Latest News - Page 2593

Recent news in the competitive StarCraft II scene has seen a famous personality announce terminal illness, professional gamers and managers thrown into jail for match-fixing, the retirement of well-loved Korean SC2 pro Heart and the departure of absolute gaming legend Flash. Adding to this, two more South Korean players have announced they will be hanging up the mouse and keyboard - MMA and Rain.

Mun Seong Won aka MMA from Team Acer has seen many victories over his gaming career, being currently ranked at 55th in the world for eSports earnings on tournaments alone. MMA has pulled in just under $400,00 since these recordings began in 2011. This 27-year-old Terran player originally wanted to become a soldier but was discharged due to a knee injury, then becoming known in the gaming world as 'Dream.t)1988' when he played for SK Telecom T1 in 2008.

The other retiree comes in the form of Park Sang Jin, AKA Rain. Explained as a previous champion of both the Ongamenet Starleague and the prestigious South Korean GSL, he is known as one of three players that have won two Korean StarCraft II 'starleagues', joining the likes of Classic and Maru. This retirement is explained by others as largely due to Rain saving his father's life, donating part of his liver in order to keep his dad alive, meaning a long rest from gaming was needed, resulting in him having to play catch-up with the other hard training professional players.

8/4/20 UPDATE:SEGA is not making a Dreamcast 2. The teaser site is not affiliated with SEGA, and is no longer live.

SEGA is in absolutely no position to create or manufacture a console. In fact, they just closed their historic arcade in Akihabara due to COVID-19 significantly impacting its pachinko operations, which is one of the company's biggest consistent earnings. SEGA isn't doing badly--they made $1.153 billion in revenues in 2019, and we'll see how well they did in Q1'20 in a few days--but they are not in any kind of position to make a new console.

Original story is as follows.

Hideo Kojima hasn't exactly had the best of years, despite the undeniable success that Metal Gear Solid V was. His name has been summarily removed from all branding of his most previous of creations and he's been let-go under suspicious circumstances from a company he's helped to propel into a house-hold name.

But those somber circumstances aren't going to deter Kojima from doing what he loves. In an interview with the New Yorker, he talked about his childhood, his rise into the video gaming community and his inspirations for the various creations of his. But most importantly, Kojima was very adamant about continuing to make video games. In response to a friend who told him not to go on a mind-cleansing trip to a deserted island, he said that "Hearing that affirmed to me that my role in this world is to keep on making big games for as long as I can." He also said, "That is the mission I've been given in life."

He talked about how his new venture with his own company can free up his creative dream, making it easier to make decisions that are good for business and good for gamers. The Kojima will be with us, always.

We reported on the RPCS3 PS3 emulator last week, which uses DirectX 12 to power its PS3 emulation powers. YouTuber 'John GodGames' is back, sharing a new video.

In the new video, we see Disgaea 3: Absence of Justice playing at full speed on the PS3 emulator - showing that some great progress has been made on the emulator. There's an error at the end of the video, but other than that it looks like some smooth sailing for the PS3 emulator. Now we need some AAA titles that we all know and love from the PS3 running from this emulator.

During the PlayStation Experience event in San Francisco, California recently, Sony showed off the latest build of their PS4 exclusive, Driveclub.

The latest build is in an experimental form for the PlayStation VR, Sony's VR headset for the PS4. Attendees got the change to try out a single track with one car to drive, all from the in-car view. Sony has now released a 360-degree video recorded from the front of a Mercedes-AMG S65 Coupe.

The 360-degree video is a first from Driveclub developer Evolution Studios, showing off the Mercedes-AMG S65 Coupe driving through some tracks, including some snow capped mountains, forest regions, and sunny desert settings. There's some impressive graphics to be enjoyed in the video, too. If you want to get the full experience, check out the 360-degree video above on your smartphone in the YouTube app - as you'll be able to physically turn your smartphone around and enjoy the world in 360 degrees.

With 'The Force Awakens' storming the worldwide box office and perhaps poised to challenge 'Avatar's reign at the top of the all-time box office charts, Walt Disney and Lucasfilm are capatilising on the immense public awareness for the theatrical release by opening up pre-orders for the home video Blu-ray and DVD versions of the film.

The world's largest e-tailer Amazon and others such as Australia's JB Hi-Fi chain are all taking orders, with the latter confirming an April 20th release date for the 2 disc Blu-ray, alongside a steelbook release and a single disc DVD. Curiously, no retailers have yet accepted pre-orders for a 3D Blu-ray release, but that's expected to street alongside the standard 2D version.

Can you belive it has been 25 years since the very first website went online? Tim Berners-Lee's World Wide Web went online 25 years ago today.

The website went online at CERN on December 20, 1990 - but the public didn't see it until August 1991. It was an explanation of how the hypertext-based project worked, which was the foundation for the Internet as we know it today. Berners-Lee himself is still around, directing the World Wide Web Consortium that he helped create.

So much so, that Berners-Lee wants to protect the open web against government censorship, and telecoms' desire to crush net neutrality. CERN has shifted its priorities in the last 25 years, where it is now smashing particles together with the Large Hadron Collider.

