hd
Latest
Comedian Nick Frost makes his Gear VR debut in 'Esper 2'
Something about virtual reality and games about exploring the mind or using your mind to control objects around you just seem to go together extremely well. Case in point, the Gear VR launch title Esper has a sequel and it's out tomorrow from developer Coatsink Software. Hot Fuzz and Shaun of the Dead fans who play it might even notice a familiar voice: Nick Frost. The English funnyman lent his voice to Esper 2, the game about agents tasked with dealing with the consequences of a recent epidemic of folks gaining telekinetic powers. The overall production values are pretty impressive, actually.
Playdate: We're playing with fire in 'Just Cause 3'
It's really hard to not smile when you're causing massive amounts of mayhem in a video game, and what I've played of Just Cause 3 so far has me grinning ear to ear. Now it's time to share that joy with you, our lovely Playdate viewers on Twitch. Join myself and Jessica Conditt as we explore the game's lush Mediterranean island in the sun starting at 6 PM Eastern / 3 PM Pacific as we broadcast two hours full of good-natured mayhem and destruction either here on this post, the Engadget Gaming homepage, or, if you want to chat along, Twitch.tv/Joystiq.
The 'Uncharted 4' beta launches ahead of schedule
We didn't know the specifics of exactly when the Uncharted 4: A Thief's End multiplayer beta would launch before, but that's changed. Nathan Drake's online adversarial adventures, and, by extension, yours, begin at 5 PM GMT (12 PM Eastern) tomorrow for European folks. Domestically, we'll have to wait for Friday. We've reached out to Sony for exact timing of when the test phase will go live in the US and will update this post should the company respond. Remember, you still need a copy of Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection to access the beta at all.
HoloLens (briefly) shown streaming 'Halo 5' and Netflix
We've known for awhile that you can beam practically anything to Microsoft's augmented reality headset, HoloLens, but seeing someone playing Halo 5 on a TV that seemingly appears out of thin air is still pretty damned neat. And it's not just Microsoft's disappointing first-person shooter that's getting the augmented-reality treatment: Candy Crush and a Netflix stream by way of an Edge browser window are on display as well. The clips below are brief and look pretty impressive, but based on firsthand experience with the device, these videos don't quite line up with the actual user experience.
Massive 'GTA V' mod adds way more than 4K textures
Grand Theft Auto V got a pretty major overhaul when it made the jump from last-gen hardware to PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One last year, but that leap's got nothing on a new user mod that takes the stick-up simulator into ultra high-definition. "The Pinnacle of V" adds UHD textures for clouds, water, rain and blood, but its biggest changes go well beyond the superficial level. The designers boast that "literally every aspect of the game has been tweaked, adjusted and fine tuned" including bullet speeds, on-foot and in-car police patrols, population density for more realistic rush-hour traffic and now you can shoot through certain materials like wood and plastic too. Oh, and vehicle handling has apparently been completely redone as well -- something on full display in the video below.
Explore the surfaces of planets in 'Elite: Dangerous' beta
The expansion pack for Elite: Dangerous, the one that lets you go planetside and explore the surface of places like Europa, is out now. Sort of. The Horizons Planetary Landings beta, teased in a video released last week, does exactly what it says assuming you've pre-ordered Horizons itself. Everyone else needs to wait for the official release sometime before year's end. Driving the all-new Surface Recon Vehicle, players can discover signals, crashed ships and mineral deposits, vastly expanding the range of gameplay. Creator David Braben recently showed off the expansion in a demo (below), and said that certain features, like textures and frame rates, might still have issues.
Sending private Twitch messages on iOS gets a lot easier today
It looks like Twitch gathered enough feedback from its Android test run of mobile private messaging, "Whispers," because the feature has made its way to iOS. A post on the live-streaming juggernaut's blog says that all you need to do to access Whispers on your Cupertino-branded device is update the app. Oh, and similar to the current beta for Google's mobile OS, the company would really like it if you submit your feedback. Pretty simple! Free stuff on Cyber Monday? That's a trend I can get behind.
