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GDC 2016 - NVIDIA was displaying various VR demos at the Game Developers Conference this year, where we got to step onto the dangerously real Everest VR demo.

In the demo, NVIDIA is using their latest version of GameWorks with PhysX on top - and while it might sound like much, the additional immersion and presence that is provided is well worth it. The use of PhysX in Everest VR sees snowflakes and snow floating around at the top of the mountain, so that when you look up, you can see snow floating around - which for me, created an entire new layer of presence.

As my viewpoint was going up the mountain, I looked to the absolute peak of Everest where I could see the great use of PhysX in Everest VR. I'm not someone who would normally be sitting here bragging up PhysX, but if you ever had doubts of NVIDIA's PhysX, then Everest VR with PhysX will change your mind. It created something that Oculus, HTC and Valve have been saying since introducing VR headsets - a huge layer of presence.

Prepare to have your TV, no matter how big it is, feel inadequate by Tabler Systems. The company unveiled its huge 200-inch 8K TV at CEBIT 2016, with it coming in at 5m (16.4 feet) wide and 2.4m (7.8 feet) high.

The 200-inch 8K TV has a seamless 0mm bezel which makes it perfect for a video wall, as well as a truly gigantic touchscreen surface. How did Tabler Systems seemingly come out of nowhere with a 200-inch 8K TV? Well, the company is using light-emitting plastics, with the panel capable of being designed to be in any shape, with no bezel at all, flexible and the panel is just 1mm thick.

If you can't remember what resolution 8K rolls in with, we're talking about 7680x4320. It's a huge increase on 4K which has a resolution of 3840x2160 and makes 1080p look like nothing at 1920x1080. Back to the TV, which can be connected to a gaming PC for huge 200-inch 8K goodness, filling your entire vision and pulling you right into the game.

GDC 2016 - After getting rather excited over Valve announcing The Lab recently, we had to stop by and try it out while we were at the Game Developers Conference.

The Lab is a gigantic playground with VR experiences and games that really show off what Valve has been doing behind closed doors with the HTC Vive. There are multiple parts to the demo, with a beautifully rendered scene of the real-world mountain, Vesper Peak - and that's just the start of it.

There's also Longbow, which lets you use the Lighthouse controllers as a bow-and-arrow, fighting off enemies in a tower defense style game. Next up was Slingshot, which lets you fling around spherical robots into huge towers, destroying them for points.

With only weeks left until NVIDIA's GPU Technology Conference, where we'll be formally introduced to the Pascal architecture and everything that makes it tick. We've already been teased by the purported GeForce GTX 1080, GTX 1080 Ti and Titan X successor, but now we have some early performance numbers on the purported Pascal GPUs.

The performance numbers are coming from WCCFTech, who have spotted an unidentified NVIDIA video card with 7680MB (7.6GB) of RAM - 512MB less than 8GB, which should find itself onto the GP100-based GeForce GTX 1080 Ti (that's what we're going to call it for now, but I don't think NVIDIA will call the Pascal range by the GTX 1080 moniker).

Now, the performance numbers on 3DMark 11 were hitting 9038 - but an Intel Core i3-2100 processor was used - it lost out to various other video cards, but there were more details in the 3DMark results worth looking at. Firstly, the unidentified NVIDIA video card had 8GB of GDDR5 clocked at 8GHz - now this is noteworthy, as there are no video cards on the market with 8GB of RAM with performance close to the GTX 980 Ti.

Windows 10 Insiders get the benefit of some major enhancements to the Maps app today, namely to search, but also navigation and interface, among other areas.

For search, there's the new ability to conduct and view multiple searches simultaneously (e.g. see nearby hotels and restaurants at the same time, or see multiple directions at the same time), with the option to view them separately if need be. Algorithms are improved, too, which closer and better results.

Regarding the interface and navigation, navigation buttons are now at the top of the app on desktop and at the bottom on mobile, making everything more intuitive whatever device you're on; labels are now found directly on the map; elements can be hidden or shown at will; public transit routes are easier to follow with more precise instructions and an improved design, and Cortana will give you instructions when enabled.

There seems to be some substantial information regarding a minor (or fairly major) refresh of Sony's PlayStation 4. In fact, some developers have reportedly told Kotaku that there have been actual discussions behind closed doors about a "PlayStation 4.5" that could include a more powerful GPU for actual 4K gaming.

