Latest News - Page 2712

GDC 2015 - ZOTAC was one of the first companies to unveil its Steam Machine at the Game Developers Conference, with its weirdly named, but very powerful 'SN970' making an appearance.

ZOTAC's SN970 gets its named from the GPU powering it, the GeForce GTX 970M, the mobile Maxwell GPU from NVIDIA. We have four HDMI 2.0 ports (yes, four!), an unspecified sixth-generation Intel processor, dual GbE, two USB 2.0 ports (with another two on the front) and two USB 3.0 ports. There's also an HDMI in port, as well as Wi-Fi 802.11ac.

Inside, we have 8GB of DDR3 SO-DIMM RAM, a 64GB M.2-based SSD and a 3.5-inch 1TB mechanical HDD. There's an SD card reader on the front, as well as a microphone and headphone port for audio. We'll see SteamOS preloaded onto the SN970, while the HDMI 2.0 ports can handle a huge 4K at 60Hz for those with the display or TV chops to handle it.

GDC 2015 - Valve has been showing off its VR headset to various members of the press and industry, but ex Epic Games God and now boss of Boss Key Productions, Cliffy "CliffyB" Bleszinski, has used it and taken to Twitter with his impressions.

CliffyB had nothing but good things to say, where he tweeted: "Valve's VR demo is a religious experiecne. I was nearly in tears at one point. Pure magic. Next level stuff. Mind blown. Also, funny too". I don't think there's anything else to know at this point - but VR is going to really change things. For it to be referred to as a "religious experience" and that it's "pure magic" and "next level stuff" and that he had his "mind blown" we are beginning to turn the dial up on our excitement meter.

GDC 2015 - The Steam Machine flood is here, with MAINGEAR joining the party at GDC 2015 with its new 4K-capable DRIFT. The MAINGEAR DRIFT can be configured with some seriously delicious specifications, including the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 or AMD's Radeon R9 290X.

MAINGEAR has crafted the DRIFT in a beautiful Formula 1-like chassis, with a beautiful unibody that is "whisper quiet" thanks to the inclusion of an Epic 120 Liquid Cooling system and "superbly design airflow". MAINGEAR's CEO and founder, Wallace Santos, explains: "The DRIFT packs the muscle and performance of larger gaming desktop systems into a beautiful compact design that fits on your desk or coffee table. Valve's STEAM OS will bring PC quality gaming to any location and the DRIFT is the perfect way to deliver that experience".

Inside of the DRIFT we have up to 16GB of DDR3 RAM, up to 2TB of SSDs, and a 6TB mechanical HDD, and fully customized for everything in between. This includes up to Intel's Core i7-4790K CPU, and the latest and greatest in GPUs. The MAINGEAR DRIFT will start at $849, come pre-loaded with SteamOS, with the DRIFT Super Stock Edition arriving in an amazing bodyshell travel case that you can see above.

GDC 2015 - Earlier today we were introduced to the GeForce GTX Titan X from NVIDIA, its Maxwell-based card that features a gigantic 12GB of VRAM. We don't know much else about it other than it featuring 12GB of framebuffer and 8 billion transistors, until now.

Legit Reviews spotted NVIDIA's soon to be dominant card at the NVIDIA booth at GDC, housed inside of the beautiful In Win Tou Tempered Glass chassis, where they got a closer look at the GTX Titan X. Thanks to the closer look, we can see that the GTX Titan X is a dual-slot card with a 6-pin and 8-pin PCIe power connectors, and two SLI connectors that mean you could have four of these bad boys in SLI. Yes, four GTX Titan X cards in SLI, for a total of 48GB of VRAM.

With the GeForce GTX Titan Z on the market being a dual-GPU solution, the Titan X is 100% confirmed as a single GPU card which means the single GPU is using all of that 12GB framebuffer. With four of these in SLI, we will be seeing 12GB of VRAM used in total which is much better than the Titan Z, or even the Titan Black Edition cards which have 6GB per GPU.

