Latest News - Page 2458

Sony's PlayStation 4 technically already supports 4K video playback, so what if the new fancy PS4K or PS4.5 is just a default PS4 with a 4K Blu-ray player thrown in?

Back in 2013 before the PS4 released, Sony exec Shuhei Yoshida confirmed that the console would indeed support 4K video playback and pictures on launch. "The official answer is that the PS4 supports 4K output but for personal contents, like photos or videos. Not games. PS4 games do not work on 4K." This means the PS4 can already technically play 4K Blu-rays, but the console still has limitations.

The current PlayStation 4 model might support 4K video playback, but it doesn't have a 4K Blu-ray player installed. Plus, it only has HDMI 1.4, which limits 3840 × 2160 at just 24 FPS. The PlayStation 4 was released before Sony had established the UHD Blu-ray spec, so that's one of the reasons the console didn't ship with a 4K player installed.

You didn't honestly think that after grossing nearly $1.7 billion at the worldwide box office, that Universal would let the 'Jurassic Park' franchise rest for another decade? Today the studio has announced who'll be slipping into the directing chair for the much anticipated 'Jurassic World' sequel - and you might not know who he is.

As rumored by Deadline Hollywood back in January, the outlet has now confirmed that 'The Impossible' and 'The Orphanage' director Juan Antonio Bayona will direct the follow up, which is expected to return stars Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard. Universal have already set a date for the film's release, which will hit worldwide in July 2018.

'Jurassic World' director Colin Trevorrow had to depart the sequel after signing on to direct the as-yet untitled 'Star Wars: Episode 9'.

Rebellion has wasted absolutely no time in getting their remastered version of Battlezone 98 released. It's out now on Steam with a 20% discount for all the early adopters. Thus far, with 5 reviews, the new version has outstanding reviews as it manages to retain the charm and appeal of the original FPS/RTS hybrid.

Rebellion announced in February that they were also working on more than just the original Atari Battlezone. They have the rights to the whole franchise and have been systematically upgrading the visuals and making the original PC game playable again.

For this version, they concentrated on leaving the basic mechanics intact and just giving it a much-needed overhaul so that it fits in with other games of the genre currently out. The art style and unique hybrid control mechanics are all there, with much better graphics. It's worth a look if you enjoyed the original and even if you're looking for something new. The unique way that it blended base-building and the action still hasn't quite been emulated even today.

Netflix isn't convinced that VR will see enough mainstream adoption to warrant the production of exclusive VR movies and TV. So don't expect to see Orange is the New Black or Trailer Park Boys in 360-degree video anytime soon.

Although Netflix released a VR app that allows users to watch shows and movies in virtual reality living rooms, the streaming titan currently has no exclusive VR projects in the pipeline.

"We're really focused on movies and TV shows and doing more of those, which you can watch in a virtual reality headset if you want to," Netflix CEO Reed Hastings told Mashable, "but we think most people will watch Netflix on a smartphone or a smart TV."

Another great indie game on Steam has just joined the growing catalog of those that are becoming available for Linux. Vector 36, a futuristic physics-based racing game, is now available on Linux and specifically on SteamOS, and they're encouraging everyone to give it a proper try.

Vector 36's developer responded to some of the feedback from their fans nad have finally added in this support. Of course, this is the first iteration on SteamOS and as such will be a bit less stable than desired. Bugs and glitches are inevitable, but they're an active developer and try to fix everything found while also continuing to perfect their game so they can officially launch it. If you have it, give it a whirl and see how it does, it should play just as fast as the Windows counterpart.

SteamOS is seeing a surprising amount of support even if it isn't quite as overt as we're used to. Thus far, Vector 36 joins some 1700 other games that are able to run on Linux that are available on the Steam storefront. Vector 36 is also an example of an indie developer, a very small studio, that's rising to the challenge and taking advantage of all the future technologies that they can. It might be slow going, but the results thus far have been steady and still quite fun. The game right now features leaderboards so you can properly compete and a slew of different ways to modify your own racing stallion. Flying across the wasteland that is Mars, with it's lower gravity, in a jet powered skiff is quite fun. The controls take some getting use to, but overall it's a joy to play.