More than three independent sources in the developer community seem to have been able to confirm the existence of some type of evolution in hardware and design. This information seems to be even more substantiated after a supposed behind-closed-doors meeting from Sony at GDC. And just what does it mean for current owners?

Well, it would be the anti-thesis of what makes a console such a valuable ecosystem. The hardware is similar for a full generation of development, meaning no one has to upgrade to experience their games at the greatest possible settings for that platform. Having different versions, even if one is discontinued, defeats the purpose of the fixed-specification console. This is even in line with Microsoft's want to have upgradable console hardware in the future. The console as we know it, then, might be doomed. Or we could be looking at the definitive next generation, earlier than usual.

IBM Japan has a big surprise in store for MMO fans. Out of nearly 100K applicants they only took a small sample of 208 people and showed them what they're calling a Virtual Reality Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game. They've transformed, in what looks like just a technical experiment at the moment, Sword Art Online into a massive VR experience.

They had hinted at such a project this past February, but there hasn't been much word about how they were going to make the futuristic MMORPG into a VR game, but now we have some more details on what they did. They've created their own VR headset based off of the Oculus Rift DK2, called the Navugia. They added additional sensors, including a Leap Motion sensor and a Kinect V2 attached to a helmet device. The resulting experience literally puts you into the years 2022, when the game is set.

The whole thing is running off of IBM's SoftLayer cloud service with their own cognitive layer, a showcase of what their deep learning tech can do. But really it's to show what life could be like if you wanted to literally live inside an MMO. Take a walk on the wild-side and you're likely never to come back. They're taking the "role-playing" quite literally here. The photos were taken by Inside Games while they took a look at it. It's an interseting use of VR, but perhaps cumbersome at this point. Nonetheless very impressive.

You might think that something like a "trading simulator" would be boring as can be. But you might be terribly wrong too. Remember The Oregon Trail? Oh yeah, that's been remastered and re-released too. That and all manner of management sims seem to gain popularity, even among their own small niches. But still, they can be great to relax to for many reasons. Caravan wants to offer you something like that. But with an Eastern flair.

Just what is it? Well, Caravan is a trading and exploration game with a bit of strategy and RPG mixed in. On top of that there's actually story that's being told as you progress. You'll be in control of a caravan in the pre-medieval Orient with the ability to travel to the various towns along the Arabic peninsula. Your caravan will steadily grow as you across more members, heroes and camels. And they're not just making it an easy "trading" game, there's a big emphasis on recreating all the dangers, adventure, tempting business opportunities and even combat that you might run up against.

Of course, there's also that trading mechanism, where you'll manage all the important resources, like water, provisions and the caravan's animals. A tough The really cool thing is that the game is based on actual history. There's elements of real lore and actual history mixed into other fantastical bits.

Star Wars Battlefront's next update is bringing us further into the Outer Rim and adding two new heroes, but we already knew that. A new trailer shows off even more info about what we can expect from the first official expansion.

We already know that Nien Nunb and Greedo are on the way to help out within the dark halls of Ja.bba's Palace and on the dangerous factories of Sullust, but we didn't really get to see them in action and actually in-game. The new maps are actually looking quite good and intricately laid out. And in fact it looks inspired by not only the movies, but also from the map that was part of Battlefront 2. In addition to the two new maps and heroes, there'll be new star cards (a scatter gun, dioxis grenade and an adrenaline stim) and weapons. You'll be able to equip the new Relby V10 rifle and the DT-12 blaster pistol. A new Extraction Mode is also making into the game that has the Rebels recovering resources while the Imperials defend them.

This DLC, however, isn't free and needs to purchased as part of the Season Pass. But, that also gets you more content down the road when they release it throughout the year. The Season Pass is $50 in total, or the DLC cna be purchased separately for $15.

There was one platform, for better or worse, that Sonic hadn't made an appearance quite yet. He's been running along the mobile scene for some time, but not on the Apple TV. The first Sonic the Hedgehog is available right now through the TV OS app store, while the second installment is coming on March 24th.