The marketing train for this summers biggest theatrical release; the sequel to 'The Avengers', is now at full speed and the final trailer for 'The Age of Ultron' has just gone live. At just over two minutes, it might be one of the shortest - but my oh my, they have packed it full of epic action.

There is plenty riding on the success of the picture, which follows up for the second highest grossing film of all time, raking in $1.5B worldwide and comes with a huge estimated budget of $250 million (not to mention an advertising budget probably the same), but also has the future plans for the prosperity of multiple valuable properties and the whole Marvel brand in its care.

'Avengers: Age of Ultron' will be released on April 23rd 2015 in Australia and New Zealand and on the 1st of May in the USA.

Criminals took $16 billion from 12.7 million US consumers last year, with a new identity fraud victim every two seconds, according to a new report from Javelin Strategy & Research. Two-thirds of identity fraud victims last year received notification that their personal information was compromised in a data breach, which took over headlines as major retailers were hit.

On the bright side, new account fraud, which is when a criminal opens up an account in a victim's name, dropped to a record low in 2014. In addition, new monitoring and protection systems saw the amount lost due to fraud dropping 11 percent year-over-year, from $18 billion in 2013 down to $16 billion in 2014.

"Despite the headlines, the occurrence of identity fraud hasn't changed much over the past year, and it is still a significant problem," said Al Pascual, director of fraud & security at Javelin Strategy & Research. "Consumers, financial institutions and retailers are all taking aggressive steps, yet we must remain vigilant. The criminals will continue to find new ways to commit fraud, so taking advantage of available technology and services to protect against, detect and resolve identity fraud is a must for all individuals and corporations."

GDC 2015 - With all of the news of VR headsets and games, one can get lost in the reality of it all when it comes to purchasing a new PC that is ready for all things VR. This is where AVADirect's new Omni VR desktop comes into play.

AVADirect has announced the new Omni VR desktop, which is built from the ground up for the full virtual reality gaming experience. For those in the know, the Virtuix Omni is a VR treadmill that has you more in the game than ever before, with an AVA Omni VR Desktop Series PC powering it all. Thanks to AVADirect's "standard testing analyses" you can ensure that this system will meet any requirements you have for the virtual, and real worlds.

The new AVA Omni VR Desktop has been "engineered and designed specifically for the Virtuix Omni Gaming Platform", but that doesn't mean it's not one of the best systems you can buy for VR gaming. AVADirect has specifically chosen parts in the system that ensures you can play games at 1080p at a minimum of 75FPS thanks to the inclusion of an EVGA GeForce GTX 960 SuperSC ACX2.0+ video card.

Fujitsu has developed a new iris authentication biometrics system, which the Japanese company has built into a prototype smartphone. The mobile device is unlocked simply when a user looks into the smartphone's screen, where the iris is read instantaneously. Fujitsu's system uses a custom compact infrared LED and infrared camera paired with biometric-authentication software to scan a person's iris.

Traditional security on smartphones begins with a password/PIN code or fingerprint scan, but the use of iris scanning provides new security opportunities. Fujitsu claims its technology is easy to use and difficult to fake, providing a more secure solution.

There is more focus on keeping smartphones secure, as users stay logged into email, social media accounts, and access mobile banking apps.

An estimated 1.1 billion people across the world are at risk of hearing loss because of increased listening volume from smartphones, other personal audio devices, and speaker systems at entertainment venues.

Almost half of teenagers and young adults between 12 and 35 years old are "exposed to unsafe levels of sound," with 40 percent exposed to "potentially damaging" levels, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

"As they go about their daily lives doing what they enjoy, more and more young people are placing themselves at risk of hearing loss," said Dr. Etienne Krug, director for the department for management of noncommunicable diseases, violence and injury prevention at WHO. "They should be aware that once you lose your hearing, it won't come back. Taking simple preventive actions will allow people to continue to enjoy themselves without putting their hearing at risk."

