Latest News - Page 2424

If you downloaded Fallout 4 for free, Microsoft has yanked your license--but they've also gifted you Xbox Store credit.

Just a few days ago, Fallout 4 and all of its DLC was marked as free on the Xbox One marketplace. Thousands of gamers took advantage of this pricing error on Microsoft's part, and were able to jump into the game for a bit. Of course Microsoft quickly resolved the situation, fixing the price and pulling all game licenses from players who didn't pay. In a rather stunning effort of goodwill and generosity, Redmond has given everyone who took advantage of the pricing error $10 in Xbox Store credit--just enough to change your GamerTag for free.

"Our pricing error on Fallout 4 has been fixed and your free download will no longer work. For the inconvenience we will deposit $10 by the end of June in your Microsoft Account. This expires one year from the time it was deposited," reads the message Microsoft gave to Xbox LIVE users.

E3 2016 - EA has just shown off a quick Titanfall 2 teaser clip ahead of Sunday's huge EA Play showcase, and we deliver a quick recap to get you primed for the reveal.

Although we haven't officially seen Respawn's Titanfall 2 in action just yet, the sequel is shaping up to be quite impressive. The newest teaser clip is just 12 seconds long and doesn't give us too much, but we know quite a bit about Titanfall 2 thanks to recent leaks.

For example, the sequel will feature a a "ton" of new operator abilities like a grappling hook that can be "extensively used" to perform devastating combos. Oh, and titans will have swords and possibly other melee weapons to play around with this time. We also know Titanfall 2 will have more space in its multiplayer maps, offering a bigger playground for dynamic combat sequences. Player count has also been boosted to accommodate the expansive maps.

A skilled DIY tecchie makes a working controller out of a potato--and you can too.

Gamers have done some amazing things over the years--we've seen hardcore players like gbbearzly smash Dark Souls bosses with Rock Band guitars, drums, and even his own voice--and even awesome inventions like a tiny SNES console that fits in your pocket, or a retro-themed GameBoy. But now it's time for potato controllers!

YouTuber BOOM exploits the natural electrical conductivity of a potato to rig up a makeshift controller out of potato slices to play Skyrim. And yes, it really works. Sure it doesn't work too well, but it definitely works. Each potato slice is hooked up to a Makey Makey logic board via simple wires, essentially creating corresponding buttons on a controller. BOOM has even created a step-by-step tutorial so you can make your own custom spud controller.

E3 2016 - CD Projekt RED is set to show off a standalone Gwent card game at E3 2016.

Gwent is one of the best things about The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. The simple-yet-infinitely-complex card game is arguably one of (if not the) most entertaining mini-games of all time, and even gives Final Fantasy VIII's epic Triple Triad a run for its money. Now it looks like CD Projekt RED is taking the epic Witcher past-time to the next level with its own game--but it won't be a physical trading card game, just a video game.

According to Nerd Leaks, the Polish developer has trademarked "Gwent: The Card Game" and an official logo, pretty much ensuring we'll see an E3 reveal. Remember that CD Projekt RED teased a new "experimental game" for 2016, and the Gwent card game is almost assuredly it. I expect to see the Gwent game released on mobiles devices, consoles, and PC, all with online cross-play, but hopefully CDPR won't take the freemium F2P microtransaction approach with the game.

Amazon is planning to launch a standalone music streaming subscription service late this summer or early autumn, according to two sources familiar with the matter. The service will cost $9.99 per month and will offer a competitive catalogue.

The online shopping giant already offers a limited streaming music service to its Prime customers, and recently offered a monthly fee Prime option, so a full catalogue standalone service based on the subscription model would be a natural leap. With the success of Spotify and Apple Music (which collectively serve about 43 million subscribers and many more non-subscribers), it makes even more sense.

Although Amazon would enter the game a bit late, it has the clout and financial power to significantly alleviate that disadvantage.

A newly published video on YouTube by a developer known as Felix shows footage of a rhythm game prototype for the HTC Vive, and it reminds me a lot of one of my favorite Nintendo DS rhythm games, Elite Beat Agents.