And they aren't stopping there. If you wanted to use your micro-console as a true gaming machine, than you'll be able to play Sonic CD on the 31st of March. Strangely, all three of the games are live on the store, but only one can be purchased. That indicates that it's a complete and finished, uploaded app. There's no word from Sega on why we have to wait to enjoy all the classic adventures of Sonic. It could simply be a business decision. Regardless of why, the miniscule console is a pretty good fit for the blue blur.

As we get closer to NVIDIA's GPU Technology Conference in early April, we're finding out more details on the next-gen Pascal architecture, and what cards will purportedly arrive under the new 16nm process. Now remember, these are just leaked specs on the purported cards - the specs could change, and so could the naming system NVIDIA uses on the next-gen cards.

According to the latest rumors, NVIDIA will launch the new cards under what we'll call them for now (I seriously don't think they'll be called this): GeForce GTX 1080, GTX 1080 Ti and the new Titan X successor. Starting with the GTX 1080, which will feature the GP104 core, we'll see 4096 CUDA cores (a 100% increase over the 2048 CUDA cores on the GM204-based GTX 980).

We are to expect a near doubling in texture units, ROPs, memory bandwidth and 6GB of GDDR5 (up from 4GB on the GTX 980). The GeForce GTX 1080 Ti is even more powerful, with 5120 CUDA cores, 320 texture units, and 160ROPS - with another 28% in TFlops performance. The GTX 1080 Ti will also reportedly rock 8GB of GDDR5 (I think we'll see GDDR5X) and a 512-bit memory bus.

GDC 2016 - If you're a Star Wars fan, I apologize in advance: the Star Wars: Trials on Tatooine is as close as you can get to actually being there, and it was powered by NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 980 Ti and the HTC Vive.

Industrial Light and Magic's ILMxLab created the VR 'experience', which makes perfect use of the HTC Vive headset and included Lighthouse controllers. It starts off with the iconic Star Wars text crawl and then drops you on Tatooine.

From there, you're on the surface of Tatooine and then the Millenium Falcon flies over and lands right next to you, and out pops R2D2. A voice over from Han Solo is provided, saying that you need to help Artoo fix something on the ship, so you use the controller to press some buttons and then TIE fighters fly over and begin attacking. Solo fires back and takes them out, and after you've pressed some more buttons, it takes off and leaves R2D2 behind.

Bombshell didn't quite come out of the oven exactly like 3D Realms had planned. It was a good concept with some interesting underlying gameplay, and a neat story. It was the bugs, glitches and other infernal problems that kept people from actually enjoying it. Update 1.1 should make it a lot better, if not far more palpable to play. They've also added some free DLC to entice current users back.

The massive list of changes and fixes includes a bevy of items that they've found and changed by scouring through both the user reviews and critical reviews. 3D Realms and Interceptor Entertainment are very optimistic about what they've done underneath, so much that they're offering the game at a 33% discount, along with the addition of retro-themed Shellshock mission as free DLC.

In the changelog, they mention having new crosshairs for every weapon, adding in a more minimalist HUD for those that thought it was a bit too busy, and having NPC's actually show up on the mini-map. The most important fix that they've made is with the aiming mechanism. Now you can actually hit what you're aiming for. And they'll only shoot at you while they're on screen, which was minor, if annoying issue. There's more fixes and changes than you can shake a stick at, but if you've got the game and were disappointed, this might be enough to get you re-interested.

The original PlayStation VR announcement was a bit confusing and slightly disappointing if only for the fact that the actual VR headset purchase price didn't quite include all of the accessories you needed to get started and actually play VR games. It was missing something.

The new $499 bundle fixes that earlier confusion by adding in two move controllers, the PS Camera and a copy of PlayStation VR World's into the bundle. VR World's is one of their top PS VR launch games, they're saying in the blog post, and is a showcase of a number of different top-tier VR projects for the PlayStation 4.

Unlike the Core version of the PlayStation VR, you can pre-order this more complete bundle starting on March 22nd. And if you happen to miss the wave of pre-orders initially, they'll have more on the way this summer to satiate the VR hungry. The core version, for those that already own the camera and move controllers, is still not planned to be available for pre-order.

Total War Battles: Kingdom finally has a release date. And on March 24th you'll get the chance to play, across Steam and mobile mind you, against your friends in some delightfully light-hearted combat.

