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These are the trailers that debuted at The Game Awards 2014
Didn't have the wherewithal to sit through the three hour stream of this year's annual video game award show/marketing event? Well, we've got you covered right here with all the titles that were announced at The Game Awards. Even better? Unlike the pixely Twitch broadcast of the event, the trailers embedded below are all available in HD -- perfect for throwing to the biggest screen in your house and getting a feel for how the games will look on your PlayStation 4, Wii U or Xbox One. Now, let's get to it, shall we?
You can try Sony's VR headset at the 'PlayStation Experience'
Tickets for Sony's PlayStation Experience in December go on sale today, but aside from a few coy teases, what you'll do there hasn't been clear. Well, now that's changing. For starters, Project Morpheus -- the catch-up king's VR headset -- is making its consumer show debut (as opposed to, say, appearing at E3). As far as games go, Uncharted 4: A Thief's End, The Order: 1866 and Bloodborne are making appearances too. And what would PlayStation be without indies? The Journey and Grim Fandango remasters for PS4, Helldivers, The Witness will be there, and something "super special" is planed for No Man's Sky come the show's Saturday night. There's too much to list here, and more still to come apparently, so head over to the PlayStation Blog for the full line-up that'll be in Las Vegas a little over a month from now. [Image credit: AFP/Getty Images]
Tickets for Sony's PlayStation gaming show go on sale Friday
So, you put in for the time off from work to hit December's PlayStation Experience event in Las Vegas. The next logical step, of course, is buying tickets and come Friday you can do just that. As previously reported, a single day pass will set you back $50, and it's $90 for a two-day ticket to get in Sin City's Venetian Hotel. In a video on the PlayStation Blog, the outfit touts some "400,000 square feet of PlayStation" will be open to the public in addition to showing brief snippets of footage from The Order: 1866 and what looks like the follow-up to Dark Souls, Bloodborne. So those are likely two of the games you'll get some hands-on time with if you attend. What else is going on there? Panels with developers and Sony employees and such, including Capcom's Yoshinori Ono, who's perhaps best known for his work on the Street Fighter series. Feel like playing gumshoe for more clues? The teaser clip below should provide ample opportunities.
Recommended Reading: Winning (and losing) big on a video poker bug
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. Finding a Video Poker Bug Made These Guys Rich -- Then Vegas Made Them Pay by Kevin Poulsen, Wired In 2009, John Kane discovered a glitch in video poker machines that allowed him to hit multiple jackpots in a single sitting. Then one night, Kane hit seven in an hour and half, earning over $10,000 and setting off some major red flags with the casino's security. That sum was actually quite modest compared to other days. Wired has the story of how finding a bug in the gambling machines lead to earning a load of cash for a pair of men, until the workaround was discovered.
Sony's PlayStation Experience is a two-day public gaming show in Vegas
Sony's holding a two-day PlayStation event in the middle of the desert, and it wants you to attend. Okay, technically Las Vegas isn't the middle of the desert, but it's certainly out there. What will said event entail? PlayStation social media man Sid Shuman says you'll, "Sit in on in-depth panels, meet the industry's best developers, score hands-on gameplay with tons of upcoming PlayStation games, collect free swag, and get a chance to purchase rare collectibles directly from their favorite game studios." It's kind of like PAX, basically, but all PlayStation. One more similarity to PAX? It'll cost ya. $50 for a one-day pass, $90 for both days. If those previous activities left you still sitting on the fence about attendance, Shuman also promises, "an exclusive first look at what's coming next in 2015, which I am told you will not want to miss." Project Morpheus details? Maybe a PlayStation helicopter? Who knows! Hey, if nothing else, it's an excuse to fly to Las Vegas in December, right? [Image credit: Sony PlayStation]
Recommended Reading: Apple's Jony Ive talks design and the timepiece
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. A Rare Look at Design Genius Jony Ive: The Man Behind the Apple Watch by Robert Sullivan, Vogue The man behind much of Apple's design doesn't often open up for interviews, but following Cupertino's Watch reveal, much of the focus has been on the fashion-minded. That said, Jony Ive offered Vogue a bit more on the upcoming wrist-worn device and his aesthetic mindset as a whole -- right down to things like the sound a watch band makes as it closes.