Lara Croft's awesome mobile adventure adds a free tomb to raid
Lara Croft has a pretty big adventure on Xbox One this fall with Rise of the Tomb Raider, but her grand mobile mission is about grow too. Developer Square Enix Montreal announced it's dropping "The Shard of Life" expansion for Lara Croft GO tomorrow for free on Android and iOS (sorry, Windows Phone folks) with some 26 fresh puzzles to tackle while you're waiting in line at the grocery store. More than that, the publisher is knocking 40 percent off the game's price -- it'll run you $2.99 for a limited time. Oh and its hosting a Twitch event tasking the game's community to solve the new puzzles.
Sony PlayStation 4 sales speed past 30 million
In just over two years Sony's sold over 30 million PlayStation 4s. That tally was 20.2 million in March, and now ahead of the busy holiday shopping season we have word from the Japanese tech giant that it's sold through more than 30.2 million consoles to some 124 countries and regions globally. That's roughly 1.25 million consoles per month since then, as of November 22nd. Impressive! Of course, Microsoft announced that the Xbox One was the number one-selling console for October, and that Halo 5 was the best selling game last month, but as per usual didn't give out any hard numbers.
Unofficial app makes PlayStation 4 to PC streaming a reality
Sony's had its Remote Play tech in one form or another since the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Portable, but it didn't truly take off until its implementation on PlayStation 4 and the PS Vita handheld. But that's kind of wasted when nobody is buying the Vita and it's getting zero love from its parent company. Remote Play PC is exactly what its name implies: an application that tricks the PS4 into thinking a PC is a Remote Play device. Microsoft changed the game (sorry) with the ability for the Xbox One to stream its games to Windows 10-based hardware and until Sony catches up we're just going to have to settle for an unofficial app that costs money to perform the task.
Make your 'Halo 5' Spartan into a 3D-printed trophy
Halo 5's campaign is hot garbage if you're playing through it solo, but the multiplayer suite is pretty much the opposite if you're into competitive shooters. It's a likely reason why Microsoft is shifting its latest ad and PR focus around the mode -- pre-release hype centered on the game's flaccid story. The latest step in that? Bringing your customized Spartan soldier into the real world via 3D printing. Redmond has aligned with custom 3D printing house Sandboxr and printer manufacturer 3D Systems to put your unique Slayer combatant (sorry, Kerry King) in the palm of your hand. Using the web interface, Xbox Wire says you can choose from 175 armor and helmet options, over 30 color variants and five different poses with a quintet of weapons. The classic "teabag" pose isn't one of the available selections, however, but you can make an 18-character moniker for the statue.
Amazon's Echo speaker wants to play games with you
Amazon seems bound and determined to not let its internet-connected wünderspeaker, the Echo, fall prey to the same fate as the Fire Phone. Good on Jeff Bezos for that. In case you're already bored of the device reading you news headlines and finding restaurant info for you, now the gizmo's Alexa app will play games and even tell you how much gas you have left in your car. Games include Bingo; trivia; simple math puzzles and even rock, paper, scissors. As Android Central points out, the automotive stuff is available via a third-party solution, dubbed Automatic, that interfaces with your car via a $100 adapter. With that, you can ask questions about how far you drove recently or what your gas gauge is sitting at. Or you could, you know, look at your instrument cluster. It's up to you!
Oculus Concepts collects experimental mobile VR 'games' in one spot
Virtual reality is nothing if not an awesome font for weird little experiences, but they can be kind of difficult to find. Some are on Steam, some are available elsewhere. Oculus is hoping that Oculus Concepts, its new section of the Gear VR's Oculus Store will make that easier. Concepts, like the name suggests, is a place where developers can toss their games and apps that might not be ready for primetime but are still worth checking out. One of the experiences shown off in official imagery is The Night Cafe: An Immersive Tribute to Van Gogh which was part of the Oculus Mobile VR Jam earlier this year. Like the company notes, some of the biggest VR games hit that status because they were released to the public early. So if you have a shiny new Gear VR and are looking to check out something aside from Netflix, here you go.
