Uncharted 4 pushes Sony's PS4 to its limits

Derek Strickland | Gaming | May 9, 2016 11:14 AM CDT

Naughty Dog's final Uncharted game has been praised left and right for its amazing visual quality, and Digital Foundry's new Uncharted 4 tech analysis dissects the game's textures, character animations, volumetric lighting and more. Spoiler Warning: Location spoilers included in the trailer below!

Uncharted 4 pushes Sony's PS4 to its limits

There are few games that have been able to fully tap the full potential of current-gen consoles, but Uncharted 4: A Thief's End is now the reigning king of Sony's PlayStation 4. Naughty Dog's new engine tech makes use of a ton of nifty enhancements like "physically-based rendering, pre-computed global illumination and comprehensive physics simulation" to deliver insane image quality, interactive environments, volumetric lighting, amazing water simulations and character rendering/AI.

"Naughty Dog has developed a temporal anti-aliasing technique that delivers results that sometimes manage to approach the quality of a super-sampled image. Thin edges are remarkably clean, shader aliasing is almost non-existent, and shimmering is all but eliminated. Large, complex fields of detailed foliage remain razor sharp even at a distance while finer details on Nate's weapons remain clearly visible."

Continue reading: Uncharted 4 pushes Sony's PS4 to its limits (full post)

'Get Windows 10' nagware will be disabled in July

Sean Ridgeley | Software & Apps | May 9, 2016 10:33 AM CDT

The Windows 10 free upgrade will expire July 29, and with it will go the 'Get Windows 10' nagware that's been so persistent for Windows 7 and 8 users these last months.

"Details are still being finalized, but on July 29th the Get Windows 10 app that facilitates the easy upgrade to Windows 10 will be disabled and eventually removed from PCs worldwide," said a Microsoft company spokesperson. "Just as it took time to ramp up and roll out the Get Windows 10 app, it will take time to ramp it down."

Continue reading: 'Get Windows 10' nagware will be disabled in July (full post)

Samsung launches Australia's first 4K UltraHD Blu-ray player

Ben Gourlay | Celebrities & Entertainment | May 8, 2016 10:59 PM CDT

Samsung Electronics has today announced the availability of the first 4K UltraHD Blu-ray player in Australia, mirrorsing similar launches across the world.

The Samsung UBD K8500 hit Australian stores for $599AUD, which is a very close approximation to its $399 USD launch price. Unlike the tortured launch of Blu-ray, the unit as amassed some very solid reviews so far, with video fanatics pleasantly surprised by how polished the unit is. Recently granted the 'Ultra HD Premium' badge from the UHD Alliance, the K8500 comes with a range of features including HDR playback, standard Blu-ray 4K upscaling and CD and DVD playback and compatibility with forthcoming dual layer 100GB discs.

Roadshow, Twentieth Century Fox and Sony Pictures have committed to releasing content throughout the month, including high profile titles 'Mad Max: Fury Road', 'San Andreas', 'The Amazing Spider-Man 2', 'X-Men Days of Future Past' and 'The Lego Movie'.

Continue reading: Samsung launches Australia's first 4K UltraHD Blu-ray player (full post)

Battlefield 1 campaign might only have six missions

Derek Strickland | Gaming | May 8, 2016 7:32 PM CDT

Battlefield 1 has pretty much redefined expectations from the franchise, and DICE has been busy talking the new WW1 up...but it looks like the campaign will be really short this time around.

Battlefield 1 campaign might only have six missions

According to leaks sourced by Twitter user txt231, Battlefield 1's World War I-themed campaign will only be six missions long. The leak was further solidified by the game's apparent achievement list, which lists half a dozen missions. Battlefield 1's campaign will shift perspectives across different world powers in WW1, from Arabs charging into battle on horseback to Germans flying high ontop of zeppelins. Below is the supposed list of the missions and their names:

I had such high hopes for Battlefield 1's campaign, especially since the game will focus on more than one protagonist team at a time. I hope that there's more than just six missions in the singleplayer campaign, or maybe each chapter has multiple parts/sequences to complete. Condensing the massive world-breaking struggle that is WW1 into six missions would be insanely difficult, and I don't think it'd be enough space to tell a proper story.

Continue reading: Battlefield 1 campaign might only have six missions (full post)

Would it be good to win a 'Good Dinosaur' Blu-ray? Well, you can!

Ben Gourlay | Contests & Giveaways | May 8, 2016 6:41 PM CDT

To celebrate this week's release of 'The Good Dinosaur' on Blu-ray HD and DVD, we havefive Blu-ray copies to give away thanks to our friends at Disney Home Entertainment.

From the innovative minds of Disney Pixar comes a hilariously heartwarming adventure about the power of confronting and overcoming your fears and discovering who you are meant to be. The Good Dinosaur asks the question: What if the asteroid that forever changed life on Earth missed the planet completely, and giant dinosaurs never became extinct? In this epic journey into the world of dinosaurs, an apatosaurus named Arlo makes an unlikely human friend. While traveling through a harsh and mysterious landscape, Arlo learns the power of confronting his fears and discovers what he is truly capable of.

