The Wachowski Brothers now both sisters

Ben Gourlay | Celebrities & Entertainment | Mar 8, 2016 11:56 PM CST

Following the 2012 transitioning of 'The Matrix' trilogy co-director Larry Wachowski to Lana Wachowski, her brother Andy Wachowski has now done the same thing. Welcome to the world Lily Wachowski.

According to The Guardian, Lily Wachowski made the news of her gender reassignment public after a journalist from Britain's Daily Mail attempted a form of black mail in exchange for the exclusive. The director went on to reveal all to her hometown newspaper the Windy City Times instead.

"So yeah, I'm transgender. And yeah, I've transitioned.", Wachowski writes, adding that "Everyone is cool with it. Yes, thanks to my fabulous sister they've done it before, but also because they're fantastic people. Without the love and support of my wife and friends and family I would not be where I am today."

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PlayStation VR 'generates 120FPS' with 'no jittering at all'

The VR revolution is here, with the Oculus Rift launching on March 28 and the HTC Vive on April 5. Sony is behind with its PlayStation VR, with no release date revealed yet. We expect this to change at the Game Developers Conference next week, though.

In a new interview with developer Alfonso del Cerro, the founder of Pentadimensional Games over their new indie superhero game Megaton Rainfall, we have some new details on the PlayStation VR. Megaton Rainfall will be one of the very first games on the PlayStation VR, with del Cerro explaning: "Sony showed a lot of interest in our game since they played it at GDC 2015. They were looking for projects por PSVR and I was showcasing MR at the Indie Megabooth".

He continued: "Since then they have been very friendly, they helped us with the visibility, showing the game in videos, their blog, and events like PlayStation Experience and next week at GDC 2016. They even offered an exclusivity deal so I'm happy with them. And of course being one of the first games for PlayStation VR will give the game a lot more visibility".

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Kingdom Come: Deliverance delayed, consoles are to blame

Anthony Garreffa | Gaming | Mar 8, 2016 8:23 PM CST

We thought it was coming, and now the day is here - Kingdom Come: Deliverance has been delayed, with consoles to blame. Developer Warhorse Studios wants a simultaneous release on consoles and PCs, and has delayed the PC version of the game so it can do just that.

PR manager Tobias Stolz-Zwiling said earlier this month: "The idea was to release the game in the summer and then to follow up with the console versions. Right now we are still indie developers but we are in negotiations with publishers to, well, we need someone to bring the games into the shops, so we need a distributor, and he kind of wants us to synch it with the console versions. We are still in negotiations, we will see. Best case for you will be summer this year for the PC version and then with the follow-up for consoles; or if the publisher wants us to synch it we will release everything let's say by the end of the year, so we will see about that".

But now Polygon is reporting that Kingdom Come: Deliverance has been delayed, so that Warhorse can release the game onto the consoles and the PC at the same time.

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The Red Band 'Game of Thrones' season 6 trailer is here

Ben Gourlay | Celebrities & Entertainment | Mar 8, 2016 6:20 PM CST

'Game of Thrones' fans - the wait is almost over. The HBO network is gearing up for the release of the premier episode of season six is just seven weeks away, and have today released a new Red Band restricted trailer for the season, which gives some tantalising glimpses at upcoming plots.

The Red Band 'Game of Thrones' season 6 trailer is here

Unlike the previous five seasons, season six will not be based on a George R.R. Martin plot, having exhausted all the 'A Song of Ice and Fire' books in the last season. Instead, screenwriters have crafted the plot through discussions with Martin, but they may very well deviate from the material presented in the forthcoming sixth novel. It's truly uncharted waters for the series and anything could happen - and that makes it even more compelling than ever.

'Game of Thrones' returns to HBO on April 24, for another ten episodes.

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Final Fantasy XIV video shows how they created the massive narrative

Jeff Williams | Gaming | Mar 8, 2016 6:07 PM CST

It's always nice to see the inner creative processes that go on when making a video game. Getting behind the scenes can help you to appreciate the game even more if you hadn't before, or even help give insight into the difficulties a developer goes through to bring us the final product. The latest developer diary for Final Fantasy XIV is all about the narrative and creating the overarching story.

Final Fantasy XIV video shows how they created the massive narrative

The creative process is different for everyone and is always, almost, a sacred process to be cherished. In the case of the stories that are in Final Fantasy XIV, the main loremaster, Kazutoyo Maehiro, doesn't ever write scenarios around characters, but that they naturally emerge as he's working.

The end result is a very well put together narrative that's coherent with not only the entire Final Fantasy XIV story, but with past games from the franchise. It all comes together quite nicely. And this MMORPG is one that will likely continue to call upon the inspiration from previous games to make for a very personal and exciting experience.

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Goodyear concept tires are spherical, intended for driverless cars

Sean Ridgeley | Electric Vehicles & Cars | Mar 8, 2016 4:29 PM CST

Goodyear has been in the tire game for 117 years, and now it's looking to turn it on its head with spherical tires. Eagle-360 tires, as they're known, are only a concept, but the company says they "present an inspiring solution for the long-term future when autonomous driving is expected to be more mainstream."