Playdate: Death becomes us in 'Darksiders 2'
When publisher THQ went bankrupt a few years back it was a staggering blow to the game industry. Sure, the company made some flops (oh hi, Homefront), but it also published some killer games like the Saint's Row and Metro franchises. The label also had Darksiders from developer Vigil Games. But unlike the first two series that I mentioned, Darksiders wasn't scooped up by a major publisher during the bankruptcy proceedings and comparatively was kind of left to languish. I'd honestly thought all hope was lost because while the series is great, it just couldn't really find an audience. So I was incredibly surprised when word came down that Darksiders 2 was getting a remastering earlier this year.
The best stories in 'Fallout 4' are the ones you can't spoil
A few weeks ago, a malicious person created a new user account on Engadget (a time-consuming process in its own right) and dropped a massive pair of Fallout 4 spoilers in the comments of my Pip-Boy edition write-up. Why? Because some people just want to destroy the fun of others. I absentmindedly read these "comments" and was bummed out because I thought the game I'd been waiting for since 2009 had been ruined. As it turns out, that wasn't the case.
Sony is adding PlayStation 2 backwards compatibility to the PS4
Sony and Electronic Arts have a Star Wars: Battlefront PlayStation 4 bundle available right now and with it comes a quartet of games from a long time ago and a galaxy far, far away (or at least as far as the PlayStation 2 era). Star Wars: Bounty Hunter, Star Wars: Jedi Starfighter, Star Wars Racer: Revenge and Super Star Wars come with the bundle via a single download code, and all bar one appear to be the original PS2 games running in emulation. The discovery comes via the tech-minded folks over at Digital Foundry who spotted a number of clues suggesting backwards compatibility had finally arrived. The evidence is in the details. As DF noted, the sophomore console's select and start buttons have been mapped to either side of the DualShock 4's touchpad, something only Sony, rather than Lucasarts Interactive can do.
Reuters bans RAW photos in questionable bid for authenticity
News agency Reuters will no longer accept photos shot in the RAW format, saying its freelancers are now required to submit JPEG photos shot in-camera. It told PetaPixel that it made the unusual move partly to speed up workflow, but also because RAW allows photographers to do too much image manipulation, and "our goal is not to artistically interpret the news," according to a spokesman. It said it would only permit images made from the original JPEGs, provided they had just "minimal processing," including cropping and level correction.
Get some face time with a snarling dinosaur in virtual reality
Until the real version of Jurassic World opens the closest we'll get to going face-to-face with dinosaurs is in virtual reality. The folks at German game developer Crytek are helping that stopgap by releasing one of their Back to Dinosaur Island demos to the public via Steam for free. As VRFocus reports, this demo has been on the trade show circuit since this past March at the Game Developer's Conference in San Francisco. Here you're seeing the world from the eyes of an infant dino hanging out in a nest of unhatched eggs as gigantic dragonflies flit about a gorgeous looking and sounding primeval forest. Oh you wanted terror? Don't fret because one of history's most impressive apex predators pokes its nose in for a view as well.
The freedom to explore most open-world games is a lie
Open-world games aren't going away anytime soon, but more often than not when we play them we're being led around by a breadcrumb trail instead of actually exploring. Sometimes even quite literally. The reasoning for that is because it's much easier for game developers to stick a mini-map or quest directions in the heads up display than it is to integrate means of navigation into the game world itself. It's a topic YouTuber Mark Brown knows well and he's taking it for a spin in developer Bethesda Softworks' sprawling Fallout 4. In his latest entry into his Game Maker's Toolkit series he explains why he's turning off the quest markers in Fallout's irradiated Boston and trying to let his nose lead the way, so to speak.
The original 'Valkyria Chronicles' heads to PS4 in HD (in Japan)
Valkyria Chronicles, Sega's strategy RPG that hit the PlayStation 3 in 2008, is getting an HD upgrade for a launch on PS4, Famitsu reports (as translated by Gematsu). The remake is confirmed for a release in Japan on February 10th, with no mention of North American plans just yet. Sega is also working on a new entry in the series, Valkyria: Azure Revolution, slated to hit Japanese PS4s in winter 2016, according to Gematsu. Valkyria Chronicles debuted on PC in November 2014, and while that wasn't an HD remake, it featured dual-language support, Steam Achievements, customization options and all previously released DLC -- not bad for $20.