Die-hard Souls fans will have to wait until autumn rolls around to play the first Dark Souls 3 DLC.

Although Bandai Namco is all too eager to sell Dark Souls 3 Season Passes at $24.99 a pop, gamers will have to wait as long as September before they can play the first Dark Souls 3 DLC. Since the second pack obviously comes after the first, we may not get the full Dark Souls 3 package until holiday 2016.

The publisher confirmed Dark Souls 3's DLC release schedule with Videogamer.com. Namco Bandai has yet to officially announce DLC details, but affirms that the two new packs will come with "new maps, bosses, enemies and additional weapon and armor sets."

The Australia Post is currently testing drones for small package delivery. Assuming all goes well, they will be used to test home delivery later in 2016.

The company -- the first of its kind to test this kind of thing, beating Google's plan by some margin -- believes the drones will mean quicker delivery, including for imperative items like medication.

It's said the testing will be rigorous as it's carried out over the next few months. The Post's goal is to to determine exactly what the drones can deliver, how far it can deliver it, and how customers will receive their goods.

Titanfall 2 will release sometime this year, according to listings found on GAME UK's storefront.

Last week EA dropped a Titanfall 2 bombshell with a new teaser trailer that confirmed a PS4 and PC launch. While the publisher plans to announce a release date on June 12 at E3, it looks like UK games retailer GAME spilled the beans early.

The British retailer lists Titanfall 2 as "TBC 2016", hinting that Respawn's sequel will release sometime this year. These dates are always placeholders, but more often than not its the months that are placeholders, not the years.

GameStop isn't just a purveyor of fine gaming wares and a place to economize physical game merchandise. Now they're fully entering the publishing business with their own fully owned, and separate, division created specifically for publishing games; GameTrust.

They've already tried their hand at publishing their own games in the past, but now they're officially entering fray with their own, non-traditional mechanism for letting developers get their games out there, and funded even. It's non-traditional in that they have a completely hands-off approach to the development process. The goal of GameTrust is to provide their clients with exclusive real estate, as they're calling it, both online and in their stores to allow for a higher degree of discoverability. Right now they're working with Insomniac Games, Frozenbyte, Read At Dawn and Tequila works, but there's plenty of room for more developers to join their new business model.

Even though it might at first seem the antithesis of their unspoken policy to protect their own physical merchandise business, however, the extension into the digital release business is actually a natural progression and now another source of income for them. GameStop is striving to be more relevant in an evolving climate. They plan on distributing to as many platforms as possible, consoles and PC, with their sites set on including a dose of VR content as well.

The latest open-world entry in the beloved Mafia game series will release in October across PS4, Xbox One, and PC if rumors can be believed.

In a recent Tweet, renowned industry insider Wario64 predicted that Mafia 3 will release on the same month as Gears of War 4--in October 2016. 2K will reveal a brand new trailer tomorrow at 8 AM EST, and it's highly likely we'll get an official launch confirmation in the footage.

If you need a refresher, Mafia 3 takes place in post-Vietnam 1960's and follows Lincoln Clay, a Vietnam vet who starts up his own crime syndicate. The Big Easy's organized mob strikes out against Clay, murdering his entire gang as well as his family and friends, leaving him with nothing. Players then build up Clay's gang once again to unleash revenge on the mob, while taking over the city's vice-ridden streets.

Comcast is America's cable giant and Netflix is the poster child for new wave programming, so it's only logical to compare the two in light of their recent company reports. As fate would have it, Comcast boasts 33,347,000 cable subscribers, but Netflix does them about 22 million better with 44,740,000: a 100.2% differential.

