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Experience bullet time in Epic's crazy VR demo
Game-tech powerhouse Epic Games and its Unreal Engine are capable of some seriously impressive stuff, and now the North Carolina-based outfit wants you to experience what it's capable of in the virtual reality space. "Showdown" is the demo that the outfit's been showing off at industry events for the past year or so (I got to try it at CES back in January) and it's by far the most bad-ass bullet-time walk toward a hulking, missile-happy, bipedal robot I've ever experienced. The path is predetermined, sure, but as the street explodes into chaos around you, it's entirely possible to duck down or peer around objects like pop cans or even cars as they hurtle toward you in slow motion.
Grab Tom Clancy's best games for a $10 donation to charity
Tom Clancy is gone, but Ubisoft definitely hasn't forgotten the military-centric author or his legacy of branded video games. Neither have the folks at Humble Bundle, for that matter. Pledging at least $1 will get you Rainbow Six; Rainbow Six 3 Gold; Rainbow Six: Vegas; the original Ghost Recon; Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory on PC; and access to the Rainbow Six Siege multiplayer beta. Drop more than the average price (currently $7.99) and you'll pick up Rainbow Six Vegas 2, the first Splinter Cell and the one that changed things up considerably, Splinter Cell: Conviction. But wait, there's even more: A $10 donation adds the latest Sam Fisher adventure, Splinter Cell: Blacklist, and Ghost Recon: Future Soldier to the mix.
PlayStation 4 jumps on the YouTube Gaming bandwagon
Believe it or not, the PlayStation 4 is almost two years old already. I know, I'm surprised too. To celebrate, Sony is rolling out its dashboard preview program... and from the looks of it, firmware version 3.0 is positively massive and rife with some huge changes for the console. Let's start at the top: online storage has been increased from a paltry 1GB to 10GB, which should make it a ton easier to access all of your game saves wherever you are. With the advent of YouTube Gaming comes the ability to livestream from Sony's latest game console to Google's video wing, much like you could already do via the system's built-in Twitch functionality. And on top of the existing screenshot sharing, you can now share video clips to Twitter. Sadly, they're limited to 10 seconds apiece.
Old Atari games had graphics glitches because of CPU bottlenecks
Now that we know how the graphics worked on the Nintendo Entertainment System and Commodore 64, The iBookGuy wants to tell us all about how the Apple II and Atari 2600 got their groove on. In the latest video he says that the Apple II actually used two different techniques for producing visuals depending on whether you had a monochrome or color monitor unit. And the reason white text on a black background appears almost rainbow-like in nature on color machines has to do with pixel placement. For example, blue and green being next to each other on screen requires perfect alignment lest you want white mages to have spots of the former bleeding into them.
Sony isn't intentionally keeping 'Until Dawn' off of Twitch
Right now, there's a bit of an issue going on with Twitch and the PlayStation 4's horror-movie-director simulator, Until Dawn. Yesterday the Twitch Support Twitter account posted that if you were using PS4's built-in Twitch sharing functionality that Sony had disabled archiving. Based on the response we got from Sony, it doesn't seem like it was for a nefarious reason or anything, mostly just forgetting to flip a switch.
Playdate: We're screaming through the teen-horror of 'Until Dawn'
By now you've (hopefully!) read our review of Sony's latest PlayStation 4 exclusive, Until Dawn. I'd also like to think that you've gazed upon its faces and gorgeous cinematography too. If you're still on the fence about buying it though, well, maybe our Twitch stream starting at 6 pm ET / 3 pm PT will change that. We'll be broadcasting two hours of the teen fright-fest today and I'd like to you join Sean Buckley and myself because the decisions we make in the game will be entirely up to you. That's right: You'll choose who lives and who dies, the paths we take through a Canadian mountainside and a whole lot more this afternoon. Are you ready for that kind of responsibility? Perhaps the better question is if you're ready to hear my shrill screams. Let's find out. Together.
'Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 5' was designed with YouTube in mind
Secrets have always been a big part of Tony Hawk's Pro Skater. However, when players get stuck trying to find Easter eggs in any game now, they don't turn to glossy strategy guides like they did in the 1990s and early 2000s -- they open Twitch or YouTube on their smartphone. Developer Robomodo had this in mind when creating Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 5. Lead designer Patrick Dwyer says that his team's tucked away the hidden skateboarding DVD -- a series staple -- pretty well this time around and that's a direct result of how the community responded when the studio released Tony Hawk's Pro Skater HD back in 2012. "The day it came out there were videos of how to beat all of our missions," he says. "How's that possible? It's weird hiding stuff knowing that."
'Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 5': something new, something borrowed
"It's like making a new Star Wars movie," says Patrick Dwyer, lead designer on developer Robomodo's upcoming Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 5. "The originals are great and then the rest weren't as good." He's referring, of course, to the high bar set by the first four games in the storied extreme sports franchise as compared to the middling releases that followed. The idea, as Dwyer explains it, is to treat anything that released past 2002's Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4 as if it never existed. And that's including the horrible pair of plastic skateboard peripheral-based games he worked on: Tony Hawk Ride and its follow up, Shred.
The Big Picture: 'Mass Effect' Reapers invade Los Santos
It's a mod, mod world when a universe-destroying Reaper from the Mass Effect series invades Grand Theft Auto V's Los Angeles stand-in, Los Santos. What you see up above is the result of Flickr user berdu applying the pretty self-explanatory "Mass Effect 3 Reaper as Blimp" modification to the PC version of Rockstar's stick-up simulator. It looks awesome and there's video of it in action after the break. As creator JJxORACLE writes on the (currently in beta testing) tweak's download page, sometimes the vanguard of our destruction will disappear from the skies completely and there doesn't seem to be any collision detection here. Oh, and its legs can touch the ground while it moves every now and again, because, you know, it's replacing Los Santos' legless blimp.
Cult classic 'Deadly Premonition' gets deluxe PS3 box set
Deadly Premonition might not be a "good" game, technically speaking, but it's wormed its way into the hearts of a very passionate cult following. With that in mind, this seemingly years-late collector's edition of eccentric Japanese developer Hidetaka "Swery" Suehiro for the PlayStation 3 (fits with the game's weirdness, right?) is packed to the gills with goodies for the fans. Custom deck of playing cards? Check. A 30-page hardcover art book? Present and accounted for. There's a soundtrack packed into the pretty swanky collector's box, the game's director's cut and a download code for additional content so you can while away a few more hours with special agent York in this very Twin Peaks Pacific Northwest, too. Perhaps best of all? The Deadly Premonition: The Director's Cut - Classified Edition will only run you $50 and it releases November 24th.
Playdate: Taking stock of 'Gears of War: Ultimate Edition'
Gears of War practically defined the Xbox 360. And as is the recent trend, it's getting a fancy schmancy remaster that runs at 1080p and 60 frames per second. Gears of War: Ultimate Edition is the first project from the new Gears studio, The Coalition, and it worked as a sort of training exercise for the team to learn what the series means before shipping Gears of War 4. So what's that mean for you and me? Well, that today starting at 6 pm ET / 3 pm PT we're going to broadcast two hours of Ultimate Edition on Twitch. Perhaps best of all, we've got a special surprise for you: Microsoft has given us a custom white Xbox One adorned with Gears of War graphics. Want in? All you have to do is enter below during the broadcast. Giveaway winner: congratulations to Jesse L. of Toronto ONT.
'Bit.Trip' limited vinyl soundtrack loaded with killer indie games
The folks over at iam8bit have been knocking it out of the park pretty regularly. Earlier this year they released the absolutely gorgeous vinyl edition of the Hotline Miami 2 soundtrack, an equally beautiful video-game world map and during ComicCon the outfit unveiled the limited edition soundtrack for Battletoads on wax. The latest project looks like it could be just as special: a "greatest chips" collection of games and music from the the lovely (and unapologetically difficult) indie series Bit.Trip. While the multi-colored bullseye picture disc and fancy Drew Wise album art are cool enough on their own, it's the digital offerings packed in that are pretty awesome in and of themselves. In addition to the aforementioned accoutrements, the $25 asking price also nets you download codes for each of the seven Bit.Trip games and their full soundtracks. It's a circus of value!
The gorgeous faces and stunning cinematography of 'Until Dawn'
The PlayStation 4's latest exclusive Until Dawn is absolutely stunning visually. In particular? Its faces. By using 3D performance capture techniques that include strapping an HD camera rig to actor's heads (including Hayden Panettiere and Peter Stormare) to grab practically every minute detail and expression, the characters come to life in a pretty realistic fashion. What's really cool is that oftentimes once you let the DualShock 4 sit idle for a moment, the camera will zoom in on the face of whichever of the randy teens you're controlling. If motion controls are enabled, you can tilt the gamepad this way and that and the possibly doomed cabeza will follow suit accordingly. It's pretty neat!
