Latest News - Page 2519

In a move that surprises no one, Ubisoft has just announced The Division will get an open beta test.

According to the blog reveal post, The Division's open beta test will only be three days long and kick off next week on Friday, February 19 thru on PS4 and PC. Xbox One gamers will get priority once again, with a 24-hour headstart over other platforms. The open beta will include an extra singleplayer mission, and players will be able to pre-load the open beta starting Feb. 16 to ensure easy access.

The devs say that most of the cheating exploits have been nixed on PC, so the open beta's Dark Zone battles should be relatively painless. Well, they'll still be painful as there's tons of random baddies gunning you down, but at least this time you'll have a chance. All feedback garnered from the open beta will be closely monitored, and Ubisoft says that all of the cheating issues will be fixed for the final release.

The latest update for Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 has arrived, though only for the PlayStation 4 today. The change-log focuses heavily on the multiplayer side of things, improving the quality of life and making a few small adjustments to weapons.

The big patch does a bit of a re-balancing act for the various specialists so that none of the different classes are necessarily too over-powered. The official notes seem to have increased the likelihood of actually hitting someone. And of course the obligatory weapon stat changes help you to be a better player at long and mid-ranges with a few weapons.

Zombies is also getting a few helpful bug fixes. If you did it just right, an anti-gravity trap wouldn't ever turn off. How convenient, though now it does.The full patch notes are below for you to peruse.

H1Z1 gamers aren't going to be happy with the latest development from the game, especially after developer Daybreak Games promised it as a free-to-play title.

H1Z1 is splitting into two separate games, with neither of them being free-to-play. Instead, we'll see H1Z1: Just Survive which will be an open-world zombie survival game while H1Z1: King of the Kill will be "a fight-to-the-death shooter spectacle", according to Daybreak Games.

The developer announced the news in the last 24 hours, saying that the decision to split H1Z1 into two games had been lead by the community. Daybreak explains: "The more we developed this game with you, our community, the more we realized that in order to fully support both aspects of H1Z1, and their respective players, we needed to make them their own stand-alone games supported by their own dedicated development teams. Many players in the community have been discussing splitting the game and we've heard you loud and clear. We want to make sure we give both titles the support they need and deserve to truly flourish".

Just as video killed the radio (star), YouTube and Twitch have killed GameTrailers: after 13 years of entertainment, reviews, and original content, the beloved site is going off the air for good.

"After 13 years, GameTrailers is closing down today. Thank you for your continued support over the years. It has been an adventure," reads an official Tweet from GT's Twitter account. GT's founder Brandon Jones echoed the bad news with his own Tweet announcement, saying: "Today is the last day of GameTrailers. I wish it wasn't so. I love all of our fans like family. Thank you for letting me do this job."

Firewatch seems to have caught the eye of many a gamer, garnering positive reviews from critics and gamers alike. And there happens to be a feature in the PC version that isn't available anywhere else, and it lets you memorialize the beautiful graphics forever.

A disposable camera that's found in the forest can be used to take photos in-game, but the surprise is that once you finish the game you'll actually be given a link to a store where you can buy prints of those photos that you took. TechnoBuffalo gave it a try and the prints are of very good quality and reflect the quality and care put into the games engine.

The photos themselves cost $15 and the service is available around the world with free shipping included. Oh, and all of the shots that were taken before you got the disposable camera are also developed for you. The whole idea is incredibly new and fascinating. Graphics are getting to the point where it's either very realistic, in certain lights, or representative of fantastic art. The scenery from Firewatch is no exception, and is stunning, to say the least. What a novel service!

The flow of free, pirated PC games may be significantly reduced as a leading games-cracking group 3DM is taking a break from piracy--possibly for good.

"We just had an internal meeting. Starting at the Chinese New Year, 3DM will not crack any single-player games," Bird Sister, the team's leader, said in a blog post. "Cracks by overseas warez groups will still get posted on the [3DM] forum, and we will actively deal with these."

Despite the popular consensus that 3DM's break is the result of Denuvo's Anti-Tamper DRM, the group says the time off will let them gauge the impact that piracy is having on the modern games industry. "We'll take a look at the situation in a year's time to see if genuine sales have grown," the leader stated.

After what feels like forever, multi-account support will arrive to Instagram in an update this week. After some people received the feature recently, the rest of the world gets to join in very soon.

Instagram will make its server-side changes that will find their way into v7.15 of Instagram or higher, but with the Play Store version of Instagram already at v7.16, it can be confusing. This means that multi-account support isn't hitting everyone just yet, but it will be enabled very soon.

In order to get multiple accounts working within Instagram, you'll need to tap your username at the top of your profile, which will then let you change accounts. Your profile picture will be used throughout the app, which will let you keep tabs on which account you're signed into at that moment.

The movie industry is rife with a tremendous amount of talent,both on-screen and off-screen. Actors and actresses are challenged with having to get fully into their roles to convince us of whatever might be happening on screen. And surely they're the stars of the big-screen, but what about the people behind the scenes that make things go smoothly? The individuals who work diligently to make the experience a the experience truly cinematic, engaging and, ultimately, enjoyable.

