GameStop's CEO, Paul Raines, told Fox News yesterday that Sony's PlayStation VR HMD is going to be available starting this fall, and that they'll be carrying it in stores of course.

During an interview regarding how tax refunds help to drive the economy and how taxes could be more fun if they were like video games, Raines mentioned the upcoming release of VR hardware in general being one of the major industries that'll likely be targeted by customers. He also mentioned quite pointedly that PS VR will be in stores this fall, that they'll "launch the Sony product this fall."

Raines is excited about the potential in the VR market, especially with his chain of stores providing one of the only ways to try VR for yourself once the PlayStation VR is available in store. It could very well be the revival of his brick and mortar operations, adding a particular value that can't be had anywhere else. Certainly, with the PS VR specifically, Raines things it's better than the other solutions with better content at launch, he says.

The Khronos Group has announced that Vulkan is finally released and ready to be used on any platform you desire. The full specification of Vulkan, 1.0, is available for everyone and is as robust and mature as DirectX 12, even.

Vulkan, of course, is the open-source answer to DirectX 12, a low-level API that's also been borne from the ashes of Mantle and shaped into something that can be used by anyone and is completely platform agnostic. At its core, Vulkan provides the same low-level access to the driver with far less overhead than graphics API's of the past.

"The release of the Vulkan™ 1.0 specification is a huge step forward for developers. The Vulkan API, which was derived from Mantle, will bring the benefits of low-overhead high-performance Graphics API to the benefit of cross-platform and cross-vendor targeted applications," said Raja Koduri, senior vice president and chief architect, Radeon Technologies Group, AMD. "The promotion of open and scalable technologies continues to be the focus at AMD, as a pioneer in the low-overhead API space. As a member of the Khronos Group, AMD is proud to collaborate with hardware and software industry leaders to develop the Vulkan API to ignite the next evolution in PC game development."

NVIDIA has released its 361.91 WHQL-certified drivers, complete with optimizations for a handful of new and upcoming titles, bug fixes, and added or updated SLI profiles.

Street Fighter V is the big game to benefit from the optimizations, but the upcoming Arma 3 update, next weekend's Hitman beta, and the Chinese Monster Hunter Online beta receive love, too. As for SLI profiles, Assassin's Creed Syndicate, Bless, Need for Speed, Plants vs Zombies Garden Warfare 2, and XCOM 2 comprise the list of titles supported.

Download the drivers now through GeForce Experience. If you still haven't downloaded Experience, grab it here.

Rebellion just posted a new trailer for their remake of the 1998 version of Battlezone, the tactical, sci-fi tank strategy game based loosely on the original. And it's an exciting look into the care they're taking in remastering this classic, iconic game.

If you ever played the original then you're probably very excited about the return of this legendary game. They're taking that original and remastering it with new graphics, effects and a better UI on top of it all. They're also building in multiplayer again so that you can have massive futuristic tank battles with your friends.

The whole base-building mechanic is all there and it looks to be just as fun to play with as it was so many years ago. Despite the graphics being remastered and not built from the ground up it still looks great. Is there a chance that Vulkan or DX12 will underlay the foundation? Now that would be fantastic! Battlezone 98 Redux is coming this Spring.

Big changes are coming to Shallow Space, a space RTS with big potential. Originally it was suppose to be a full-on, completely customizable RTS allowing for massive battles in a rich galaxy. But they're expanding the original vision and adding a much more engaging way to play. Making it an open-world adventure with even more direct control of your ships.

While playing their alpha version, it was noticed that the customization was a fantastic idea, but with the combat mechanics, it was almost impossible to actually fully utilize those upgraded parts of your ships. There was something missing. The solution to the problem is letting you take direct control of your ships in the fleet and fly them around yourself, engaging the enemy in some very fun scenarios. To that end they're adding in support for controllers to play with your ships.

That's not all, though. The maps were far too linear, following a strict story-line that just isn't up the standards that we seem to have set for modern games. The developers are working towards making it more open-world, letting you fly around the Shallow Space (the are of the galaxy you'll be in in the game of the same name) to build up resources, level-up your ships and showing off your fighting prowess. The different map areas will be instance based, meaning enemies, allies and resources will spawn around you.