GDC 2015 - Sony has announced that it has sold over 20.2 million PlayStation 4 consoles at GDC 2015, with the 20 million plus consoles being sold up to March 1.

Sony notes that this is units sold through to customers, where in a press release the company added that the PS4 "continues to demonstrate the fastest and strongest growth in PlayStation hardware history". It wasn't too long ago that the company announced it had reached 18.5 million PS4s sold, back on January 4.

Sony Computer Entertainment's President and Global CEO, Andrew House, said: "We are so grateful for the enormous support from PlayStation fans worldwide, and we are truly humbled that gamers around the globe have continued to select PS4 as the best place to play".

GDC 2015 - Valve has just announced Steam Link, something that will be released later this year and will "extend your Steam experience to any room in the house". Steam Link will work with your PC, Mac, Steam Machines and even Linux-powered systems. It will stream content from Steam to the Steam Link device, with the only requirement is that they're on the same network.

Valve's new Steam Link will be capable of 1080p at 60Hz "with low latency", and will be made later this year in November for $49.99. The company also took the opportunity to announce its new Steam Controller, which will also be available in November.

Steam Link is "designed to take advantage of the PC horsepower you already have in your home, with In-Home Streaming" while the hardware includes three USB ports, and HDMI out. All you have to do is hook it up to your TV through HDMI, into your network, with Steam Link doing the rest of the work to detect any and all computers in your house running Steam.

It took a while to come to fruition, but the long-awaited sequel to the 1996 sci-fi hit 'Independence Day' is finally in production, with Director Roland Emmerich revealing key cast members.

'Hunger Games: Mockingjay' heartthrob Liam Hemsworth joins the cast in role that ComingSoon describes as "the son in law of Bill Pullman's President Whitmore", while original cast member Jeff Goldblum will reprise his role as neurotic MIT graduate David Levinson. Emmerich took to Twitter to announce the news himself.

'Independence Day 2' hits cinemas worldwide on June 24, 2016.

GDC 2015 - Unity Technologies has just announced Unity 5 at the Game Developers Conference, which will include a free, no-royalty Personal Edition to be used by small companies.

Unity 5 is capable of some pretty delicious graphics, as you can see from the screenshots above. Unity CEO John Riccitiello has said that Unity 5 is a "graphics powerhouse", and while it's not as good looking as some competing engines like Unreal Engine 4, we're still impressed. Oculus VR is right behind Unity 5, with Oculus VR founder and VR God himself Palmer Luckey also taking the stage during the Unity 5 announcement.

Luckey said: "The majority of the virtual reality experiences we've seen have been built with Unity technology. We're trying to make virtual reality available to everyone, not just consumers, but developers". Unity 5 will have Oculus Rift support very shortly, with Luckey adding "We've been collaborating for over two years with Unity and the results are awesome. It is really smooth and seamless now ... we have the ability to preview and publish to GearVR and Rift instantly".

GDC 2015 - Valve has unleashed the Steam Link, Steam Controller pricing and availability as well as the Source 2 engine at GDC 2015. But the company has also teased that Steam Machines will be made available in November.

Valve said in a press release: "Steam Machines will start at the same price point as game consoles, with higher performance". Valve will also be launching the new Steam Controller at the same time, as well as Steam Link which will extend Steam throughout your house over your current network.

The company is currently showing off over a dozen Steam Machines from partners like Alienware and Falcon Northwest, where they added: "Steam Machines will start at the same price point as game consoles, with higher performance. Customers interested in the best possible gaming experience can choose whichever components meet their needs".

GDC 2015 - NVIDIA has announced the latest Shield, designed for your living room. The new Shield is "incredibly thin" which has Ethernet, USB connectivity, HDMI, and more.