Amazon's same-day delivery service adds two cities, but loses one
Amazon's same-day delivery option has been a boon to impatient shoppers in those few areas where it's available, and it's significantly expanding its reach today -- with one notable exception. The speedy shipping is now available in Dallas and San Francisco, letting locals get some of their orders on a given day by 9PM that night. If you're not an early riser, you'll also be happy to know that cutoff times for same-day ordering are getting later. Those in Dallas, Los Angeles, Phoenix, San Francisco and Seattle can purchase as late as 12:15PM and still expect a package by the evening. Indianapolis residents, meanwhile, can check out by 11:30AM instead of the previous (and not very realistic) 7AM.
CenturyLink heads to Las Vegas, brings gigabit internet to Sin City
Starting this fall, some citizens of Las Vegas will be able to delight in lightning fast broadband speeds as CenturyLink brings its fiber network to a select few neighborhoods. Back in May, the company introduced its gigabit internet to Omaha, Nebraska, where the service will continue to roll out gradually until the end of this month. Just like last time, CenturyLink is proceeding in baby steps; residential customers will be able to sign up within the next few weeks, while business owners will have to wait until some undisclosed date in early 2014. Packages start at $80 a month as an internet/TV bundle if you sign up for a full year, but the price goes up to $125 if you opt for half that time. For more info (and a few words from Nevada Senator Harry Reid), check out the full press release after the break.
Captain's Log: Star Trek Online Las Vegas recap
It's been a couple of weeks since my last entry, and to be honest, I'm still recovering. The Official Star Trek Convention was an absolute blast. Thousands of Trek fans descended upon the Rio Suites and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada, for four solid days to celebrate all things Star Trek. One of those things, of course, was Star Trek Online. Contrary to its showing in 2012, Star Trek Online was the focus of not just one but two complete formal panels this year. The first featured two of the STO devs in a discussion with actress Denise Crosby, who voiced the characters of Empress Sela as well as Lt. Tasha Yar. The second panel was co-hosted by Massively and Trek Radio and featured a panel of STO devs who talked about the game and gave us some great sneak-peeks at Season Eight works in progress!%Gallery-196194%
Las Vegas' Fashion Show Apple Store to undergo major expansion
The Apple Store in Fashion Show mall in Las Vegas is set to undergo major expansion and renovation, according to ifoAppleStore. By the end of the month, the current location of the Fashion Show store will be moved to a new temporary location in the same mall. While the store is at its new temporary location the old location will be dramatically renovated and expanded. Currently the store has 30 feet of storefront and is 3,900 square feet in size. Apple obviously realizes that the store, being one of the busiest stores in a mall that attracts 13 million visitors a year, is in need of expansion. In September, when the temporary store is moved back into its original renovated location, the new Fashion Show mall store will feature a 117-foot storefront and an inside space of 10,000 square feet. The Fashion Show store was the 46th Apple Store to open, way back in 2002.
Daily iPhone App: Las Vegas! brings Ravensburger's dice game to the iPad
Las Vegas! is a popular dice game that Ravensburger put together last year. It's not exactly the most complicated board game on the block (you roll dice, and then can place them into certain numbered slots that represent stakes in money-making casinos), but it's fun for families especially, and provides a nice relatively casual mix of luck and skill. Perhaps because the game is so approachable, the German company Ravensburger has elected to bring an iOS version out to iPhone and iPad, and you can now pick it up on the App Store for US$2.99. Just like the real-world game, the iOS version is fun but simple -- you select your players (or you can play online via Game Center), you roll the dice and then you try to lay them out in casinos wherever you think they'll earn you the most money. Play goes on like this for four rounds, at which point the player with the most money wins. There's also a more complicated variant where you get a number of neutral dice that you can use to block other players, and Ravensburger has smartly included that option here, which provides some extra replayability, especially for gamers seeking some more challenging strategy. The game's well-presented (I did have one small bug when starting a game, but a quick reset of the app fixed it anyway), with plenty of Vegas-style sounds and some nice casino architecture. There's also the ability to earn money from game-to-game, though I'm not sure what that's used for just yet -- maybe Ravensburger plans to put in more themes and casinos as time goes on. Currently, there are no in-app purchases at all, and I appreciate that. What you see for your $2.99 is what you get, and the game that's there is worth the price if you're interested.
