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‘Fortnite’ E3 tournament was a taste of its esports future
As Fortnite continues to suck in gamers by the millions, Epic Games has worked hard to keep the game fresh and entertaining, whether players are dropping in for the first or thousandth time. But behind the scenes it's also putting the finishing touches on its plans for turning Fortnite into a competitive sport. Last month, it committed more than $100 million into Fortnite tournament prize pools and announced its first official esports event: the Fortnite Pro-Am. Popular streamers and YouTubers -- with backgrounds in PUBG, League of Legends, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Call of Duty and, of course, Fortnite -- joined actors, sports stars and musicians at E3 for a 50-team, 100-person battle royale. Tyler "Ninja" Blevins, the biggest personality in competitive esports right now (helps when you stream with hip-hop megastar Drake), buddied up with EDM DJ Marshmello, and YouTuber Ali-A joined Fall Out Boy singer Pete Wentz while professional gamer Gotaga was accompanied by UFC fighter Demetrious Johnson in a bid to win a $3 million charity prize pool.
'Fortnite' gets its first vehicle: Shopping carts
For all of the things that Epic Games has delivered in its weekly Fortnite updates, vehicles have not been one of them. While both PUBG and H1Z1 already allow players to hop in a car and fast-travel across the map, Fortnite has relied on items such as Hop Rocks and Jetpacks to give gamers an advantage over their opponents. However, Epic Games isn't shy when it comes to testing out new ideas, so today it finally gave players their first taste of transportation in the form of 'shopping carts.
'Fortnite' update delivers destruction, new areas and meme emotes
Fortnite Season Four is here, and Epic Games has delivered in a big way. After teasing a spectacular comet crash at the end of the previous season, today's update sees much-loved areas of the map destroyed, new ones added and players bestowed with tonnes of new skins, emotes and in-game items.
'Fortnite' update adds instant fort-building grenades
As Fortnite continues to pick up new players across various platforms, Epic Games has consistently deployed new updates to keep the game fresh and free from game-breaking bugs. Earlier this week, we saw the team introduce new space-themed skins, complete with NASA-like space shuttle gliders, but we've had to wait until today to see some of the new in-game items. The most notable inclusion is the Port-A-Fort, a new epic drop that will instantly deploy a three-story fort made from metal.
Epic hopes 'PUBG'-style 'Fortnite: Battle Royale' will tempt gamers
Epic Games' Fortnite has been out for a while in paid Early Access, but hasn't quite taken off in the same way that, say, Player Unknown Battlegrounds (PUBG) has. The hot new indie "battle royale" title has a massive, rabid user base and an impressive sales record. It even knocked perennial chart-topper Dota 2 off the Steam charts - an impressive feat, indeed and one that developers like Epic and Rockstar are keen to reproduce. Now, Epic Games has revealed its strategy to compete with PUBG via a standalone title set in Fortnite's cartoonish, building-focused, zombie-infested universe. The new game, Fortnite Battle Royale, will arrive on Xbox One, PS4 and PC on September 26th, too, beating out PUBG's late-2017's console release date. Better yet, Battle Royale will be free to play.
Privacy watchdog sues Trump's election committee over voter data
When the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity sent a letter to all 50 states seeking personal, identifying information on all voters in the US, at least 44 states refused in some part. Trump signed an executive order last May to create this commission while claiming that millions of people had voted illegally. The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) has taken issue with this request, as well, and has filed a lawsuit accusing the Commission of violating the privacy of American voters. EPIC also asserts that the original request asks states to send the data to a non-secure website, making the data vulnerable to identity theft and financial fraud. Not to mention political agendas. EPIC is also seeking information about "the failure to conduct a Privacy Impact Assessment," and has filed for a temporary restraining order "to block the Commission's efforts."
In 'Fortnite,' building is just as important as fighting monsters
Epic Games' Fortnite, once described by company founder Tim Sweeney as Minecraft meets Left 4 Dead, has been six years in the making. That's a long time to keep someone excited about a game, but you can't fault Epic for not wanting to rush its latest Unreal Engine 4 project. And based on my first experience with Fortnite, it has the potential to be a solid survival game. Not everything here is about fighting or killing monsters, though, as your success in the Fortnite world will also largely depend on your building and exploring skills.
Epic's long-awaited 'Fortnite' hits consoles and PC July 25th
We've been waiting on Epic Games' fort-building monster defense game Fortnite for a long, long time. First announced in 2011, the developer's initial Unreal Engine 4 title was slated to be a PC exclusive. A trailer released in 2014 gave interested fans a bit of hope, and we even saw the gameplay at E3 in 2015. Now that we've hit 2017, though, Fortnite is poised to actually release on July 25th to PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC and Mac, along with "paid early access" to the game via pre-order.
Intel ends its dreams of replacing the x86 chip in your PC
When Intel launched its first Itanium processor in 2001, it had very high hopes: the 64-bit chip was supposed to do nothing less than kill off the x86 architecture that had dominated PCs for over two decades. Things didn't quite pan out that way, however, and Intel is officially calling it quits. The company tells PCWorld that its just-shipping Itanium 9700-series processors will be the last models in the family. HPE, the enterprise company resulting from the split of Itanium co-creator HP, will be the last major customer -- its extra-reliable Integrity i6 servers are getting the upgraded hardware, but you won't hear much from anyone else.
Epic Games shows the potential of high-end augmented reality
Epic Games has a reputation for bringing bizarre demos to its GDC keynotes. The company loves to show developers what Unreal Engine can do, not just in gaming but other genres as well. As such, Epic Games has now demoed "Project Raven," which makes it possible for content creators to blend real-time visual effects with live-action shots. The technology, created in partnership with Chevrolet and video production company The Mill, was designed to convey the promise of high-end augmented reality.