The new NVIDIA Shield is the world's first 4K-capable Android TV, with 4K decoding and H.265 and 10-bit video processing. The video on the NVIDIA Shield is "absolutely gorgeous" according to CEO Jen-Hsun Huang. The new NVIDIA Shield is capable of 4K at 60FPS, not 4K at 30Hz on most other devices. This is thanks to the incredible Tegra X1 processor inside of the Shield, something NVIDIA unveiled at CES earlier this year. We have 256 GPU cores, 3GB of RAM, and more. That's twice the power of the Xbox 360, with 1/5 the amount of power required.

NVIDIA also announced a beautiful remote to go along with the Shield, with just a few buttons on the front of it for simplicity. There's bi-directional Bluetooth, with voice control and a microphone on the top of it. A one-click, one-touch voice search button is also baked onto it. There's a Bluetooth receiver inside, so you can plug in your headphones directly into the remote, which is a very nice touch.

GDC 2015 - Sony has detailed its PS4 headset during GDC 2015, which is much better than the one that they've shown off a few times now. Project Morpheus will ship in the first half of 2016, but we don't have any pricing just now.

The latest version of Project Morpheus features an OLED-based 1920x1080 display with options for the framerate between 60FPS and 120FPS. Inside of the PS4 exclusive VR headset it a 5.7-inch panel with 360-degree tracking, with Sony teasing that it has super-low latency, which is under half of what the previous prototypes of Project Morpheus has had until now.

Sony has said that you'll be able to wear glasses underneath Project Morpheus, which is designed to have a single band that goes over your head. Sony will be detailing Project Morpheus in more detail at E3 2015 in June.

GDC 2015 - AMD has just jumped into the VR game with the announcement of Liquid VR, a new software development kit that wants to see the presence in VR improved.

One of the biggest problems with the future of VR gaming is the latency - the time in which moving your head, and seeing that movement happen in the virtual world, is measured. This needs to be as small as possible, with the hope of removing it completely. In order to achieve this, the software and GPU need to be tweaked to the max.

AMD has teased that multi-GPU, hardware-accelerated time warp, and direct-to-display technologies within its Liquid VR. Starting with hardware-accelerated time warp, which uses updated information to the user wearing the VR headset, and the position of their head after a frame has been rendered, and then it warps the image to reflect the new viewpoint as soon as it sends it to the headset.

GDC 2015 - Valve has announced Source 2, the graphics engine that will most likely power Half-Life 3, if it ever arrives. The new Source engine has been teased for a while now, we it appeared in some DOTA 2 code a while back.

The new Source 2 engine, according to Valve's Jay Stelly: "With Source 2 our focus is increasing creator productivity. Given how important user generated content is becoming, Source 2 is designed not just for the professional developer, but enabling gamers themselves to participate in the creation and development of their favourite games".

Just like Unreal Engine 4 and Unity 5, Valve's new Source 2 is also "free to content developers". Valve tease: "This combined with recent announcements from Epic and Unity will help continue the PC's dominance as the premiere content authoring platform".

Sony wants to cash in on the rising number of free-to-play game titles for the PlayStation 4 game console, with officials saying there has been continued growth of free-to-play.

"We're really looking at this as a significant part of our digital business," said Sara Thomson, senior account executive of the free-to-play business at Sony, during GDC. "I think that it's going to be a really big chunk of our revenues in the next few years; 3-5 years. And it's already growing at amazing rates that are really quite surprising."

The gaming market has changed and more free-to-play games helped cause a shift among game studios and console makers - with great long-term potential of free-to-play games on consoles, according to Sony.

The Sony Pictures adaptation of the PlayStation franchise 'Uncharted' might have stalled, and with production yet to begin, it's almost certain to miss it's previously announced June 2016 release date, but that hasn't stopped both companies from exploiting one of their most beloved franchises - 'Gran Turismo'.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, 'Tron: Legacy' director Joseph Kosinski is in talks to direct the upcoming picture, which has yet to be officially announced by either of the Sony companies. 'Watchmen' co-writer Alex Tse has previously submitted a draft of the screenplay.

Despite an economic budget of just $66 million, last year's adaptation of 'Need for Speed' was still a financial disappointment, grossing just over $200 million worldwide.