Autodesk has announced a new Stingray game engine, with full support for the Oculus Rift out of the box when it launches later this month on August 19.

Autodesk is better known for its computer visualization tools for architecture, engineering, CGI and more with software like Maya and 3DS Max, but this venture into the gaming world is going to be a big one. Stingray will see Autodesk doing everything in-house, instead of using Autodesk software somewhere along the game-making procedure, pulling assets in from other game engines like Unity or Unreal Engine. The company is pitching Stingray to game developers as a way of providing seamless interoperability between Autodesk's software, with a "one-click workflow and live link".

Stingray will launch with full support for the Oculus Rift DK2 headset out of the box, with Autodesk referring to the DK2 as one of Stingray's platforms that will support "Deployment and Testing". This means Stingray will allow developers to view their projects through the Rift during development, where they can then publish a game that's compatible with the DK2 with ease.

DICE teased that there was a new game mode coming for Battlefield Hardline, and here it is: Robbery. The new expansion is the second for Battlefield Hardline, with Criminal Activity launching not too long ago.

Battlefield Hardline: Robbery has four new maps, a new 5v5 game mode known as 'Squad Heist', four new weapons, two new gadgets, two new factional vehicles and new vehicle upgrades, new camos and vehicle paints, and 'The Legendary Super Feature'. As for the new Squad Heist game mode, the developer refers to it as "refreshing and familiar". DICE explains that Squad Heist has three distinct stages:

Battlefield Hardline: Robbery will be made available for Early Access for Battlefield Hardline Premium members starting next month.

Gamescom 2015 - ROCCAT has debuted its new Nyth gaming mouse at Gamescom, with the Nyth being a new MMO-hybrid gaming mouse with a "completely hot-swappable side button grid" that is sure to have MMO gamers foaming at the mouth.

The new ROCCAT Nyth has huge out-of-the-box customization, with a massive 36,738 different combinations thanks to its 33 different buttons. ROCCAT founder and CEO, René Korte, explains: "We've loved cracking the challenge of the Nyth. Making a mouse so deeply customizable was a great test for our creative and design teams. What we ended up with was not only a one of a kind MMO-centric piece of gaming equipment, but a mouse that is a chameleon. Turn it into a MOBA mouse, an FPS weapon, and more; any gaming configuration for any genre you can think of. That's what the Nyth brings to the table".

But the more exciting product that ROCCAT was showing off, at least to me, was the Sova prototype. ROCCAT showed off the Sova prototype at E3 2015 earlier this year, with the modular gaming board wanting to see you gaming in the living room. ROCCAT has announced that there will be more than one model of the Sova, with Korte saying: "After the great reception at E3 for our Sova prototype, we were given so much feedback, and pursued that further with surveys and more testing. Gamers want a PC gaming living room solution that's affordable, effective, and meets their spec priorities".

Gamescom 2015 - Seagate has used the mega games event Gamescom to announce its new 2TB Game Drive for the Xbox One, with the storage unit also working on the Xbox 360.

Seagate's new 2TB Game Drive features the Xbox green-and-black color theme and is powered by a single USB 3.0 cable. The drive features Xbox and Seagate logos and allows you to have your catalog of downloaded games, achievements and so much more on-the-go. Senior Director of Product Marketing for Seagate, Jeff Fochtman, explains: "This exciting new collaboration with Microsoft Xbox is an important milestone for Seagate that will help us to reach a new audience, which has an insatiable appetite for storage". "There was a clearly defined need in this market for additional plug-and-play storage and Seagate is happy to be able to provide the solution," he added.

The new Seagate Game Drive will retail for an MSRP of $109.99, and will be made available at GameStop, Amazon and other consumer electronic retailers across the world.

Corsair has just unveiled a bunch of new gaming peripherals during Gamescom 2015, with new STRAFE RGB mechanical gaming keyboards, Scimitar RGB MMO/MOBA mouse, and new flagship VOID gaming headsets.