We all knew that Star Wars: The Force Awakens would break records, with J.J. Abrams' latest movie pulling in a huge $238 million in its opening weekend in the United States. The Force Awakens had already broken single-day records with $57 million.

As for the global numbers, The Force Awakens looks to have taken in $517 million - a mind-blowingly huge number. Rival distributors are saying that The Force Awakens grossed closer to $245 million domestically, with the final numbers to be released on Monday. Prior to this huge haul from The Force Awakens, the previous record holder was Jurassic World with $208.8 million worldwide.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens scooped up the second-biggest start behind Jurassic World (which pulled in $524.9 million), which had help from its Chinese box office numbers. The Force Awakens doesn't open up in China, which is the second-largest moviegoing market in the world, until January 9. Walt Disney Studios chairman, Alan Horn, said in a statement: "Our sole focus has been creating a film that delivers that one-of-a-kind Star Wars experience, and director J.J. Abrams, Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy and the Lucasfilm team have outdone themselves".

Futuremark is feeling festive by the looks of things, with the Finnish benchmark giant releasing the VRMark beta for 3DMark, which is a tease of things to come in 2016.

In order to download VRMark you obviously need to own 3DMark, and have it on Steam. The beta is open to anyone who owns 3DMark on Steam, with a few steps needed to jump into the VRMark beta. One of the big requirements is that it does not run under Windows 7. Here's what you have to do:

Once you've done this, you'll need to download the VRMark beta as separate DLC, which weighs in at 662MB. You'll need to follow these steps:

It's hard to believe its a quarter of a century old, but James Cameron's masterpiece 'Terminator 2: Judgment Day' is heading back to cinemas worldwide next year to celebrate it's 25th anniversary - and it's bringing 3D with it. While the reboot series is on hiatus after this summer's 'Terminator Genisys' posted particularly poor business in the United States - failing to even crack the $100 million mark, Chinese audiences flocked to its release where it grossed an extremely impressive $90 million - an extremely impressive figure, especially considering that 'Judgment Day' didn't even hit cinema screens back in 1991.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, 3D firm StereoD is behind the 3D conversion, which previously worked with Cameron for the 'Titanic 3D' conversion in 2012, along with 'Jurassic Park 3D'. Speaking to Chinese media, Cameron said "I was thrilled to learn how popular 'T2' is in China. And I wanna thank the Chinese fans for their support, which is all the more meaningful considering 'T2' was never released in cinema there. And that's why I'm excited about working with DMG to bring 'T2' into Chinese cinemas for the very first time."

'Terminator 2: Judgment Day 3D' hits cinema screens later in 2016.

Someone has been kind enough to leak some gameplay footage from the closed alpha for Tom Clancy's The Division. The video, shown below, shows a dynamic open-world full of challenges and strife. But what it also might show is a graphical downgrade that could have happened.

Just keep in mind that this is an alpha still, and the actual playable portion of the game might not be fully optimized or made to look as graphically pleasing as it could. Also, this is the Xbox One version, meaning we still have a chance of seeing better graphics on the PC version.

The premise of the game itself looks good, with wide-open mission-based gameplay that seems interesting enough at first glance. But whether or not the complex missions and storytelling will hold-up to scrutiny, we don't know quite yet. This is one game that we would think would live up to the memory of Tom Clancy and his unique, and epic, method of story-telling.

Samsung has used 112 of its Galayx Tab S2 tablets to make something quite unique - a gigantic touchscreen piano.

The full-sized piano is part of a Christmas display in London's Spitalfields Market, and is fully functional. Using the host of the British reality show Pop Star to Opera Star Myleene Klass, Samsung unveiled "the world's first upright piano made entirely out of Samsung tablets".

But the Galaxy Tab S2-powered piano also features an equalizer, an amplifier, two speakers, and a USB interface to get it all working. Out of the entire 112 tablets used, 106 of them aren't used to make music - the 106 x Galaxy Tab S2s are used to create Christmas-themed animations.

Oculus is getting the mobile version of its platform in better shape for developers, with its newly released v1.0 SDK, something it released last month.

The new v1.0 SDK for the Gear VR includes an audio kit that allows for immersive sound in VR, and much more. One of the only things missing in the SDK are the upcoming social tools, something that will make it much easier for developers to create shared VR experiences. In a blog post, Oculus explained that starting on January 1 "we've decided to start requiring Mobile SDK 1.0 or higher for all new updates and store submissions".

This is because that version of the SDK "marked the transition from an experimental interface to a more mature, stable API focused on maximum performance". On a post on Twitter, the legendary John Carmark (who is the Chief Technology Officer of Oculus) said that there is now screen recording abilities in the Gear VR v1.0 SDK. The screen recording functions have to be baked into the VR apps and software that developers are creating, in order for them to make use of it.

Juniper Networks has had quite the week. On Thursday it seems that some unauthorized code was found to have been inserted into their ScreenOS, which forms the basis for their hardware filewalls. This malicious code would allow a backdoor into the firewall, letting potential attackers decrypt VPN traffic with the keys found inside.