NAB 2013 wrap-up: Sony 4K TVs, Red, Blackmagic, Thunderbolt and more!
The National Association of Broadcasters' annual event in Vegas may not offer the same blitz of high-profile gadgets as CES, but this show is hardly a quiet one. In fact, the excitement kicked off before the floor even opened, with Sony announcing pricing for its 55- and 65-inch 4K TVs. When 25 grand is the norm for these high-end sets, MSRPs of $5,000 and $7,000 seem downright budget-friendly. Blackmagic's $995 Pocket Cinema Camera also made headlines for its value proposition, with a Super-16 Cinema sensor, 13 stops of dynamic range and a Micro Four Thirds lens mount rounding out a very solid spec list. Our favorite booth, however, belonged to Red. The company was performing its Dragon upgrade on-site, giving showgoers a fascinating look at the process of boosting the sensor to 6K -- we were even able to snag an exclusive look inside the sacred space. Finally, Intel announced the next generation of its Thunderbolt interface, promising double the throughput and expanded 4K support. But those are just the highlights; check out our complete coverage after the break for the full rehash.
We're live at NAB 2013 in Las Vegas!
It seems like we were in Sin City for CES just yesterday, but we're already back scouring the halls at the LVCC. This time, though, it's all about cameras; NAB 2013 promises to have plenty of fancy new equipment from big names such as Canon, RED and Sony. In fact, we already have some major news from the latter: Sony announced pricing for its 55- and 65-inch 4K TVs, and the MSRPs are well below $10,000. Meanwhile, Blackmagic outed its sub-$1,000 Pocket Cinema Camera along with the the Production Camera 4K. Can we expect other brands to announce competitively priced A/V goodies in addition to the usual mega-expensive professional gear? We're not even through day one, so we'll have to wait and see. Keep up with our coverage by visiting our NAB 2013 hub.
T-Mobile: LTE launching in Las Vegas within 'weeks,' Galaxy Note II might upgrade to use it
Want to know just when T-Mobile's LTE network goes live? Not long, if you ask CTO Neville Ray. On stage at CES, he declared that the faster access should go live in Las Vegas within "weeks." That includes a full-on LTE-Advanced network, and the deployment should be fast with 100 million customers reached in the first half of 2013. Devices? Nothing was immediately confirmed on stage, but Ray and other executives told us and others that the Galaxy Note II's known latent LTE could be switched on through a firmware update -- although we weren't told when. Magenta customers still have good reason to be happy, however, knowing that their days of being HSPA-only pariahs should soon be over.
We're live from CES 2013 in Las Vegas!
The Las Vegas Convention Center's expansive exhibition space may not be open for another five days, but we're already on site, gearing up for the CES madness to come and setting up shop in our temporary headquarters -- that beautiful trailer just above. Sure, we have a pretty good idea of which new mobile gadgets we might see -- and what products not to expect -- and it's pretty much a given that Windows 8 will be just about everywhere, but as always the show is bound to bring some surprises. For now, though, we'll all have to sit tight as thousands of exhibitors put the final lavish touches on their enormous booths. In the meantime, get a taste of the pre-show scene at the LVCC in the gallery just below. Zach Honig contributed to this report.