I've always loved rhythm games, and playing the genre in virtual reality can also double as rather intense exercise (see: Audioshield). What's really interesting about the admittedly early gameplay mechanics here is that, depending on how the various phrases and dots are positioned in 3D space, movement could not just be sequenced to fit the music, but also to choreograph dances.

Granted, the pesky HTC Vive cable might put a damper on that, but it hasn't stopped me from lighting up my carpet playing something like Holopoint, which requires some fast foot work.

Earlier this week, Blizzard made it known Overwatch's McCree was due for a nerf and D.Va was due for a buff. Turns out the team is looking at the French femme fatale Widowmaker as well.

A forum post asking if the developer is considering toning her down reads, "In both pub matches and competitive play, she is by far the most dominant hero in the game. Multiple factors like too high bodyshot damage, shots that recharge too quickly, SMG that is almost as powerful as S:76's Pulse Rifle, an extremely powerful ultimate that is not clearly announced to the enemy team, etc."

Blizzard game director Jeff Kaplan then responds, "Widowmaker is on our radar. We are discussing her. We have some internal experiments going to see if we can keep her viable while lowering the frustration threshold a little bit. Right now, this is just exploration. If something more comes of it, we'll let you know."

If you couldn't stop drooling at TweakTown's recent NVIDIA giveaway, here's your chance to win more PC gaming goodness. Lots more. Obscene amounts, honestly. NVIDIA has gathered up $100,000 of loot to rain down upon us during the entire week of E3 2016, including an "Ultimate Gaming Battlestation" that comprises SLI GTX 1080s, a G-Sync Surround setup, an HTC Vive, and a Steam Wallet card that NVIDIA says will let you purchase every AAA game being released for the rest of the year.

All you guys have to do is jump on Twitter or Instagram and tell NVIDIA what games from E3 you're excited about, and why you'd love to play them on Team Green hardware. Tag them (@NVIDIA) and use the hashtag #GameReady. The full terms and conditions can be found here.

NVIDIA has some examples primed and ready for you:

The latest nightly build for popular catch-all media player VLC bakes in Chromecast support. A long anticipated feature, it enables users to view virtually any kind of video content, live or recorded, on their TV. While such functionality has been possible through other avenues, none are as convenient as what VLC offers.

Head here for the latest nightly builds. The Chromecast-enabled version (3.0) may not be ready until later tonight (June 10/11), so keep checking back if necessary. Or if you're not the early release type, take this as news that public Chromecast support is not far away.

E3 2016 - Sony explains exactly how the new upgraded PlayStation 4K will live alongside the PS4, confirming key features we've been reporting on for some time.

Now that Sony has officially confirmed the new upgraded 4K-ready PlayStation Neo is indeed coming, it's important to understand what the system is and how it'll affect current PS4 owners. The PS4K marks the first step towards the new iterative console cycle, meaning consoles will release every 2-3 years instead of every 5-7 years.

As such, the 4K-ready PS4 Neo will live alongside the existing PS4 instead of replacing it. This effectively means the PS4K will be an optional upgrade over the existing PS4, offering extra features like 4K Blu-ray playback, upscaling 1080p games to 4K, and more hardware to power the PlayStation VR headset. "[The PS4K] is intended to sit alongside and complement the standard PS4. We will be selling both [consoles] through the life cycle," Sony Interactive Entertainment President Andrew House told Financial Times.

Uber just continues to expand into new markets, with the company pushing its on-demand delivery service out of beta and into the real-world. UberRush is a new on-demand courier program that is open for any company that wants it, but it's limited to just three cities right now: San Francisco, Chicago, and New York.

With Uber opening up the UberRush API to developers, it's the first step the company has taken towards expanding its courier service. Companies can easily add the UberRush service to their apps, with just a few lines of code. There have been a few companies that have been using UberRush when it was in beta, with Nordstorm and 1800flowers both taking good use of it, but Uber has said that there are more partnerships on the way. These new partnerships include Dryv, a Chicago-based dry cleaning service, and Up Sonder, a company that rents on-demand drones to aerial photographers.

If UberRush is a success in SF, Chicago and NY, we can expect the company to expand the on-demand delivery service into other towns, cities, and countries. I can't wait for that, as it's going to make me lazier than ever... thanks, Uber.