The fun doesn't stop there, however. Now the FBI has now gotten involved and will be investigating the possibility of whether foreign governments had been involved with inserting the malicious code for the purposes of intercepting encrypted communications from government employees.

And even in the non-governmental sector, Juniper is a widely used brand of IT security products, so it can't be ruled out that it was a privately funded and conducted attack with motivations not tied to any government.

EA is in getting in the spirit of celebrating the very successful launch of Star Wars: Episode 7 The Force Awakens.

This weekend, and this weekend only, you can enjoy receiving double the XP for your efforts on the battlefield against the Empire, or the Rebel Alliance. That means it might be possible to actually get to higher levels to play with the different weapons available, without the grind being too long.

Star Wars: Battlefront is a beautiful game that didn't quite meet the expectations of fans when it eventually released. The beta was but a small window into a game that only captures a small essence of what Star Wars is. It seems that gamers are more satisfied with Fallout 4 than with Battlefront, with around a 33K player peak over 24 hours. Not the best stats given the newness of it.

If you want to have one of the more unique experiences on your VR headset, Bible VRX is now available, and works with Google Cardboard.

Bible VRX is also available for the iPhone, showing scenes in 3D that were described in the Bible - something that includes Adam and Eve in the Garden of Even, and Moses parting the Red Sea. When Moses is parting the Red Sea, you can turn around on the spot, checking things out - like the Red Sea parting, of course.

Derek Ham, who developed Bible VRX, explained: "What if we could use virtual reality to re-live scenes from the Bible? I thought it's time to use technology to disrupt traditional methods of Bible based media". The "lite" version of Bible VRX looks to be one of, if not the first religious app for modern VR technology. Ham continued: "Bible VRX has a mission to use advanced technology to communicate the stories of the Bible, stories of faith, hope, and love".

While the new HTC Vive headset and controller look incredibly awesome, one of the best demos we've seen so far is of the new finger-tracking demo shown off at the HTC developer event being held in Beijing, China.

At the event, HTC said it was developing a new VR content platform, with Valve open to the plan. On Reddit's Oculus forum, some commenters noticed the digital rights management technology being offered on the HTC developer website. This technology would restrict users from modifying the content, but how HTC and Valve will differ in their take on DRM will be interesting.

HTC has our attention in so many ways right now, especially with this new "very, very big technological breakthrough" it has worked out with Valve on the Vive VR headset.

AMD's next-gen AM4 platform is beginning to take shape, with the Bristol Ridge-based family of CPUs and APUs appearing on the Zauba shipping database.

The leaked processors have been sent over to AMD's testing facilities in India, with one batch being the quad-core APU prototypes with a 65W TDP, while the other batch are quad-core CPUs with the same 65W TDP. Both the CPUs and APUs were shipped in late October, with the new AM4-based motherboard shipping on November 16. You'll notice that the motherboard was shipping with "FOC" stamped on it, which stands for Full Operational Capacity - meaning the AM4 motherboard is ready for action.

AMD's new Bristol Ridge parts will allow for DDR4 support, with big performance-per-watt gains, and more.

Ubisoft is on the offensive with Far Cry Primal, with Game Director Thomas Simon being interviewed by Red Bull about Primal. During the interview, Simon revealed that Far Cry Primal hopes to deliver a "surprising setup".

Simon added: "We know that we're going for a surprising setup with Primal, and that there's an element of risk to doing it, but it's also very refreshing. Even though it's new, though, it retains the Far Cry core in that you have a lot of freedom to explore tactical choices". With Far Cry Primal taking place in 10,000 HC, it's going to be an interesting setup indeed. Players will take control of season hunter 'Takkar', offering gamers a completely different, but similar experience to previous Far Cry games.

In Far Cry Primal, you can take violent animals - if you have the right weaponry. Taming animals isn't mandatory, but if you are skilled and equipped enough to pull it off, it adds to the Primal experience. Simon said that players can choose to complete the entire game without having to tame an animal. He added: "The game could be made easier or more difficult depending on our choices, but taming animals to fight alongside you isn't mandatory. We're going to show you how these things work, then let you explore them however you like, just like we do with every progression system in the game. You can go hardcore and never level up at all if you like, trying to go through with two bars of health and trying to stealth everything without relying on your beasts. It's up to you".

Mozilla has just launched A-Frame, an open-source framework that uses HTML5 instead of WebGL. This means A-Frame is compatible across iPhones, Google Cardboard devices, the Oculus Rift DK2, and Android support "coming soon".

A-Frame will also support the HTC Vive, which is coming out in April 2016 with HTC teasing that together with Valve they have made "a very, very big technological breakthrough" with Vive. Back to A-Frame, with Mozilla's MozVR team saying: "Beginners start with easily understood primitives like cubes, videos, models, and skies. Advanced users can use JavaScript to imperatively create dynamic and interactive scenes or dive into its underlying entity-component system, a design pattern popular in the game industry that favors composition over inheritance".