One of the jewels in Corsair's new gaming peripherals is the ultra-quiet STRAFE RGB Silent, which is the world's first keyboard with Cherry MX RGB Silent gaming switches, which will "deliver the speed and precision of linear mechanical switches with significantly quieter actuation". Corsair adds that the STRAFE RGB Silent has "new switches combined with the noise-suppressing architecture of the keyboard chassis", that makes the "pro-level STRAFE RGB Silent 30% quieter than other mechanical gaming keyboards".

Corsair's new VOID headsets come in three flavors: wireless, USB or analog stereo. The VOID gaming headset earcups are "shaped to fit the human ear, providing the utmost comfort while delivering spectacular audio fidelity". The USB and wireless VOID headsets feature innovative features like InfoMic status LEDs, and a CUE Control dial that lets gamers control their gaming soundscape without pausing their game.

Anticipation for the film adaptation of the the graphic novel 'Deadpool' has been rising since Fox greenlit the film last year, and despite previously showing a trailer during last month's San Diego Comic-Con, the studio has now officially released the nearly three minute long the red-band trailer, and it's a doozy.

Ryan Reynolds portrays the renegade X-Men spin-off character, along with a cast which includes Morena Baccarin, Ed Skrein and T. J. Miller. The film is directed by former graphic artist Tim Miller.

Deadpool is scheduled to hit theaters on February 12, 2016.

Taylor Swift initially didn't want her music available on Apple Music, and once Apple caved regarding payments to artists, decided to allow her music to be streamed.

All of this happened before Apple Music even launched, and revealed how powerful the 25-year-old is in the music industry. Swift recently praised Apple while criticizing Spotify:

"Apple treated me like I was a voice of a creative community that they actually cared about," Swift said in the September issue of Vanity Fair. "And I found it really ironic that the multi-billion-dollar company reacted to criticism with humility, and the start-up with no cash flow reacted to criticism like a corporate machine."

Gamescom 2015 - If there's a game that should have the attention of Xbox One users, it should be Forza Motorsport 6, which is pumping along at 1080p 60FPS thanks to the optimization Turn 10 Studios has made to the game.

The studio was showing off Forza 6 at Gamescom 2015 which is currently underway in Cologne, Germany, with DualShockers interviewing Creative Director Dan Greenawalt, where he said: "Honestly, it is optimization, optimization, optimization. Forza Motorsport 5, as well as Forza Horizon 2 as well as Forza Motorsports 6 are underpinned by our bespoke graphics engine ForzaTech. And that graphics engine is being worked on by two world-class teams: the Turn 10 team and the PlayGround team".

Greenwalt added: "But also, we're first party, so we work with The Coalition, we work with 343, we're able to learn how to really optimize for the box. So yeah, I think it surprised a lot of people that Forza Motorsport 6 was able to come out with 1080p, 60 frames per second, 24 cars on track, with night, with wet, but it drives great. At the end of the day, that's what all this technology is for. It's for the experience. It's to get people passionate and excited about cars in games.And if it does that, it's all worth it".

A drone dropped a bundle of narcotics and tobacco into the Mansfield Correctional Institution, located southwest of Cleveland, Ohio. The incident left nine people in solitary confinement for fighting over control of the contraband.

The delivery included more than five ounces of tobacco, over two ounces of marijuana, and about one-quarter ounce of heroin, according to the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction. The package was dropped on the north recreation yard, and was thrown into the south recreation yard as inmates fought.

All inmates in both the north recreation and south recreation yards underwent mandatory strip searches and clinic checks.

The Apple Watch didn't give the wearables market a significant boost like some analysts hoped for, but there is plenty of great growth opportunity thanks to virtual reality. Even though there have been very few VR product launches this year, shipment volumes will reach 14 million units in 2016, according to TrendForce's Topology Research Institute (TRI).

VR video games cost less to create than VR movies, and with the appeal of audiovisual in regards to VR, there is huge sales potential. Game developers have plenty of incentives, such as low cost and minimal time investment, to create VR game titles - and it seems like only a matter of time before VR-centric games hit the market.

"VR hardware's market positioning is clearer than smartwatches," said Jason Tsai, wearable device analyst at TrendForce. "Since VR device's strongest feature is providing users with an immersive audiovisual experience, its early application will be related to gaming."