Mind you, Comcast does business by charging a lot lore to fewer customers, whereas Netflix charges a lot less to a lot more. So while the user gap is major, the revenues for the competing services would tell a different story.

Meanwhile, subscriber growth rates show Comcast doesn't really have a growth rate (not too surprising given how long cable has been around), whereas Netflix has been increasing its base steeply each year.

BioShock dev Ken Levine will use Rod Serling's beloved anthology series to blur the lines between film and games.

I absolutely love The Twilight Zone. I've watched every episode of the 1960's series and the 1985 reboot, along with the terrible 2000 run. So when I hear that Irrational Games' Ken Levine is not only writing but also directing an interactive Twilight Zone film that "explore sthe spaces between movies and games", I get pretty excited. I've always wanted a Twilight Zone game, something akin to Alan Wake's Night Springs in video game form.

"Interactivity is a spectrum, it's not binary," Levine told Wired in a recent interview. "I think of it as the viewer's angle in the chair. When you watch something, you're sitting back in the chair. When you're gaming, you're leaning forward in the chair. This is an interesting place in between ... your brain is forward in the chair."

Seagate shipped 39 million drives worth 40 percent of the HDD market in its third fiscal quarter, and while it sounds like a lot, it's well below expectations.

The company put the blame in part on reduced demand in the desktop PC sector, which is expected to only continue until the Windows 10 hardware refresh hits (with any luck, in the latter half of this year). One can point to the success of SSDs in the high-performance space as well; the more advanced drives should supersede HDDs soon, although not before SSD demand and thus prices increase, which should ease the pressure on HDD makers for awhile.

Tom's Hardware Contributing Editor Paul Alcorn says the solution right now for HDD makers is to focus on the high-capacity market where SSDs can't compete: this is in line with Seagate's 8TB enterprise drive success, which represents the only success last quarter as well as a market shift to the cloud. Seagate Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Steve Luczo agreed when explaining the situation.

Insomniac Games , the traditional spunky console developer, is seriously breaking out of their comfort zone now with three VR-focused games coming to the PC, of all places, and for the Oculus Rift. Feral Rites, is one of those, and places you in control the son of a slain tribal chieftain in third-person.

The game blends different elements that might be best recognized in the Legend of Zelda series of games as well as God of War. It's best used with a traditional gamepad, Insomniac's Cameron Christain says, and has a fixed camera angle similar to God of War, but with adventuring elements that are more akin to Zelda. You'll have the ability to transform from human, into a jaguar-type beast, though they say it isn't a power-up of sorts or special ability, but a main component of the game. You'll have to switch strategically in order to solve some problems that crop up. The best part is that it's in VR, meaning completely in your face with the gore and blood.

The fighting style is also similar to God of War in that you can string together different combos for maximum damage. You'll also be able to fight in mid-air, striking taller opponents in the face, if need be. Just how this will work out in VR, or make use of the advantages of VR, in this case is unknown. If the camera angle is fixed, then it takes away the greatest advantage of VR in the first place.

The latest patch that's expected to hit this week for Rocket League is all about refinement of some of the in-game mechanisms. Specifically, it's concentrating on making those hitboxes a bit more realistic and actually shaped like the vehicles they're attached to, instead of being generic in size.

The changes that are coming soon are all designed to help level the playing field and ensure that the game is a bit more fair. No sense in having a massive vehicle with suitably tiny hitboxes that mirror the size of it's smaller, brethren. The changes are minor, though they should have a larger impact on the game, especially the competitive sphere, than the version number implies. Another minor change has been made to the physics of the ball so that it can behave a bit more realistically in the Wasteland area. This is in part thanks to both reworking of physics and collision improvements.

Below are the specific fixes to the hitboxes for the curious:

It was only a matter of time before some astute developer started doing the prudent thing, which is bringing older games to the Android platform. Counter-Strike, though a game that requires quick reflexes and a keen sense of your surroundings, has been made available in a fan-made port to the platform, and it seems to run very well.