The real horror of 'Until Dawn' is that Sony sent it to die
"Are we, like, in a movie right now?" It's an apt question one of the handsome teens starring in PlayStation 4's latest exclusive, Until Dawn, asked about an hour after I picked up the controller. Yes. No. Maybe. It's kind of hard to explain, and it appears Sony would rather not. At its core, Until Dawn is an interactive teen-horror movie (think '90s genre staples Scream or I Know What You Did Last Summer) set at a remote ski lodge where a murderous psychopath is on the loose. But after critics almost universally chastised Sony's other AAA tentpole, The Order: 1886, earlier this year for its gorgeous but bland cinematic leanings, "interactive movie" is a label the gaming juggernaut would rather not bandy about here. In fact, Sony would prefer you not pay attention to this game at all. It's getting no love from the company's marketing department and was weirdly absent from this June's E3 media briefing. And that's a damned shame because Until Dawn is one of the best horror experiences -- interactive or not -- I've ever had.
The adorable 'Kerbal Space Program' will land on Xbox One
Kerbal Space Program's cute little green engineers are coming to Xbox One. Much like the PlayStation 4 version that was announced in June, there isn't a release date listed for the spaceship-building sim on Xbox. But considering the latter has an Early Access-like program of its own we could theoretically see it on Microsoft's latest console before it hits the PS4. Maybe. The port's being handled by mobile-focused developer Flying Tiger, which original developer Squad says will allow them to keep a keen focus on the game's PC version. As Squad tells it, Flying Tiger has helped immensely in the process of upgrading the game to run on the Unity 5 engine and has "deeply simplified Kerbal's upgrade process. Flying Tiger's resume isn't what you'd call impressive, but hey neither was Rocksteady's prior to Batman: Arkham Asylum -- we all know how that turned out. [Image credit: K.G.23/Flickr]
Playdate: Walking blindly into 'Everybody's Gone to the Rapture'
Welcome back to Playdate, where Engadget runs through the latest games while broadcasting them live on Twitch. If you're feeling a bit of déjà vu that's entirely natural; you have been here before. Whereas JXE Streams was our awkwardly named show while we figured out what was going to happen with streaming moving forward, well, we've figured out what we're doing with streaming moving forward. Mostly. Hence us going back to the moniker we started with last year. Think of this as a vote of confidence from us that we're moving toward consistency and normalcy for our broadcasts. It's a good thing!
Sony wants your help testing PlayStation 4's next update
In a rare instance of following Microsoft's lead this generation, Sony is opening up a beta program for its game console firmware updates. If you want to help test the next patch all you need to do is fill out an application, own a PlayStation 4 and wait. A post on the PlayStation Blog notes that the beta starts early next month and further details about what it includes will hit by then. Here's to hoping that unlike the Xbox Dashboard Preview Program this won't require near-constant updates every time you turn your console on. Now, if only Sony would take another cue from Redmond and actually lock down some exclusive games...
Valve and JJ Abrams' Bad Robot made 'Team Fortress 2' football
Back when Valve and JJ Abrams' Bad Robot production company announced a partnership involving games and film projects it came as a complete surprise. That theme continues with the duo's first collaboration: a mode for Team Fortress 2 combining soccer, hockey and basketball dubbed "PASS Time." It's only in beta as of now (a concept that Bad Robot found immensely intriguing, apparently) though. The official game description is as follows: "RED and BLU face off in an epic battle to score more goals than their opponents. Coordinated passing, aerial shots, interceptions, team-based formations and plays, defensive lines and the like make for strategically chaotic play."
'Rainbow Six: Siege' won't breach and clear until December
It seems like that original October 13th release date proved a bit too unlucky for Ubisoft and Rainbow Six: Siege. A post on the gaming juggernaut's blog says that the game has a lot of room to improve and an extra month or so will help the developers do just that. Namely, balancing weapons and equipment, tweaking co-op "across all game modes" and some other housekeeping bits.
This is how you'll customize the Xbox One 'Elite' controller
We got up close and personal with the Xbox One's incredibly expensive Elite controller at E3, but how do all those modular bits and bobs work? A new video from Microsoft out of Gamescom sheds some light on just that. The Elite's customization goes much deeper than just swapping out different lengths of thumbsticks: you can adjust trigger deadzone, download custom button-binding profiles for certain games, tweak haptic feedback intensity on a motor-by-motor basis and even completely remap button functions. Long story short: if standard gamepads regularly fall short for your high-level needs, this is the paddle for you.