Sniper Elite 4 just might be in development, or so someone's resume on LinkedIn just so happened to leak. When Rebellion was approached concerning the listing, they were more than happy to provide a statement that, more or less, confirmed that it's likely.

The profile is of an individual who works at a digital arts company called ADIA Entertainment, and has supposedly worked on Sniper Elite 4 as well as a great deal of other games and even as an architect for the Unreal Engine. Rebellion's Jason Kingsley, the co-founder, talked to Videogamer to dismiss the claims, despite being flattered by being searched for an mentioned alongside such high-profile games. The employee actually doesn't work for Rebellion, though they didn't outright dismiss that they worked on Sniper Elite 4.

In fact, he went on to say that "Last year we celebrated the Sniper Elite series' 10th birthday and 10 millionth sale, so our IP is still hugely important to both Rebellion and independent UK games development. We're actually gearing up to announce a new Rebellion game soon, so expect to hear more from us before GDC!" This ambiguous statement is almost a sure way of saying that it's coming, and likely well into development.

AMD today announced that they'll be bundling in the new Hitman from Square Enix and IO Interactive with an R9 390 series GPU or an FX processor.

The free game code is only offered if you happen to get an R9 390, 390X or a 6-8-core FX CPU of any variety and will run from February 16th to April 20th 2016. So if you're in the market for a new GPU and are looking at buying Hitman, this bundle might be worth a look.

AMD is putting together this bundle because of their relationship with Square Enix with the development of Hitman. DX12 features should be available shortly after release and will take good advantage of the async shaders in AMD's GCN architecture. Despite the 390 and 390X being Hawaii based parts, Hitman with DX12 should still be a smooth experience.

A new trailer has been released for the upcoming The Walking Dead: Michonne mini-series that lets you take control of one of the deeper and more troubled characters from the series, Michonne. This new series is a deep-dive into her psyche, giving additional background information to compliment the TV series.

The first episode, titled In Too Deep, Michonne joins Pete and his crew on the sailing ship The Companion as they cruise the coast looking for survivors and additional supplies. They come upon a desperate signal for help that draws them to a scene of a horrific massacre where Michonne and the crew are lead further to the floating survivors' colony of Monroe. And of course you have to go investigate, because where there's danger, theirs also lurking opportunity.

Like all Telltale games, it's an interactive story that allows you to complete actions as quick-time events. Though it's not nearly as frustrating and incredibly engaging. The first episode is coming on February 23rd for the PC and on Mac. You'll also find it on the PSN for the PS4 and the PS3, the Xbox Store for the Xbox One and the Xbox 360.

Elite: Dangerous has a surprisingly fun "mini-game" with it's competitive CQC game mode. Compete in a fast-paced fight to the death against other skilled fighter pilots in some startlingly tight spaces. Frontier Developments is now offering just that module as a separate standalone purchase for those wanting a different kind of competitive experience.

For $7.49, you can take to the arena in Elite: Dangerous and compete against your peers in what they're calling the ultimate futuristic gladiatorial contest. Purchasing from the Frontier Store will get you a discount on the upgrade to the actual full game, minus the full purchase price of ED: Arena. It doesn't look like Steam offers such a deal at the moment.

CQC mode in Elite: Dangerous has the potential to be a new type of eSport, leveraging a different skill set than the usual FPS games require by having you also think about how to maneuver a ship with true, realistic Newtonian physics. You can either have automatic compensation of inertia to drive you in the direction your nose is pointed, or turn off all the assist and pull off maneuvers that aren't possible in gravity.

Already released to those in the US and UK, rumors have mounted that Apple plans to release its payment platform to China extremely soon, with France and Canada to follow before the end of 2016.

While not confirmed by the tech giant directly, China bank announced the release on its official WeChat recently, stating the formal local launch of this service to be February 18th at 5:00.

Some Apple fanatics are looking for and discussing a possible Apple Pay French announcement during WWDC 2016, however unlikely. As for further releases, iPhone In Canada has recently found some Canadian banking related code, helping its mission to string together various Apple Pay related clues regarding a local release in its nation.