Valkyrie
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GDC 2014: EVE Valkyrie coming to PS4, Sony's new VR headset
Sony announced its new virtual reality headset at GDC this week. The device is called Project Morpheus, and it seeks to turn your PlayStation 4 experience into something far more immersive than the typical couch and controller session. Shortly thereafter, CCP announced that its New Eden-based EVE Valkyrie action title is coming to both the PS4 and Project Morpheus. Valkyrie was specifically designed for VR devices, and was previously announced for the PC and the Oculus Rift. We've embedded the new trailer after the break.
Play EVE: Valkyrie on the Oculus Rift at PAX East
Ready to hop on the virtual reality hype train? Make sure you stop by the Oculus spread at this year's PAX East, as the company behind the Rift headset is partnering with CCP to bring you some hands-on time with EVE: Valkyrie. PAX East happens in Boston from April 11 through April 13. If you can't make it, don't worry because we'll be there with silly goggles on our head.
EVE Valkyrie Oculus Rift demos available in London this Friday
A gaggle of CCP devs will be hanging out at Goodman's Field pub near the Tower of London this Friday, March 7th. CCP Guard, CCP Xhagen, CCP Duchess, and CCP Masheen are bringing their Rifts, too, and starting at 6:00 p.m. the quartet will be demoing EVE Valkyrie on the new Oculus virtual reality device. The announcement post says that the number of sessions will be limited due to time constraints, so get there early!
EVE Evolved: What to expect from EVE Fanfest 2014
Almost 10 years ago, EVE Online developer CCP Games started a new tradition with the first ever annual EVE Fanfest. The event started out as a largely informal gathering in a tiny venue that allowed players and developers to mingle on a more personal level, but it's now grown into something massive. Over a thousand players now make the annual pilgrimage to EVE Online's birthplace in Reykjavik, Iceland, to hear what the future holds for their favourite MMO. For many, the event is also a social gathering, a chance to swap stories with other players, and a rare opportunity to meet the corpmates they fly with every day in the virtual galaxy of New Eden. The Fanfest weekend is typically a packed schedule of panels, talks, roundtable discussions with developers, and keynote speeches revealing the future of the game. While the event is understandably focused on EVE Online, it's recently expanded to cover aspects of DUST 514, the latest goings-on with World of Darkness, and even CCP's new virtual reality dogfighter EVE Valkyrie. CCP has announced that this year's event will see a monument to the EVE playerbase unveiled in Reykjavik Harbor as well as the first reveal of EVE's summer expansion, but what else can we hope to glean from this year's event at the start of May? In this edition of EVE Evolved, I delve into the EVE Fanfest announcement and speculate on what we might expect to hear from this year's event. Will this be the year that World of Darkness gets some serious news? And what's new for DUST 514?
CCP Games reveals big plans for EVE Fanfest 2014
The universe of EVE Online may be best known as a crazy virtual galaxy full of back-stabbing pirates and political betrayal, but for a few days each year it becomes something altogether more tangible. At the annual EVE Fanfest, hundreds of the game's most devoted fans make the long pilgrimage to the game's birthplace in Reykjavik, Iceland. In addition to the official talks and reveals on the game's future from developer CCP Games, Fanfest plays host to charity raffles, roundtable discussions with developers, and informal get-togethers for players to share their stories. Last year's 10th anniversary Fanfest was the biggest one yet, with information included on World of Darkness and DUST 514 and the official reveal of Oculus Rift-based dogfighter EVE Valkyrie. This year's attendees can look forward to the first ever live demo of EVE's yet-to-be-revealed summer expansion, hands-on experience with the next major evolution of DUST 514, and playtests of a brand-new build of the virtual reality dogfighter EVE Valkyrie. This year's Fanfest will also see a special monument dedicated to EVE Online players revealed to the world; The "Worlds Within a World" monument will be installed in Reykjavik Harbor and will be etched with the names of all active EVE subscribers on March 1st. It's also hoped that crowdfunded EVE Online documentary A Tale of Internet Spaceships will be premiered during the Fanfest weekend, and we'll reportedly hear the latest on CCP's new EVE comic book and live action TV series. The event takes place from May 1st to May 3rd, and I'll be attending this year's event on behalf of Massively to bring you in-depth first-hand coverage of all the big reveals. Stay tuned!
Daily Roundup: Xbox One update inbound, Sony Cyber-shot RX10 review and more!