And we had the opportunity to interview one of the industries most talented animators, turned pre-visualization artists, Mark Anthony Austin. Throughout his career he's worked on 20 hit blockbuster movies that include Star Trek Beyond, Goosebumps, The Jungle Book (2016), Avengers, Oblivion, War Horse, X-Men Days of Future Past and even Star Wars - A New Hope - Special Edition, where he had the honor of playing the legendary Boba Fett. The one character in Star Wars that has had the least amount of on-screen time, yet has become one of the most popular characters of all time.

We were able to ask questions about what it was like to don the helmet of and turn-into the most feared bounty hunter in the galaxy. We also talk about life as an animator and pre-visualization artist and why pre-visualization is so important in the art of filmmaking. And of course, we ask the all too important questions about hardware too.

When The Matrix came out in 1999, it was totally fresh - with a unique take on Hollywood, and it birthed the start of Bullet Time, and so much more - it became one my favorite movies of all time. So when a stale franchise like Assassin's Creed gets made into a movie, and its star, Michael Fassbender, comes out comparing it to the Keanu Reeves hit (let's forget about the sequels) - it has my attention, and not in a good way.

Well, Assassin's Creed has wrapped principal photography, and while speaking with Empire, Fassbender compared Assassin's Creed to The Matrix. Yeah, he went there, and said: "I've always thought about The Matrix when we've approached this. This idea of DNA memory elevates it from a basic fantasy genre [piece], because you have something an audience can actually believe in. Then the journey becomes so much more elevated, because you're on board in a different way".

I don't know how you compare the 15th century to The Matrix, which is a world within a world - in a computer program, controlled by AI, with people learning Kung Fu and Jujitsu from a computer that can probably still run Assassin's Creed at more than 24FPS. Ugh.

The best-paid CEO in the United States is Sundar Pichai, the CEO of Google, which comes as a surprise.

Pichai received the equivalent of $199 million in stock earlier this month, which increased his stake in Alphabet to $650 million. Pichai won't be able to cash in all of his Alphabet chips in for a while, with his shares vesting in quarterly phases through to 2019.

If we compare Apple CEO Tim Cook to Pichai, Cook pulled in $376.2 million when he sat int the CEO throne at Apple. While a $650 million stake in Alphabet would seem like lifetimes of money to mere mortals like you and I, it pales in comparison to the founders of Google. Larry Page and Sergey Brin are worth $34 billion, while ex-CEO Eric Schmidt has around $3 billion in stock. Guys, can I have a loan? I need to buy lots of cans of alphabet soup.

If you've been using 1Password on Android, you might have noticed an update arrived that delivers some rather large changes to the password manager.

1Password now sports a Material Design makeover, which makes the password manager look awesome in all areas, and provides more room within the UI. Not only that, but we have new toolbars all over the place, and a floating button that provides an easy way to add new URL-password combinations.

But, for those that own smartphones with fingerprint sensors like the Nexus 5X and Nexus 6P, you can use your fingerprint scanner to quickly unlock 1Password. All you need to do is launch the app and scan your finger, which will bypass the required master password. 1Password v6 also includes the beta of 1Password for Teams, which is a grat feature if you share log-ins with family or co-workers, so you can have a single account for all of your password-saving needs.

It was only a few hours ago that we reported that the PC version of The Division was being held back, because it would be "unfair" to consoles if the PC version of the game stood head and shoulders above its console counterparts.

Well, now Ubisoft has come out of the darkness, releasing a statement to PCGamesN: "It has come to our attention that a comment from one of our team members has been perceived by some members of the community to imply the PC version of The Division was 'held back' and this is simply not true. From the beginning, the PC version of The Division was developed from the ground up and we're confident players will enjoy the game and the features this version has to offer. And the feedback from PC players who participated in the recent closed beta supports this".

Now of course a company like Ubisoft isn't going to come out and admit that they are holding back the PC version of one of their biggest games of the year - but it would be nice to see them admit that the consoles are underpowered, which are holding back a huge leap in graphics, game size, AI, and so much more - including The Division being watered down from its E3 2013/2014 footage. There's simply no denying that, Ubisoft.

For most of Tuesday, Australians were angry at the biggest telco in the country over a nationwide outage that affected up to 16.7 million mobile services attempting to make phone calls or use data.

Well, a Telstra spokeswoman has explained: "This is an embarrassing human error. It's not OK. We do not like causing that level of inconvenience to our customers". Yes, all of that outrage over the outage, from a single person making a mistake. The Telstra spokeswoman added that there would be a full investigation and that some customers would be offered free data as compensation.

As for the issue, it all began when one of the nodes used for managing voice calls and data traffic between devices, and Telstra's network started malfunctioning. The Telstra spokeswoman explained: "We took that node down, unfortunately the individual that was managing that issue did not follow the correct procedure, and he reconnected the customers to the malfunctioning node, rather than transferring them to the nine other redundant nodes that he should have transferred people to".