E3 2016 - Sony has officially confirmed the new upgraded PlayStation 4K (PS4 Neo, PS4.5) is in fact real, but it won't be shown at E3 2016.

Sony Interactive Entertainment President Andrew House confirmed the PlayStation 4K's existence in a recent interview with Financial Times, saying the console is targeted at "hardcore gamers", and asserting the "PS4 Neo" will indeed support 4K resolution. The "high-end" PlayStation 4K will be more expensive then the $350 PS4.

House also confirmed the upgraded PS4K won't replace existing PS4s, instead complimenting the systems in a new ecosystem. "It is intended to sit alongside and complement the standard PS4. We will be selling both [versions] through the life cycle," he said. House went on to announce that the PlayStation 4K will be fully backward compatible with all existing PS4 games, confirming past reports. "All games will support the standard PS4 and we anticipate all or a very large majority of games will also support the high-end PS4," he said.

The release of AMD's next-gen Radeon RX 480 isn't too far away, but we have no real performance data on the Polaris-based video card, until now. According to benchmarks on the 3DMark database, the RX 480 has achieved a 3DMark 11 Performance Score of 14,461 - not bad for a card worth $199.

At this performance level, AMD will have no issues with the RX 480 meeting the minimum VR spec, but it'll also handle 1080p and 1440p gaming like a champion. Again, for $199 to $229, depending on whether you want the 4GB or 8GB model. With VR headset sales set to expand over the coming years, AMD is positioning itself incredibly well for consumers. Sure, the GeForce GTX 1070 and GTX 1080 kick some serious ass, but not everyone has $400-$699 to spend on a video card - but $199? That's a huge market.

We have Radeon RX 480 samples coming soon, but we can't tell you when our review will be up - but stay tuned to TweakTown for more information on Polaris very soon.

Colorful impressed us so much at Computex 2016 with their range of GeForce GTX 1070 and GTX 1080 video cards, but now the company has made their GTX 1070 video cards official, with a few different variants.

The company has launched three GTX 1070 cards, with the iGameGTX1070 X-TOP-8G, followed by the iGameGTX1070 U-TOP-8G (guys, you need to use a space bar...) and of course, the Colorful GTX 1070-8G Founders Edition. All three cards don't vary from the 16nm FinFET-powered Pascal GPU, with its 1920 CUDA cores and 8GB of GDDR5 clocked at 8GHz on a 256-bit memory bus.

Colorful hasn't provided clock speeds just yet, but we should expect something special from the iGame-branded cards. We do know that both of the cards are based on the i-MSD from Colorful, which is the iGame-Modular Structure Design. The iGame-based cards have a 'new cooling base' and 8+2-phase power, with a newly designed cooling fan which is sure to keep the GP104-powered card nice and cool, even when hitting those huge overclocks.

Autonomous cars are really becoming a thing, but they're not mainstream, yet. According to analyst organization IHS Automotive, there will be more driverless cars on the market than they had estimated. IHS Automotive increase its expectation of driverless and self-driving cars across the world, from 11.8 million on its last estimate in January 2014, to a huge 21 million by 2035 - an increase of nearly 100%.

IHS says that because of the increased R&D into autonomous technology, it has doubled its previous estimates, now stating that around 21 million driverless cars will be sold worldwide by 2035. The analyst firm says that the US will lead the world with autonomous car deployment, with thousands of cars on the roads by 2020. IHS expects the number to expand to 4.5 million self-driving cars in the US by 2035.

Most would think Japan would lead with autonomous cars, and don't worry - they're not far behind. IHS expects that Japan will "ramp up industry coordination and investment ahead of the Summer Olympics in Tokyo in 2020". China is actually expected to be the volume leader for autonomous technology, with IHS estimating that over 5.7 million cars in China will have some form of autonomous technology built into their cars by 2035.

Just a few days ahead of E3 2016, former Free Radical Design and Crytek developers have announced a PlayStation VR exclusive flying game; How We Soar. The new studio is called Penny Black Studios, and with former Free Radical Design and Crytek developers, we should expect something quite beautiful in How We Soar.