You might say the day is never really done in consumer technology news. Your workday, however, hopefully draws to a close at some point. This is the Daily Roundup on Engadget, a quick peek back at the top headlines for the past 24 hours -- all handpicked by the editors here at the site. Click on through the break, and enjoy.
EVE's CSM8 summit minutes released
From the better-late-than-never department, CCP brings you the minutes for the first scheduled summit of CSM8, which is shorthand for the eighth incarnation of EVE Online's player-run Council of Stellar Management. The meeting happened in August, 2013, and even though it's now January 2nd, 2014, there's plenty of info to wade through including bits on the economy, the state of balance, and EVE Valkyrie.
NASA's humanoid Valkyrie robot could lead the way to Mars (video)
NASA's Robonaut is only just getting its legs, but it already has some fresh (and arguably superior) competition. The agency's Johnson Space Center has given IEEE Spectrum a sneak peek at Valkyrie, a DARPA Robotics Challenge entry built to take on dangerous tasks that would normally require a human presence. In addition to sporting more joints than many of its typical two-legged rivals, the sometimes autonomous machine is chock-full of cameras, LIDAR and sonar that help it quickly move around. It can operate under planetary gravity loads that Robonaut can't touch, and even an inexperienced user can keep it running; the modular design lets astronauts swap out batteries and replacement limbs within minutes. Valkyrie isn't guaranteed to enter service, as it will have to win the support of both DARPA and NASA officials before it progresses much further. If it passes muster, however, it could be vital to NASA's long-term plans for Mars -- robots such as Valkyrie will likely prepare any future Martian landing site and assist humans once they arrive.
EVE Evolved: Merging Valkyrie with EVE Online
Ever since its release in 2003, EVE Online has been bombarded with requests for direct flight controls and dogfighter-style gameplay. Most ships in EVE are huge lumbering hulks compared to real-world aircraft, more akin to large sea-faring ships than nimble jetfighters. Even tiny agile Interceptors can't be controlled directly, instead having the player issue commands to fly in a particular direction or move toward or orbit an object. As a result, combat in EVE has become much more heavily about the strategy of directing fleets of dozens or hundreds of ships than any kind of piloting skill or twitch control. This year's EVE Fanfest gave players a glimpse into the world of immersive twitch combat with the announcement of a new dogfighting game set in the EVE Online universe. Originally starting out as an virtual reality experiment by a few developers in their spare time, EVE Valkyrie has now become a full game in its own right and an example of what's possible with the Oculus Rift virtual reality headset. It was always assumed that Valkyrie was an EVE game in name and theme only, but recently developers have revealed that they'd like it to tie into the actual EVE Online universe itself. In this week's EVE Evolved, I look at recently revealed information on EVE Valkyrie and speculate on how it could be integrated into the EVE universe.
EVE Valkyrie could be coming to console before PC
EVE: Valkyrie was officially revealed back in August of this year with a teaser earlier at Fanfest, but details have been scarce so far. We know that it's a dog-fighting sim that uses the Oculus Rift, but a recent interview over at Rock, Paper Shotgun hints that the game may not be coming to the PC -- at least initially. "It technically works on PC, and it's working fine," chief marketing officer David Reid told RPS. "But there are other platforms it could run on. There's nothing that technically prevents it from running on a console, for example." While Reid does say later in the interview that PC is "definitely in the cards," there certainly seems to be a prominent nudge toward the game coming to consoles first. And interestingly enough, it's not even really confirmed that the game will be released for the Oculus Rift specifically. "While we can't get into details here," Reid pointed out, "there are other platforms that are available. It is technically possible to run this game without a Rift. There's a whole bunch of different things out on the market right now."
Plan your EVE Vegas weekend with this final schedule
Wondering what's in the cards for EVE Vegas this weekend? Speculate no more: The final schedule of events has been released for EVE Online's convention being held at the Rio Las Vegas from October 18th through the 20th. The weekend kicks off with poker and a pub crawl on Friday, then dives into seminars, round tables, and PvP tournaments for both EVE and DUST 514 on Saturday and Sunday. Attendees will also have the chance for some hands-on with the VR dogfighter Valkyrie. If you aren't one of the virtual pilots able to attend the event live, you can still watch the various seminars and talks from both the developers and members of the community via CCP's official Twitch channel. For the times of each event, see the schedule below or visit the official site.