Watch Epic Games' GDC 2017 keynote right here!
Unity already had its moment at GDC 2017, and now it's Epic Games' turn to take the stage in San Francisco. The company's "State of Unreal" keynote will be presented by founder Tim Sweeney, who is expected to share new developments around the Unreal game engine. We'll probably also hear about Epic's latest efforts in virtual reality and get some captivating demos from its partners, like the Hellblade real-time motion capture from last year. You can watch the event live at 9:30AM PT/12:30PM ET -- we embedded a video of the stream below for your convenience.
'Robo Recall' for Oculus Touch is fun, frantic and completely free
At Oculus Connect 2 last year, Epic Games' Bullet Train demo stole the show -- leaning heavily on the "bullet time" effect popularized by the Matrix films to create a smooth, action-packed shooter that let players take down multiple enemies in slow motion. It had a neat gimmick: it used virtual reality to bend reality in a way we've only seen in the movies. The team brought the concept back to Oculus developer conference again this year as the heavily refined Robo Recall: a frantic, physics-based shooter with a sense of humor. Hands-down, it's one of the best Oculus Touch experiences I saw at the show. Even better? When it launches early next year, it will be absolutely free.
Google's Android-powered VR platform supports Unreal games
Yesterday during Google's annual I/O keynote, the company made a point of mentioning that Electronic Arts and Ubisoft -- two of the biggest third-party game studios -- were working on projects for Google's new virtual reality platform, Daydream. Now the company is ready to announce another: Epic Games. The latest version of the company's powerful and ubiquitous game-design toolset, Unreal Engine 4, is coming to Google's next-gen mobile VR system. For developers it ensures easy porting of existing apps to Daydream with little extra work required. For consumers, it means higher-quality mobile VR experiences, and maybe more of them too.
Google's new Android VR platform is called 'Daydream'
Google might be making waves with its low-cost Cardboard virtual reality headset, but that was 2014. Daydream is now. Daydream is hardware and software baked into Android N: a headset that looks an awful lot like the Gear VR and Rift headsets, complete with a controller that looks similar to an Apple TV remote. From the sound of it, this won't usurp other hardware makers that are doing VR on their own handsets; Samsung, for instance, is actually partnering with Google here. So are Alcatel, HTC and LG, among others.
NASA offers a rare, steady view of the sunlit Earth
Until now, getting a good, steady look at the sunlit side of Earth either required a trip to the Moon or a photo from a departing space probe. Neither of those are very practical, to put it mildly. However, NASA is now delivering those kinds of photos in spades. Thanks to its DSCOVR satellite, it's snapping a complete, consistent picture of the sunlit Earth every two hours. This different perspective on our home planet is not only pretty (as you'll see in the video below), but opens up studies that weren't really possible before. Scientists can track clouds and dust as they travel around the world, for example.
Epic Games' new PC shooter is called 'Paragon'
Thought the new Unreal Tournament was Epic Games' only upcoming PC shooter? Think again: today the company quietly announced Paragon -- but truth be told, we know almost nothing about the new title. Epic is giving the game a slow reveal, teasing a new playable "hero" character for the game each week until December 3rd. Unfortunately, the game's reveal doesn't explain what the what kind of game Paragon actually is.
Get a daily fresh look at the Earth with NASA's new website
NASA launched a new website Monday to remind forgetful Terrans what their planet looks like. The website will feature at least a dozen new images of the Earth's full, sunlit face from within the past 36 hours. The EPIC (Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera) aboard NASA's DSCOVR (Deep Space Climate Observatory) satellite will be responsible for capturing these images from its orbit at L1, a distance of roughly one million miles. While the EPIC itself only boasts a 4 megapixel resolution, it is capable of snapping up to 10 narrowband wavelength images at a time. By combining three of these single-color images into a composite, NASA can generate 12 MP images for the site.
Epic Games is the latest hacking victim
Not even a chainsaw bayonette (or the stealthy gent up above) could stop Epic Games from falling prey to hackers. The Unreal Engine-maker sent emails to members of its forums announcing that unauthorized access to usernames, email addresses, passwords and birthdates may have been accessed by an intruder. From the sounds of it, the only channels affected were related to Bulletstorm, Gears of War, Infinity Blade, UDK, and older Unreal Tournament titles.
Recommended Reading: Roku's plan to take on Apple, Amazon and Google
Recommended Reading highlights the best long-form writing on technology and more in print and on the web. Some weeks, you'll also find short reviews of books that we think are worth your time. We hope you enjoy the read. TV Wars: Inside Roku's Plan to Beat Apple, Amazon and Google by Jared Newman Fast Company Ever wonder how a smaller company like Roku can keep pace in the streaming war against the likes of Amazon, Apple and Google? Fast Company takes a look at all the ways Roku is keeping pace, what makes its version of streaming video unique and why the company's survival is important.
Epic Games challenges VR devs to make sense of big data
We've seen a handful of neat ways to visualize big data and make it useful, and the folks behind Unreal Engine, Epic Games, think virtual reality is the next step for that. Currently a half-dozen international teams are taking part in the Big Data VR Challenge, and hope their expertise with games and VR will help 'em "find new ways to manipulate and interrogate" the massive amounts of info generated by science studies. As of now, projects include putting together a digital edition of one of medical history's largest collections of patient consultations (some 80,000 participants) from the 16th and 17th century and a cohort study of kids born between 1991 and 1992.