The creator, Alibek Omarev, recently posted a video of him playing the port on YouTube. He captured the screen so you can see him launching the application from the launcher of his Android-based tablet. He went so far as to include fully working touch controls into the port, though they may not be your best bet if you're looking to get a high enough K/D ratio. You can customize those to your liking, however, should you decide to install it yourself. You can do that by visiting the Github page for the project.

The actual hardware requirements of the game are low, and the current GPU and CPU are more than capable of running it, so it speaks to the tenacity of the developer, Omarev, in going through the original with a fine-toothed comb in order to ensure it works properly. For al intents and purposes, this is CS 1.6, and it's been ported very well. The next logical step would be in allowing cross-platform play between Android and Windows. Oh, and of course letting Bluetooth keyboards and mice be usable in the game as well. Android just might become the next great competitive platform. Regardless, it's very impressive to look at, and ingenious. Just get in on it and download it before Valve shuts that door closed.

Sony will be conducting some maintenance on their dedicated PSN servers that should last around two hours starting on Monday, April 18th at 9:30PM PST/

During this maintenance period, you won't have access to account management, your PSN profile, PlayStation Video or even the PlayStation Store. All is not lost, however, because some basic, which means gaming, functionality will still be available. "Anyone who already has an account can still sign in to their PlayStation Network profile, play games, and use most applications while this maintenance is carried out," Sony explained on their maintenance site.

Such deliberate and invasive maintenance is necessary when upgrading their servers or applying larger, more sophisticated software patches that can't be done in the usual stages that wouldn't otherwise disrupt availability of services. This period is short, though it could go on longer than the projected 2 hours. It's certainly nice, for a change, to see maintenance scheduled and on purpose.

Surprise surprise: Gears of War 4 will be running at 30FPS during the single-player campaign, and at 60FPS during the multiplayer battles. Both will be running at 1080p, but I'm sure it's going to be a dynamic resolution, scaling up to 1080p when it can.

The reason? The Coalition, the developer behind the Xbox One exclusive, wanted Gears of War 4 to be a "graphical showcase" on the Xbox One, just like the original Gears of War was for the Xbox 360. The single-player campaign is thus locked at 30FPS, while the multiplayer side of the game will be a much smoother 60FPS experience.

During the recent IGN Podcast, The Coalition boss Rod Fergusson explained: "It's a notion of wanting to make, to push, the visuals as hard as possible in the campaign, and there are also other aspects. When you look at your framerate, there are of the number of elements that go into it, part of it is rendered".

We all know the future is filled with robots, so it should come as no surprise that the University of Science and Technology of China is showing off its impressively realistic robot, Jia Jia.

Jia Jia looks more human than previous robots, and is capable of interacting with real humans, and can make realistic facial impressions. Jia Jia can tell you if she senses that you're taking unflattering pictures of her, where she'll say: "Don't come too close to me when you are taking a picture. It will make my face look fat".

The researchers spent three years designing Jia Jia to make sure that her mouth moves when she speaks, and that her eyes glance around the room naturally. Jia Jia can't laugh or cry just yet, and her hands still don't look super realistic, yet. The next version of Jia Jia will look better, with the researchers continuing to work on the robot without any plans of mass production. Team leader Chen Xiaoping said they hope to give her deep learning and facial recognition in the near future.

Apple is feeling generous, auctioning off a one-of-the-kind iPad Pro, Smart Cover, and Apple Pencil to London's Design museum to raise money.

The Apple products were donated by Jony Ive and the Apple design team, with the iPad Pro, Smart Cover and Apple Pencil produced for a once off in these colors. The three products are all made from the same materials the normal versions are made from, but the color scheme is custom.

The 12.9-inch iPad Pro is a greenish yellow color, while the Smart Cover is blue leather, and the Apple Pencil looks like it arrives in a slick leather case, in orange. There's a nice gold band around the top of the Apple Pencil, too, which makes it even more unique.