CCP's Oculus Rift demo becomes EVE: Valkyrie, space dogfighting due in 2014 (video)
We've been waiting for a proper Wing Commander successor for ages and it looks like EVE: Valkyrie could be it -- if you don't count Star Citizen, that is. What was originally demoed as EVR back at EVE Fanfest and on the Oculus Rift at E3 is now a multiplayer space dogfighter set within developer CCP's longstanding EVE Online universe. Details are as scarce as Megacyte, but, according to the Icelandic dev, it's coming out in 2014. It's a sure lock for a PC release, but CCP's history with the PS3 EVE spin-off Dust 514 and Sony's amoré for the Rift makes us wonder if consoles are in its future. Hopefully this means we'll be able to play on PS4 at some point, but instead of holding our breath, we'll just keep watching the trailer below on repeat.
CCP Games reveals EVE Valkyrie
There's another game on its way to share space with EVE Online and DUST 514. EVE: Valkyrie is the official name for what had been referred to before now as EVE-VR, what was described as a tech demo assembled with the Oculus Rift and a few fighter craft. Yes, that high-speed dogfighting sim in a virtual reality headset turned out to not just be a brief bit of playable speculation but a peek at the next game from CCP Games. CEO Hilmar Petursson stated that as soon as players got their hands on the demo, they wanted to know when the whole thing could be purchased -- and that was when it was just a concept demo developed by a handful of people during some spare moments. No official statements have been issued on what format the game will take or whether or not there will be components other than multiplayer dogfights. But there will be spaceships zooming around and shooting one another, and that's what attracted people in the first place.
iBuyPower rides new Valkyrie line of gaming laptops
Not content with the unveiling of its Chimera 4 and Erebus GT desktops, iBuyPower is turning its attention to gamers of a more mobile persuasion with the launch of its new Valkyrie line of gaming laptops. For $1,299, the base Valkyrie CZ-17 features a third-generation Intel Core i7-3610QM CPU, 8GB of RAM, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 670M GPU, 500GB 5,400 RPM hard drive, LAN E2200 module, backlit keyboard and a 17.3-inch, 1080p display. Folks who want to channel their inner Rich Uncle Pennybags can also configure the Valkyrie with more options such as an i7-3820QM processor, up to 32GB of RAM, dual HDD/SSD storage and a Blu-Ray drive. iBuyPower says the Valkyrie line is part of efforts to beef up its laptop offerings in order to compete with the likes of Dell/Alienware and ASUS. In the meantime, folks who've got Elmer Fudd's rendition of "Kill the Wabbit" stuck in their heads after reading the word "Valkyrie" can clear their minds by perusing the PR after the break.
Fishlabs sets the Galaxy on Fire with Valkyrie update
Fishlabs Entertainment is a German-based gaming studio that scored a hit with the Galaxy on Fire series for iOS. The latest, most popular iteration is Galaxy on Fire 2, which Fishlabs has kept fresh with updates and extra content since launch. Players fight pirates, loot, mine asteroids and perform several other Elite-style tasks. The latest update is called Valkyrie, which debuted as I chatted with Fishlabs at the Game Developers Conference (GDC) in San Francisco last week. The HD update makes the game look stunning. Even iPhone owners will benefit, as those with the standard version get Valkyrie's HD graphics for free. Valkyrie meets fan requests like larger ships and a new storyline, which Fishlabs says will run as long as the game content is available. Galaxy on Fire is a gorgeous game, and Fishlabs says it's ready for the new iPad. As soon as they get hands on the new hardware, they'll "optimize the assets" and be ready to go. They are excited about the new quad core processors, but for Galaxy on Fire itself, Fishlabs probably won't add any extra features. Instead, they'll just make the game look better. "We'd rather use the hardware to improve the visual quality," I was told. Fans can expect another DLC pack coming soon. Supernova, which will have its own unique storyline and graphical updates. By the year's end, Fishlabs expects to release another new game they're not ready to discuss. "A free-to-play title set in the Galaxy on Fire universe" is all I was told. Fishlabs is doing quite well. Space-trading simulators have a limited audience. While Galaxy on Fire is an excellent game, it might not appeal to casual gamers. But Fishlabs continues to prove that as long as you have a dedicated and interested audience, you can assemble a successful franchise on Apple's platform.
Super Hero Squad Online adds Thor, Asgard
Marvel Universe Online may not have made it out of the gates in time to bask in the cross-promotional glow of the new Thor film, but the other Marvelized MMO is picking up the slack. Super Hero Squad Online has just announced the addition of Asgard to its game world, not to mention a couple of timely superhero appearances by the likes of Valkyrie and Ultimate Thor (the latter of whom is a subscriber-exclusive). SHSO also sports a new Loki-powered mission called the Gods of Thunder, and a Classic Thor character is in the works for a future update. The kid-friendly Superhero Squad Online gives players the chance to don the capes, tights, and armor of Marvel's greatest heroes, and you can learn more about the free-to-play title at its official website.