Cricket brings 4G LTE to Las Vegas, outs new Huawei Boltz modem in celebration
Cricket's parent company, Leap Wireless, announced earlier last week its intentions to start blanketing more customers with LTE service, though it didn't say which markets would be the ones to get the same experience as folks in Tucson, Arizona. Today, however, Cricket's claiming that subscribers in the Las Vegas area can finally get a taste of savory Long Term Evolution, making this the second market where the newfangled network's now present. To go along with this, Cricket has said a revamped, LTE-ready version of that $150 Huawei Boltz modem will be available online and at retail stores around Sin City (and Tucson) for customers eager to try out the new service. No word on when the carrier plans to bring its "true 4G" network elsewhere, but, according to Leap CEO Doug Hutcheson, the idea is to have "approximately 21 million covered POPs by the end of the year." [Image credit: Cricket Wireless Premier Dealer]
Mobile Miscellany: week of September 17th, 2012
If you didn't get enough in mobile news during the week, not to worry, because we've opened the firehose for the truly hardcore. This past week, Sprint hit more than one milestone that it just had to share and Nokia teased the latest app that's exclusive to Lumia owners. We then discovered a very rare BlackBerry and also learned of the latest city to get prepped for T-Mobile's LTE service. Hell, we even stumbled on a new smartphone for old people! These stories and more await after the break. So buy the ticket and take the ride as we explore the "best of the rest" for this week of September 17th, 2012.
Defcon 20 badges meld hieroglyphs, circuitry and cryptography for hacker scavenger hunt
Every year, the world's hacker population descends upon Las Vegas to trade notes, sit in on informational talks and compete in friendly contests -- all in the name of Defcon. But this time out, it's the conference's ever-evolving smart badges that've caught our eye, owing mostly to what lurks beneath. Designed by Ryan Clarke -- the mastermind behind the gathering's Mystery Box challenge -- these hackable IDs, issued according to status (Press, Human, Goons, vendors, etc), come embedded with an LED, a multi-core processor, IR transmitter and accompanying hieroglyphic graphic. But that's not all that makes these high-tech tags so special. Turns out, each one contains a game, buried within its open source software, that's encoded with several cryptographic, linguistic and mathematical layers. Shying away from hardware-focused hacks of the past, Clarke built this year's scavenger hunt-like game to be more inclusive of attendee skills, as it'll force conference-goers interested in cracking its code to break down social barriers and collaborate with other highly-specialized nerds. What's the end game, you ask? Well, according to Clarke, the puzzle is a continuation of last year's secret agent story (played out by a real-life actor) involving "a [mysterious] society of computer elites." It's not the sort of payoff we'd be after -- something greener and covered with a certain Ben Franklin's face would suffice -- but it sounds intriguing enough. Click on the source below to read more about the makings of this geek sport. And may the pastiest neckbeard win!
NAB 2012 wrap-up
"That's a wrap!" Finally, an appropriate use for that industry cliché, since, ya know, we really are at a motion picture / television conference. As our first trip to the National Association of Broadcasters' annual event in Las Vegas fires its last frame, we're going to roll to the credits, honoring all those products that enabled us to justify spending a week in Sin City on the company dime. From Canon's 4K-capable 1D C (that'll sadly run you far more than $4k) to RED's Dragon sensor upgrade set to render "obsolescence obsolete," there's plenty to look forward to in the world of cinematography. We also happened upon a few consumer-facing gadgets, including Ceton's new DVR companion apps for Android and iOS, that Lenscaster SLR lens mount for iPad and a new Dolby 3D standard that could help propel glasses-free 3D into mass production. That's but a small sampling of the gadgets at NAB 2012, however, so jump past the break for all our hands-ons from the show.
Windows Server 8 gets a new name, roses retain their sweetness
A wise man once said that names don't matter, because what something's called won't change how mustard tastes. Microsoft has clearly taken that wisdom to its heart, spending two seconds (we hope) in deciding that official title of Windows Server 8 will be... Windows Server 2012. In other news, System Center 2012 -- Microsoft's private cloud software for enterprise users -- is now available for evaluation and purchase. Carry on.