Based on the trailer above, it looks like a truly different genre of game - with similar flight mechanics to Eagle Flight from Ubisoft, which is on the Oculus Rift. The developers tease: "The world that you explore has been created in the mind and memories of 'The Author.' You will travel back and forth between the realms of reality and fantasy with the goal of uncovering the memories hidden within and piecing together the tale of The Author's life".

How We Soar will drop onto the PlayStation VR later this year, just after the PSVR itself launches.

Computex 2016 - QNAP always impress when it comes to NAS systems, with their product line being on show at Computex 2016 once again. The company was showing off their new NAS systems powered by Intel's new 6th generation Core i3/i5/i7 processors, as well as the next-gen TVS-x82T Thunderbolt 2-powered NAS.

The new TVS-x82T line of NAS systems include SATA M.2 SSD and 2.5-inch SSD cache abilities, something that will super-charge your video editing speeds with up to 20Gbps of bandwidth available - enough to handle multiple 4K video transfers, and displays. Nerd alert! The new TVS-x82T lineup comes in 4-, 6-, and even 8-bay solutions depending on your needs.

Then we have the new quad-core TS-831X which offers a "powerful yet affordable NAS solution with two built-in 10GbE SFP+ ports to accelerate applications that require a fast, high-bandwidth and reliable NAS, including intensive data transmission, video storage, streaming and editing". QNAP adds that studios can use the 10GbE storage solution "at a budget price, create a centralized file center for storage, backup and sharing with the rich native apps, and rely on the NAS scalability to accommodate increasing amounts of media files".

Some people cry over things like Final Fantasy VII Remake*. Others shed tears of unbridled joy when they discover the existence of Shenmue III. But I'm one of those weirdos who just sat here and shrieked at the realization that I'll be playing Fruit Ninja -- the original one, from Australian developers Halfbrick -- on my HTC Vive by month's end.

"After the latest VR technology was released, we felt that there was no better game suited to VR than Fruit Ninja," Halfbrick's Adam Wood, product manager for Fruit Ninja VR, told IGN earlier today. "The simplicity of Fruit Ninja with the total immersion of VR creates an experience like no other."

Simplicity and VR get along very, very well. That's because with something like the Vive's hyper-accurate motion tracking, your hands and arms quickly transform into whatever weapon or other implement is in the game world. Nailing targets with a bow & arrow? Perfect. Swinging a sword? Super satisfying. It's also more challenging than you might expect, thanks to the 1:1 tracking.

With the much-derided 'Ghostbusters' reboot releasing in just a few weeks, Sony Pictures sorely needs some good buzz to cut through, but this merging of the old and new crew is just the kind of association that fans need to make.

In a slightly awkward, but nonetheless good-natured dance off to the chart topping Ray Parker Jr. theme song on the Jimmy Kimmell show, which features original stars Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, rnie Hudson and Annie Potts, in addition to the new crew. To the dismay of fans, 'Ghostbusters' 2016 is a complete reboot and features no continuity to the two classic films, despite many of the stars make cameo appearances.

'Ghostbusters' hits screens worldwide next month.

Computex 2016 - QNAP were not only pushing their usual NAS systems at Computex this year, but their new QIoT Containers - but what in the world are QIoT Containers? They're QNAP's new private IoT cloud platform, which is an "extension to QNAP's robust Container Station that supports LXC and Docker® containerized apps suited for microservices-based architectural patterns as applied to IoT systems".

With QNAP launching its QIoT Containers, the company is also "launching multiple containers (including Ponte, Node-RED, Kafka, Dashing, Freeboard, Redis, MongoDB, RabbitMQ, and MariaDB) that can be used to define private IoT stacks on QNAP NAS. QIoT Containers reduces the expenses of relying on public IoT cloud platforms and provides the easiest, most convenient, and highly-configurable IoT stack for developers to accelerate development with low time to market".

QNAP boss Teddy Kuo explains: "QIoT Containers keeps sensitive data under your control and complements public IoT cloud platforms. We envision that QIoT Containers will help organizations boost microservices and modernize legacy applications to drive more business opportunities".