing. "Saints Row V! Saints Row V" I shrieked to no one in particular. I even got my wife's hopes up. She's played through Saints Row IV about four times at this point and believe me when I say that's a testament to how ridiculously fun that game is. As you know, that unannounced game wasn't the latest insane adventures of the Third Street Saints, but an entirely new IP called Agents of Mayhem. I'll be honest: I was disappointed. But after 30 minutes with Volition's latest romp, I've done a complete 180.

If you had any concerns about the irreverent and bombastic Saints Row DNA disappearing because Volition's developed a new IP, you probably haven't seen the Agents of Mayhem trailer. Aside from the game being set in the larger Saints Row universe, believe me when I tell you that Volition's "secret sauce" is simmered to perfection here. 3rd person, over the top action? Check. Amoral characters with big personalities? Check. Plenty of colorful language and downright wacky scenarios? Check.

Agents of Mayhem takes place in an open world Seoul, Korea and follows the exploits of M.A.Y.H.E.M. (Multination Agency For Hunting Evil Masterminds) in their attempt to assemble the best damn heroes on the planet. Why? Because they have to stop L.E.G.I.O.N. (that's obviously the League of Evil Gentlemen Intent on Obliterating Nations) of course.

Last week we learned the upcoming Competitive Mode for Overwatch would feature golden guns among other things as rewards. Courtesy of the Korean Public Test Realm (PTR), we now know exactly what they look like.

Slick indeed. To see all of them, head here.

Korean player 'itstake' explains Competitive Mode rewards you with competition points, which you can then use to buy the weapons. Each will cost 300 points. It's assumed you'll be able to keep the weapons indefinitely once you've acquired them.

DICE's patch rate and polish with its Battlefield series had been lacking for years until the Community Test Environment (CTE) launched six months after Battlefield 4's launch. With it, it assigned its DICE LA outfit to attend to the long-term health of the game. They were helped in part by the community, which got to try out balance changes and new features among other things before offering its feedback. Once both parties were happy and quality assurance was complete, the results were released to all players. This process repeated many times, and the result is Battlefield 4 as you see it today, which is to say infinitely more polished than it was at its launch three years ago.

It'll no doubt come as welcome to the community then to know that the CTE is returning for Battlefield 1. YouTuber and long-time Battlefield fan XFactor Gaming (formerly known as rivalXfactor) confirmed this today in a reddit AMA while noting the CTE is a point of pride for DICE.

"I believe the relationship between gamer and DICE/EA is better than it has ever been," he said. "Let's face it. It was beyond horrible 3+ years ago. [The] game was broken and we had no communication between the developers. Now, we have developers that are open, honest, and transparent, and [we have] the CTE servers. DICE/EA know how big of a hit CTE was at not only helping fix their own game but building an actual relationship with the community. The developers take pride in this and it will be moving forward with BF1."

Only days ago, I was chatting with our Senior Editor Anthony Garaffe about the uses of virtual reality beyond gaming. I suggested we're only a couple years away from being able to attend the Superbowl from the sidelines using a Gear VR or Google Daydream headset. His idea was a bit more ambitious: bounce around from seat to courtside at a basketball game, or even view the action from the rim! Well guess what? The Sacramento Kings' new stadium has had its wireless infrastructure built with that very idea in mind.

The Sacramento Kings' new stadium opens in October, and boasts a high capacity Wi-Fi system with 1000 access points that's capable of blasting out 225,000 Instagram photos per second, according to team vice chairman and co-owner Paul Jacobs (who's also executive chairman at Qualcomm). And while social sharing was obviously high on their priority list, Jacobs tells TechnologyReview that being able to experiment with virtual reality was a must.

"Whether they're way up in the high seats or they're in a box but not sitting courtside, you still want to give them that courtside experience," Jacobs said.

Mobile VR like the Samsung Gear VR or Google's Daydream has two limiting factors right now that prevent it from being as immersive as the Oculus Rift or HTC Vive. The first is horsepower, but that's something the mobile market makes advances in rapidly. The second is the lack of positional tracking (being able to track a person around a room). That second obstacle has already been solved by Stereolabs, and that solution -- the ZED camera -- is already shipping to developers.

(Author's note: The video represents the camera's ideal functionality. From what we know, it has not yet been elegantly implemented for mobile, though the company is working on that.)

The ZED is a depth sensing camera that currently attaches to any mobile VR headset. A pair of RGB cameras talk to an external GPU, and Stereolabs' custom software calculates a real-time depth map based on the disparity between the images. It's a technique called stereovision, and it actually trumps IR-based technologies like Microsoft's Kinect or Intel's RealSense because it can work outdoors, and over long distances.

Chattanooga's homeade fiber network has paid dividends and then some: unemployment has dropped to 4.1 percent from 7.8 percent in the past three years and wages are up (which mayor Andy Berke says is directly related to internet jobs and the technology sector), to name a few improvements.

"It changed our conceptions of who we are and what is possible," says Berke. "Before we had never thought of ourselves as a technology city."

The downtown area has exploded as well, with residency doubling, thanks in part to landlords offer gigabit speeds included in rent. Tech businesses and events have shown up in the area too. The revitalized core has paved the way for the success of restaurants, bars, music, and more, too, Berke notes.

Star Ocean: Integrity and Faithlessness aka Star Ocean 5 producer Shuichi Kobayashi says the latest installment in the beloved JRPG series may make its way to PC. In a recent interview with FFDream (translated from French by NeoGAF), he indicated it's more a matter of when and not if, and depends mostly if not entirely on whether they can make it work on a technical level.

FFD : Do you plan to make a PC port of Star Ocean 5?

S.K. : Because it's a fast paced action title, I'm wondering what would be the best way to play it on PC... According to you, what would be the best way to play it?