The whole massive battle aspect is all there, as well as the hexagon city-building and actually looks very close to just about any Total War game you've played on PC. The idea is to let you pick up where you left off on any device you want. Start a game on your PC, and continue planning your city and raising your army while anywhere else in the world on whatever device is at hand.

This is a definite far cry from Total War Battles: Shogun, which took on a strangely different aspect that, while good in it's own right, wasn't quite a proper Total War game. You'll be able to find this one on sale on the 24th on iOS and Android as well as through Steam.

Remember that strange patent that hinted the Nintendo NX's controllers would have an awkward ovular touchscreen in lieu of buttons? According to a "leaked" photo, that design is actually real, and will be used by Nintendo's upcoming console.

The leaked photo was originally leaked onto Reddit by user Idriss2Dev, and shows a possible proof-of-concept of the infamous Nintendo NX patent. As you can see, there's no actual buttons on the controller's ovular touchpad face, and a set of twin knobbly analog sticks that look rather odd. Notice the trigger button in the upper lefthand corner, and if you look closely, you can see a hint of a trigger on the right-hand side, too.

All in all the controller looks extremely non-ergonomic, leading many to believe it's a fake. Destructoid passed the image through a photo-checker and says it wasn't Photoshopped, so it may be genuine. Or it may be a fake prototype made to look like the patent. Assuming it is real, however, we're not sure if this controller belongs to the console or if it's the mobile on-the-go 3DS-like controller--based on its shape and form, I'd say it's the latter.

Twitter is retiring the Tweetdeck standalone app, supposedly to "better focus on enhancing your TweetDeck experience." As of April 15, it will be a web-only application, although as Twitter reminds, Chrome users can pin it to their desktop by following these instructions:

Things get a little smoother between Twitter and Tweetdeck, too: if you log in to Twitter.com, that will also keep you logged in at Tweetdeck.com, so there's no need going forward to keep switching back and forth. This change will be slowly rolled out over the next few weeks about.

Google parent company Alphabet Inc. have decided its robotics outfit Boston Dynamics isn't likely to produce marketable products anytime soon and as such, have put it up for sale, two sources familiar with the matter say.

The rumor is in line with accidentally leaked e-mails which indicate Google's concern with the viability of the company. The public reaction to the Atlas robot revealed last month could be a factor in the decision as well; the e-mails do well to show Google's worry.

"There's excitement from the tech press, but we're also starting to see some negative threads about it being terrifying, ready to take humans' jobs," wrote Courtney Hohne, a director of communications at Google and the spokeswoman for advanced research group Google X.

Sources say that Red Dead Redemption 2 has not only been in development for the past four years, but the highly-anticipated sequel is slated to release as soon as next year. This year's E3 will be rather exciting, eh?

Gaming outlet Fraghero supposedly was given confirmation from an anonymous source via email, who outright said that Red Dead Redemption 2: Legends of the West (yes, that's apparently the sequel's name) is in development. The tipster says that Rockstar Games will reveal the sequel at E3 2016, and the game will feature "more than one playable character" and a "much bigger open world" to explore.

Although the source claims to have received this info from an ex-Rockstar dev, be sure to take this with a big tin of Morton's salt. At the same time, though, Take-Two boss Strauss Zelnick has said that the Red Dead Redemption is a "permanent franchise" of the publisher, and a four-year dev window fits into his plan not to oversaturate the games market.

62 year-old builder Dennis Anselmo of Alberta, Canada (pictured below) had his life saved by the Apple Watch. He was working on building a fence when he suddenly began to "feel terrible"; at first he thought he must've been coming down with a fever, but a glance at the device told him his heart rate was above 210BPM (55-75 is normal, and Anselmo usually sits at 50). At this point an ambulance was called, and paramedics determined he was having a heart attack before rushing him to the hospital where they cleared artery blockages, preventing a second attack.

"They told me that if I had gone home and gone to bed - as many people do - I would likely have had another, more serious bout in the middle of the night," said Anselmo. "Those second attacks are the ones that kill. That is a common problem."

Amusingly, his wife had told him not to buy the watch (Anselmo is a watch fanatic with 35 others in his possession), but after the incident remarked that it "has paid for itself."