To go into the running to win a prize, simply answer the following question in 50 words or less:

Continue reading: Would it be good to win a 'Good Dinosaur' Blu-ray? Well, you can! (full post)

The Witcher 3: Blood and Wine DLC reportedly releases this month

Derek Strickland | Gaming | May 8, 2016 3:32 PM CDT

The Witcher 3's last Blood and Wine expansion launches later this month, according to a new leaks.

The Witcher 3: Blood and Wine DLC reportedly releases this month

Blood and Wine may release on May 30, 2016, if a recently leaked Steam listing is accurate. CD Projekt RED has yet to confirm The Witcher 3's final DLC, but the studio did release a few new screenshots and is expected to reveal the DLC's release date later this month.

The DLC takes place in Toussaint, a huge new realm that's full of vibrant environments that contrast's the games dark overtones. As Blood and Wine is Geralt's last adventure, CDPR promises that the DLC will top the main game in almost every regard: "Blood and Wine is an independent history, not tied in particularly closely with the main plot of the Wild Hunt. With our experience and feedback received since the game is on sale, we believe we have achieved something even better than the main game," CDPR dev Jakub Szamalek said in a recent interview.

Continue reading: The Witcher 3: Blood and Wine DLC reportedly releases this month (full post)

NVIDIA's VR Funhouse is 'most technologically advanced VR game'

NVIDIA hit a home run with its new GeForce GTX 1080, with a huge concentration on VR - including the release of the super-fun VR Funhouse.

VR Funhouse is still in development, but it includes some awesome activities - where you get to shoot 'goo guns', shoot arrows and even throw around some balls around. I've played around with it for a few minutes so far, but it was really immersive, reminding me of my experience and time with Toy Box on the Oculus Rift at CES 2016.

We're going to spend some more time with VR Funhouse later today, but I did notice that the system was powered by not one, not two, but three GeForce GTX 1080 video cards. One of them acts as a standalone, dedicated GPU for PhysX, as VR Funhouse is a huge experiment for PhysX within the VR Funhouse world.

Continue reading: NVIDIA's VR Funhouse is 'most technologically advanced VR game' (full post)

Manus VR is experimenting with full arm tracking with the HTC Vive

Manus VR has been working on gloves for VR, but now the company is working on full tracking for your arms, with the HTC Vive.

The company teased its VR gloves last year, but have just now released footage of an experiment they've been playing around with where your arm and elbow movements are pulled into the VR world on the HTC Vive. This could be a huge deal, as it'll pave the way for serious VR experiences using your entire upper body for games like boxing, archery, and more.

The two controllers that ship with the HTC Vive get strapped to your arms, but Manus has been clear that this is just for now, things could change in the future. The question is, would you wear Vive controllers on your arm to get them working in the VR world? I know I would.

Continue reading: Manus VR is experimenting with full arm tracking with the HTC Vive (full post)

EA boss says 'there may be no consoles in the future'

Anthony Garreffa | Gaming | May 7, 2016 3:27 PM CDT

If you're familiar with my personal opinion on consoles, you'll know that I think they've had a negative impact on PC gaming and technology in general - so to hear EA's Chief Competition Officer, Peter Moore, ringing in the death of consoles. Hell. Yes.

Moore told The Daily Orange: "I'm not sure there will be consoles, as we know them anymore. Games will be accessed by streaming technology, so we don't need hardware intermediaries in between the two. If you and I want to play Battlefield 12 against each other, we'll just jump into a game via whatever monitor we happen to have in our homes. It'll be on a chip, rather than in a box".

Moore added that the PS4 and Xbox One are "well set up to advance as technologies does", simply blowing my mind. I don't know how they can advance, when they can barely handle 720p at 30FPS, but hey - what do I know. I think we'll see consoles begin to disappear, as games can be streamed online or from your smartphone - especially if we begin thinking, 5-10-20 years from now.

Continue reading: EA boss says 'there may be no consoles in the future' (full post)

Star Citizen hits $113 million in funding, development ramps up

Anthony Garreffa | Gaming | May 7, 2016 12:36 PM CDT

Can you believe that Star Citizen has reached $113 million in funding, just five months after the game hit $100 million back in December 2015.

Cloud Imperium Games now has over 1.3 million people signed up keeping an eye on the development progress of the game, with the pace of production on Star Citizen picking up in the last few months. The developer has said that it will "build on the foundation" of Alpha 2.4 of the game, as well as pushing the development of the game into the fast lane.

A representative for CIG said: "In our four studios around the world and our partner studios in Canada and elsewhere, people work tirelessly to fulfill the promise of this unprecedented project. Whether they're artists, programmers, designers, engineers, writers, directors, producers, and more, they're all gamers who want to share this experience with everyone reading these each and every month".

Continue reading: Star Citizen hits $113 million in funding, development ramps up (full post)