Silicon Knights' Dyack on Too Human: 'we do plan on finishing the trilogy'
During the Game Developers Conference nearly two months ago, Silicon Knights head Denis Dyack met with me in a hotel overlooking that week's event at the Moscone Center. He wasn't there to show off his studio's next game -- X-Men: Destiny -- to press, but for unspecified "meetings" with unnamed folks. Spooky. And while we touched on the subject of XM:D during the half hour, the first questions I had for Dyack were about his studio's last major release, Too Human. Primary among them: Is the Too Human trilogy dead? "No, not at all," Dyack told me. "It is still on the table and we do plan on finishing the trilogy." When it came to other questions about Too Human, however, Dyack was far more verbose. With the intention of setting the record straight, as it were, Dyack outright denies that Too Human was in development for 10 years. "It is true that an earlier version of the general 'Too Human' concept was first shown on the PlayStation in 1998, but that was a completely different game than what was released on the Xbox 360," he said. "Among other things, the original concept was a single-player, third-person action/adventure game based on a detective called John Franks trying to discover who had killed his partner." It's a far cry from the Norse mythology-based dungeon crawler we played in 2008.
15 Minutes of Fame: The Frag Dolls' Valkyrie
15 Minutes of Fame is WoW.com's look at World of Warcraft personalities of all shapes and sizes -- from the renowned to the relatively anonymous, from the remarkable to the player next door. Tip us off to players you'd like to hear more about. "I can't handle it when people say, "It's only a game,'" says Amy "Valkyrie" Brady, a WoW-playing, card-carrying member of Ubisoft's well known Frag Dolls all-female gaming team. This all-business gamer has helped create and lead the a multi-platform clan of more than 300 gun-toting women who compete across five FPS (First Person Shooter) games in 10 separate divisions. In December 2006, Valkyrie was part of the four-member Frag Doll team that took first place in the Rainbow Six Vegas tournament at CPL in Dallas. Rainbow Six 3, Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory, Halo 2, Final Fantasy XI ... On top of considerable hours spent on weekly practice for the Frag Dolls, she puts in some 50 to 60 more in personal game play -- and among those games is World of Warcraft.
The Daily Grind: Is lore important to you?
Lore is the keystone of every good MMO, it crafts the raid instances and pushes the game to new heights in the form of expansions and patches. For many it is the lure of the lore -- and by extension the playable races -- which pulls them into the game. When I was a little younger than I am now, I studied classics and religious studies and theology at a uni in London for almost four years. I dig religion, I adore translations of ancient texts and I really, really like mythology. As a result fantasy games are especially fascinating for me to me. When everyone else sees Titans, I see a mishmash of the actual Titans and the Olympians given new life, where you see Anubisath I see the ancient Egyptian protector of the dead. Where you see Val'kyr, I see Odin's barmaidens. So come on readers, how important is lore to you? Do you dig finding all the references in game? Does the lore make a game more rich and appealing? Does it make it feel more real? Do you not give a fig? Are you more interested in just killing things? Do you play titles like AoC or LotRO just because of the books they were inspired by?
Blu-ray releases on May 19th 2009
After missing some great movies last week, for no good reason, we're back. The most exciting new release is easily Tom Cruise's Valkyrie, but Paramount also has an old favorite in Enemy at the Gates -- if you love playing the sniper in FPS games then this is a must see movie. Lionsgate gets ready for the latest Terminator movie in theaters by releasing special editions of the previous blockbuster hits. There are also a few TV shows this week which is a trend we like to see as True Blood and 24 both get the Blu-ray treatment. Next week is a little slower though, but Universal does have a few more catch up titles -- yeah we can't believe there are still any left either. Valkyrie (MGM) Lions for Lambs (MGM) The Machinist (Paramount) Enemy at the Gates (Paramount) Paycheck (Paramount) Three Days of the Condor (Paramount) Changing Lanes (Paramount) My Bloody Valentine (Lionsgate) Terminator 2: Judgment Day (Lionsgate) Terminator 2: Judgment Day - Skynet Edition (Lionsgate) 24: Season Seven (Fox) Driven to Kill (Fox) Dr. Dolittle: Million Dollar Mutts (Fox) Batman (Warner) True Blood: The Complete First Season (Warner) A Bug's Life (Disney) Eden Log (Magnolia) Paul Blart: Mall Cop (Sony)