Goodyear concept tires are spherical, intended for driverless cars

Safety is a major concern of autonomous driving skeptics and Eagle-360 tires are a direct response to that: as they are multi-orientation and sport "active technology", they can move in all directions which is said to make for increased maneuverability and reduced sliding caused by black ice, obstacles, and so on. Additionally, sensors register tire wear for extended mileage, and communicate road conditions to the car and nearby vehicles. Interesting to note: the tread is 3D printed, and so could be customized for different terrain in different regions, making for safer driving due to better equipped vehicles.

As for luxury features, the tire is suspended by magnetic fields, and as such is said to offer more comfort and less noise than with a traditional tire.

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Seagate smashes storage speed record with new 10GB/sec SSD

Derek Strickland | Storage | Mar 8, 2016 3:31 PM CST

The memory masters at Seagate have just smashed through the world SSD speed record with a new blazing-fast solid state drive.

Seagate smashes storage speed record with new 10GB/sec SSD

During a demonstration, Seagate's new ultra-fast SSD hit an unbelievable transfer rate of 10GB/sec, which is 4GB/s faster than the former world's-fastest SSD. The company's new 10GB/s SSD is built for high-end enterprise use, and utilizes the NVMe protocol and rides 16 PCIe lanes for maximum throughput. The drive also meets the storage specifications outlined by Facebook's Open Compute Project.

"Your data is only as good as how easily you can access it and put it to use," Seagate's SSD executive Brett Pemble said. "Seagate is committed to providing the full spectrum of technologies to help meet the diverse needs of organizations so they can unlock this value. Whether for consumer cloud or business applications, this SSD will help improve on demands for fast access to information, where split seconds drive incremental value gains."

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Total War: Warhammer delayed, they don't want to rush a good thing

Jeff Williams | Gaming | Mar 8, 2016 1:25 PM CST

SEGA and Creative Assembly are going to delay the launch of Total War: Warhammer for a month longer than they originally intended. It'll now be launching on May 24th 2016 instead of the earlier April 28th release date.

The developers are very excited about the game and want us to be able to get the most out the game. Namely they want it to be as polished as possible before they release it, hoping to avoid the pitfalls that some recent releases have suffered. "This could be the best Total War game we've ever made. We don't want to rush it," said the creative director, Mike Simpson.

This is the first foray into high fantasy for Total War, with a lot of excitement surrounding it. That said, because it's a PC only game, and previous Total War games have had some performance issues, they're looking at making sure that it's optimized on a variety of hardware. Specifically, they want us PC gamers to have a chance to enjoy it at 60FPS in even the most massive of battles at the highest of settings.

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Star Citizen may support Vulkan

Sean Ridgeley | Gaming | Mar 8, 2016 12:31 PM CST

The Khronos Group's open source Vulkan API launched publicly last month, which brought some to wonder if Star Citizen would come to support it. Development subscriber Kyran inquired on exactly that for the '10 for the Chairman' Q&A video series, to which Chris Roberts, Chairman of developer Cloud Imperium Games, responded with what could be interpreted as a yes.

Star Citizen may support Vulkan

"We have looked at Vulkan; we're pretty excited by it," he says. "So we are considering our options between Vulkan and DirectX 12. We haven't made a full decision."

He continues: "Vulkan has some advantages, the biggest one being as long as it works properly that it can work on a PC but also work on Linux and work on other platforms, whereas DirectX 12 is specifically just for Windows. They are both very similar architectures; essentially Vulkan's not that different from what Mantle was originally set up to be. So we're considering it. You never know whether we will do DirectX 12 or Vulkan first."

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GTA V publisher says no to annual franchises to avoid product fatigue

Derek Strickland | Gaming | Mar 8, 2016 11:34 AM CST

Far too often publishers milk games franchises to the point where the cash cow dries up. We've seen this with Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed franchise, whose lukewarm reception led the publisher to rethink its annual strategy. Thankfully, Take-Two Interactive affirms that we won't ever have to worry about Grand Theft Auto or Red Dead Redemption games going down this path.

GTA V publisher says no to annual franchises to avoid product fatigue

In a recent presentation in New York, Take-Two president Karl Slatoff discussed why the company doesn't ship out annual sequels. "We don't intend to change annual strategy because of product fatigue. We create franchise value and games have to be managed deliberately. It's tempting to have continuous releases and milk a franchise as far as you can, [but] we've seen that fatigue in other franchises in the games industry. With almost every single franchise for us, the latest release is bigger than the one before."

Take-Two Interactive understands that there's a delicate balance when it comes to the games industry. A high-profile AAA has to be carefully curated and managed in the marketing sector, and it's important that the companies build up as much hype and interest as possible. If you saturate the market with too many franchise releases, interest starts to wane, and the whole thing falls apart rather easily.

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