It was twenty years ago at Superbowl XXXI that the world was first introduced to 'Independence Day', via the unforgettable explosive image of the White House being blown to smithereens and which helped propel it to one of the highest grossing films of all time. For the eagerly awaited sequel 'Independence Day: Resurgence', Twentieth Century Fox aired a gob-smacking new spot, which truly highlights the advancements of visual effects during the last two decades.

To coincide with the spot, the studio also unveiled the films theatrical poster, which harkens back to the iconic image from the original.

With returning starts Bill Pullman, Jeff Goldblum, Judd Hirsch and Vivica A. Fox joined by newcomers Liam Hemsworth, Maika Monroe and Jessie Usher, expect explosions and general mayhem in true Roland Emmerich style as the future of the planet is decided.

Maybe it's a first world problem, but when you pay through the neck for mobile internet and calls here in Australia - you expect a level of service. Today, the country's biggest network Telstra, which services 16 million customers has dropped the ball in a pretty big way by announcing huge network outages.

According to News.com.au, huge swathes of Telstra's network in capital cities such as Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane went down just after midday, with many customers reporting they're still unable to make phone calls over two hours later.

The company has not issued an ETA on a network fix (which the company call an 'interruption'), but stay tuned to their site here.

iPhone bricked with the 'Error 53' problem going around? Don't worry about it - Apple has your back. No really, they do.

If you haven't already heard, thousands upon thousands of iPhone 6 users have lost their devices to 'Error 53', which is bricking expensive smartphones. Why? Error 53 has something to do with the Touch ID-powered Home button on the iPhone, which can be used as a fingerprint sensor to unlock your smartphone, compared to the four-digit code that's usually required.

But, if your iPhone has been damaged and you've had it fixed by a non-Apple approved repairer, then you're... well, screwed. A new update to iOS now detects non-standard components and shuts down your iPhone - bricking it - aka, your expensive iPhone is now useless. This is all because you didn't go to an Apple Store, and have your phone fixed. Apple has released a statement to The Guardian, where they said: "We take customer security very seriously and Error 53 is the result of security checks designed to protect our customers. iOS checks that the Touch ID sensor in your iPhone or iPad correctly matches your device's other components".

One of music's greatest producers Rick Rubin has a strange new project coming out: a Star Wars-themed electronic album featuring sound effect samples from the films. Named Star Wars Headspace, it includes tracks from Flying Lotus, Kaskade, A-Trak, Bonobo, Rubin himself, and many more. If you like, you can check out some samples here or listen to Zane Lowe's Beats 1 program throughout today to get a feel for it.

Headspace is releasing February 19 digitally (iTunes pre-orders are up here) and March 18 the old-fashioned way. The full track list is below.

The world's first Blu-ray player (in North America at least) is said to be available about a month ahead of time, starting as early as last Friday. The Samsung UBD-K8500 (which resembles a certain Sega console), according to some enthusiasts, can be found in some shops now, while Best Buy customers are being told it's shipping this Wednesday; others say a store in Santa Monica was advertising it and promptly sold out.

Funnily enough, the K8500 -- currently $399 -- can't actually play 4K Blu-rays at the moment, as they aren't currently available: Amazon is taking pre-orders for The Martian and Kingsmen: The Secret Service, but both don't ship until March 1. However, the device can stream 4K content from Netflix and other providers.

Google and Bing are already quite good at predicting what you're thinking and giving you relevant suggestions. But it's slow and the predictive algorithms just aren't quite good for actual real-time suggestions. So a graduate student from Cornell wants to speed things up considerably, making things potentially awesome, yet incredibly creepy.

We all like our personalized suggestions when shopping or even when searching for things. It legitimately helps us, despite the privacy concerns related to it. But those results don't show up instantaneously. There's a significant amount of background work going on that links your actions to those personalized results. Wenlei Xie has come up with an algorithm that could potentially speed things up to near real-time.

Search engines and their underlying suggestions generally use a weighted node graph which is examined analyzed to see just how appropriate the suggestion is based on years of collecting and correlating information. The problem that Xie has found is that there's just so much information to walk through, that it's incredibly slow. So to make it faster and more relevant even sooner, he's proposed simplifying those graphs. In essence they're assembling only the most pertinent information, and discarding a lot of the fluff, to make it quicker.

The semi-closed beta test for Hitman is going to begin at the end of the week and Square Enix has released a short trailer and an FAQ site to prepare us as we step into the role of Agent 47 once again.

Those on the PlayStation 4 of course get to enjoy the beta on starting on the 12th of February at 8:00am PST going through the 15th at 8:00am PST. Those on the PC will have to wait until the 19th at 2:00am PST and then you can play to your hearts content until the 22nd at 2:00am PST.

During the beta you'll only have access to the prologue mission, aptly named "The Prologue". This is a secret ICA training facility that Agent 47 first trained in. It's also the first time that you meet Diana, the familial handler that you eventually save in an earlier game set further along the timeline. You're give two completely free-form missions to play through to try out the mechanics of the game. How do you get in the beta? Read on below.